Texas Tech University

From the ID Team

Brian Ditmer

Brian Ditmer

Videos and eLearning

From cell phones to webcams, Snapchat to GoPro, personally produced video is everywhere—both good and bad. For online learning, there are also many available options—and just as much potential for the good or bad. So what do you need to know about using video in your online course?

Captioning is the one thing that might deter a lot of faculty from using video in the first place. But captioning is absolutely required. Fortunately, there are great tools to help. Adobe Video Express, which is available to all faculty, can help with captioning your presentations.

Got a video recorded already and are wondering about captions? Let YouTube help. Yes, YouTube can help with your captions. When you upload any video to YouTube, you can run its built-in captioning tool. You can also set the video to private when you upload it. Then only you and whoever you share the link with can see it. It does work better if you also upload a transcript. For great info on using YouTube for captioning, visit The National Center on Disability and Access to Education.

Regardless of what you use as your captioning tool, expect to do some caption editing. Unfortunately, the perfect captioning utility has not been invented yet.

Another method is to keep your videos "chunked." Many students access course materials from tablets and cell phones. Three 8 minute videos are much easier to digest than one 25 minute oration—plus you'll find that the shorter "bites" are easier to record. Shorter pieces provide the greatest potential for retention.

And finally, don't overdo it! Remember, video is just one method for content delivery. Try to break up the ways content is delivered over the duration of a course to help keep users engaged with the content.

For assistance with videos, or any other help with your online course, please contact us at elearning.id@ttu.edu or call 806-742-7227.