IMPROVE NARRATED POWERPOINT PRODUCTION VALUES: : GUIDELINES

Prepare Your PowerPoint

1. Follow all accessibility guidelines on visual formatting (refer to other documentation on this topic)
2. Do not embed multimedia or hyperlinks into the presentation
   • Add these reference items directly into the LMS along with the presentation
3. Omit slide transitions or any other animations on the slide: these effects may not transfer to the movie format
4. Write out acronyms fully the first time you use them on the slide; discuss or define them in your narration
5. You do not need to “alt tag” your presentations if they are uploaded to Ensemble as a video:
   • Instead, your narration should briefly describe and discuss any visual content

Plan and Record Your Presentation

1. Prepare for your narration with a script or outline; this will help organize your thoughts before recording.
   • Once the recordings are produced, the scripts can be used as transcripts
   • Narrated lectures should be concise, thorough, and clear
   • Plan to read or fully discuss all text on the slide to accommodate students with visual impairments
   • Refrain from adlib
2. Hardware Recommendations:
   • Best: Headset and microphone
   • Better: external microphone and speakers
   • Good: internal microphone and speakers
3. Choose a quiet room for recording:
   • Close the door
   • Turn off the phone
   • Log out of any other applications that might have sound notifications on your computer
4. Keep lectures short: 10 – 15 minutes is ideal; 20 minutes should be a maximum
   • Students will pay far less time and attention to a screen, than to a live lecture
   • Presenting information in “chunks” can aid in retention
   • Longer material can be broken into segments (i.e. Lecture1A, Lecture1B, Lecture1C etc...)
     • Added Benefit: if changes are ever needed, you will only need to update one segment!
5. Speak as if you are giving a presentation to a room full of people or presenting in a webinar
   • The pauses you take in this approach are beneficial for the auto and manual captioning process
   • Pausing can also help emphasize especially important points

Quality Control

1. Make a test recording with the first 5 slides of your presentation.  Check the following: 

• Audio quality:
  • Are there distracting ambient noises?
  • Do you hear distortions, scratchiness, unusual modulations?
• Sound levels:
  • Is listening comfortable when your system and speakers are set to a middle volume?
• Pacing:
  • Does the pace drag?  Or does it feel rushed?
• Reality Check: if you were a student, would you want to spend time listening to this recording?! 

2. Listen to your first recording in full: good production values reinforce the message that the lesson is of value!