Internet Learning Volume 5, Number 1, Fall 2016/Winter 2017 | Page 61

Internet Learning
ing a set of a lecture slides with every
possible aspect covered to the very last
detail, pause for thought, and apply the
following ideas.
First, use the title slide template,
but add it at the natural section breaks
of your presentation. These will be the
points to pause and look directly at
the audience and say several sentences
without looking back at the screen.
These moments will allow the speaker
or technical support to split the presentation
into sections in a professional
manner and help to avoid the online
audience getting acquainted with the
back of the speaker’s head. This format
usually taking place while constantly
making the most important points of a
talk tends to be the default student experience
of university video.
Next, remember that standing
still while speaking is an advantage.
Most speakers in full flow are unaware
of their personal patterns of movement
and speech, and the author is no exception.
The journey from mouse to screen
punctuated by the click of a new slide
is very noticeable in the editing and
even helps the placing of the slides in
the software. However, a side-on-walk
while revealing a key teaching point
should be avoided on video. It is better
to look at the audience, pause, start
the sentence announcing the next slide,
and then press the button and walk on
to the stage to engage the audience.
Know that the podium does not
help the speaker. To be trapped behind
the podium is often unavoidable, but it
stresses a stark division between audience
and speaker. The podium furniture
is frequently in the way of a clear line of
sight for the camera too. Raked seating
leaves the camera high up at the back
filming the top of the speaker’s head.
Avoid the tattered out-of-date posters
in the back wall or the fire warning
messages which, unnoticed by the live
audience, always tend to stick out of the
speaker’s ear in the video.
Consider that an imaginary diagonal
line from the speaker’s position to
the opposite corner gives a good camera
position with a natural sense of the
lecturer talking into the frame and engaging
the audience. In a theatre with
raked seating, the third row at the head
height of the speaker is often the best
camera position. More lecture theatres
are being designed to meet the camera’s
needs.
Be aware of walking in front of the
screen. The effect on the camera sensor
is dramatic and technically very difficult
to correct. That key point directed
at the audience at the moment of delivery
of important information can be
completely lost to the video audience,
because the error will have to be covered
by the full frame slide.
Seasoned practitioners have one
trick up their sleeve. Middlesex University
hosted a Business Peer Awards
conference in 2011. An education consultant
apologized for being late at the
conference and at that moment his eyes
just glanced toward my camera position.
In the camera viewfinder, the effect
was profound as he apologized directly
to me. This highly professional
method—of glancing in the direction
of the camera while speaking to a live
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