First Video Up, WDI

After weeks of putting it off, I recorded my first mini-video yesterday, for MAT202. I spent an hour just setting up and making production decisions. Snagit or OBS? Will my video have a talking head or not? The actual recording and uploading to Youtube was surprisingly quick and easy. Twenty minutes after uploading, my video already had automatic captions.

I’m satisfied with the video although I think I could have done better on a few aspects.

• I had a rough outline, but upon rewatching the video I immediately thought of some points I had wanted to emphasize but forgot. It might be worth having a more detailed script for next time, at least until I get more used to doing this.
• I used OBS and cropped the display capture source to only show the Drawboard app (where I annotate the PDF presentations). I need to make the app larger next time so it isn’t too pixelated in the final product.
• Better yet, find a fix for window capture to work with Drawboard. (Doesn’t seem like there’s a solution to this but will keep trying to troubleshoot.)

On another note, I found out this week that my proposal for a Writing Development Initiative grant was successful, so my TAs will get extra funding to undergo training for delivering writing-related modules in MAT202 as well as grading and giving feedback on student writing. This is something I’ve wanted to implement in MAT202 since we started asking students to explain their work completely in MAT133. Discrete math is in that sweet spot where we can capture many new math majors and specialists, and having modules specifically targetting LaTeX and mathematical communication will serve them well for their future courses.

Oh well, will be recording more videos later. Wish me luck!