DEVELOPING A PROTOCOL FOR FILMING, EDITING, AND CAPTIONING VIDEOS IN THE LABORATORY

Creating effective and accessible videos is an important part of developing online open-access instructional materials for analytical techniques in the geosciences. Pedagogically effective, yet flexible, instructional materials focusing on laboratory methods and analytical skills are needed to support national initiatives to increase the number of geoscience and STEM majors and to incorporate research into the curriculum.

Few practical guidelines exist on how to develop effective and accessible videos as instructional materials for geoscience courses. Though the steps of filming, editing, and posting videos might seem straightforward, in practice it is not simple to develop high-quality videos with good lighting, sound, and appropriate closed-captioning. Laboratories can have poor lighting, small awkward spaces with little room to film, and the need to film close-ups on small equipment or on computer monitors while maintaining safety. Through an action research study, we developed a freely-available online protocol for creating videos in the laboratory environment.

We hired a media arts and design student and experimented with different cameras (phone camera, digital camcorder, and DSLR) and lighting arrangements. Phone cameras work well for shots which encompass a wide area in a well-lit environment. For close-ups of equipment, poorly lighted space, or computer monitors, it is best to use manual settings on a DSLR camera and adjust white balance. Image stabilization is very important to create smooth shots of procedure tutorials. Natural lighting is the easiest way to obtain good-quality video, but when this is not possible, multiple diffuse light sources like umbrella lights or table lamps can illuminate dark areas while filming equipment. We found several efficient, effective ways to create accurate and accessible scientific closed-captioning for YouTube videos which can be archived and saved into text files. Media files require ample storage space and careful documentation to be used as open access materials. We experimented with several file and project management platforms including Google Spreadsheets, Dropbox, FreedCamp, and Open Science Framework. These mechanisms have helped us maintain workflow, keep on task, collaborate across institutions, and document the project.