Last year, I began presenting my ITA video training series, The User-Friendly Classroom, at conferences. In conversations with other instructors after screenings, one of the frequent laments I heard was that most programs are limited in making their own videos because they don’t have the resources or expertise.

But we all have good models of ITA teaching in our own classrooms, and we’re used to making videos of students for their self-evaluations. How can someone without a background in video production make a more professional version to use in future classes and possibly share with other institutions?

This article explains how to make a great classroom video without special experience, equipment, or software in a way that requires no editing—just a simple camera, a tripod, and a few hours of your time.

Basics

Length

Keep the recording short. We work with populations that are busy with other classes and research, and as long as students are provided with focused questions, watching a 5-minute video two or three times can be far more effective than watching an hour-long video once.

Making it short also makes it easier for you. Though there are some advantages to recording ITAs when they are teaching in an authentic setting, you’re then faced with the labor-intensive process of choosing a useful segment for your model.

Location

It’s also important to make the recording outside of class time, in a setting where you have more control. This allows you to reduce ITA stress and gives you the chance to record multiple versions of the lesson.

Hosting and Permissions

Finally, you need to decide in advance where to host the video once you’ve created it. Will it be publicly available on YouTube or Vimeo, or will you post it on a private server at your institute? Regardless where you host it, you should get a release form from each student giving their legal permission to use their likeness in the video. Your institute’s communications office should have a standard one you can use, or you can modify this example.

Casting

Cast by the lesson, not the student. Think of a good short practice teaching session one of your current or former students has done in class that illustrates the skills you want to teach. Let them know that you want to record a lesson that they have already taught successfully in your class and explain that you want to use it as an example of good teaching. Make it clear in your request how the video will be used and who will be able to see it. Also, explain that they will be able to do more than one take, and only the best version will be used.

While you can record an award-winning ITA who has gotten great evaluations for many semesters worth of classes, a less-than-perfect teaching example can be just as useful, if not more so. Perfection can be more intimidating than inspiring! A more realistic model gives students more freedom to imagine what they might do differently in the same class.

You will also need to recruit four to eight “students” for an hour’s work. Though a real class would be larger, it can be challenging to record a large group with a single camera, especially if you want to see both the teacher’s and students’ faces. I’ve found that my graduate students are usually willing to pretend to be students out of the kindness of their hearts; undergraduates may need to be enticed with free food before the session and/or a small payment.

Schedule these students for an hour, but ask them to arrive at least 20 minutes before you need them to make sure you can start on time. (Free food really helps to get them there early.) Tell all cast members to wear plain clothing, such as jeans and t-shirts without logos, and encourage bright colors for visual interest. Trendy clothing can date a video quickly.

Equipment

Obviously, you’ll need a camera, but chances are, you already have one that will work. Most digital point-and-shoot cameras have video capabilities, as do most smart phones. What they don’t always have is storage space for larger videos—for YouTube, for example, you should record at resolution of at least 1280 x 720—but with cameras and newer phones, the storage problem can be remedied with a larger capacity SD card.

If you don’t have access to a device with an SD card slot or high enough resolution, go in person to the electronics store and try out cameras. If you’re not a technophile, find the simplest interface you can. A simpler camera will give you fewer options in terms of fancy effects, but also fewer headaches if you’re prone to touching the wrong button or getting lost in instruction books.

You’ll also need a full-size tripod that allows you to swivel the camera from side to side. That will give you much more control than you’d have with a small desktop version.

If you’ll be using a classroom with a chalkboard, the last pieces of equipment you’ll need are a rag and spray bottle to completely clean the board between takes.

Practice

Now that you have the materials you need, find a location, preferably a large room. (If you need to move the camera further away to get everyone in the picture, you can’t move the wall.) Pick a place and time that are relatively quiet to avoid distracting noises in the background. Reserve the classroom for 2 hours even though your recording time will probably be less than 30 minutes. You’ll need time to set up, and something unexpected is likely to happen.

Before the day of the shooting, practice using the camera with a couple of colleagues or student volunteers. Be sure to completely charge the camera or insert new batteries beforehand. Practice in the same classroom as the actual recording and do it at the same time of day, so you know what the light and noise conditions will be. Play back the video as you go so that you can make adjustments. If you can, download it onto a device with a larger screen and speakers halfway through your practice so you have a better idea of the sound and picture quality. Do you need to close the blinds to decrease glare on the board? Is there a limit to how far the teacher can move back and forth while still being in the shot? Does a faraway speaker need to be louder for the camera to get good sound?

Next, set up the classroom. The easiest method is to put the camera far enough behind the students so that you can see everyone at the same time. That way, you only need to turn the camera on and off. This will require you to have students sit toward the front of the room in a relatively compact formation. The wider the group, the farther away the camera will need to be to capture everyone, and the smaller the teacher will appear.

If you want to see more interaction—and students’ faces—set up the desks in a semi-circle and put the camera facing the board in the space where the center student would be. Leave plenty of space between the camera and the students on either side.

To test that setup, you’ll need at least two people to play the parts of students and teacher. Ask them to converse in various positions while you practice turning the camera from side to side to capture the face of each speaker until you can do it smoothly. Check the video. Will some students be completely blocked by others from the camera’s view? Will you need to rearrange desks to get a better shot? To capture both the students and the teacher, do you need to adjust the camera height or angle? Note any unexpected requirements and take pictures of the final setup for the day of recording.

Recording

As before, charge the camera or insert new batteries. Get there at least 40 minutes before the recording to set up chairs and clean the board, if necessary. Test the camera and invite the ITA teaching the class come in early to warm up. If you can, get a volunteer to collect releases from students and distribute the free food in the hallway or a nearby classroom. Once you start recording, the volunteer can sit outside the classroom with a sign that says, “Quiet Please. Recording in Progress.”

Record the same session two to three times. Some students do best the first time, when they are fresh; others gain more confidence and become more natural on the second or third try. Clean the board completely between takes.

Try to capture interaction, but recognize you may have to facilitate it. Let the students know whether they can ask questions freely or if you’d rather have them ask prearranged questions written by the teacher. Both strategies can work well. You might also want the students to make nametags so the teacher can call them by name.

As with casting, don’t worry too much about getting the perfect take. Students watching the finished video will likely be encouraged to see that even a great class can have a few rough spots.

Postproduction

Once you’ve chosen the version to upload, write focused questions about the video for your students. For most of you, writing the questions will be the easy part, but if you need ideas, the User-Friendly Classroom has examples of questions focused on (surprise!) user-friendliness.

Although it might be challenging the first time, after you’ve done it once, you’ll find it gets easier. I hope in time, you’ll find yourself with a collection of well-produced, realistic teaching models for your students.

A.C. Kemp has taught English as a second language for more than 20 years. Since 2007, she has been a lecturer in English language studies at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where she works with ITAs. Prior to teaching, she worked in video production. Her ITA video training series, The User-Friendly Classroom, is free and available to the public on MIT’s OpenCourseWare.