How to Create Engaging Educational Videos with a Lightboard

Educational research has established that learning is more effective when it combines visual and audio, known as the Modality Effect (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012). This combination reduces cognitive load, which allows the learner to retain information more effectively. We decided to create educational videos for our math classes using a highly engaging technology called a lightboard. A lightboard allows instructors to speak to the camera while writing on a clear glass in front of them, thus avoiding having to turn their back on their students to write.

But, the reader might ask, won’t this cause the writing to be backwards to the online viewer? The genius of the lightboard is that it reverses the image either by pointing the camera at a mirror set at an angle to the speaker or with editing software. The result is a presentation that preserves eye contact with the audience while allowing the instructor to write formulas, make drawings, or sketch out other things during the video. This remarkably simple system will transform educational videos at any institution.

We decided to order the complete system through one of the suggested retailers on the lightboard website, but it is possible to build your own studio with the helpful directions on that site. Besides the basic equipment that is part of any studio—camera, lights, and microphones—the setup requires a large piece of glass and either a simple mirror to bounce the camera view off or the use of editing software such as Adobe Premiere Pro to reverse the image after the shoot. Most institutions already have a studio set up and editing software, so the only specialized equipment they will need is the glass and maybe some additional lights.

The recording process is pretty straightforward and not that much different from what a professor would normally do during a lecture, minus the students. The instructor simply speaks to the camera and draws on the lightboard as he or she would during a lecture. We found that it only takes an hour or more in the studio to record multiple lessons.

After recording, a videographer edits the video. One nice feature of this process is that video editors can insert graphics into the video at various parts of the lecture. If the instructor wants to refer to an image, he or she can just do so by pointing at an imaginary image while speaking and the video editor will seamlessly insert it into the video afterwards.

Best practices

After having used a lightboard for some time now, we have developed a set of best practices for getting started.

• For a new user, we recommend filming a short video first, and then reviewing it before filming longer videos. In our initial stages, we learned this the hard way when an instructor spent two hours in the studio only to be dissatisfied with the visual outcome.  For instance, he made the mistake of writing directly in front of his face, which created an odd appearance. Speakers should write off to the side and can move around after they write as long as they remain in the camera frame. Since the view from the camera is often difficult to predict from the speaker’s standpoint, make the first shot short and review it for any tweaks before going into the real shot.

• Find a speaker who is willing to be an early adopter and strong advocate—someone willing to try, fail, and learn many times over. Some speakers will give up after spending an hour on something they do not like and may share this bad experience with others. New technology takes time to learn, so your first few speakers should be willing to work through your learning curve.  

• Do not try to write everything down in real-time. Write down the main ideas or equations before filming the segment. Then, during the recording, use a marker of a different color sparingly to call attention to those points to which you want students to focus. For example, circle the result of a computation or underline a component of an equation to call attention to it. Go slowly enough that students will have time to write down everything.

• Be sure to write clearly. Use broad, heavy strokes of the marker, making every letter and symbol clearly distinguishable from other letters and symbols, particularly ones that are very similar, such as the letter “i,” the letter “l,” and the numeral “1.”

• Use markers of different colors. For example, in a calculation of a GPA, use one color to represent the number corresponding to the grade (i.e. an A is 4 grade points per credit hour), and another color to represent the number of credit hours for a particular course. In an equation, consider using one color to represent variables and another to represent the coefficients of those variables.

• The space for writing on a lightboard is much more confined than a classroom white board. Do not try to cram too much writing into the available space. You can erase while the video recording is “off,” which means there is no lost time, as there is in a live presentation. What could be presented in one writing on a classroom whiteboard may require 10 repetitions of write/erase on the lightboard.

• Look into the camera often, whether you are behind the lightboard or beside it. Present the lesson as if students are actually watching you. Remember, the presentation is somewhat of a show. It should be interesting and entertaining to the best extent possible.

• Make every segment last between 1 and 7 minutes. Don’t try to explain too much in one segment.

• Use the phrase “pause the video here” often. This encourages students to try an example like the one you just did, or to take time to make their own notes without fear of missing part of the presentation.
  
• Speak loudly and clearly, and repeat ideas often, particularly definitions.

Our lightboard is currently being used for video presentations in a wide range of disciplines such as mathematics, engineering, chemistry, communications, and even an Italian language course. While the original innovators used the lightboard for STEM courses, we have found benefits for using it outside of STEM. The lightboard allowed a communications professor to draw concept maps while explaining them. The Italian-language professor used the lightboard to write vocabulary words while emphasizing the punctuation, syntax, and accent marks. These are great benefits for students to learn through dual channeling techniques, that is, instruction that is both spoken and written at the same time (Reiser & Dempsey, 2012). 

Our goal now is to incorporate different techniques such as integration with physical objects, interactive quizzes, and augmented reality in conjunction with the lightboard. For inspiration, we look to examples showcased on the lightboard webpage as well as the Because Science YouTube channel.

Reference

Reiser, R. A. & Dempsey, J. V. (2012). Trends and issues in instructional design and technology (3rd ed.) Boston, MA: Pearson.

Kristina Schmid is an instructional designer, Eddie Gomez is a video production specialist, and Peter McCandless is an assistant professor-in-residence at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.