Lecture Recordings
Various applications allow you to produce video and audio recordings yourself. On this page, you will find recommendations and support for recording, producing, and sharing recordings. The page will be updated as soon as we can recommend further applications.
Important advice: Please observe copyright law when providing material or recordings containing third-party content. The general conditions are governed by section 60a German Copyright Law (Urheberrechtsgesetz, UrhG). For more information please also see the website Digital Course Reserve.
1) Producing video recordings of course contents at home/
at the office Both Windows and macOS operating systems offer user-friendly options for creating screen recordings. Some options allow you to include in your recordings a video recording of yourself via a webcam. However, since this will increase the size of the video, we ask you to use this option only if absolutely necessary. In any case, we recommend dividing the recording into several individual videos (about ten minutes per video). Since only a few applications allow you to edit your recordings afterwards, this way, you do not have to start the whole lecture from scratch in case of a major error. Please ensure good audio quality when recording. Strong noise or other disturbing background sounds will have a negative effect on the learning experience and motivation of your students.
For all options listed below you need:
- A microphone (usually already integrated in notebooks, but the audio quality may be enhanced by an external headset) or a (USB) headset --> Please check for available headphone and microphone inputs on your recording device.
- Where necessary, a webcam (this is usually already integrated in notebooks).
Option 1 Creating slide recordings including audio content with PowerPoint 365 or 2013-1019 (Windows and macOS)
With just a few clicks, PowerPoint allows you to enrich your slides with audio commentary and to export slide and audio recordings together as video files in the popular mp4 format.
Instructions for Office 365 (Microsoft Manual):
Recording a slide show – Office 365Instructions for Windows 2013–2019 (Microsoft Manual):
Recording a slide show – Windows 2013–2019
Instructions for macOS (Microsoft Manual):
Recording a slide show – macOS
Option 2 Screen recordings with the operating system macOS Mojave and Catalina (macOS)
Mac devices with macOS operating system allow you to use PowerPoint as well as the integrated recording systems. The operating systems macOS Mojave and Catalina offer a separate recorder. In contrast to the PowerPoint option, you can also remove parts of the recording at the beginning and end of the recording if necessary.
For instructions please click here:
Creating screen shots and screen recordings on Mac
To watch a short video tutorial please click here:
Screen recordings on Mac (YouTube)
Option 3 Screen recording with Camtasia or OBS Studio
The two programs Camtasia and OBS also allow you to record the screen or parts of it. The advantage of the charged Camtasia program is that you can easily edit your video files. The OBS Studio program is free of charge and therefore very popular.
The following video tutorial explains how to record with OBS Studio:
More video tutorials on Camtasia and OBS Studio can be found on the web. For advice, please contact our UNIT support team.
Do you need additional equipment or assistance with editing, compressing or uploading your video recordings? University IT can lend you webcams with integrated microphone technology and will be happy to advise you on site at the media editing stations.
In view of the fact that the use of editing stations is limited, we ask you to register by calling +49 621 181-2756 or sending an e-mail to mmproblemuni-mannheim.de.
Please note:
Videos should be produced in 480p only, unless your slides contain graphics or the like requiring a higher resolution. You can thus reduce the file size drastically helping to save ILIAS' capacity. In addition, you will thus be able to upload videos quickly even with a slower Internet connection.
How to upload videos to ILIAS is explained in the tutorial under point 3.
2) Audio recordings
As an alternative to video recordings, you can also create audio recordings without visual content. If you want to make audio recordings yourself, we recommend the free program Audacity (https://www.audacityteam.org/, alternative virus-checked download option at https://www.heise.de/download/product/audacity-5660). Please ensure good audio quality when recording. Strong noise or other disturbing background sounds will have a negative effect on the learning experience and motivation of your students.
Please note that you need a microphone for audio recording (this is usually already integrated in notebooks; however, audio quality can be enhanced by using an external headset or a (USB) headset. --> Please check for available headphone and microphone inputs on your recording device/
notebook. Please export your recordings in mp3 format.
How to upload the recording to ILIAS is explained under point 3.
3) Providing recordings via the learning platform ILIAS
Recordings can be made available on ILIAS as streams (these cannot be downloaded by students) or as files for download. If you want to provide your video as a file, you can upload it to ILIAS just like a PDF file or a Word document.
Please keep in mind that the maximum file size for an upload to ILIAS is 980 MB. If possible, however, videos should be as small as possible in order to conserve the capacities of ILIAS.
Please use the free program Handbrake to compress your video files (https://handbrake.fr/, alternative virus-tested download option at https://www.heise.de/download/product/handbrake-53280/download). The program allows you to reduce/
compress videos to lower quality and file size. For copyright reasons, we recommend that you make your recordings available only on password-protected platforms or university websites such as the learning platform ILIAS.
The following video shows you how to stream your recordings on ILIAS.
