2. Weekly video ‘mailbag’

These short, typically informal videos provide a sense of academic presence and connection, and add context and respond to what is happening during the teaching period. For a more detailed and longer video, you can make it easier for students to follow by sending an accompanying text announcement with dot points or details of the topics you have addressed.

How to implement this in your subject

Step one: plan your message

Prepare some notes on what you will communicate with your students. This could:

• Reference interesting points that students have raised in discussions
• Link subject topics to news and current events
• Highlight learning and/or assessment milestones
• Introduce and contextualise the learning activities scheduled for the week ahead
• Respond to questions that students have raised
• Respond to surveys asking students about the support they need
• Address common points of confusion determined by student activity data.

Step two: decide on video format and prepare your resources

Determine whether your video will be you talking to camera or recording your screen or both. If you choose to include a recording of your screen, identify and prepare any screen captures or resources you are going to include.

Step three: set up your recording space

While video announcements are typically informal, these production resources on video and audio quality will help you to get you message across.

Step four: record your video

Follow these steps for self-recording videos on your own device. Although you can use your preferred alternative recording software, we recommend uploading to Echo360 as students experiencing low-bandwidth and latency issues can watch the video offline through the Echo360 app.

Step five: share your video

Create an LMS announcement to share your video with your students.