What is information? Simply, it is:
knowledge communicated or received concerning a particular fact or circumstance;
knowledge gained through study, communication, research, instruction, etc.;
the act or fact of informing.
Our focus this week is on presenting information in ways that are, as usual, engaging, informative, entertaining, and effective. To do this, you’ll be creating a Powerpoint on a topic of your choice and narrating a presentation using it. Think back to all the TED Talks you’ve watched so far: what was effective? Avoid putting text on your presentation slides that you then just read aloud. This is not the way to engage your audience! Find accompanying imagery that support what you’re saying and provides both interesting and meaningful visuals.
Let’s go through this in order: first, you’ll take a look at just what information is; second, you’ll install and get familiar with the OBS Studio capture software (OBS Studio is a software that allows you to simultaneously record or stream yourself presenting orally in video, a PowerPoint presentation, the screen of your computer, and additional video capture devices like webcams); finally, you’ll create your own and share it!
In this section you will learn about “information” as a concept, and you will be introduced to the OBS Studio software and workflow.
Visit the Open Broadcaster Software website and download and install OBS Studio. It is available on Windows, Mac, and Linux. If you need support in the process of downloading and installing the software, visit the OBS Project’s help guide.
Now, go forth and create! Go through the following steps in order to be successful in this project!
Script out a 3-4 minute (spoken) narrative on one of the following:
You have a lot of freedom here, so focus on picking something that’s meaningful to you and that you can speak to while being lively and passionate. Also remember, though, that you’ll be telling just as much of your story (ie, sharing the information) through the visuals as through your written and narrated text. Use tried-and-true organizational structures for your story/presentation (think: hook, beginning, middle, end, recap).
Consider everything you’re producing through the lenses that we’ve addressed so far in class: what makes a good story? How does structure impact narrative and presentation? Create something that, were someone else to make it, you’d jump at the chance to engage with!
Note that you can use another presentation-development platform, just be aware of the Quicksand Policy!
Create a presentation that has no fewer than 14 slides to visually communicate your 3-4 minute narrative as you present it and which includes the following:
An important note, here: within each OBS scene, include the content of your narrative as a source within that scene. You can have it scrolling across the bottom like a marquee or just as some text in a box in the corner. This is up to you how you want to go about that. This is to provide an accessible option for those watching! (Review the 4th video above for instructions on how to do this.)
Now that you have your presentation created and you’re familiar with OBS Studio, it’s time to record your presentation. I encourage you to revisit the tutorials above if you’re unsure where to start, but regardless you need to pay attention to choosing the right recording settings that are appropriate for your content and your hardware.
Please note! When recording locally using OBS Studio, you will often choose between the flv and mp4 file extensions. It’s important to pick the correct format here. If you choose MP4, you can import directly into Adobe Premiere Pro if you plan on doing any other editing to the recording, however if the recording stops for any reason it is not partially recoverable! So, you’ll lose the entire recording. The flv filetype does not have this limitation but you cannot import directly into Premiere Pro (you’ll need to run it through Adobe Media Encoder). Keep this in mind!
Also make sure you’re paying attention to the OBS canvas size, which will determine the final recording resolution.
Your captured recording should be high quality in both video and audio. Yes, that means using your webcam or a recorded video of yourself doing the narration as a video source! Do your best to find a quiet space to record (a walk-in closet is perfect for this). Try to look directly into the camera when recording. Avoid rustling paper or superfluous mouse clicks. Protip: do a test run before you try to do the entire thing! Fix whatever problems you notice and try again.
Again, while you should always aim for the highest quality possible, I fully understand that not everyone has a professional production studio at home. Just do your best and aim at being proud of what you create.
You will be submitting a variety of content for this project. In the D2L dropbox, add all of the following files:
Then, also upload your video file to the obs Teams channel. Be sure to watch your colleagues' videos, too! React/respond to them as is appropriate.