View source for Creating Short Topical Presentations


In practice, people have attention spans of 10-15min at a stretch for consuming media at the level of thought and analysis required for technical and scientific learning.  Breaking up teaching sessions, adding variety to presentation formats, and changing how a subject is presented are all techniques that are scientifically demonstrated to improve learning.

For this reason, we aim to keep topical presentations to 10 to 15 minutes.  If a subject absolutely requires more time than that, it should be broken up into two related presentations.  Usually, though, there is a lot of time that can be trimmed out of a video presentation relative to a live classroom performance.  Here are some time-saving tips:
* Avoid repetition.  The viewer can always rewind.
* Pick up the pace and avoid stops.  The viewer can always pause when they need to.
* Keep it punchy.  Topical presentations are meant to introduce a subject and provide intuition.  Printed media are more appropriate for detailed technical content that would be useful as a reference for later.  Avoid incorporating too much reference material into a video.

===Materials===
There are many ways to do this, but I've chosen to copy what [https://sites.google.com/a/khanacademy.org/forge/for-translators/reference-page Salman Khan of Khan Academy uses]:
* A [http://www.staples.com/Wacom-CTL460-Bamboo-Pen-Tablet/product_812911?cid=PS:SBD:GS:E:N:PLA:71000000000227348:58000000007550141:812911 Wacom Bamboo Tablet]
* Quicktime Player (on my Mac)

Feel free to experiment, though.

===Topical Videos===
* [http://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education.html Salman Khan on Khan Academy]: On using instructional videos instead of lecture
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QZJAhfaZnUA How to make] a Khan Academy-style video