How To Record an Online Lecture (Tutorial + Complete Checklist)

Learn how to record an online lecture with this step-by-step tutorial.

This tutorial teaches how to record video lectures for an online course using your webcam and a Keynote or PowerPoint presentation.

TOOLS NEEDED TO RECORD YOUR LECTURE
- Presentation software (PowerPoint for Windows, Keynote for Mac, Google Slides for both)

PRE-RECORDING: CHECKLIST
- Make sure your slides are in wide format (16:9) so they cover the entire video frame.
- Webcam should be setup at eye level
- Background should be not distracting. Either a solid color or add to the theme of the course without clutter
- Your head should be in the middle of the frame
- Use external USB microphone (Blue Yeti, or Audio Technica AT2020)
- Check your audio levels before recording. When you speak the levels shouldn't be too low or two high
- Make sure your appearance and attire are appropriate (avoid bright colors, plaid shirts, reflecting jewelry, bad hair, food in your teeth)

LESSON RECORDING TIPS
- Take a deep breath and make sure you are relaxed and in a happy mood before and during recording
- Rehearse at least once to warm up
- Make sure you look at the camera so your students feel you are looking them in the eye
- Avoid using complex jargon or fancy words. Speak casually like if you were chatting with your best friend who doesn't know anything about your subject
- Speak loud, clear, with confidence and passion
- Make sure your lectures are between 5 and 10 minutes (if they are considerably longer try to break them into more lectures. Remember Udemy doesn't allow lectures over 20mins)
- When you make a mistake, pause, breath and resume from where you left off
- Take a break and stretch often between takes
- Never lose sight of the big picture. ie: why are you doing this? how is your course going to make people's lives better? how is the potential revenue will impact your wealth and freedom?

EDITING YOUR VIDEO LECTURE
- Make sure your canvas is set to 16:9 HD 1080p format (1920x1080). You can also use 720p (1280x720) if you want smaller file sizes at the expense of some resolution loss
- Edit out any mistakes (if possible remove "errs" and "uhms")
- Only show the webcam layer when you are addressing your students and remove it when you want them to pay attention to your presentation slides

LECTURE VIDEO EXPORT SETTINGS
- Set video compression format to H.264 or MPEG-4
- Data Rate/Bit Rate: 3000 kbits/seconds
- Dimensions: 1280x720 or 1920x1080 (16:9 Aspect Ratio)
- Frame rate: 30 Frames Per Second (30 FPS)

Thanks for watching!

[Breewilly]

FINALLY! A video that gives me practical information. Not " mindset" theory

[tarekmulla]

This is really helpful and organised mate, thank you so much.

[TheTaitti]

This is really helpful, thank you, Miguel! I'm teaching my first course to university students, and while the lectures are on live video connection, I would like to record them in case someone needs to leave early or misses a lecture, so that they can catch up. I know nothing about screen recording, and your video helped me a lot. I'll continue and watch some of your other videos, and I'm also going to check out your Udemy course.

[hassanaftab]

Fantastic video. Thank you for taking the time out to record this :)

[drbsnsuri]

Hi, , Thanks for a wonderful video. I have windows laptop which needs to get sync with ipad for the purpose of writing. So how can I go with it?

[christophermiller]

Great info. Do I need a webcam or can I use the internal camera on my macbook pro?

[dylancandra]

Awesome video! Thanks for the tutorial. Hope I could make a lecture as good as yours.

[MarkovicMilena]

Which editing softWare do you recommend?

[bismakhalid]

Hey @miguel, I am a Physics tutor, as u said lecture should not be much longer, but physics needs a lot of concepts, I recorded my first video, and it was of 1 hour, what should I do about it, will breaking the topics helpful 🤕

[JaredJacobsonLaw]

This is really helpful thank u 👏👏👏🔥🔥🔥🙏🙏🙏

[thegato]

Thanks a lot for this amazing video!!!
What software do you use for cutting out the "eerrs" and "uhhmms"?

[rupert]

Thanks for this video man! But how do you show/remove Webcam layer during your lecture?

[elizabethhandley]

How do I include musical clips for history of Classical music lectures?

[doleswar]

Thank you very much for your informative video.

[jmisc]

what about Airpods? They seem to do a very good job recording audio

[allisonpharr]

Thanks, this is great! Any screen recording software for folks on chromebooks?

[anwarshome]

Hi Miguel, I need to create lectures for math. So I need to be writing a lot. What do you recommend use? Should I just use the camera as an overhead over the paper I am writing on or should I use some sort of writing pad? If so what do you recommend because most pads I see are all related to drawings. I need something very sharp since I have to solve problems with lots of numbers. I need your help and advice please. Thank you kindly

[cucarodriguez-loera]

why does udemy limit to 20 minutes? is there another software I could use that does not have this restriction?

[jamesskuggedal]

Hi Miguel did I hear that you live in Vancouver? I am also in BC. Do you do any coaching 1-1? Would be interested in speaking with you.

[junaid]

You are Amazing Miguel, Good Luck !!!