Emerging Technologies for Researchers

By Ben Loveridge (Learning Environments)

Over the last few months, the MOOC’s team at Learning Environments have been busy preparing for the University of Melbourne’s Coursera debut in 2013. Much has has already been written about the impact of MOOC’s (Massive Online Open Courses) on higher education but little on the practical challenges of filming. Here I outline these aspects, primarily for staff of other institutions who may be planning to go down this path.

Update: Visions Episode – Preparing for Coursera - http://youtu.be/wFPjqTUgupU

Photo: Coursera filming set-up showing lighting positions (Credit: Ben Loveridge)

1. Location

One of the first decisions we needed to make was whether to film in a dedicated space or at the lecturers own office. After factoring in set-up times, distractions, sound issues and variable lighting conditions, it became apparent that to achieve a consistant quality in the most efficient manner, we needed to maintain a single location for the bulk of the filming. Fortunately, we were able to commandeer an underused room in which we could leave equipment setup and have a secure, relatively quiet controlled environment.

2. Background

We discussed extensively about what type of background to film in front of and whether to attempt a green screen, print a solid backdrop, bring in a large LED screen or build a custom set. For now, we’ve opted to go for a pure white wall, mainly since there was one already in the location and the current limitations on room size and availability of lighting equipment.

Update 23/5/13: We’ve now installed a green screen backdrop which is being used for the Discrete Optimization subject beginning on June 18th, 2013. After doing some tests, the lecturer found he preferred to stand and interact in real-time with the presentations.

3. Lighting

The presentation area is lit by two LED panels on a 45 degree angle in front, and a smaller LED panel as a backlight to separate the presenter from the background. The white wall is is lit separately by two halogen lights which have black wrap attached to prevent any spill going back into the camera.

3. Equipment Set-up

Having enjoyed completing Kevin Werbach’s Gamification course a few months ago and impressed by his style of presentation, we were keen to use that as a starting point for the set-up. His arrangement involved him looking into a webcam above his computer screen while using a Wacom tablet to draw annotations. Taking this idea a step further, we decided to install an autocue which would not only hide the camera from the lecturer but show the presentation on the screen and encourage their their gaze to remain directed down the lens. Having a strong eyeline toward the camera helps preserve a sense of intimacy that is important when the lecturer and student are separated by time and place.

Photo: Coursera filming set-up showing autocue and Wacom Cintiq 24HD Touch  (Credit: Ben Loveridge)

The camera being used is the Canon C300 with a 24-70mm lens and the HDMI output running into a Blackmagic Intensity card in a MacPro. The camera resolution is set to 1280×720 running at 50fps. Most of the equipment except for the Wacom tablet and the autocue was gathered together from existing video gear within our department. (Hopefully they don’t notice it’s missing).

Photo: Coursera filming set-up showing autocue and Wacom Cintiq 24HD Touch  (Credit: Ben Loveridge)

4. Audio

Audio is captured from a wired lapel mic running into a Presonus Mic Pre and the dual mono output from that into the Canon’s XLR inputs. The audio is then sent out of the camera along with the video into the computer.

5. Screen capture and displays arrangement

In order to allow the presenter to draw live annotations while viewing their screen, the free OmniDazzle application is being used along with a Wacom Cintiq HD24 Touch. Although it’s the most expensive part of the set-up, it’s one of the most useful items to help make the lecturers more comfortable in making the transition from live lecture to onscreen presentation. Different pen colours are mapped to the Wacom’s left hand side shortcut buttons and slide forward/back on the right hand side. Once we spend some more time with the functionality, we’ll work on bringing some of the touch functionality into the shortcut commands.

Both the Wacom and the autocue screens are connected to the MacPro’s DVI outputs. The main presentation being output to the Wacom Cintiq, while the notes page going to the autocue screen to allow the presenter to see next slide or any other notes. (Note: Keynote is much better than Powerpoint for custimising the second screen display).

Screenflow is being used to capture the main annotated presentation while at the same time recording the image from the camera. The flexibility of this arrangement allows the position of the video image to be decided later in post-production based on the layout of the presentation elements.

Screenshot: Test recording of a Macroeconomics presentation, annotations and video insert (Credit: University of Melbourne)

We recently tested the same set-up using a MacMini and the BlackMagic UltraStudio Express. Unfortunately OmniDazzle did not work properly with the USB to DVI adapter in place which meant that we couldn’t run two separate video outputs (one for the Wacom and the other for the autocue second screen). Until we can work out another way around this we’ll be sticking with the MacPro and Decklink card.

We are planning to upgrade the audio path by adding a mic preamp and compressor into the chain to improve the audio quality and level before going to the camera.

6. Other considerations

There are many other important aspects of the filming process that I haven’t touched on here including:

Setting up of Powerpoint / Keynote templates
Image copyright checking
Editing and post production
Scheduling recording sessions

Filming lectures for online delivery certainly comes at a cost of time and equipment but it is possible to get a cleaner and more engaging experience compared to the traditional ‘fly-on-the-wall’ style employed by most standard lecture capture systems. By our estimates, you could easily spend at least eight hours preparing, checking copyright, filming, editing, reviewing and uploading each one hour lecture. Add to that the time taken by the lecturer and course co-ordinators to design and prepare the course content / assessment and you could find that figure up around the 20 hour mark. It will be interesting to see where the final numbers end up as the year progresses.