Assignment: Making a Video

This assignment will assess the following competency: Create essential social media marketing and communication tools.

Directions: This is a great assignment, and I hope you have fun with it. You are to make a YouTube video using a PowerPoint presentation with an audio component. To do so, you will need to have, or have access to, a 2010 PPT version, or newer. Additionally, you will need access to a computer or laptop with a built-in mike or an earphone set with a mike.

I use my Bose earphones, which work quite well. If you own an Apple iPhone (or almost any other piece of hardware they make) or a Samsung smartphone and have a set of their earphones, they will work if they have a mike component, which most do as that is what allows you to answer phone calls while listening to music.

There is significant latitude for topics (how to make a cake; how to start a lawnmower, etc.), though a promotional and/or instructional bent is strongly preferred. So, your company might have a product that needs to be showcased or explained, via a power point video. A video is a great promotional tool as, say, instructional in nature.

You might do one (2 min. +/-?) that uses you and a couple of others that says why NAU is such a great school. Think creatively. This may be something you want to show your boss as a draft of something they/you can do across several possible topics.

One important thing to remember is that there are at least a few ways to make such a video, i.e. there are different kinds of software available as well as new versions coming to market all the time. There is software available for both Microsoft and Apple based platforms. If you have a newer version of PowerPoint and use a Doss platform computer (Dell, HP, Acer, etc.), here is a short article on how to make a PowerPoint video: Publish your slide show as a video on YouTube.

Also, you might view these quick YouTube tutorials to learn how to create a PPT video:

Making Videos from Power Point Presentations, hosted by STLCCedtech

How to make a video from photos, hosted by Vicky Wu

Powerpoint 2013 - What's New for Video Makers, hosted by compellingtv

In total, they are all collectively under an hour. They each provide something a little different, so we suggest you watch them all. There are dozens of similar videos on YouTube, so if one of these does not quite do it for you, there are many other (some popular, i.e. widely watched) ones from which to choose.

What the best and easiest ones do collectively require, though, is a 2010 or newer version of PowerPoint. Also, we suggest you download a software program known as Keynote. And finally, you will likely need Quick Time or a related software that turns your presentation into video form.

Generally, the process is:

• Choose your video theme and construct your needed slides.

• Write your dialog that you intend to use for each slide before you start recording.

• SUGGESTION: Make a duplicate of your basic power point slide show before adding the audio as a backup in case something goes wrong in making the version with an audio component. Maybe name it Backup and the other Audio Version, i.e. the one onto which you intend to record.

• An audio component can be added with a 2010 or newer version of PowerPoint. When you are ready to begin recording, open your presentation and click on Slide Show, a choice toward the right of the top index, and select Record Slide Show. A set of earphones with a microphone will produce better sound quality than using your computer's built in microphone. See the PowerPoint help page for tips on recording audio.

• When you are done recording, go to Save As under the File tab. Of the choices provided in the list, choose PowerPoint Show to save your presentation; you can rename it at this point if you choose. If, however, you do not use the Save PowerPoint Show option before exiting PowerPoint, you will lose your audio component. This implies, if you have followed the instructions to this point correctly, you will have two files of the show, one with audio and one without.

• Once you've recorded the audio, you then need to save your presentation as a video. To save your PowerPoint presentation as a video, follow these directions.

• This video can then be uploaded to YouTube (make sure you have created a YouTube account before you start this step). Please see this page for help. Make sure to set your video privacy settings to public so that your instructor and course peers will be able to view it.

Once again, when it's done and all ready to go, just paste the URL for the video into a Word document and upload to the dropbox. Be sure to test it to make sure it opens.

What can these videos be used for in your marketing plan? Well, here's another useful YouTube video 6 Types of Video Marketing: Pros and Cons [Creator's Tip #92], hosted by ReelSEO.