Tips for recording narration in PowerPoint
Recent versions of Microsoft Powerpoint include the Record Narration feature. You'll find it in the "Slide Show" menu of Powerpoint 2003 and 2007 (Windows), 2004 and 2008 (Mac). You can very easily add your voice to accompany your Powerpoint slide, then share it with your students by uploading to your Blackboard site, the media.sas.upenn.edu server or other course web site.
Mac users may also want to check out Profcast, a software package which makes it easy to record presentations based on Powerpoint or Keynote.
Microsoft provides good step-by-step instructions on how to use this feature. Here are a few tips for how you can use it effectively in your teaching.
Download a short demonstration Powerpoint show to see how to apply these tip. This demonstration was created Powerpoint 2003, but the process isthe same for 2007 on Windows.
- You'll need a microphone. The mic built into most laptops is usually sufficient. Inexpensive microhpones are available from the Computer Connection at Penn, and most other places that sell computer equipment. SASfaculty can contact Multi-Media Services to borrow a microphone.
- Select "Telephone Quality" audio. (Windows versions only) This setting provides a reasonable compromise between sound quality and file size of the finished product. The the Mac version of Powerpoint doesn't let you choose your audio quality settings. On Macs, audio is recorded at high quality but results in very large files sizes. So, it's only practical to create very short presentations (~3-4minutes) on a Mac if you want to share them over the web.
- Don't check the box for "Link Narration." Leave that box blank so that the audio will be saved directly within the Powerpoint file, rather than as a seperate file.
- Don't talk across slide changes. If you talk across slide changes, you'll loose a little bit. Audio is saved with each individual slide. So when you're finished narrating a slide, come to a complete stop, advance the slide, wait a second, then resume talking.
- Advise your students to click the little speaker icon in the lower right corner of the slide to hear the narration. The audio will playback automatically if your students view your slide in Slideshow mode. But more often, people just open the Powerpoint file and manually click through the slides. So, they'll need to click that speaker icon the hear you.
- Divide your slide show into short segments. Adding audio will make your Powerpoint files a lot bigger. They'll be easier for you to upload, and for your students to download, if you turn one long show into a few shorter shows. Try limiting to about 10 slides per show and see how that works.
- Take 2! You can go back and re-record the narration on a specific slide if necessary. See the instructions from Microsoft on how to "Re-record a voice narration"