The Lightboard studio offers a modern way for educators to create videos that demonstrate workings such as formulas, diagrams, and visual concepts.
Students report that videos created using the lightboard are more engaging than voice over slides. They feel more personal and allow students to watch as the presenter 'thinks' through problems - complete with facial expressions and gestures that only enrich the presentation.
- Caz Sandison | School of mathematics
The Lightboard studio is available for UOW educators to staff create short, purposeful videos to support their students' learning. A Lightboard, sometimes referred to as learning glass or a transparent whiteboard, is an innovative tool that provides the appearance of the teacher writing on the screen of the video.
Some potential video use cases for the Lightboard Studio include:
- Explaining while Drawing and Writing - The Lightboard is a great option for showing your students how to work through equations, formulas, processes, diagrams and more. As demonstrated by the examples on this page.
- Presenting to Camera - The Lightboard Studio, can also be used to create pieces to camera. Utilising the wide or close-up shot options, you can create a range of videos for your subject.
Examples include welcome videos, subject overviews, weekly or modular summaries and more. - Interacting with slides in real-time - Use our PowerPoint template to plan and prepare slides with text, images or animation to display during the video recording.
Equations and working
Tim Browne annotating an electrical circuit diagram for ECTE915.
Welcome video
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Erin Twyford recording a Welcome video for ACCY228.
Media overlays
Tim Boniface demonstrating with a DNA animation using Powerpoint.
The DIY Lightboard Studio incorporates software features that minimise the need to edit your video post-production. These include:
- Adding UOW brand elements easily to the start and end of your video
- Framing preview and practice tips
- Switching live between wide and close-up shots
- Pausing and resuming recording functionality
- Adding pre-created text, graphics or animations from a PowerPoint slide to your live video
- Exporting to a high-quality MP4 format for upload ready for video hosting (e.g. Echo360)
Note: The Lightboard Studio can be used in a DIY capacity or as part of a Learning & Teaching Project, as Caz Sandison and Tim Browne have done.
Why?
"the lightboard replicates for most educators a more authentic mode of delivery, we are used to standing before students and working our solutions out. It felt much more natural than using a tablet to scribe answers as I spoke over slides."
- Erin Twyford | School of Business
Doing away with the need to turn your back to your audience while writing or drawing, creates the possibility of more natural gesturing, facial expressions and eye contact maintained with the audience. When paired with writing or drawing graphics by hand while talking, the lightboard "can help establish a stronger social bond between the teacher and learner, causing the learner to try harder to make sense of the instructional message and thereby build a deeper learning outcome" (Mayer, 2020, p. 345).
There are many other additional benefits to using a lightboard, for example, it enables you to:
- be in the video alongside your content, explaining your working, and visualising problem-solving (e.g., 'thinking' through the problem)
- establish and enhance the teacher presence in your subject site, creating more personal learning experiences for students online
- illustrate complex ideas using text, equations, processes, and diagrams accompanied by narration
- create videos using familiar, consistent and user-friendly functionality
Dive deeperJackson Allen, from the Faculty of Engineering and Information Sciences (EIS) shares his experiences Using the Lightboard to record learning material for Physics.
How?
Expand the sections below for information and resources supporting the use of the Lightboard.
Preparation
- Wear plain darker (not black) clothing - and shirts that don't contain textual print or logos. As the recording is flipped to display correctly to students, the text or logos on your clothes would appear reversed.
- Prepare diagrams prior to recording - If annotating diagrams or processes and you don't need to show a progression on the original diagram, draw it prior to starting the recording. This saves time and allows students to concentrate on the main purpose of your explanation.
Tip: If you will be using a diagram over multiple videos or takes and annotating it, it might be best to draw on the camera side of the board. This way when erasing your annotations you won't erase your diagram. Also, remember this diagram will be flipped in the recorded output.
Comparison of shirt colours and also showing how the logo is reversed when recording on the lightboard.
Delivery
- Keep it short - Plan first. What does this video need to cover? Aim for 3-5 minutes maximum and target what it needs to cover.
- Be natural in your delivery - You know your content and how you want to deliver your expertise. Don’t try to be someone else, talk in a way that feels comfortable to you. Follow your natural speech rhythms and patterns.
- Engage with the audience - Look at the camera lens, that is where your students are. As much as possible, maintain eye contact and talk to the camera as if it were a student in the room.
- Own your mistakes - Just as you would in the classroom, when you make a small mistake – correct it. Explain to the students why it is a mistake. Not only does this show you’re human, it helps show that you are working through the process. If you make a larger mistake, you can always do another take.
Caz Sandison maintains eye contact with the students via the camera
Annotation
- Write around you - Ideally, you will be standing in a consistent place in the video frame. Be mindful of the writing area available to you, e.g. columns on either side if you are standing in the middle of the frame. Be aware that captions on the video may appear in the lower middle third of the screen, so avoid writing information there.
- Be deliberate with your use of colour - Use the same colour for continuity of thought or theory, but change to highlight important points. When demonstrating examples, remember that you can use colours to convey meaning.
Appropriate areas to write on the lightboard when standing in the centre
The purpose of this information is to outline the terms of use for the DIY Studio facility.
Users must:
- Be current UOW staff. The DIY Studio facility saves the recordings to your UOW user account. As per the Acceptable use of IT Policy - "Users must not use an account assigned to somebody else.".
- Complete an induction to the facility with LTC staff.
- Use the studio for its intended recording context, unless prior communications and specific requirements have been approved by LTC.
- Adhere to the duration and times of their booking. The facility has other users, please be respectful of their time.
- Notify ltc-central@uow.edu.au of any cancellations or amendments to their bookings.
- Clean up any mess made and ensure all belonging are taken with you when leaving the facilities.
Users must not:
- Bring any food or beverages into the DIY facilities
- Alter the equipment in any way. Beyond adjusting the height of the standing desk, no equipment or furniture is to be moved, modified or removed from the DIY Studio facility unless with the prior written consent of LTC.
Related Information
- PowerPoint Template (Lightboard) | Powerpoint file (.ppt)
- PowerPoint Examples (Lightboard) | Powerpoint file (.ppt)
- Coach yourself to sound your best (Talent guide) | External resource
The following resources showcase how UOW staff have used the Lightboard in their teaching:
Learn more
To learn more about accessing the DIY Lightboard, please contact ltc-central@uow.edu.au
