Recording videos with PowerPoint

last update: 07.04.2020

Additions for older versions of PowerPoint are planned for the next update.

If you have your teaching content in PowerPoint slides, you can record your lecture with simple means. This guide shows which steps in PowerPoint are necessary to do so.

Overview

Recording videos with PowerPoint

Important notes are marked yellow.

Additional information is marked in blue.

Required equipment

PC or Mac with:
- microphone (preferably a headset)
- optional: (integrated) webcam
PowerPoint (version 2016 or later)
Your teaching content on PowerPoint slides

Please update your PowerPoint installation to version 2016 to ensure that individual steps of this manual apply to your system. You may have to ask your ITB or administrator for help. PowerPoint 2016 can be optained from the KIT Software Shop for business purposes.

If you have an Office 365 subscription, this guide should also work in the latest versions of PowerPoint.

Quick guide

Launch PowerPoint.
Open your slides.
Switch to the “Slide Show” tab.
Click on “Record presentation”.
- If you are working with a Windows computer or laptop, you have the possibility to switch on the webcam during a recording as well. This option can be switched off.
Give your lecture as usual. The recording will end when you end the presentation as well.
Save the recording of the presentation under “File” - “Save as” or “Export” as video in .mp4 format.
Check the recorded video:
- Is your voice good to hear and to understand?
- Are all slides discussed and are there no long gaps?

If you are not satisfied with one of the aspects, correct the corresponding spots and perform a new test recording. You may have to ask your ITB or administrator for help to optimize your setup (e.g. the microphone settings).

Some tips

Don’t record a 90-minute lecture all at once! Divide the recordings into smaller sections of about 10-20 minutes. This way you can reassemble each time, take breaks and don’t have to re-record everything if you make mistakes.
If possible you should speak freely and not too quietly. Imagine that the students are sitting in front of you: Use direct speech and avoid long and complex sentences.

During slide transitions that have a certain duration assigned, no sound is recorded.
During a presentation recording in the slides, jumping back does not work.

After recording, you can re-record individual slides to correct minor errors. For instructions, please refer to the official Microsoft support documents (see below).

Name the video files on your computer according to a uniform nomenclature and organize them in a well thought-out folder structure. This will help you to find and provide the individual learning units more easily later.

MS PowerPoint Help

If you have problems finding the function for recording your presentation in PowerPoint, the official support site of Microsoft can help you:

Recording a slide show (Microsoft) in German

Next steps

How to prepare the recordings for upload and create the smallest possible files with the same quality, this guide shows: Video Compression Guide.
How to make the recordings available to your students via ILIAS is explained in a separate manual.

Info & Contact

License notice

The tutorial for the creation of digital teaching material of the center for Technology-Enhanced Learning (ZML) at the Karlsruhe Institute of Technology (KIT) is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License..

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