videotaping & webcasting museum lectures: access, social learning, and recycling (v2)

Videotaping & Webcasting Museum Lectures: Access,

Social Learning, and Recycling

Erin Blasco, education specialist in the new media department,

Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History

@erinblasco blascoe@si.edu

What I’m going to talk about…

• Audience-centric approach to webcasting

• Goal-setting• Best practices • Evaluation

Me & the Postal Museum

• Me: public programs coordinator playing with social media

• 35 on-site programs each year • 9 lecture programs videotaped &

webcast live online each year

What my lectures looked like

• Saturday afternoon• Smart speaker,

great content• Audience asking

questions, socializing

But…• Social media sparked a demand for access

to programs anywhere, anyplace• At the same time, I was frustrated:– Sometimes empty lecture hall – Content not captured – On-site interactions dead-ended there Sparsely attended

lectureInterest from Facebook

fans

My goals for webcasting• Provide access to museum lectures to

folks beyond my lecture hall.• Document, archive, recycle content. • Be social. Spark online discussion about

lectures, just like on-site conversation. • Online audiences achieve learning

outcomes.

My goals for webcasting• Provide access to museum lectures to

folks beyond my lecture hall.• Document, archive, recycle content. • Be social. Spark online discussion about

lectures, just like on-site conversation. • Online audiences achieve learning

outcomes

not optional

not optional

My webcasting set-upSmart person gives a lecture or workshop.

On-site audience enjoys the program. They can forward the video to their friends later.

Camera, mics, coffee, 3 laptops (one for slides, one managing webcast with Wirecast, one for social media).Online, viewers can watch live on Ustream or watch later on YouTube.

Later, video can be edited for re-use.

Audience-centric approach to webcasting

• You need a camera. But webcasting is way more than turning on the camera.

Online viewers are people, too!

• Provide equivalents to things on-site visitors get to enjoy

Can online viewers see the PowerPoint slides?

Way to give feedback

Meet the author

Best Practices in Providing Access

• On-site and online = two different programs. Don’t just hit record.

• Be a good host:– Provide handout– Comfortable setting– Online exhibit tour– Solicit feedback – Say thank you

Front door for

online viewers

More Best Practices in Providing Access

• Share speaker’s slides on SlideShare, or…

• Pull in slides • Provide other ways to

access the content Picture-in-picture shot

Live tweeting

13

• Incorporating visuals

14

Educating speakers

• Foreverness = hesitancy • Say hi to online viewers• Turn in slides early • Save time for sound

check • Repeat Q&A questions• Prepared to take

questions from online viewers

Best practices: Promotion

Facebook event

Tweets

Pinterest

The webcast audience and on-site audience are different. Webcasts need their own promotion plans.

Best practices: Archiving and recycling

• Plan how you’ll store and organize large video files

• Have a vision for editing• Your institution’s standards for

accessibility • Embed video into blog posts, website,

and Facebook, not just YouTube• Work videos into yearly social media

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Be audience-centric: evaluate!

• What are the best ways for you to find out about webcasts from the Smithsonian?

• Facebook: 62%• Email: 54%• Twitter: 39%

Be social

• Integrate social media for questions and comments before, during, after

• Use a hashtag so viewers can chat

• Bring on-site visitors into the online conversation: tell them where to re-connect with content, share with friends

• Share related content

Does anyone have a question for the

curator?

Try to Limit the “House Keeping” Introduction because it Irritates Online

Viewers• Silence cell phones• No flash

photography• Complete the

survey; onsite folks win a prize if they complete the survey

• Upcoming programs • Exhibit openings • Introducing the

speaker• Let’s get to the

show!

Stuff I wish I’d known• Live vs. canned

– “Live” is nice when it’s an astronaut speaking, but you may not always have a lot of live viewers (embrace asynchronous learning)

• Differing audience needs– Saturday may be great for on-site audiences

but awful for online viewers. Whose needs do you prioritize?

• Realism about engagement– Most people watch/lurk/spectate, not engage

• Not everything is easily recyclable – A 45-minute video is really, really long; editing

is hard – Teachers may want 2-minute video clips along

with museum lesson plans, but speakers may not use classroom-ready language

Achieving the Goal of Providing Access

• For 16 programs that had on-site and online components…

• 19,848 online views (live and canned)– 7,605 live– 12,243 canned (archived on YouTube or UStream)

• 495 on-site audience members

More than my lecture

hall holds!

Program views

25

Any questions?

• I’d love to hear from you: Erin Blasco, blascoe@si.edu, @erinblasco

Model The 101Engagement

LevelAudience Pluses Minuses

Video Conferencin

g

The museum and the viewers have video conferencing equipment. You see them, they see you, all in real time.

Face-to-face interaction through a private video stream. Very engaging for that group.

Classroom, club, special group

Highest level of engagement; video quality is great so your museum objects are crystal clear

Viewers need equipment. The recorded version of the video is less engaging to watch.

Google Hangout

on Air

Live stream your Hangout via your YouTube channel and website

Pretty social with commenting, chat, etc

Anyone with internet

If your audience is big on Google+, they’ll love this

Webcasting

Broadcast live video via free sites like UStream. Anyone with internet can tune in. Viewers interact live via social media. When event is over, video remains for future viewing.

Viewers of the webcast interact with each other and the museum via Twitter, chat, or other social media.

Anyone with internet can watch the live video at the appointed time or the archived video later.

Best way to get live interaction with lots of people. Recorded video available online promptly after program.

Recording a copy of the video while broadcasting live stream, can sacrifice some quality. Picture quality isn’t great. People may not tune in to the webcast unless it’s a big event.

Tape, edit, post

The museum makes a video of a program. Video editing software is then used to trim the video to ideal length and delete bloopers. The video is posted online for viewing and commenting.

Viewers and the museum can post comments on the video at any time.

Anyone who can watch a cute cat video on YouTube can access and comment on the video.

Edited video can be more pleasing to watch than raw video. Editing can create multiple versions of the video for different uses, audiences.

There will be a delay between the live program and the video being made available online. Editing is a specialized skill that takes time to learn and do.

Tape and post

The museum makes a video of a program and posts the video online.

Same as above.

Same as above.

Posting the video provides access to the program, plain and simple. Workload is low.

Raw video may not be as pleasing to watch online. There may be a delay in posting the video.