Have you been using Teams meeting recordings to make screencasts? We recommend switching to PowerPoint for any future recordings. Our 2020/21 experiences and staff feedback indicate key advantages.
Why is PowerPoint a preferred recording tool?
Compared to Teams meeting recordings, PowerPoint provides:
- Enhanced accessibility for students
- Additional recording features
- Suitable for future-proofing recordings
- The quality of the recorded audio is not dependent on internet connectivity (if you experience poor connectivity during a Teams meeting recording, this is reflected in recorded audio quality).
Enhancing accessibility for students
When a screencast and corresponding PowerPoint file is provided, students have alternative controls for consuming the screencast content:
- Students can adjust the slides to suit their viewing preferences, for example, format slide colours and text, or magnify slides where needed.
- PowerPoint files are compatible with assistive technologies, such as the inbuilt O365 Immersive reader which is available for all students.
- If a screencast and corresponding PowerPoint are available, students can copy text from slides for note making. Before recording your screencast, save a slide-only/no narration version for uploading to Blackboard.
Recording features (not available in Teams meeting recordings)
- Larger webcam feed compared to Teams, toggle webcam on/off (mac and windows)
- Capture slide annotations, such as laser pointer and pen (windows only)
- Magnify slides (allowing up to 400% zoom in on slides while presenting)
- Individual slides duration and video length are displayed in real-time as you record
- Ability to pause, re-record and delete audio during the recording
Future proofing advantages (not available in Teams meeting recordings)
- Individual slide audio can be re-recorded, and slides edited. This saves times during the recording and in the event of future updating.
- You can attach a copy of the slides when exporting to Stream. The copy will retain slide audio and can be downloaded from Stream if you wish to make future edits
(you may wish to retain an additional hardcopy for your own records). .
If you want to know more about making PowerPoint recordings, exporting to Stream and assigning viewing permissions, see the TEL toolkit ‘Making Screencasts‘. A comparison of Teams vs PowerPoint is available, as well as general guidance for designing pedagogic screencasts.