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OER Publishing Style Guide

Multimedia

Multimedia play a major role in education. Video and audio can explain concepts, discuss theory or examples, provide instruction and visualise and reinforce in-class discussions and content. For both online and in person courses, access to multimedia can continue the learning outside of the classroom. As OER, developed multimedia can be used by other organisations and altered to suit their educational needs. Examples of multimedia as OER (with a Creative Commons licence) include:

  • Developing videos or podcasts that can be downloaded and edited to make them more specific to the educational requirement
  • Producing a collection of modular, themed multimedia OER that can be reordered or selected to cover particular topics, or
  • Developing multimedia OER for use as content in an open book, interactive resource or added to a slideshow or document

Creating an OER video

Before you begin creating content please talk to your Open Education Team and Copyright Team about the support available and licencing restrictions. If you are developing video as an OER, the permissions you need from participants may be different to those you would have for an internal video - please contact the Copyright Team for details.

If you are developing a video OER, any additional resources that you use in its creation need to be licenced appropriately and the source needs to be attributed correctly. You may want to use images or background music and the resources you choose need to be compatible with the licence that you will put on your OER. To source resources that are compatible with OER, have a look at the Find copyright-free resources for ideas, and always discuss with the Copyright Team early in your project to ensure compatibility.
 

Check out the video (2:34) below to learn how to get started making great digital content such as videos.

Developing video

Deakin have created helpful guides on creating videos:

  • Using Video for Teaching
    DTeach at Deakin has developed a great guide on using video for teaching. Originally created for developing video for use in Deakin units, the principles of video creation for OER are the same. This guide includes information and video resources on planning your video and aspects of filming such as different microphones to use.
     
  • Making a video 
    When making a video, before you start to record there is some planning to do. Originally developed for students creating videos, this guide will give you some ideas to ensure you develop a quality product. The planning and story-boarding sections are particularly helpful.

Explore the sections below to discover tips for developing video OER at different stages of recording:

Tips for pre-recording

  • Think about copyright before you start recording. If you have people in your OER, make sure you have the right permissions. When choosing your location, what is in the background? There may be artworks or copyrighted material that may be problematic for inclusion in an OER. Contact the Copyright Team for advice.
  • Find a quiet location where the background noise is minimal. Check the location suits the theme of your video. Be aware of the background, make sure it isn't distracting from your content. If recording outside, wind noise can detract from the audio quality.
  • Consider the lighting in the space. When light comes from a single, direct source, such as the sun or an overhead light, it produces “hard light”. Hard light creates distinct shadows and can be harsh and unflattering. A “soft light”, produced by less direct sources of light, creates softer shadows and tends to be more flattering to your subject.
    • Outdoors, to have a soft light, it is best to video when the sun is not at it’s strongest:
      • On a cloudy day
      • An hour before sunset
      • An hour after sunrise.
    • Indoors it is best to record:
  • Test your microphone and camera before recording
  • When planning your video, develop your script so that you explain any visual content. 

Tips for recording

  • Use the automatic white balance function
  • Video in short takes. Then you can easily redo anything that doesn’t turn out quite right
  • Always record using landscape mode
  • Don’t video with strong light behind your subject. Preferably, video in a soft light or have the light behind the camera.
  • Avoid shaky video footage - use a tripod or a firm surface to support the camera.
  • Frame the presenter using the rule of thirds
  • Have what you are saying memorised and use dot points for assistance
  • Consider the difference between formal writing vs. conversational writing
  • Generally, Keep your videos short, between 5-10 minutes

Tips for post-production

  • Remember to use Deakin University approved fonts (Calibri) with any text you add to the video and refer to the Brand Visual Style Guide typography for Deakin.
  • When editing your videos, this about using a naming convention for files as it can be easy to lose track of versions. 
  • Other brand compliment post-production design elements to consider are brand shapes, colours, video cover images and the Deakin Logo. Please see the Deakin Asset Bank for more information (log-in using your Deakin username and password).
  • If you intend to post your videos on CloudDeakin or Pressbooks, your video should be in MP4 format. MOV (Mac) are generally very large (although high quality) and need to be converted to MP4 format for web-friendly delivery.

Podcasts

Podcasts are generally suitable for use in all areas of education and are very well suited to being produced and published as OER. Podcasts open up mobile and flexible learning paths for self-directed learning in the context of lifelong learning. When learning independently with podcasts, one's own learning needs can be determined, and one's own learning goals can be set, organized and regulated. This allows learners to choose the learning location and time themselves. They can be produced relatively easily with open source software and can also be used further. For example, quotes can be cut out for remixing. A license notice can be added as spoken text depending on the medium or displayed as a text notice in the written information. In order to fully exploit the advantages of podcasts, several requirements should be met:

  • Good quality of the recording in terms of volume, background noise, speech and voice quality,
  • Good quality of the audio file in terms of easy navigation, appropriate encoding in a standard file format and
  • Good quality of provision through good findability and accessibility of the file as well as timeliness of the channel through which the podcast is made available.

For an in depth discussion of podcasts as OER have a read of the article "Education for your ears – The gold standard for publishing podcasts as OER" - Note: This is in German so translate in your browser.

Adapted from Education for your ears – The gold standard for publishing podcasts as OER by Gabi Fahrenkrog and Chris Dies for OERinfo – Information Center OER CC BY 4.0

Accessibility for multimedia

Many types of multimedia present information in a non-text manner. Students may be unable to use the original version of these formats or may prefer to interact with the resources in other formats and the providing text as a transcript, captions, or written description gives them this flexibility.

Captions

Captions are the text that is synchronised with the audio in a video presentation. Captions are important when people need to see what’s happening in the video and get the audio information in text at the same time. 

Keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include in your captions:

  • All speech content. If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the captions, e.g., “[A & B chatted while slides were loading].”
  • Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio. These are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor]”; “[background music by XXX plays].” Background noise that isn’t relevant can be left out.
  • Some platforms will auto-generate captions for videos that are uploaded. Once these are generated, be sure to check the captions for accuracy.

Transcripts

Consider what students would get out of your multimedia resource if they were not able to hear the audio portion, or if they had difficulty understanding the spoken word. A text transcript provides students with equivalent information to the audio content in a multimedia resource.[1]

As you work on developing a text transcript, keep in mind the following recommendations about what to include:

  • Speaker’s name
  • All speech content. If there is speech that is not relevant, it is usually best to indicate that it has been excluded from the transcript, e.g., “[A & B chatted while slides were loading].”
  • Relevant descriptions about the speech. Descriptions that convey emotions and mood are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “Don’t touch that! [shouted].”
  • Descriptions of relevant non-speech audio. These are usually provided in brackets, e.g., “[metal pipes crashing to concrete floor].” Background noise that isn’t relevant can be left out.
  • Headings and sub-headings. Headings help when they make a transcript more usable or easy to navigate, especially when the transcript is long. When included, put headings in brackets to show they were not part of the original audio, e.g., [Introduction]; [Group Discussion]; [Case Study].

Audio descriptions

Consider what students would get out of a multimedia resource if they were not able to see embedded visual materials critical for comprehension. Audio descriptions are helpful if visual content (e.g., a chart or map) in a video or presentation provides important context that is not available through the audio alone.[2] When describing visual elements in your multimedia resources, keep in mind the following recommendations and guidelines:

  • When contextual visual content on the screen is not described in the audio itself, you will need to provide an objective audio description of the visual element.
  • Whenever possible, avoid creating the need for audio descriptions in the first place by being proactive at the time of recording. If you pay attention to contextual visuals while recording, you may find opportunities to convey the visual content with the accompanying spoken material instead of inserting audio descriptions of the visual content after the fact.

From Accessibility Toolkit - 2nd edition by BCcampus CC BY 4.0

  1. "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2," W3C, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv (accessed April 17, 2018). ↵
  2. "Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.0: Guideline 1.2.3," W3C, accessed April 17, 2018, http://www.w3.org/TR/WCAG20/#media-equiv.
  • Last Updated: May 29, 2025 1:36 PM
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