Lecturing on a topic demands significant planning.

“Lectures are not simply conversations, they are carefully crafted lessons” (Harrington & Zakrajsek, 2017, p. 141).

For recorded lectures, the planning process should ideally begin with the creation of a script. Unfortunately, few resources exist that provide faculty with guidance on creating scripts.

This resource fills this need by introducing a tool to help MDCOB faculty plan and create scripts that lay the foundation for effective lecture videos that students pay attention to and cognitively engage with.

Let's introduce the tool ... let's call it:

A tool that breaks down the process for creating lecture scripts

The image below is a picture of the tool. Its downloadable version is provided at the bottom of this page.

Not all recorded lectures are created equal. They can be done poorly; they can also be done very effectively. The tool presented in this video is a step towards creating effective lecture videos. It does not represent a one-size-fits-all approach. Rather, it provides a starting point for those who wish it.

What are the benefits of using this tool as a planning guide for creating your lecture scripts?

1. The tool walks you through research-based strategies to enhance your lectures, such as: capturing attention and activating prior knowledge in the introduction; modeling, demonstrating, or highlighting important points, identifying bottlenecks in the body; and asking thought-provoking questions in closing.
2. In addition to highlighting effective teaching strategies to draw on in the lecture, the tool focuses your attention on the visual effects that will bring life to the lecture content. Remember, vision is the most powerful of all the human senses and so visual effects are very effective learning tools! Thinking about visual effects is especially important if you are getting help from the Office of Instructional Excellence staff to give your students a multisensory experience with your lectures.

A few points to keep in mind:

• A script of 130-150 words takes about 1 minute to read on a teleprompter. And a script of 500 words takes about 3.5 minutes.
• A well written script will allow you to deliver content in a coherent manner without digressions or jumps from one idea to another and without distracting verbal utterances such as "err" "um" etc.
• In the absence of closed captioning, providing scripts for lecture videos will help you maintain ADA compliance.
• Once you have your scripts, it is very easy to write test questions or discussion prompts from them - activities that you can use to hold students accountable for watching your recorded lectures.

Acknowledgement: C. Harrington and T. Zakrajseks' book, "Dynamic lecturing : research-based strategies to enhance lecture effectiveness," provided a helpful starting point for the creation of this resource.