C3E: Guidance for Pre-Recorded Presentations

Guidance for recording a presentation

Presenters may use any video conferencing software that is able to record a picture-in-picture screen-shared presentation featuring the slides and an inserts of the speaker. For example, here are the instructions for recording your presentation using Zoom:

  1. Prior to recording:
    • Ensure you are in a quiet location free of background noises.
    • Turn off any alerts on your computer and phone. (Use do-not-disturb mode)
  2. Open the Zoom desktop application and select New Meeting.
  3. Select Join with computer audio if prompted. We suggest using headphones or a headset equipped with a microphone for high quality audio.
  4. Be sure you are unmuted.
  5. Open your presentation and maximize it so that the slides are in full-screen mode.
  6. Click on the green Share Screen button on the bottom Zoom toolbar.
  7. Select the screen containing your presentation. Leave "Share computer sound" and "Optimize Screen Share for Video Clip" unchecked. Click Share.
  8. Your webcam video will automatically place itself in the top right hand corner. We ask that you please click through your presentation slides with your webcam video window in the top right corner to ensure that your webcam footage does not cover any pertinent information on your slides. If so, we ask that you please edit your slides with the top right hand video footage box in mind. 
  9. Hover your mouse over the "You are screen sharing" green bar so that the menu bar above appears. Select More.
  10. When you are ready to record your presentation, select Record from the dropdown menu. Choose "Record on this computer".
  11. When you have finished recording, hover your mouse over the "You are screen sharing" green bar so the menu appears again. Select More.
  12. From the drop down menu, select Stop recording. You may also Pause recording if you are not finished and resume when you are ready.
  13.  Your video will export once your meeting has ended. Select Stop Share to end your screen share.
  14.  Select End > End Meeting For All in the bottom right corner of your Zoom meeting.
  15. Your video will now automatically convert, and your computer may prompt you for access to the Documents folder to save your video. Click OK.
  16. Your video is now saved to your computer in the Documents folder. Be sure to review the footage of your presentation for any technical issues such as lapses in audio or lost webcam or slide footage.
  17. Submit the presentation recording as an mp4 file and the slides as a PPTX file.

We may contact you with questions or additional edits upon our review.

Zoom Tutorials

Other Software Options

If you choose not to record your presentation using Zoom, please ensure that your video uses:

  • the picture-in-picture format detailed above 
  • MP4 file format (.mp4)