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4min Read time
last updated August 2024

Create Educational Videos (or have them created for you)

Moving images, if put together well, can often be timeless. Die Sendung mit der Maus (The Show with the Mouse) or Löwenzahn (Dandelion) have shown that videos also work very well when teaching skills. In this guide you will find out which possibilities you have for your own educational/instructional videos and why you—in part—already have the necessary technical equipment.

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Published on 18. May 2022
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In a nutshell: Why Should I Create My Own Educational Videos?

There are many good reasons for using educational videos; for example, to display very large or microscopically small objects, to illustrate fast or slow motion sequences, to simulate mock-ups in real images, and to show digital animation. Any lasting, justifiable content that can be communicated using video and developed in self-study is suitable for video production. This offers further scope in lectures for exchanging ideas and discussion.

Data Protection & Accessibility


Data protection will depend, among other things, on which tool you use to create your educational video or screencast, e.g., PowerPoint, Camtasia (license TH Köln) or OBS Studio. The ZLE Accessibility Team can show you how to make your educational accessible.

What Formats Are There?

Record your presentation slides directly on the screen while you speak freely about them; or describe how a specific piece of software works—simply by using a screencast recording.

Recording in front of a green screen is technically somewhat more demanding than a screencast. With this method, you are separated from the background in post-production and placed onto your presentation slides or other media for your talk.

Lab experiments are quite suitable for recording. For this purpose, spoken explanations are recorded, edited, and synchronised with the video. Students can then watch the content wherever and whenever they want to, and/or repeat seminars they have previously attended.

Your educational videos become more entertaining with animation and interactive elements such as multiple-choice questions, drag-and-drop tasks, cloze texts, or quizzes. The learning effect is significantly higher with student involvement and active participation.

Technical Equipment

Who will help me?

Do you have questions about the technology? You would like to borrow technical equipment? Then contact the media office (medienbuero@th-koeln.de) of the ZLE!

More info

Producing high-quality videos is much easier today than it was a few years ago, at least from a technical point of view. Almost every teacher has a webcam or smartphone with a good camera, and many basic tripods and intuitive microphone solutions can be found on the market today. TH Köln also has licenses for various post-production programs (German), such as the Adobe Creative Cloud or Camtasia.

In addition, the media office at ZLE can advise you on video production and lends equipment (German) to lecturers and academic staff. Here you can design and produce your educational videos together with our didactic experts and media designers.

Tips on How to Produce Your Educational Video

  • Prepare a kind of script with the specific content you want to convey. You can also use this later as a reference during post-production.
  • Produce several short videos of up to eight minutes instead of a full-length film. This way, students are given shorter, thematically focused appetizers that they can consume on their own.
  • Get a tripod for your camera. A stable image is a basic requirement for any usable material.
  • Place the camera at eye level and make sure the shot is evenly lit.
  • Make sure the location is quiet and free of background noise. Clear sound is more important than an absolutely perfect picture.

Any questions?

Feel free to contact us by mail to lehrpfade@th-koeln.de!

Good Practices from the TH Cologne

Links & Literature

Header image: © Medienbüro/ZLE

  • Lukas Tappmeyer hat kurze dunkle Haare und helle Haut und trägt ein dunkles Hemd.

    Lukas Tappmeyer is a research assistant at the Center for Academic Development at TH Köln. His work focuses on media production with teachers and communication from the ZLE, for example on the topic of open educational resources (OER).

We appreciate your feedback!

When developing this offer, we tried to include you as a teacher in advance. We would therefore be delighted if you would help us to further improve our offer. Please let us know what you would like, what bothers you or what you particularly like. Would you like to contact us directly? Then write to us at lehrpfade@th-koeln.de!