Classroom Video Production & Distribution

Here are some general steps for repurposing video for classroom use:

Develop the Concept | Pre-Production | Develop the Treatment
Production | Post-Production | Distribution | Shut Down

Once you have decided that classroom video materials will be part of your educational outreach program, your first step is to develop the concept for those videos. The process is very similar to the methods you're familiar with for producing any video project. The following questions can help you develop the concept for your classroom videos:

• Where will the videos be used? For example, on the Web, in classrooms with students, for teacher professional development?
• Who is the audience? If students, be very specific about grade level.
• What is the purpose of the videos? Is it to support curriculum, motivate students, provide narrative context for deeper pedagogical content, provide teachers with content knowledge?
• How will the videos fit in with other elements of your educational outreach program, such as your Web site, print materials, or online courses?
• How will the classroom videos align with the on-air broadcast? Do you need to create a schedule that corresponds to the broadcast?
• What budget do you have available? Based on your classroom video budget, how many minutes can you afford to produce? Can you afford new shooting? Do you have enough money to cover re-clearing rights for third-party materials?

Answers to these questions will inform many aspects of your videos, including length, amount of animation, graphics, use of experts, narration, etc. They will also dictate your production timeline and the size of your production team. Note that the content will need to correlate to national content standards and, where possible, to state standards as well.

In reversioning the broadcast series Building Big, for example, the videos had to be ready six weeks prior to broadcast in order to be packaged for distribution when the broadcast programs were released. Therefore, the production timeline was compressed.