Best Quick Video Apps for Online Instructors

Recording videos of yourself to post to your online courses or resources is a wonderful way to establish teaching presence, that you are a real person that wants to help. My goal this semester is to post a video at least every other week to check in with students, provide updates, and address any questions.

I used to regularly record a weekly video for each of my classes, but it was mostly a screen recording describing what we were doing in class each week and some students found it redundant and not a good use of their time. This time around, I’m trying something different, a strategy inspired by the instructors in my own EdD program. Instead of a video kicking off each week, I’m planning to record a midweek video where I check in quickly and establish that I’m there, I’m active in class, and I’m available to my students. I’ll also address anything that’s come up during the week and provide additional resources as needed.

There are so many apps out there to make video recordings. I’ve bounced between all of them, unsure of which is the best and quickest. My favorite all-time video recording and editing software is Camtasia, but it’s not quick. You have to publish your video, which means downloading and then uploading somewhere, or you can publish directly to YouTube, but then students complain about ads. And YouTube’s voice recognition for captions doesn’t include punctuation or understand my voice very well.

It occurred to me that I should approach this problem a little more analytically. So here, I’m going to do a compare/contrast of all the video software/platforms/apps that I’ve used. I’ll evaluate for how quick it is to record and post and ease of adding accessibility features. Note that I did not test any of these on a mobile device, I used a laptop or desktop computer. Any more platforms to suggest? Send me a message!

Jump to Comparison Chart!

YouTube

I use YouTube for webinars or anything I want to make publicly available and will leave up forever. This is the only platform where you can monetize, too. However, it doesn’t offer recording or editing features, and the ads are ridiculous.

This is just a platform for hosting videos, you have to use additional software to record! I use this regularly with Camtasia for videos I plan to use for a long time and want to make publicly available.

Pros

• Free
• Unlimited video length, unlimited videos
• Ease of sharing: May be directly linked, offers iframe code for embedding
• Organization: Can add to playlists, add tags
• Accessibility: captions are automatically added, creates transcript too
• Viewing: Can adjust speed, toggle captions, view full screen
• Can upload directly from Camtasia
• Custom thumbnail
• Very stable platform, does not require sign-in, great for long webinars
• Allows comments
• Tracks views and engagement, down to length of video watched

Cons

• ADS! ADS! ADS! Even in iframes
• Need additional software to record
• Slow – Have to upload videos and wait for them to process
• Organization: No ability to add folders
• Accessibility – captions don’t have punctuation, transcript is hard to find
• Sometimes Camtasia freaks out and won’t upload directly
• No trimming or splitting

Loom (Winner!)

My favorite for really quick, short videos. I use this regularly for course video announcements or to record how to do something really quickly for a student. I can just send it to them via email. You can always download the videos you create if you want to use them someplace else.

This is a quick all-in-one recording software. Educators can sign up for a free Loom for Education account! This unlocks all of the Business account features, and removes limits on length and number of videos.

Pros

• Educator account offers unlimited length, unlimited videos
• Quick – two clicks to record once you are on the Loom website
• Accessibility: captions are automatically added and include punctuation, creates transcript too
• Video link automatically copies to clipboard after recording!
• Offers iframe code for embedding
• Tracks views
• Allows comments
• Organization: Can create folders, can add tags
• Viewing: Can adjust speed, toggle captions, view full screen
• Custom thumbnail
• Trim and split videos

Cons

• Free version limited to 5-minute long videos and max of 25 videos
• Have to load up Loom website to record

Canvas Studio

This is a recording app built into Canva LMS! But videos may also be made available outside of Canvas LMS. I would use this one for videos that will be reused in a course, or to include in a master course that others will use.

Pros

• Free – It lives where I teach – in Canvas Studio!
• Organization: Can create folders
• Ease of sharing: May be directly linked, offers iframe code for embedding
• Accessibility: has ability to add captions, they include punctuation
• Tracks views and engagement down to student level, including how much of the video they watched
• Allows comments
• Viewing: Can adjust speed, toggle captions, view full screen
• Custom thumbnail
• Trim videos

Cons

• Have to load up Studio to record
• Accessibility: Have to “request” captions for each video, then return to the video approve. No transcript!
• Ease of sharing: A little tricky to add videos into course content, hard to find link/iframe to share
• Organization: Cannot add tags
• Not intuitive!
• Sometimes the recording button doesn’t work – it wants you to re-download the extension
• If you are recording as an instructor in student view, you will lose your recording!
• Tied to your work – if you change jobs or your workplace changes the LMS, you will lose videos

Zoom

Yes, this is a video conferencing software. But if you open up a meeting for just you, you can use it to record videos! Full version is free if your work pays for it. If not noted, features referenced below are only available on full version.

Pros

• Record locally or to the cloud
• Ease of sharing: Cloud recordings may be directly linked, offers iframe code for embedding
• Accessibility: ability to add captions and transcript
• Tracks views and engagement down to student level, including how much of the video they watched
• Allows comments
• Viewing: Can adjust speed, toggle captions, view full screen

Cons

• Free version is limited, but can still be used for short recordings
• Free version doesn’t record to Cloud, may not have captions
• Accessibility: captions may only be enabled while you are recording, otherwise no captions/no transcript!
• Can be hard to find the Cloud recording if you lose the email
• Cloud auto-deletes in 14 days if you don’t change it by each video
• If you record locally, you have to share via a Cloud service or upload somewhere else
• Tied to your work – if you change jobs or your workplace stops providing Zoom, you will lose Cloud videos

Comparison Chart