Short videos, big messages
As I was working on my post about COVID-19 testing, move-in days and orientations sharing the top insights from my July 29 “minute-poll” (3-question weekly surveys of my Wednesday email newsletter readers on timely topics for higher ed marketers and communicators), I stumbled across some examples of “return to campus” videos produced by several universities and colleges.
Higher ed institutions have chosen different ways to tackle the challenge to communicate their “back-to-campus” plans to students.
10 university videos promoting a safe return to campus
So, I thought a short selection showcasing some video genres could be useful in case you’re still looking for some ideas to inspire what you’ll do at your school.
University of Mary Washington (Virginia)
The University of Mary Washington put together a high-level production video making great use of a great tag line or motto “Monitor. Mask. Distance. Clean,” great campus shots, a word from the president and some consistent use of icons.
Arizona State University (Arizona)
Arizona State University has produced several high-production level videos as part of its Fall 2020 series including:
“Live Well, Be Well” showcasing all the options and guidelines for a safe return to campus
“Forks up, Masks up,” a short and fun video breaking down when and where students should wear a mask
Vanderbilt University (Tennessee)
Vanderbilt University has chosen to create a “Return to Campus” series of videos including the latest one featuring student leadership.
University of Colorado Denver (Colorado)
The University of Colorado Denver shared guidelines with this animated video on a light musical background.
The University of Maine (Maine)
The University of Maine features in its video the VP for Student Life and Dean of Students, students and Mascot wearing a face-covering telling and showing the new guidelines for a safe return on campus.
Keene State College (New Hampshire)
Keene State College‘s video features a message from its President presenting in a conversational style the new guidelines.
Virginia Commonwealth University (Virginia)
VCU shows what they can expect back on campus including some cool temperature checking kiosks.
Buffalo State College (New York)
Buffalo State College, featuring is Dean of Students, starts by asking students to keep up with the messages they will receive and presents all the new guidelines.
Northern Kentucky University (Kentucky)
Northern Kentucky University shares a message from its president and highlights a few new daily procedures students will need to add to their routine with the help of the NKU’s Mascot.
Texas Christian University (Texas)
TCU‘s video illustrates all the new guidelines for a safe return to campus including cleaning procedures, self-monitoring, testing, contact tracing, online classes, etc.
Captions or Auto-Captions?
Update (Aug 7): As a reader pointed out on Twitter, some of the videos above only use auto-captioning provided by YouTube – which might not result in the highest quality for captions. This type of videos including critical information really needs to be accessible to all students.
So, it’s important to take the time to caption YOUR “Return to Campus” video — even if time is very scarce right now.
If you used a written script for your video, it’s really easy and quick to do.
Just upload the script to YouTube and it will take care of the synchronization for you as explained in Mike Richwalsky’s short session below on making videos accessible (starts at 5:31, just click on the orange dot marker in the player) including some great info and tips for the top social media platforms as well.
If you’ve seen something interesting done by another school, feel free to post the highlights and a link as a comment at the bottom of this post to share it with your higher ed colleagues.
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