Video Magic: Transforming Videos Into Lessons

In today’s digital classroom, every recorded lesson can become a goldmine of learning resources. This practical guide shows you how to transform your classroom videos into powerful teaching tools that engage students across multiple platforms and learning styles. Whether you’re teaching kindergarten or college, these simple steps will help you create accessible, reusable content that maximizes your teaching impact. Here are five steps to help you transform videos into lessons!

Challenge: Create Reusable Content

“Could you help me? I need to be able to access the audio of this 40-minute livestream in an easy to process format.” These are the kinds of challenges that are absolutely delightful to work through. In this guide, I’ll walk you through my steps for processing video into a variety of formats. I will show off a variety of traditional tools and AI tools.

The video is a presentation by a TCEA member, Stephanie Galvan Russell. Special thanks to Stephanie.

Step 1: Extract Audio from Your Classroom Video

The first step is to isolate the audio from your locally saved video file. We’ll use VLC Media Player, a free and versatile tool, to accomplish this.

1. Launch VLC Media Player on your computer
2. Click on “Media” in the top menu, then select “Convert/Save”
3. Click “Add” and navigate to your saved classroom video file (see image above)
4. Click “Convert/Save” at the bottom of the window
5. In the new window, click the “Profile” dropdown and select “Audio – MP3”

6. Choose a destination folder on your computer and click “Start”

VLC will process your educational video and save an MP3 file containing just the audio.

Step 2: Transcribe the Lesson Audio

Now that we have our audio file, let’s convert it to text using ReStream.io’s Transcribe Audio to Text service.

This transcript will be invaluable for creating additional resources and accommodating different learning styles.

1. Go to ReStream.io’s Text Transcribe tool in your web browser
2. Upload the MP3 file you just created
3. Start the transcription process
4. Once complete, download the text transcript

Step 3: Generate Educational Content

With our lesson transcript ready, it’s time to leverage AI to create various educational materials. You can use any AI chatbot for this. In this example, I use Mistral.ai but you can use free versions of ChatGPT, Perplexity, or Claude. Any capable AI chatbot will work.

1. Open your preferred AI chatbot
2. Paste your lesson transcript into the chat
3. Ask the AI to generate:

• A concise lesson summary for students
• Discussion questions for class or online forums
• A slide deck outline for a review presentation
• Potential quiz questions based on the content

Here’s an example prompt:

“Based on this lesson transcript, please create a concise summary for students, five discussion questions, a 5-7 point outline for a review presentation, and three potential quiz questions with answers.”

Step 4: Create a Review Presentation with Gamma

The final step is to transform our AI-generated outline into a visually appealing review presentation using Gamma or Napkin AI.

1. Navigate to Gamma.app and sign in or create an account
2. Click on “Create new” and select “Generate”
3. Choose “Presentation” from the options
4. Paste your AI-generated lesson outline into the prompt field
5. Select your desired number of slides and language
6. Click “Generate outline” to let Gamma create an initial structure
7. Review the generated outline and adjust it to fit your teaching style
8. Choose a theme that complements your lesson content
9. Click “Generate” to create your slides
10. Review and edit the generated slides as needed
11. Use Gamma’s built-in tools to enhance your presentation with relevant images, charts, or additional text that supports your lesson objectives

View results: Version 1 (using Mistral.ai slide outline) | Version 2 (using ChatGPT slide outline)

Step 5: Create a Napkin AI Diagram

If you aren’t familiar with Napkin AI, you can use it to create wonderful diagrams. Here are a few that capture the essence of the presentation. Simply share content in the Napkin AI window after getting an account (free) and try it out.

There are many more options available via Napkin AI.

Educational Applications

This process allows you to efficiently repurpose your classroom videos into lessons in multiple formats. From a single locally saved video, you’ve now created:

• A text transcript for students who prefer reading or need accessibility accommodations
• A concise lesson summary for quick review or absent students
• Discussion questions to promote critical thinking and engagement
• A professional review presentation for reinforcing key concepts
• Potential quiz questions for assessment
• Diagrams explaining key ideas

These resources can be used in various ways:

• Share the transcript and summary via your learning management system
• Use the discussion questions for in-class activities or online forums
• Present the review slides in a follow-up lesson or make them available for student self-study
• Incorporate the quiz questions into formative or summative assessments

See all of it in this Google Doc.

Final Thoughts

By leveraging AI tools like Perplexity, Mistral.ai, ChatGPT, Napkin AI, and Gamma to turn videos into lessons, you can significantly reduce the time and effort required to create high-quality, multi-format educational resources. This workflow empowers you to maximize the value of every video lesson you create, providing students with diverse learning materials that cater to different learning styles and needs.

Remember to review and personalize the AI-generated content to ensure it aligns with your teaching objectives and classroom context. With practice, this process can become a powerful part of your instructional strategy, helping you create comprehensive, engaging, and accessible learning experiences for your students across the K-16 education spectrum.