WeVideo · Faculty Guide
From first video to interactive course design

Teach and tell your story with video.

A build-your-skills path for faculty — start with a course welcome video this week, and work up to interactive, graded, scenario-based experiences. Each project lists what it's for, the steps to make it, and how it lands in Canvas.

You don't need to be a filmmaker. WeVideo runs in your browser, auto-saves, and gives you a million royalty-free clips to pull from. The most effective instructional videos are short, human, and clear — not polished. Start small, press record, and let your voice do the teaching.

How this guide works

Projects are grouped from simplest to most advanced. Two ideas come up over and over — worth knowing before you begin:

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Record, don't perform

Use Record for webcam, screen, or both; Narrate for voiceover. One take is fine.

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The timeline is forgiving

Drag clips onto tracks, Split to trim, and reorder freely. Nothing is permanent until you export.

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Two ways into Canvas

Embed a video on a page (no grades), or assign an interactive as an External Tool (grades sync). See the last section.

Level 1 · Get comfortable on camera

Your first faculty videos

Presence and clarity, nothing fancy. These three build the core habit: record yourself, add a title and audio, export, and drop it into Canvas. Each takes well under an hour.

01

Course Welcome Video

A warm 1–2 minute hello that sets the tone for your whole course.
15–30 min● Embed on Canvas home

Students who see and hear you early feel more connected and are likelier to stay engaged. Put this on your Canvas home page or first module.

Steps

  1. In WeVideo, click Create → Video and name the project (e.g., "PSY 101 Welcome").
  2. Jot three beats: who you are, what the course is about, and what you're excited for students to experience.
  3. From Add Media, click Record → Webcam and record your greeting. Look at the camera, not the screen. Re-record freely.
  4. Drag the clip to the video track. Use Split to trim the start and end.
  5. Add a title card with the Text tool — your name and course number.
  6. Optionally drag a soft music bed onto an audio track and lower its volume so your voice stays clear.
  7. Click Export, then generate captions (see the Accessibility section) and embed the finished video on your Canvas home page.
Reusable: Save this as a template. Next term, swap the course number and re-record 30 seconds instead of starting over.
Every courseEspecially async & online sections
02

Weekly Announcement / Module Opener

A short recurring video that opens each week or learning module.
10–20 min each● Embed in Announcements

A 60–90 second "here's what matters this week" video humanizes an online course and cuts down on confused emails. Consistency is the point, so keep the format identical each week.

Steps

  1. Build a reusable Template once: an intro title ("Week ___"), a webcam slot, and an outro card.
  2. Each week, open the template and record a fresh webcam take covering this week's focus, deadlines, and one encouragement.
  3. Update the week number in the title text. Trim with Split if needed.
  4. Export, auto-generate captions, and paste the embed into a Canvas Announcement (or the top of the module).
Embed vs. assignment: An announcement video is embedded — it will not pass grades to the gradebook, and that's correct here. Save gradebook passback for interactive assignments (projects 7 & 8).
Every courseWeekly online modules
03

Slide Presentation in WeVideo

Build a narrated slide lecture without PowerPoint — image slides on the timeline.
30–60 min● Embed as a lecture

Instead of recording your screen while clicking through slides, you can assemble the slides directly in WeVideo. You control exactly how long each stays up and layer narration over the whole thing.

Steps

  1. Design your slides as images (export slides from any tool as PNG/JPG, or use full-frame stock backgrounds with Text on top).
  2. Start Create → Video and import the slide images to your Project Bin.
  3. Drag slides onto the video track in order.
  4. From Add Media, select Narrate and talk through the deck. Your voice records onto the audio track as one pass.
  5. Drag each slide's right edge to stretch or shorten it so it stays on screen exactly as long as you speak about it.
  6. Add Text callouts or a Transitions between slides for polish.
  7. Export, caption, and embed as your lecture.
Why this beats a screen recording: cleaner image quality, easy re-ordering, and you can re-record narration for one slide without redoing the whole lecture.
MathematicsNatural SciencesBusinessBiblical StudiesPhilosophy
Level 2 · Bring your subject to life

Richer instructional storytelling

Now use WeVideo's real strengths — pacing images to your voice, filming from your professional world, and placing yourself into any setting with green screen.

04

Narrate Over an Image or Infographic

Walk students through a diagram, chart, artwork, or infographic in your own voice.
20–40 min● Embed or make interactive

Perfect for anatomy diagrams, a Scripture passage layout, a business model canvas, a data visualization, or a painting. The trick is that a single image can fill as much timeline as you need.

Steps

  1. Import your image (or infographic) into the Project Bin and drag it onto the video track.
  2. Extend its length: drag the right edge of the clip until it covers the full time you want to talk — 2, 5, even 10 minutes.
  3. From Add Media, click Narrate and record your explanation while the image holds on screen.
  4. Zoom into details as you speak: split the clip and use Edit → Transform to scale into the part you're describing, or use Edit → Animation (Ken Burns) to pan across it.
  5. Add Text labels or arrows to highlight regions as you reach them.
  6. Export and caption. To check comprehension, turn it into an interactive (project 7).
Nursing (anatomy)Natural SciencesKinesiologyBiblical StudiesBusinessMathematics
05

Professional Vlog — Bring Students Into Your Vocation

Before/after captures from your professional context, in the moment.
Film in the field · edit 30 min● Embed as reflection

Students remember what they can picture themselves doing. Capture a quick reflection from the real setting you practice in — a nurse between shifts, a counselor after a session (no client details), a businessperson right after a pitch, a pre-interview pep talk. This is where theory meets the vocation.

Steps

  1. Use the WeVideo mobile app to record a short clip on your phone before an event ("Here's what I'm about to do and what I'm watching for…").
  2. Record a matching clip after ("Here's what actually happened and what I'd tell a student…").
  3. Both clips land in Uploads. Right-click (control-click) each to add it to your Project Bin.
  4. Drag both onto the timeline in before → after order. Trim with Split.
  5. Add a title card naming the moment and an Insert & Push to close any gap between clips.
  6. Keep it human and unpolished — that authenticity is the value. Export and caption.
Ethics first: Never capture identifiable patients, clients, students, or proprietary settings without consent. Frame yourself, general environments, or de-identified reflection only.
NursingMarriage & Family CounselingSocial WorkBusinessKinesiologySeminary
06

Green Screen — Teach From Anywhere

Place yourself inside history, architecture, anatomy, or an impossible scene.
45–75 min● Embed as a lesson

Narrate in front of a great cathedral, stand beside a magnified cell, walk through a historical era — or, yes, appear to walk on water. WeVideo even ships with ready-made green screen clips if you don't have a green backdrop.

Steps

  1. Record yourself in front of a solid green background, or search the stock library for "green screen" to use built-in clips.
  2. Put your background image or footage on a lower video track; drag your green-screen clip to the track above it.
  3. Double-click the green-screen clip, choose Edit → Keying, and select the green to remove it.
  4. Refine with Defringe and Show mask so no green edges remain.
  5. Scale and position yourself over the scene with Edit → Transform.
  6. Change backgrounds as your narration moves through eras, structures, or systems.
  7. Export and caption.
Biblical Studies (walk through history)Nursing (anatomy)Natural SciencesPhilosophyEnglish
Level 3 · Interactive & graded

Turn watching into assessed learning

These use WeVideo Interactivity. Layer questions onto any video, assign it in Canvas as an External Tool, and let grades flow into your gradebook automatically.

07

Interactive TED / YouTube / Vimeo Video

Overlay questions on an existing video and grade it in Canvas.
30–60 min● Assignment · grades sync

Assigning a TED Talk and hoping students watch is passive. Embed knowledge checks into the timeline and you get per-student, per-question data — and a real grade — for content you didn't have to film.

Steps

  1. Go to Interactivity (from the Multimedia dropdown, or Interactive Videos in the sidebar) and click Create New Interactive Video.
  2. Choose your video source and paste the YouTube, Vimeo, or other link — or select one of your own WeVideo exports.
  3. Scrub to key moments and add interactions: multiple choice, free response, fill-in-the-blank, polls, or a discussion prompt (nine question types are available).
  4. Set questions to auto-grade, and mark any you'll grade manually.
  5. Add captions on the Accessibility / Captions tab (see last section) before assigning.
  6. In Canvas, create an Assignment, set submission type to External Tool, choose the WeVideo Interactivity tool, and Link your video. Set the assignment points above 0.
  7. After students complete it, open the Monitor page, grade any manual responses, and click Sync Grades to push scores to the Canvas gradebook.
This only grades if assigned correctly. If you embed the interactive on a Canvas page instead of creating an External Tool assignment, grades will not pass back. See the final section for the full distinction.
Every disciplineFlipped lecturesPre-class prepGuest talks
08

Scenario-Based Learning with Branching

A "choose your journey" experience where each decision leads somewhere new.
2–4 hrs (plan first)● Assignment · grades sync

The most advanced use of WeVideo. Like a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure: students watch a segment, make a decision, and branch to the consequence of that choice. Ideal for safe practice of high-stakes judgment — patient care, a counseling conversation, a business negotiation, an ethical dilemma.

Plan before you build

  1. Write your learning outcome. Each decision point should move toward it.
  2. Map the paths on paper first (a choice map or flowchart). For each choice, note where it jumps and what feedback the learner sees. Number your scenes so you can wire jumps by timestamp.
  3. Script or gather a video segment for each scene, including "wrong path" branches that lead to a consequence or a chance to try again.

Build in Interactivity

  1. Create a new interactive video and add your segments with Video Segments → Add Video.
  2. At each decision point, add a Pause interaction with buttons, or a question set to jump on correct vs. incorrect answers (use Advanced Settings → Jump and enter target timestamps).
  3. Use Auto Jumps at the end of a branch to route learners past sections they shouldn't see.
  4. Under Review → Playback Options, allow learners to fast-forward/skip so jumps work, and tell students not to drag the progress bar manually.
  5. Preview in Learner mode to walk every path.
  6. Caption it, then assign in Canvas as an External Tool assignment and Sync Grades after completion.
Nursing (patient care sims)Counseling & Social WorkBusiness (negotiation)Seminary (pastoral care)Psychology
★ Before you publish — required reading

Accessibility, UDL & getting Canvas right

Every video you put in front of students should be usable by all of them, and connected to Canvas in the way you intend. Two things trip faculty up most: captions and the embed-vs-assignment distinction. Please don't skip this.

1. Design for every learner (UDL)

  • Give students more than one way in. Universal Design for Learning means the same content reaches people through multiple means — so pair video with a caption track, and where useful a transcript or the key points in text. When a student can't play audio, is in a quiet space, or processes text better, captions keep the learning uninterrupted.
  • Keep segments short and chunked. Several 3–6 minute videos beat one 40-minute lecture. It lowers cognitive load and lets students revisit one idea without scrubbing.
  • Speak clearly and describe what's on screen. Say the numbers you point to and name the image you're showing, so audio-only listeners aren't lost.
  • Don't rely on color or motion alone to carry meaning. Label it in words too.

2. Always add captions

  • Captions are required for accessibility and expected under Section 508 / WCAG 2.1 AA — the standards WeVideo builds toward. They also help every student in noisy or quiet settings and improve retention.
  1. When you Export a video, toggle on Auto-generate captions (or generate them afterward from the Exports page → Captions → Auto-generate).
  2. Review and correct them in the built-in editor. Auto-captions run roughly 85–88% accurate, so proofread names, terms, and numbers — auto-generated captions alone don't meet the bar until corrected.
  3. Need another language? Use Translation → Add Translation.
  4. For an interactive video, add captions on the Accessibility / Captions tab (WeVideo supports VTT and SRT). Caption the source video first if it's your own export.
  5. Download as a separate VTT/SRT file or burn captions into the video, depending on where it's going.

3. Embedding vs. assigning in Canvas — know the difference

No gradebook passback

Embed on a Canvas page

Pasting a video's embed code onto a page, in an Announcement, or in a module displays it for viewing only. Great for welcome videos, weekly updates, lectures, and narrated images. No grades sync, and students may need to log in to WeVideo separately for interactive content added this way.

Grades sync automatically

Create an assignment (External Tool)

To grade an interactive video, create a Canvas Assignment, set submission type to External Tool, and select the WeVideo Interactivity tool via LTI. Students launch it inside Canvas with single sign-on, and scores return to the gradebook after you Sync Grades from the Monitor page.

  • Rule of thumb: if it needs a grade, it must be an External Tool assignment — not an embed. Assignment points must be greater than 0 for scores to sync.
  • The LTI integration is a one-time setup by your Canvas administrator. If you don't see the WeVideo Interactivity tool in the External Tool list, contact your LMS admin.
  • Good embedding habits: add a text intro above the video, confirm captions are on, test the link/embed in Student View, and set due dates inside Canvas.