Recent trends in higher education, including online learning and the flipped classroom, have led to a large increase in the creation and use of video lectures in college teaching. Although the literature suggests that video lectures can be an essential pedagogical tool in 21st-century teaching, research is still emerging regarding best practices to maximize their effectiveness for student learning. The authors provide a broad overview of the research that is currently available and practical applications for these findings. They discuss common recording methods, as well as appropriate contexts for each, then synthesize the research to identify five strategies that increase the effectiveness of video lectures.