Mid-South Instructional Technology Conference
Teaching, Learning, & Technology
The Connected Classroom
April 7-9, 2002
Making Video Manageable: Model Projects and Best Practices
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By: Randy Riddle |
Abstract
This presentation will explore four broad areas of instructional use of video that can aid in planning to make faculty video projects easier to support and more effective in the classroom. Video projects by Duke University faculty will be examined including the teaching and learning goals, infrastructure requirements, and instructional results. These groups of projects can serve as models for devising strategies for implementing video projects in a more systematic way at your own institution.
Description
Many faculty and support staff are intimidated by the use of video in the classroom. Faculty struggle to refine the pedagogical basis for using video with their students and the technical requirements for digitization, editing, and delivery seem overwhelming. Each project seems to have unique requirements, discouraging broad application of video. This presentation will examine four broad areas of instructional use of video, which serve as models for many faculty projects. Each area has similar teaching and learning goals and related technical needs, making faculty use of video in the classroom more feasible and sustainable. The presentation will include examples of video projects by Duke faculty and a discussion of the faculty's teaching and learning goals. The infrastructure to support the examples will be examined, along with results of the project. Participants will be given documents that they may use to map out their own video projects.
Original Research Material
Faculty creating original research materials on video have successfully brought their students into the research process, offering new perspectives for discussion and analysis only available in original works created by the instructor. Video projects involving gathering of materials by faculty as part of their research can require instruction on shooting techniques, strategies for "logging" and organizing materials, and editing techniques.
Online Lectures
Many faculty wish to make lectures available online for reference by current and future students. These long-form videos typically go unused due to student time constraints and the static nature of the videotaped lecture. However, there are strategies for producing "short" versions of lectures for later use that make this idea more compelling. "Short" lectures may be used for reference by students after the class or as documentation of a guest speaker, providing an online resource for other classes. The logistics of recording lectures with adequate quality, online delivery mechanisms, and editing arrangements were just a few of the support issues explored with these projects.
Digitized Pre-Existing Materials
The use of pre-existing professionally produced films and videos in digital form is becoming more common in the classroom. Since students can examine material beforehand, more time is available for discussion of the excerpts and, in many cases, students are able to explore concepts with more depth and understanding by manipulating short segments of video online. The main support issues with using pre-existing materials include copyright clearances, development of efficient methods for encoding large amounts of material, and robust server storage and delivery.
Student Created Works
A few faculty have also added one or more video assignments to classes on a limited basis. For these projects, students have to learn new skills such as shooting and editing techniques to produce a good presentation. When successful, these projects allow students to present information in ways that go beyond the traditional research paper, compelling the students to use visual language, or to actually document their progress through the semester as they learn about a particular subject.