Dr. Becky Cottrell
Why would you want to use video in your classes?
As we are teaching online, faculty have been asking a lot of questions about using videos in their classes. There are a lot of reasons you might add videos in your course. Adding videos to your online class can help you:
- Increase instructor presence. Students are taking the course because they want to connect with YOU, their instructor. If they see your face and hear your voice each week, they will feel a connection with you, and know that you are present in the class. You can do this through longer lecture videos, or through short announcement or intro videos.
- Synthesize information. Just as you provide a summary of main points in a classroom lecture, online students enjoy hearing your thoughts about the most important ideas in the course, and it can help them synthesize the things they are learning.
- Meet different learning needs. Online classes can tend towards using a lot of text. Videos help to break up that text, and allow students with different learning styles the chance to engage in the course in a way that meets their needs.
Tips for creating effective videos
- Keep it short– typically 6 minutes or less is an ideal time. Multiple short videos are typically better than one long one. This makes it easy for students to stay engaged, and to locate information again later.
- Be intentional– create an outline for yourself of what you want to say so you don’t ramble. You don’t need to read from a script, but also don’t want to go on a 4 minute tangent in a 6 minute video.
- Provide context– what is the educational purpose of the video? Providing some context on the page where you embed your video helps students know Why they are watching, and helps to motivate them to engage. This can be a simple statement that says “This video is a review of the main points from the readings for week 4. It will help you to highlight the salient points, and prepare to complete your discussion/assignment/activity this week.”
- Use active learning– just as you wouldn’t lecture without stopping for questions in class, you can help students engage in active learning activities in your videos. Ask questions, and pause to give students a chance to think. Post a lecture video in a graded or ungraded discussion to encourage them to ask questions and engage with the content.
If you’d like a little more information about videos, I found these two articles to be quite helpful!