Case Study: Creating Engaging Videos

Abstract

James Hartwell kindly provided us some tips and advice for producing assessment support videos for his level 7 students.  These videos received specific positive feedback from students, and the tips also apply to producing pre-recorded lectures. 

James had originally set out to recreate the face to face learning environment by providing scheduled live lectures for his students.  However, these were poorly attended due to the varied personal commitments of his students during lockdown.  In response to this James quickly ‘flipped’ his approach and recorded lectures in Panopto, giving students constant access to material which they could engage with around their personal commitments.  This also helped James to work around his own family commitments as he was able to record material in the evenings when his house was quieter.  

Initially frustrated with the amount ‘ums’ and ‘erms’ that were evident upon playback, and the lengthy process of editing, James decided to be open and honest with students, inform them that his recordings would be unedited, and take a natural, conversational tone as if he were in the room with the students.  Recordings were broken down into 15 minute sections with each section clearly named so that students could easily navigate and re-watch.  Monitoring engagement statistics in Panopto allowed James to pick up on and e-mail students who had not engaged.   

For assessment support James also recorded instructional data manipulation Excel workshops, providing examples that students could apply to their own data, again, split into 15 minute sections.  The specific Excel skills needed for the real-world problems taught in this particular module are not available online and so James recreated the assistance that he would have given during face to face teaching.     

Canvas discussion boards were clearly signposted and used to answer all assessment related e-mail questions from students.  This likely reduced the volume of duplicate e-mail questions and emulated, as best as possible, the shared experience of classroom based Q & A sessions.  

James also gave careful thought to finding the balance between using external content and designing his own.  Scaffolding appropriate external content into his own lectures was a useful a way of promoting discussion around a topic, and bringing real-world examples into his teaching, which were otherwise limited during lockdown.  

Top tips: 

Keep a natural, conversational tone when recording videos, and be honest with students about your approach to recording material.