This fall, many instructors are teaching an entire class online for the first time. They must re-imagine their teaching process and much of it may involve the use of video: perhaps via a live lecture capture, a pre-recorded web lecture, or a screencast.
If you are using video in your course this fall, are you getting the most out of using video in your teaching? In our current situation, how much video is too much? And, are you using your videos effectively?
These are not easy questions to answer, and for a learning technology that is resource intensive, you want to see an impact. You want to know that it is helping your students learn.
Information on how to create, edit, publish and use video is currently available to assist you in your online teaching. It’s also equally important to think about whether what you have planned aligns with your learning goals and whether you have made good pedagogical choices where you have incorporated video. How and where you incorporate video in your Canvas course can reduce barriers and support a student’s learning process.
Designing your videos
Some courses this fall are asynchronous courses and others are synchronous. This can affect the approach that you take in designing your videos. Faculty teaching synchronously can use Zoom and record a live lecture session. If you record to the cloud, these recordings are automatically uploaded into your My Media and can be published for students in the Media Gallery in your Canvas course. This allows students who are absent or not able to attend the live session the ability to view it. Students later may revisit the lecture to study. If you are teaching in an asynchronous format, you may want to pre-record a video lecture and upload it into your My Media in Canvas. Consider chunking your pre-recorded lectures into shorter videos. You can then embed it in a Canvas page where you can provide context to the video and perhaps integrate other content such as text, images, readings, assignments or other learning activities with it.
Instructional Designer Tip
Review your lecture presentation and decide which pieces work best as text, which require a visual for understanding, and which may be most effective as a short video. Content that may be more effective as video include topics that require further explanation, including examples and analogies.
Here is an example of a Canvas Page that embeds a video used in ACCT604 by Professor Jinwei Cao. You can see that along with the video additional content in the form of text and images has been included.
Beyond lectures
Video can go beyond your lectures. You should consider creating a pre-recorded video for a course introduction, or an instructor welcome message. Consider creating a short screen-cast to demonstrate step by step sample problems, a short how-to video, tutorial or concept review. Screencasting usually refers to video that contains a recording of what is on a screen along with audio. Although it may contain the presenter, it is suited to demonstrating a series of steps or explaining a particular process. Pre-recorded videos are made without a live audience, at home, in your office or in one of the studios on campus, and may or may not show an instructor presence. An opportunity exists to make them more interactive and engaging by embedding a video quiz. Remember you can find out how students are engaging with videos, by reviewing the video analytics.
Canvas is also well suited to creating short videos on the fly. In Speedgrader you can easily provide video feedback on an assignment. Students and faculty can use video in Discussions. Perhaps create a video Announcement or pre-recorded weekly topic introductions to prime your students with context for the material ahead.
Using outside video sources
Don’t forget you can consider teaching “with” videos that are not created by you, but are available through various sources such as TED Talks, the University of Delaware Library’s streaming media collections and publishers. These might include case studies, lab simulations, or prerequisite material. Many faculty have found YouTube videos they want to incorporate in their teaching. When teaching online, Canvas can facilitate embedding these videos through the rich content editor or linking to them where appropriate. As an instructor, you need to provide that context and guidance for the student to understand why the video matters so that they can get the most out from it.
Best Practices
In Best Practices: Make good use of your own videos, other effective uses are shared along with some important tips that shouldn’t be overlooked. One important one is length! Try and keep your videos to no more than 5 or 6 minutes long. That is not always possible, consider a live lecture or guest lecturer that you may have recorded. And although time does not always permit, it is possible to edit long videos down to more manageable chunks depending on its use or even re-use. With videos you select or make, it is important to keep their length in mind.
Use of video in your teaching, no matter how stimulating, does not automatically lead to learning. Students expect more than one hour lecture videos. Good pedagogy combined with learning activities where students engage with the video and other instructional materials in a well planned and designed course, will have the greatest impact in achieving your learning outcomes.
Questions?
If you have questions about how to include the use of video in your Canvas course, we have several staff (instructional designers, educational technologists) that can help you. The Faculty Commons virtual welcome bar is open Mon-Fri, 8:30-4:30. Join using Zoom on your computer: https://udel.zoom.us/j/3028310640
You can also reach the LMS team directly with your Canvas questions by emailing: canvas-info@udel.edu.
