Video

Video is a powerful tool in education and creating it has never been easier. You can use videos in your teaching to present a topic or show students how to do something. This could be a filmed experiment, an explanation of how to pronounce something, a screencast showing how to do something with a specific tool, etc.

Students can watch videos:

  • Before a live online session or face to face session, so they are familiar with the material and can focus on discussion or collaborative activities.
  • After a session, as a follow up to the discussion or to clarify questions they may have had.
  • As part of a sequence of asynchronous learning activities.

Certain tools allow you to add interactivity to your videos. For example, both Replay and Camtasia allow you to split a video into chapters, or provide quiz questions at specific points. This makes learning from videos a more active experience for students, and short, well-placed quizzes can help them reflect on and better understand what they just watched.

Clarification post lecture

If several students ask similar questions after a lecture, activity or exam, rather than providing clarification to students individually, you can record a video covering the concept, worked examples or the answers to exam questions in more detail. This allows all students to work through it at their own pace and revisit it as many times as they would like, including the ones that didn't ask.

Feedback

A perennial theme of student survey responses is prompt and valuable feedback. You can produce video feedback for individual students or overarching group feedback - this has the advantage of reaching all students but feels personal.

Students as authors

Students can create their own videos, individually or collaboratively, to learn more about a topic in a much more active and creative way. Engaging students as creators of content rather than just receivers has great benefits for them, including allowing them to identify and work with technology, in addition to learning about a topic. Student support include guidance for student created videos that you can share with your students.