“There’s just not enough time in class with students!” It’s a common faculty complaint and when students are provided quality course materials they can use outside of class, this blended learning approach gives faculty more time in class. There’s a variety of materials that can be developed for use outside of class. In this article we’d like to focus on creating video content that students use for a blended learning course.
Blended learning videos benefit students and teachers in several ways:
- They give students more time to process information, and can have them coming to class prepared to discuss and put their learning into practice
- Teachers can better maximize class time for higher-order, student-centered, collaborative learning activities
- Videos help teachers standardize content for core and required classes
- Students can view and review videos at their own pace and during times convenient to them
- Blended approaches provide teachers an appropriate way to incorporate audio and visuals into the learning process
- These approaches speak the language of a digital generation
But these benefits don’t accrue automatically. They depend on the development of quality course materials. To help us refine the materials we’d developed, we asked the 300 students enrolled in a general education course we teach what makes a good blended learning video from their perspective. They responded after viewing videos we’d developed. Here is a summary of what we learned:
Video Length
Students preferred videos that were shorter than six minutes. If there is more content, we recommend creating several short videos rather than a single, longer one.
Accountability
Students reported that they needed a graded incentive (such as a short pre-class online quiz) to encourage them to watch the blended learning videos. Accountability quizzes do not need to be worth a lot of points. Our students indicated that simply holding them accountable with any course points was enough to motivate their viewing of the videos.
Viewing Patterns
Students appreciated that blended learning videos provided the opportunity to watch videos multiple times. This is an example of how blended learning frees up class time for teachers. Students are able to answer more questions on their own by re-watching all or part of the videos.
Background Music
Students preferred that the videos did not include background music. They considered it a distraction, in part because they report watching the videos at accelerated speeds, from 1.25x to 2x, which distorts background music. The videos are easier to create without music as well.
Visual Elements
Students preferred the use of varied visual elements. Whether providing emphasis by highlighting text, zooms, call-outs, drawing on the screen, etc., we introduce a new visual element every 10–15 seconds. Something needs to continually catch the eye of the viewers.
Corner Talking Head
Students wanted to hear the professor’s voice but not see his or her head in a corner picture-in-picture. This makes it easier to create blended learning videos as it limits the self-conscious and distracting aspects of web-cam recording. If there’s a need for the professor’s image to be part of the video, occasional full-screen cuts to the prof can be incorporated.
Effectiveness
Most students felt that a blended learning approach was an effective way to learn. Not surprisingly, our students preferred learning videos over assigned reading. They indicated that pre-class videos contributed significantly to their understanding of course content. This too, confirms their effectiveness at opening up class time for higher-order approaches to learning.
As for getting started, we recommend this process: (1) identify what information students will learn out of class and what will they do in class; (2) clearly define what should students learn from the video before starting to create it; (3) create a video script that coordinates the verbal content with the visual elements; (4) create a slide presentation to accompany the narration; and (5) use screen capture software to record the audio and video.
We recommend initially creating a few sample videos. Make them available to students (using either a learning management system or YouTube) and then survey students to discover their preferences and feedback as to what did and didn’t work for them. Student preferences play an important role in developing these materials, but if their preferences aren’t in line with what’s known about learning, then they shouldn’t be accommodated.
Although creating blended-learning videos requires significant work, our experience and student survey responses indicate that the time and effort are worthwhile. We have more class time we can devote to activities that engage students and promote higher order learning.
