You may have noticed the adjectives used in the descriptions above (e.g., brief, short, swift). They\u2019re used intentionally because none of the videos were more than 5 minutes in duration. Achieving this brevity was not easy \u2013 especially for us as academics! \u2013 but my intent was to create content that students might watch voluntarily, \u2018bonus content\u2019 which connected them to the\u00a0unit\u00a0topics and to us as coordinators and lecturers. I knew that if the videos were too long, or too boring, students were more likely to disengage.<\/p>\n
Does it work?<\/h3>\n
To be honest, I had no idea whether this would work; it was a true experiment \u2013 one I hadn\u2019t conducted before. But to my surprise, students loved the videos!<\/p>\n
The Weekly Preview Video from Week 1 of the semester, for instance, was viewed by more than 85% of the 439 students enrolled in the\u00a0unit, despite multiple\u00a0unit\u00a0communications that the Weekly Preview Videos were entirely optional (unlike the actual lectures). While there was some drop-off throughout the semester, as one would expect, even by Week 8 more than 300 students (nearly 70%) were engaging.<\/p>\n But more importantly than the sheer number of \u2018views,\u2019 it seemed the Weekly Preview Videos indeed contributed to a broader sense of connection to the\u00a0unit\u00a0and its content as well as to us as scholars and educators.<\/strong> Students noted the following in end-of-semester surveys:<\/p>\n We also received many general survey comments that, while not directly attributable to the Weekly Preview Videos (we all know open-ended comments vary widely in their specificity), may have been influenced by them. For example, students noted the\u00a0unit\u00a0\u201cwas accommodating of students during the lockdown and made online content accessible\u201d (S3) and included a \u201cvariety of different learning mediums – readings, videos, podcasts\u201d (S4). One student, in particular, appreciated how \u201cthe lecturers are super friendly and engaging, having a perfect combination of theory and content that could be applied practically.\u201d Inconclusive as the evidence may be, it seems likely that the Weekly Preview Videos contributed in some small way to these and related sentiments from students. How else would they know the lecturers were super friendly?<\/p>\n I\u2019ll conclude by offering some insights on the process and what I learned along the way.<\/p>\n On the communication side, producing a Weekly Preview Video involved emailing each lecturer about a week in advance to describe the initiative, seek their interest (thankfully no one declined), and schedule a 30-minute Zoom call to record the video (most calls took less than 15 minutes). I also included links to previous a previous Weekly Preview Video so lecturers could get a sense of the genre (note: I gave the first lecture so did the first Weekly Preview Video by myself, and while the solo banter was terrible (!), it served as a helpful, early exemplar to send in the communications with lecturers).<\/p>\n On the tech side, I simply used Zoom to hold the virtual conversation with the Lecturer, and screen capture software to record it.<\/strong> This allowed me to easily edit the videos before posting them on Canvas. It also enabled viewers to add emojis while watching, which based on the numbers of emojis added to the videos, students seemed to enjoy. One student appreciated this ability \u201cto show emotions and reactions through emojis\u2026considering we have all been at home\u2026it\u2019s nice to feel seen through self-expression\u201d (S5).<\/p>\n Finally, as with any pedagogical experiment, I learned some lessons along the way. First, five minutes goes by extremely quickly. Thus, it sometimes took two attempts during a Zoom call with a Lecturer to record a concise video. Thankfully a third attempt was never necessary. Second, sometimes the volume between us as speakers was an issue. This was likely due to different computer\/microphone setups, but it\u2019s something I hope to improve in the future. Third, the best videos seemed to skilfully weave together jovial collegial banter, deep insights about the content, and helpful information about the logistics of the\u00a0unit. They also offered a personal connection, even in virtual and remote learning.<\/strong> Getting this balance right wasn\u2019t easy, however. Just like a trailer or the first season of a show on Netflix, it takes some time to grow into the genre. Even within this one-semester experiment, I noticed differences between the earlier and later videos. I now have a stronger sense for how to facilitate and produce these Weekly Preview Videos in the future.<\/p>\n So, will I? Absolutely. To me, the benefits for students far exceed the costs. They took minimal time to prepare and, to be honest, were just plain fun. I got to sit down with colleagues I enjoy, to talk about issues that are immensely important to me. And if the students benefited along the way, all the better.<\/p>\n Here’s an early example<\/a>, before we figured out the immersive environment, and one from later in the unit<\/a> with a bit more banter and personalisation.<\/p>\n Matthew A. M. Thomas<\/a> <\/strong>is a Senior Lecturer at the University of Sydney, where he teaches and researches pedagogy, policy, and teacher and higher education. He is the co-editor of Examining Teach For All<\/em><\/a> (2021) and the Bloomsbury Handbook of Theory in Comparative and International Education<\/em><\/a> (2021)<\/em>. He tweets at @MThomasEdDev<\/a>.<\/p>\n As many of us know, virtual teaching can present a range of challenges for both students and teachers. Building community, communicating clearly, and introducing…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1180,"featured_media":15466,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31,1861,1862,9,1856,1857,54,381,57,1859],"tags":[321,194,413,201],"coauthors":[1670],"class_list":["post-15460","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arts","category-be-human","category-core-pedagogical-principles","category-faculty","category-foster-a-sense-of-belonging-and-community","category-have-clear-communications-and-expectations","category-sections","category-student-experience","category-teaching-tips","category-use-engaging-approaches-to-content-delivery","tag-educational-media","tag-online-learning","tag-online-teaching","tag-student-engagement","post-item","post-even"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15460","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1180"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15460"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15460\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15564,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15460\/revisions\/15564"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15466"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15460"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15460"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15460"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=15460"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"Matthew,](\"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-08-at-4.09.18-pm-300x163.png\")
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How does it work?<\/h3>\n
![\"Matthew,](\"https:\/\/educational-innovation.sydney.edu.au\/teaching@sydney\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/03\/Screen-Shot-2022-03-08-at-4.21.39-pm-300x182.png\")
Want to know more?<\/h3>\n
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