25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
How to Spice Up Online Course Content with Video Segments
Jennifer Berghage
Instructional Designer
World Campus, Pennsylvania State University
Wenyi Ho Ph.D.
Instructional Designer
World Campus, Pennsylvania State University
Introduction
Anyone from the baby boomer generation remembers class periods when we got a reprieve from the
lecture format. The lights went out and the projector hummed, bringing images and sound to the screen to
reinforce what we were learning. Haggard families who had struggled through the Great Depression
seared our hearts, civil rights speeches rang in our ears, and we cried over soldiers and political icons we
might never meet: they became real to us, up close and personal. Those times we spent together in the
semi-darkness were times of absorption, reflection, sharing, and insight—expanding our knowledge of the
world and broadening our horizons ineffably. We didn’t just watch movies together, we talked about what
we saw, and in the talking, knowledge grew. Today, we have even more power to spice up course content,
and to bring students closer to worlds they could only imagine just a few short years ago.
Meet Learning Objectives with Video
In the past, only “Hollywood” was able to negotiate the expense and man-hours needed to produce quality
film. Then the introduction of the camcorder by Sony, in 1983, opened some doorways, supporting the
ability of the average person to record home movies and share them with a select audience on-site, using a
videotape cassette player. Now we have, not only a wide selection of equipment to use for video and/or
audio recording, but also the Internet and associated applications to share what we’ve recorded. Even
though we have that power, it’s important to be mindful of the eye-rolling associated with the idea of
getting together to watch home movies. When we create video to enhance education, it must be with
purpose and in alignment with the learning objectives, as well as copyright law.
In the Penn State online Master of Professional Studies in Human Resources and Employment Relations
(HRER) program,
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/MasterinHumanResourcesandEmploymentRelations.shtml students
experience an array of custom video segments that meet several objectives, such as (1) building a sense of
community, (2) promoting anticipation for what’s to come, (3) illustrating theory, (4) seeing into cultures
other than their own, (5) seeing/hearing what experts in their field are doing and learning how to
accommodate differing points of view, and (6) coming to consensus on what has been learned. These
objectives are met, in part, through several types of in-house video production. It’s a given that the value
in most types of educational video segments is best enhanced by building in exercises that direct students
to view the video (they won’t watch it if they perceive that there’s no educational value in doing so), to
apply critical thinking to what they’ve seen, tie the video to the concepts they’re learning, and draw
conclusions, whether they do this communally or individually. (Due to the length restrictions for this
paper, assessment can’t be detailed here; for more information please contact the primary author.)
Copyright 2009 Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System
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25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
Segments in the HRER Program
Building a Sense of Community
To help build a sense of community for students registered in the HRER program, course authors create a
course introduction video segment. Though we may have several sections of a course running, each with
its own instructor, the overarching welcome and introduction from the author starts students off with a
feeling of connection to the material itself and its origin. Course author Dr. Billie Willits’s introduction
for HRER 505: Seminar in Human Resources appears in the Course Syllabus, and orients students to the
overall learning objectives of the course before they begin their lessons.
Promoting Anticipation and Consensus
To promote anticipation for what’s to come and to bring about consensus on what has been learned in
each lesson, HRER 802: Organizations in the Workplace instructor, Dr. John Austin, recorded himself
reviewing the high points of the most recent lesson completed and introducing the focus of the next
lesson. He uploaded these segments to the course management system (ANGEL) in the Announcements
area, which students access as the first page each time they log into the course, so even after the lesson
was completed, students were sure not to miss the instructor’s review of recent material and promotion of
upcoming material. The educational value of this type of video is enhanced if the instructor records new
videos during each semester, geared toward the current student cohort.
Illustrating Theory
At appropriate places within the course content, Dr. Austin placed video recordings of himself conducting
several short presentations for HRER 802, which creatively illustrated each theory relevant to the content.
Some theories were illustrated best by showing John using a whiteboard or flip chart, drawing and
labeling a concept type map while explaining the connections; other theories, such as cognitive framing,
were best illustrated showing John performing an interactive exercise with a deck of cards to convey the
concept memorably. The value in these types of segments is that they illuminate what can be very “dry”
material when presented only textually.
Learning about Other Cultures from the Inside
To give students a glimpse into cultures other than their own, for HRER 836: Diversity in the Workplace
World Campus Learning Design recorded Amy Stever’s hour-long presentation about a visit that her Penn
State client development team made to a corporate training unit based in Saudi Arabia. The value in this
type of segment was that students were exposed to an array of personal and professional Saudi customs,
and were also able to listen in on the answers Amy provided to the questions that came from her academic
audience during her presentation.
Learning from Experts in the Field
To enable students to see and hear what experts in their field are doing and to help students learn how to
accommodate differing points of view, for HRER 505: Human Resources Seminar, World Campus
Learning Design recorded a three-member panel session, prompting the participants, Dr. Diane Brown, E.
Anne Christo-Baker, and Dr. Lenny Pollack, on what subjects to cover (aligned with the learning
objectives of the lesson), and encouraging them to bring their professional experiences into the
discussion. The panel members were all currently employed in the field of human resources, so the value
in this segment is that their observations and discussion reflect immediate events, concerns, and
constructs in the human resources workaday world.
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25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
To enable students to see one of the ways in which diversity is addressed at Penn State, for HRER 836,
World Campus Learning Design recorded an employee training session conducted by Dr. Suzanne Adair.
The value in this type of segment is that students could see, not only the performance of a working
professional in their field, but audience reaction/interaction and how the professional responded.
Preparation, Manpower, and Facilities
Each of the six types of video segments described above required differing levels of preparation,
manpower, and facilities/equipment, and depending on their purpose, differing levels of quality. The
decisions on where, when, and how to provide video in the courses were made in different ways. Some
course authors, such as John Austin, came up with their own ideas, using the built-in computer camera
with little guidance from an instructional designer or media technician, others took advantage of a variety
of services available through Penn State’s Digital Commons facilities
http://tlt.its.psu.edu/digitalcommons, where on-site equipment and tech help is available at no charge for
faculty and students, and others were recorded by the World Campus in-house staff of media technicians.
It is recommended that if an instructional designer is available, he or she should be involved from the
beginning in the process of creating and making video available to students, as issues/technical
incompatibilities/delays can arise if the author creates the video beforehand and the tech team works out
the logistics afterwards. For example, some video segments created by an author were uploaded to the
PSU streaming server, but we needed to put identifying information within the video segment, and our
media tech needed to access the original video in order to do that. Because the author was traveling, there
was some delay in ironing out those wrinkles. If we had been able to work with the author from the
beginning, we’d have had access to the original, hence no delays in production.
Some courses contain one or more video segments in each lesson, and others contain far fewer segments.
Most segments were kept short, and running times are provided on the course Web sites so that students
can plan the time they need to spend viewing the material, and so that they can absorb the information in
manageable (memorable) chunks. In all cases, students are able to replay, stop, and start the segments, but
because video is located on the PSU streaming server, students are not able to download or otherwise
manipulate it. For the courses that contained many segments, the instructional designer created an Excel
chart outlining important information for the media tech who produced the finished video, such as which
course and lesson the video would appear in, the names and titles of those recorded, the html code line for
the video and any images associated with it, such as the still graphic that displays for students to click on
to play the video, as well as associated title information. The media tech also provided information within
the Excel chart, such as the size of the associated still graphic, the running time, and the PSU streaming
media “movie ID number” which must appear in the html code. We are able to provide transcriptions of
the video segments, and generally this is outsourced to Automatic Sync Technologies. Turnaround time is
fast and quality is dependable http://www.automaticsync.com/caption/resources/AST_CSmanual.pdf.
There are no permissions issues to address when transcripting custom in-house video, other than those
mentioned below, whereas there are legal restrictions on transcripting already established (previously
copyrighted) video.
Permissions
The instructional designer provided a Performance Release Form for each video participant to sign,
whether the participant was the main focus of the video or a member of the audience (as in the training
session and Amy’s cultural presentation). Performance release forms can be created in-house, and may
cover several different types of details according to the producers’ needs, but generally, they all outline
the purposes for which the video will be used now or in future, and a description of the audience(s) who
will be able to access it, plus a blank signature and date line for the participant to sign. Any video
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25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
segments taken from previously established material are always properly credited and copyright law
http://www.copyright.gov/docs/regstat031301.html is followed to the letter in the online environment.
More information on Fair Use Guidelines for Educational Media can be found here
http://www.uspto.gov/web/offices/dcom/olia/confu/conclu2.html#appj. It is also important to note that
when encouraging students to record themselves in the interest of meeting learning objectives, there are
legal regulations to consider, http://www.ncsl.org/programs/lis/privacy/eprivacylaws.htm especially in
cases where students may be encouraged to use an open source or easily accessible Internet application
with which to make their video available to classmates. More information on privacy can be found here
http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/digitalnatives/2008/11/13/date-privacy-day-4-not-so-obvious-privacy-tips/.
So that students could learn more about the video participants and make associations on the participants’
positions relative to the field and the students’ particular interests, a brief bio from each participant was
posted on the course Web site, and participants were asked if they would like to provide contact
information, or make themselves available for questions (though no video followup exercises for students
were created within this framework). Most participants agreed to provide general information (name, title,
general location or place of work) and some provided contact information. No participants had objections
to being contacted by students, but with courtesy in mind, all were asked. In a similar vein, when World
Campus Learning Design recorded any sessions where there was a chance the audience might get caught
on camera, we posted a notice on the door of the presentation rooms letting attendees know that the
presentation was being recorded and where to sit if they’d prefer to avoid being included on-screen. For
the training session we also had all attendees sign a performance release form since the session was very
interactive, as opposed to one where the audience only views and asks questions. It was the responsibility
of the media technician to collect the signed forms and make note of those he would need to remove from
the video.
Equipment
For video segments that don’t need to be of exceptionally high quality, the built-in computer camera can
be used, along with a variety of applications for recording oneself, such as iMovie
http://www.apple.com/ilife/imovie/what-is-imovie.html (for Macintosh). The FlipVideo
http://www.theflip.com/products.shtml is also affordable (cross-platform) and very easy to use either
alone, or with someone recording one or more performers. For the panel discussion, which required a
more formal approach, the instructional designer met with the course author to outline what was needed
(script/prompts, clothing suggestions for participants, associated lesson details such as learning objectives
to be met, etc.). To film the panel, the course author, participants, World Campus media technician, and
instructional designer met at the Digital Commons facilities on campus and recorded the session in a
sound-proof room with no interference from outside sources. For Amy Stever’s cultural presentation and
for Dr. Adair’s training session, the World Campus Learning Design media technician brought equipment
on-site, including a tripod and a DCR TRV-900 camera. It is recommended that if the plan is to film an
on-site session, the media technician would benefit from visiting the site several days before the session is
scheduled to assess any potential challenges.
Time and Expense
It can take anywhere from a few minutes and virtually no funding (faculty with basic skill levels using
built-in computer camera and microphone) to several days and very good quality equipment (scripting,
organization of material for media tech, sound-proof location, high-ticket lighting, background, and the
use of more than one camera plus higher level recording skills, editing) to produce video to enhance the
delivery of online course content. It’s important to note that not every video segment needs to be “top
quality.” If an instructor wants to highlight lesson points in an informal, though clearly audible and
visually acceptable format, this is perfectly appropriate under many circumstances. If the design team
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25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
wants to capture video, say, at a conference site, or at a gathering of alumni where several field experts
are accessible and available, it can be perfectly appropriate to use more “spontaneous” equipment to
record short, focused interview type segments. In creating video to enhance online learning, the key is to
examine learning objectives and figure out the best way to meet them, which would include the
consideration of the longevity and potential reuses of the segments.
Follow Through
As a point of courtesy, major video participants in the HRER program were sent letters thanking them for
sharing their expertise. They were also given a CD which included the video segment(s) they appeared in.
They retain the right to use the video segments in which they appeared in whole or in part for educational
purposes. The idea behind good closure on video projects is that we often ask participants to do additional
material, and we try to encourage their satisfaction with the process from start to finish.
Storage and Retrieval
This brings us to an area ripe for exploration, creativity, and problem solving, which concerns discovering
answers to several questions: (1) how do we store our film segments so we can find/update/adjust them in
future; (2) how can we make them available for others to use (legally); (3) what kind of system is needed
so we can label our segments with necessary associated information (performers, subject matter, date
created, contact person, permissions available, etc.); (4) what kinds of associated information are
necessary; (5) where do we store the hard copies (film tapes, movies, CDs, paperwork such as signed
release forms, etc.)? And more… World Campus Learning Design has put together a group to examine
these questions and discover some possibilities, which may be a great subject for a later DE conference.
Author Summaries
Jennifer Anne Berghage is a distance education specialist who has worked with the World Campus at
the Pennsylvania State University for the past ten years. She is currently the lead designer for the Penn
State online Master of Professional Studies in Human Resources and Employment Relations program; the
Associate in Science in Hotel, Restaurant, and Institutional Management program; and the Associate in
Science in Dietetic Food Systems Management program.
Address: The Pennsylvania State University
World Campus Learning Design
225 Outreach Building
University Park, PA 16802
E-mail: jaw33@psu.edu
URL:
http://www.worldcampus.psu.edu/
Phone: 814-865-5727
Fax:
814-865-3290
Wenyi Ho is an instructional designer at World Campus at the Pennsylvania State University. She got her
doctoral degree in Instructional Systems at the University. Her research interest focuses on the problembased learning environment and the integration of technology into the classroom. She is currently the lead
designer for the Penn State Online Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice, and Master of Education in
Children’s Literature.
Address: The Pennsylvania State University
World Campus Learning Design
225 Outreach Building
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25th Annual Conference on Distance Teaching & Learning
E-mail:
URL:
Phone:
Fax:
For more resources: http://www.uwex.edu/disted/conference
University Park, PA 16802
wxh139@psu.edu
http://www.personal.psu.edu/wxh139/
814-863-2483
814-865-3290
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