Video Tutorials for Help with Assignments
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Plan for implementation:
Since my Introduction to Psychology course is heavily tested (3 large Exams and 1 Final), to aid students who struggle with examination, the course offers many extra credit opportunities. Likewise, students have to compete a Research Assignment in our class which satisfies Psychology Department's research requirement through participation in Psychology SONA.
However, the variety of assignments offered for both the Research Assignment and Extra Credit, and the overlap and rules associated with each, gets pretty confusing. I have received many emails asking me to clarify these assignments, especially for students who are under 18yo (since they can't participate in SONA), see Figure 1.
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Figure 1. A student asking for clarity on what kind of assignments qualify for students under 18yo.
I decided to use my newly developed Kaltura skills to put together a video discussing how students can complete their assignment and gain extra credit. To evaluate how useful this will be, I assessed it from an individual student perspective, as well as class overall. For the benefit of the class, I posted this on our canvas announcements. For the benefit of individual students, I emailed a few of them directly asking them to check out the video and follow-up with me with any additional questions. Their responses have been positive.
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Implementation:
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Video1. Video created to explain assignments and extra credit for PSY 101 course.
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To create the video, I made a running script which helped me iron our what I was going to say. During the recording, I found myself drifting off script to include other details students should know (such as the examples of how they combine each assignment to complete the requirement). I also prepared each page prior, so I could easily transition from one to another. I used the pause button quite a bit, which made it helpful for me to catch my breath in the middle of my speech and avoid saying "um" while I was transitioning my thought. The students I received direct feedback from were very happy with the information. One asked me to clarify if they will have to submit the SONA report to me. in the video, I did not discuss that I will get their SONA report from administration at the end of the semester, so they will not need to submit anything for the assignment. I used this feedback to update the canvas announcement post, and will include this in future edits of the video. I enjoyed the video making process, and getting quick feedback from students because it allowed me to update my practice on the fly. I hope to get class wide feedback this upcoming week. I also hope that posting this video will put these assignments on the radar for students, since they are not due for over a month, but are not the type of assignments students can put off until the last minute.
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Reflections:
In the future, I would like to play around with other video capture setting to improve the flow of my content, use the pause button more to really get to the heart of the content quickly without wasting extra time on fluffy filler words. As a reflection on the amount of time this took: once I got the hand of recording, pausing, and switching between content, my videos improved. A well crafted video will take a few hours, but can be made universal so I can import it into my other classes, like the one I am teaching over summer. Overall, I think with more practice with Kaltura, I will be able to make content much faster. I also have ideas for making videos for the Term Paper: walking students through APA format, literature search, and structure and format of student papers. This will allow me to teach outside of class, especially since our class time is already limited in terms of how much content we can feasibly cover.
