Creating a Short Canvas Tips Video
Training in a Pandemic
In my position as instructional designer, I have spent a lot of time working one on one with faculty to help them with their classes. As a part of the university’s Center for Teaching and Learning, we also provide training to faculty to support their teaching. While the need for training and support is greater than ever, the availability of faculty to participate in scheduled workshops is challenging. They are busy teaching classes, keeping up with grading and many just don’t have training as a priority in their live right now (Castleberry, Haines, et al 2018). Instead of providing hour long training sessions as we have in the past, the CTL decided that it would be better to make short (2 minute) videos that can go out on a weekly or bi weekly basis. The hope is that the brief videos will meet the need for new skills now and also act as “teasers” for larger workshops that the CTL will do when things get back to normal after the pandemic (Hromalik, Myhill, & Carr, 2020).
About the Audience
The intended audience for these videos is all faculty, which means that there is a wide range of knowledge and skill in the audience. For the purposes of these training videos, we are assuming that the audience member has a basic understanding of how to navigate Canvas and the video is intended to help them learn tips and tricks that will help them to use it more efficiently and effectively.
Making the Video
The video that I created for this assignment was intended to show faculty how to quickly send an email message to any student who is missing a specific assignment. The video explicitly steps the viewer through the process of sending the message, starting at the home screen and ending with the message being sent. The video is a simple screen capture with no human visible on the screen. While having the instructor present on the screen is a helpful presence in online teaching, it isn’t necessary for this type of demonstration video (Fiorella, Stull, Kuhlmann, & Mayer, 2019). The final result of this effort can be seen in the video below.
Message Students Who Video
References
Castleberry, A. N., Haines, S. L., Stein, S. M., Van Amburgh, J.,A., & Persky, A. M. (2018). 5-minute university: A description and discussion of 5-minute faculty teaching training videos. The Journal of Faculty Development, 32(2), 67-74. Retrieved from https://search.proquest.com/scholarly-journals/5-minute-university-description-discussion/docview/2169204632/se-2?accountid=13505
Fiorella, L., Stull, A. T., Kuhlmann, S., & Mayer, R. E. (2019). Instructor presence in video lectures: The role of dynamic drawings, eye contact, and instructor visibility. Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(7), 1162-1171. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000325
Hromalik, C. D., Myhill, W. N., & Carr, N. R. (2020). “ALL faculty should take this”: A universal design for learning training for community college faculty. Techtrends, 64(1), 91-104. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11528-019-00439-6
Hi Jenny,
ReplyDeleteI think that sending out mini instructional videos is an excellent strategy to use on busy teachers. I like the idea that weekly or bi-weekly videos give teachers a taste of what might be offered during CLT workshops. Perhaps the teachers will be able to choose the workshop they want to participate in based on what they’re interested in or something they feel they need more training on. I would suggest writing a script for your next video so your message is clear and you do not forget anything. I think it was great that you used screencasting software to show the teachers exactly what to do.
Jenny,
ReplyDeleteGreat blog post! This seems like a really useful skill for teachers to learn. I'm curious, do you ever poll teachers to ask what skills they already know or want to learn? Perhaps it would also be beneficial at the beginning of your video to introduce a little more about why this skill might be helpful for teachers. Even though it seems obvious, maybe there is alternate functionality you could highlight, such as sending reminders about an assignment before it's due, letting students know about extra credit opportunities, and more. Overall, the video was very neat and professional, and to the point! You mentioned that a floating head is not necessary for this video, and while that does seem to be the best practice (Guo et al., 2014), I would tend to agree since it is so short, and teachers will probably only watch it if they are interested in the skill, meaning they might be motivated enough to stick with it even if it weren't as engaging! Very impressive overall.
Rhys
Guo, P., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How Video Production Affects Student Engagement. http://up.csail.mit.edu/other-pubs/las2014-pguo-engagement.pdf
Hey Jenny,
ReplyDeleteNice job on this blog. I liked that you kept the text short, simple and to the point. I thought your speaking tone in your video was clear and easy to follow. The only thing I would recommend would be to make sure that your video have closed caption. (Being ADA/508 compliant is one thing I am still working on myself, so if you know an easy way to do that please share!)
Again great job on this. Thanks for sharing.
Rabidoux, S., & Rottmann, A. (5). tips for ADA-compliant inclusive design. Retrieved form https://www. insidehighered. com/digital-learning/views/2017/05/03/tips-designing-adacompliant-online-courses.
Sharvis