Using Video in Your Course

There are several ways that you can use videos in your course, regardless of modality:

  1. Introduce a class or unit: Create pre-lecture videos for students to watch prior to attending class. This provides students with an initial exposure to the content, sparks interest, and improves students’ understanding. The visuals in your video can help them connect with the material.

  2. Building background knowledge on a topic: We know that students learn best when they take in information via multiple modalities—through reading, listening to the instructor’s oral explanations, hands on activities and viewing visual media. Images and videos support the learning of new content, concepts, and ideas. (Adapted from Educause)

  3. Emphasize a Point with Video:Identify key learning goals or areas where students have difficulty understanding and create a short microlecture to support students. These can be used for flipped classroom application (with active learning, clickers, orTopHatin class to review and extend video content) or for independent student review. You can use video as a tool to enhance the class discussion and make whatever you’re teaching that much more accessible to your diverse body of learners. Keep these videos focused by only discussing the learning goal. Avoid adding fun facts or informati9n not directly related to the topic. Click here for resources related to creating microlectures.

  4. Demonstrate Examples: Instead of providing students with an answer key to a problem, create a video (with narration) working out the solution step-by-step. To encourage students to watch the video, work out only part of the problem in the video and have students complete the rest and submit it online as a no or low-stakes assignment or quiz (e.g. through Canvas). PlayPosit allows you to quickly integrate questions into your quizzes so you can get a sense of how well students understand the problems. It also allows students to receive immediate feedback. Click here for resources related to creating PlayPosit. Quick Check in Canvas also allows for quick inline low-stakes assessments in Canvas (Adapted from University of British Columbia)

     

  5. Interview with an Expert: Record interviews with experts in the discipline, providing examples and explaining concepts relevant to what is being covered in class. This enriches students’ learning by allowing them to hear what other experts have to say about a particular topic. (Adapted From University of British Columbia)

  6. Dispel misconceptions – A video that explicitly dispels common misconceptions about a topic can help students achieve conceptual change. This can be as simple as a video that starts with ‘you might think that… but you’d be wrong’. Simply presenting facts can reinforce students’ incorrect assumptions. Indeed, deliberately using a video that presents incorrect information then discussing these mistakes can also be an effective way of handling student misconceptions at the start of a unit. (from Monash University)

  7. Make video part of a larger homework assignment. Faizan Zubair and Mary Keithly are each part of the BOLD Fellows program at Vanderbilt University, in which graduate students develop online learning materials for incorporation into a faculty mentor’s course. Faizan developed videos on that were embedded in a larger homework assignment in Paul Laibinis’ Chemical Engineering class and found that students valued the videos and that the videos improved students’ understanding of difficult concepts when compared to a semester when the videos were not used in conjunction with the homework. Mary worked with Kathy Friedman to develop videos and follow-up questions to serve as pre-class preparation in a genetics class. Although there was no apparent change to learning outcomes in the class, students valued the videos and post-video questions as learning tools and thought that they were effective for promoting student understanding.(from Vanderbilt University)

Getting to Know Your Students

Jennie Carr, an Associate Professor at Bridgewater College, explains that researchers have found “strong positive correlations between [faculty] building relationships and rapport with students and academic achievement, attendance, student interest, motivation, empowerment, self-efficacy student attention, classroom behaviors and interactions (Benson, Cohen, Buskist, 2005, Houser & Frymier, 2009, Kozanitis, Desbiens, Chouinard, 2007; Myers, Goldman, Atkinson, Ball, Carton, Tindage & Anderson, 2016)”. Some ways you can develop connections with students in the first few weeks of class are listed below. Some techniques work better for smaller (n<60) classrooms while others work well with all class sizes. As the Eberly Center at Carnegie Mellon notes: “Even in large lecture classes, it is possible to get to know a conspicuous number of your students, a few at a time. For students, it’s the effort that counts”. Some of these tips I have shared before, however, I have added some new insights and additional information that may be helpful (hopefully).

Learning Student Names:

Name Coach: https://cloud.name-coach.com/ – Assign students the task of recording their name and writing the phonetic pronunciation of their name. Name Coach slows down the recording to help you hear how they pronounce their names. This will help you to listen to their names and learn how to pronounce their names correctly. Use Name Tents – If seating allows space for students to have name tents, ask students to write their names in large letters on both sides of a folded 5 x 8 index card and to keep this card on their desks/tables for the first few classes. The Canvas Roster: https://academiccontinuity.yale.edu/faculty/how-guides/canvas/canvas-class-roster is available in the People menu of the Canvas course to all Canvas roles except Observer, displays the name, email address, role, photo, and NameCoach recording (if available) for each member of the course. Using the Photo Roster tool, you can change the page or print layout; search and filter the list of course members; group by role, section, or group; and print or export the current view. Official IU photos and associated features are only available to instructors in SIS courses. The roster has a feature that allows you to print out an attendance sheet. You can use that sheet to make annotations that will help you remember your students’ names. The Eberly Center suggests taking a few extra seconds for each student to identify their most 1-2 noticeable traits. Be sure to include ways of pronouncing names that are unfamiliar to you.

Introduce Yourself

Consider sharing information with students beyond your name and the name of the course you’re teaching. Vanderbilt University suggests one of the following:

  • Personal biography: your place of birth, family history, educational history, hobbies, sport and recreational interests, how long you have been at the university, and what your plans are for the future.

  • Educational biography: how you came to specialize in your chosen field, a description of your specific area of expertise, your current projects, and your future plans.

  • Teaching biography: how long have you taught, how many subjects/classes have you taught, what level of class you normally teach, what you enjoy about being in the classroom, what do you learn from your students, and what you expect to teach in the future.

Have a seating plan

When students arrive in your class, let them sit where they want, and then ask them to remain in those seats for at least two weeks. Create a seating chart for the room and have students fill in their names on the seating chart. Refer to the chart as you conduct the course. This reference will allow you to learn names according to placement in the classroom. (University of Lethbridge)

Icebreakers: The Center for Teaching and Learning at IU-Indy https://ctl.iupui.edu/Resources/Preparing-to-Teach/Using-Ice-Breakers reminds us to use icebreakers as a way of getting acquainted with students and establish classroom community on the first day of class. However, you can use small icebreakers beyond the first few weeks of class to help build rapport. Top Hat https://app.teaching.iu.edu/tools/top-hat provides a list of icebreakers that can be used in various contexts, including course- or assignment-specific icebreakers https://tophat.com/blog/classroom-icebreakers/

Having One on One or Small Group Meetings/Office Hours – Carr (2020) recommends setting up 1:1 or small group appointments to meet with students during the first few weeks of class. “Meaningful interactions with students outside of classes is listed by the National Survey of Student Engagement as a high-impact educational practice (NSSE, 2017). Approximately 95% of my students attend. During the 1:1 meet and greet meeting, my primary goal is to get to know the students on a personal level. I explain to them very simply, “I care about you first and foremost as a person – I want you to be successful in this class.” The meeting encourages students to not only find my office but also helps reduce anxious feelings about meeting with faculty when they have a more serious concern”The Canvas Scheduler Tool https://community.canvaslms.com/t5/Instructor-Guide/How-do-I-add-a-Scheduler-appointment-group-in-a-course-calendar/ta-p/1021 allows you to create a block of time where a student or groups of students can meet with you. Students can sign up for appointment times in their own calendars. Have students say their name when asking for a response to a question during your lecture or discussion, or when they ask a question. Explain to them that this helps not only you, but their classmates learn their names.

In addition to office hours – When possible, arrive to class a little early and stay a little later to chat with students. This will also allow students who may not feel comfortable raising questions during class to approach you in a low-pressure way.

Asking students to complete confidential student profiles – Another way to get to know your students is to have them complete a student profile (you can use Google Tools, Microsoft 360, or Qualtrics to create a profile: https://forms.gle/P2upb3JKzhSnzBRE8). Profiles are a form with questions that allow you to better understand who your students are, what they know about the class/discipline, as well as the types of expectations they have for the course.  It also allows you to understand what types of boundaries they have in terms of work and family that may impact how they perform in your course.

Quick Tip: Working with Teaching Assistants

Dr. Angela Jenks and Katie Cox , in the Department of Anthropology at the University of California, Irvine developed a checklist for faculty that work with teaching assistants. The checklist contains categorized questions that faculty should answer for the teaching assistants they supervise in order to help the course run smoothly and minimize misunderstandings over faculty expectations.

Topics include but are not limited to:

  • What to discuss during your initial introduction

  • AI Roles and Responsibilities

  • Communications Protocol

  • Course Objectives and Topics

  • Course Management Protocols

  • AI Professional Development Opportunities

  • Teaching Reflections

  • How to Manage Student Observations and Feedback

  • Midterm and Final Exam Grading/Protocols

If you would like to brainstorm ways to customize this list to your course. let’s meet!

Canvas Checklist

This Start of Semester Checklist for Canvas, adapted from the University of North Texas, is comprised of pointers, reminders, and resources, useful for setting up a course in Canvas.  The document has four sections:

In the content review section, there are a few links to resources from or related to Quality Matters., a respected organization that has developed rubrics for course design standards. CITL has also developed resources based on Quality Matters rubrics. If you would like to have more information about these resources, course design, or rubrics, please reply to this email.

As a reminder:

The checklist from last year contains ideas and quick tips for taking full advantage of the resources available in Canvas. While this post from 2021 contains a chart (created by Instructure, the developers of Canvas), which explains how Canvas functions can be used at lower and higher levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, to create different types of learning experiences in Canvas.

For example: When you think about Announcements as a Communication Tool in Canvas, you can use announcements in simply to provide one-way updates and communication, or more robustly to:

  • Reinforce classroom activities, display student work, and encourage best practices.

  • Allow students to reply, and are often used for classroom interaction and Q & A.

  • Encourage and expect student replies, often being used as question starters, contests, and ways to extend learning.


As always, please let me know if there is any way I can help you in your planning.

Higher Education Podcasts

Dr. Laura Pasquini is an educational coach and consultant who is passionate about podcasts. She has created two resources that may be useful to you if you are interested in finding more educational podcasts to listen to, or creating your own:

  • HigherEd Podcasts: https://bit.ly/higheredpodcasts is a spreadsheet that she has curated. The first page has a list of more than 200 podcasts that focus on various aspects of higher education. The second page is a more general list of podcasts that touch on more random topics in the range of education, general interest and self-improvement.

  • Behind the Podcast: http://bit.ly/behindthepodcast provides a behind the scenes look at how some of the more popular higher education podcasts are created recording set-ups of several higher ed podcasts. The producers of podcasts such as Teaching in Higher Ed and Thinkudl.org share information about the hardware and software they use to create their podcasts, as well as their hosting service and resources they use to produce the content for their podcasts.

The Role of Faculty in Student Mental Health and Announcements

The following Teaching in Higher Ed Podcast episodes focus on mental health:

These podcasts discuss tips faculty can consider integrating into their teaching practice in order to help address some of the mental health issues students may be facing while matriculating through school. they include:

Flexibility v. Coddling 

The top recommendation was being flexible when possible.

(Episode 422)

“We don’t think the solution is, when a student comes up and says, “Wow, I was out of commission last week in bed with depression,” we don’t suggest saying, “Ah, forget about it. No need to do that work that you missed.” That doesn’t really help them… Now whether it’s designing subtler, more flexible late policies or even opportunities for resubmission, not for as much credit, but still for some additional credit [still offer] incentives so that students can learn more… “

(Episode 373)

“Building in flexibility, and it depends on the discipline and the class structure, but whether you get to drop your lowest assignment or for me, I really laid out a clear process to students where I was trying to eliminate any shame in asking for an extension. Saying, here’s the process. It’s simple, its uniform, it’s not a mystery. Here’s how you do this.”

Note: These conversations noted how this is really helpful for vulnerable groups such as first-generation students who may not know the hidden curriculum of academia. For example, If you have a “No late work accepted policy” but make unadvertised exceptions for emergencies on a case-by-case basis, some students will take your policy literally, even in dire consequences.  “As a friend who was a first-generation academic told me, first-gen students like her got where they are by following the rules. It would never have occurred to her that “no late work accepted” had an unwritten caveat of “unless you’ve had a serious emergency.””

When is the Assignment Due? (Episode 373)

“If you’re making an assignment due at 9:00 AM, [some] students are going to pull an all-nighter. If you have an assignment due at midnight, they’re going to work through dinner. If you have an assignment due at 5:00 PM, that’s likely one of the healthiest times. It might be different at a community college or a school where a lot of folks are working full-time, but either way, the point is just to be intentional about the time that is selected [based on your student population]”.

Encourage Self Help (Adapted from Episode 317 and The Jed Foundation)

Consider incorporating meditation, breathing, or other mindfulness practices into the classroom and adding self-care activities—such as getting exercise, spending time in nature, or talking with a friend—to assignments. You can also model self-care by sharing with students what you do to manage stress.

The counseling center, wellness center, and/or peer health educators on campus often have workshops that are ready to go. Consider having students review a pre-recorded workshop https://healthcenter.indiana.edu/counseling/workshops-groups/recorded-workshops.html and provide feedback on what they learned as part of an extra credit assignment.

Sharing Resources 

 

Consider sharing departmental/school/campus resources in a Student Resource Slideshow that plays before class starts and at the end of the lecture. You can add in slides with resources based around the needs of your students. Also, you can put resources in your syllabi.

Sample language

“If you are feeling stressed, worried, or down during the semester, or if you notice signs of emotional distress in someone else, please feel free to stop by my office or consider reaching out for support. Here are some campus resources:


In the past we have discussed Universal Design for Learning (UDL), 

However, we have not formally discussed Universal Design for Instruction (UDI). While UDL and UDI are similar frameworks that are devised to optimize teaching and learning for diverse groups of students based on scientific insights into how people learn best, UDL provides specific guidance for designing curricula, while UDI can be used for applications related to teaching and learning. UDI ensures that students have multiple ways to learn, engage and demonstrate what they have learned. UDI also ensures that each UDI practice is accessible, usable, and inclusive.

According to Scott, McGuire, and Shaw (2001), there are nine principles of UDI:

  1. Equitable use: Accessible and usable by everyone.

  2. Flexibility in use: Accommodated to individual needs with choices provided.

  3. Simple and intuitive: Clear and understood regardless of student’s experience, knowledge, language skills, or current concentration level.

  4. Perceptible information: Accessible regardless of students’ sensory abilities.

  5. Tolerance for error: Anticipates learning pace and prerequisite skills.

  6. Low physical effort: Minimizes nonessential physical effort (unless physical effort is integral to the essential requirements of a course [e/g/ lifting requirements in a physical therapy program]).

  7. Size and space for approach and use: Considers physical and sensory access to environment, equipment, tasks.

  8. A community of learners: Promotes interaction and communication among students and between students and faculty.

  9. Instructional climate: Welcoming and inclusive.

The University of Washington provides a few examples of UDI (https://www.washington.edu/doit/universal-design-instruction-udi-definition-principles-guidelines-and-examples)

  • Class climate. Adopt practices that reflect high values with respect to diversity, equity, and inclusion. Example: Put a statement on your syllabus inviting students to meet with you to discuss disability-related accommodations and other special learning needs.

  • Interaction. Encourage regular and effective interactions between students, employ multiple communication methods, and ensure that communication methods are accessible to all participants. Example: Assign group work for which learners must engage using a variety of skills and roles.

  • Physical environments and products. For outside instruction, ensure that facilities, activities, materials, and equipment are physically accessible to and usable by all students and that diverse potential student characteristics are addressed in safety considerations. Example: Develop safety procedures for all students, including those who are blind, deaf, or wheelchair users.

  • Delivery methods. Use multiple instructional methods that are accessible to all learners. Example: Use multiple modes to deliver content; when possible, allow students to choose from multiple options for learning; and motivate and engage students—consider lectures, collaborative learning options, hands-on activities, Internet-based communications, educational software, field work, and so forth.

  • Information resources and technology. Ensure that course materials, notes, and other information resources are engaging, flexible, and accessible for all students. Example: Choose printed materials and prepare a syllabus early to allow students the option of beginning to read materials and work on assignments before the course begins. Allow adequate time to arrange for alternate formats, such as books in audio format.

  • Feedback and assessment. Regularly assess students’ progress, provide specific feedback on a regular basis using multiple accessible methods and tools, and adjust instruction accordingly. Example: Allow students to turn in parts of large projects for feedback before the final project is due.

  • Accommodations. Plan for accommodations for students whose needs are not fully met by the instructional content and practices. Example: Know campus protocols for getting materials in alternate formats, rescheduling classroom locations, and arranging for other accommodations for students with disabilities.

While Burgstahler (2015) explains that Effective instructors:

  1. Provide clear and explicit expectations.

  2. Provide advanced organizers and supports.

  3. Provide information in multiple formats.

  4. Provide a welcoming classroom environment.

  5. Make connections between topics and real-life experiences.

  6. Provide frequent, consistent, & formative feedback.

  7. Support individual learning needs within the group.

  8. Use effective assessment strategies.

  9. Are approachable and available.

  10. Are knowledgeable and focused on their subject matter.

  11. Make personal connections with their students.

  12. Hold challenging standards for learning.

  13. Engage in & encourage metacognition.

  14. Understand human development & learning theory

Additional Resources: