Lessons learned during nine years of teaching with videos

Webinar presented by Jörn Loviscach on September 13, 2018, from University of Applied Sciences Bielefeld, Germany

Let’s simply turn this lecture into a recording. This is how you start your journey into the use of video in higher education, as I did almost a decade ago, eventually covering a range of subjects from mathematics to wind power to human-computer interaction. As it turned out, there was and is much to learn about video concerning didactics, style, and technology.

Didactics: Video is a promising medium to capture the audience, to explain processes and to show rather than tell. In practice, however, video induces procrastination and illusions of learning. Hence, video almost always needs to be accompanied by quizzes and by blended learning such as flipped teaching, which in turn lead to further questions, for instance about the didactics of quizzes and about appropriate examination regulations.

Style: Should we use handwriting or slides or no text at all, show a talking head, point with a mouse cursor or with a real hand, use background music? What about the theatrical aspects?

Technology: Expensive equipment and video editing software come to mind. However, the most important aspect is a lean workflow from storyboard to online stream that takes care of such issues as rights, long-term maintenance, and accessibility.