My students are spoiled, okay?
My courses are filled with videos, videos, videos. I use them in so many ways but in this post, I just want to talk about video lectures.
Video lectures are powerful because they allow students to see and hear you almost as if they were in a face-to-face classroom. They provide the body language, the tone, the humor, the energy that is missing from text or written communication.
Consequently, video lectures take the mystery out of learning at a distance and enhance the student-to-instructor connection. If posted on a discussion board forum, they give students the opportunity to build a student-to-student connection by posing questions, challenging ideas, and sharing opinions, experiences, and perspectives.
The wonderful thing about video lectures is that they can take place live or be pre-recorded. They can be produced or instructor-generated. It is up to you, your access to equipment, and your ultimate goal. Yes, you can create professionally-produced video lectures in a studio at your university, upload them to your course or to YouTube or Vimeo, and those kinds of videos serve their purpose; but, guess what?
Your really don’t need to do all of that.
In fact, students feel more connected to you while watching instructor-generated videos that you record at home or in your office on campus. Think about it. You can go to YouTube right now and find hundreds of thousands of vloggers making a living sharing their lives using their own video cameras even though networks produce “reality TV.”
Now, apply that to your own course. Your students will love your videos with just your webcam from your laptop or desktop, your camera phone, or your video camera. You can use screencasting software like Camtasia, Screencastomatic, or Loom if you want to share a presentation or use an easel and a huge notepad for that old school feel. The options for your creativity are limitless.
If you are shy, just show the slideshow and let the students hear your voice. As you get comfortable, share your face and the slides on the screen.
Trust me. Getting behind the camera will help your students see you as a real person and make distance learning not so distant after all (as I always say). Now, if you’d like a little theory to support the power of video in online courses, research The Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning.
Then, get to recording. You will thank me later. 🙂