Coherence

Videos should be used when they can be easily tied to the course’s learning objectives and/or to build a sense of instructor presence, not for their own sake.

Engagment

Below, you’ll find recommendations that can help increase student engagement. This is important because research shows that less engaging videos have the effect of making a video less likely to be viewed all the way through and reduce the likelihood of students to complete video-related activities. (Guo et al., 2014; Mayer, 2003)

• Video length is the predominant determiner of video engagement, with shorter videos generally being preferable. Aim for a maximum of six (6) minutes.
• Students engage more with talking head videos. It is better to show the instructor speaking at least part of the time during the presentation. In Panopto, it is possible to show slides simultaneously with the instructor’s face.
• Authenticity, enthusiasm and quick, conversational speech patterns generally increase engagement.
• High production value might not matter. Better-produced videos don’t seem to have a profound impact on student engagement, so it’s better to spend your time on the content and your presentation style than to worry about fancy lighting or expensive cameras.

Instructional Strategies

There are some things you can do to make video content in your courses more cognitively digestible for your students (Mayer, 2003; Mayer & Moreno, 2003).

• Students learn more deeply from multimedia containing words and pictures than from a presentation with words alone.
• Visuals accompanied by spoken text, delivered in an an informal style, are best.
• Minimize unnecessary cognitive load:
  • Use bite-sized segments that allow students to pause and integrate and organize their thoughts about the previous segment before moving on in the narration. (In a video, this might look like a video with chapters where students have an opportunity to pause, take notes, then continue; in an multimedia interaction, it might be an ungraded “knowledge check” or guidance about takeaways from the previous segment midway through a presentation.)
  • Signal which elements are most important to train your students’ focus. If you have a complicated graphic or concept to explain, try using a visual highlight (arrow indicator, bolding, or other visual emphasis strategy – see the Emphasis section in the Canvas Pages area for more ideas).
  • Align words and images carefully. This simple practice can reduce the cognitive demand for students to cognitively group items themselves while trying to learn the material.
  • Synchronize the auditory and visual elements of your video; that way, students don’t have to hold the last thing that was said in their head while they review the image/slide, etc.

Captions

Panopto can create automatic captions for your videos, which can later be edited to improve their accuracy. This is a key step for improving the accessibility of your course videos.

Instructor Introduction Videos

Introduction videos in a course welcome students to the course through introducing yourself as the instructor. This sets a positive tone for the course and creates an initial connection between yourself and your students. This is a great opportunity to explain your professional background, topics in the field you enjoy , or any personal information you feel inclined to share. You are teaching this course because it is a topic or subject matter you feel is important and you’re excited to share your knowledge and skills. Students will greatly enjoy learning this about you and may feel inclined or inspired to connect with you on a more personal level as they are learning from you.

We recommend keeping the length of the video under 3 minutes. This can take the place of a text introduction in a discussion board or be available in the “getting started” module of the course.

Course Overview Videos

This video will give learners a better understanding of the course content, learning goals, and introduce any major assignments students might expect to run into within the course. This is also a great opportunity to connect the content with the learners lives and professional goals by explaining how this course will help them reach their goals. This video also sets the expectation as to what is expected of the students and provide information on the technology they will need to obtain or use.

We recommend keeping the video between 1-5 minutes. This should be available within the “getting started” module of the course.

Content Videos

These videos can include: lectures, interviews, presentations, tutorials, etc.

We recommend that the length of the video is between 1-15 minutes. Anything longer and you may begin to loose student retention. If more time is needed, consider breaking your video into smaller chunks. This means you may have three videos that are 15 minutes rather than one video that is 45 minutes. Having multiple short videos will allow learners to better pace themselves through the content as they can have a chance to stop, take notes, or review any information again before moving on. This also allows more for flexibility as the learners are more in control of their learning experience.

Weekly Overview Videos

Weekly overviews share the learning objectives and any extra information about the content the learners might be interested in. This video can also be used to highlight or expand on information that learning materials may share. This video is a good opportunity to share any expectations about the assignments coming up this week as well as remind or prepare students for what is to come.

We recommend keeping the video between 1-5 minutes as this video is just an overview of the weekly content and activities. If there is content you need more time to discuss, please review the information in the content video section of this webpage. This video should be available within the appropriate week, “Weekly Overview” page of the course.