Videos are not just for teaching—they’re a fantastic way to boost your presence, offer fresh perspectives, and connect course material to the real world. In this article, we’ll discuss how to create engaging video-based module introductions that combine the best of both worlds: teaching and context.
The Benefits of Module Introduction Videos
With respect to effective uses of video in online courses, module introductions have several benefits. Chief among them is the ability to establish instructor presence. Though there are many strategies to create a sense of presence in online courses, creating module introduction videos is a key way to establish what Teven and McCroskey (1997) identify as the three main factors in instructor presence: caring, competence, and trustworthiness. Though these can be communicated somewhat via text, tone can often be lost in the written word, and caring and trustworthiness are arguably better established through video.
Videos also appeal to many students’ learning preferences. Many instructors may be familiar with the “Recognition Network” identified by the universal design for learning instructional design framework, which suggests that independent of specific learning preferences, students benefit from having choice in their instructional materials (CAST, 2014). Given that videos for educational purposes should be accompanied by a transcript and captions, your module introduction will provide a valuable opportunity for students to identify and select their preferred learning path.
Perhaps the most important benefit of creating module introductions, however, is to help your students understand why they’re doing what you’re asking them to do. This brings us to our recommendation with respect to where to focus their content.
Crafting Your Content: Review, Preview, Motivate
Your module introductions should focus on providing context. When completed, your module introductions will help highlight the narrative arc of your course: how each module builds toward those after it and how each serves a vital role in the students’ achievement of the course objectives. While thoughtfully constructed module titles and an explicitly narrative-based structure to your course are certainly essential to helping students understand how knowledge and skills will build on each other, module introductions serve a similarly vital role as opportunities to reinforce this structure throughout the course.
When it comes to envisioning a structure for your individual module introductions, there’s a simple mantra you can use: Review, Preview, Motivate We discuss this in greater detail in our article on the importance of providing context, but to summarize:
- Review: Connect the module to previous content, activating students’ prior knowledge.
- Preview: Outline the module’s content and goals, helping students prepare and engage effectively.
- Motivate: Explain the relevance of the material to real-world applications and upcoming assessments.
What to Avoid
There are always some considerations when it comes to the content of videos, partly because creating effective videos can be time-consuming.
- Avoid references to dates and time of year this helps keep the recording evergreen so you don’t need to re-record it.
- Use royalty-free material to avoid copyright issues.
- Ensure you’re satisfied with the video before uploading it.
- Facilitators should create their own introductions allow the facilitator to create the introductions to maintain presence.
- Show your face to maintain the instructor presence.
- Don’t stress about expensive equipment your computer’s built-in tools can work just fine.
Filming Tips
It’s certainly challenging to attempt to cover the technical details of filming for all audiences. Given the tremendous variability in operating systems, and software, we won’t be addressing things like specific equipment recommendations or software. Instead, we’ll focus on more logistical items.
- Framing: Center yourself in the frame with a tidy, well-lit, and neutral-colored background and add decor that helps reflect who you are.
- Lighting: Use natural or gentle artificial light to avoid shadows and check your face is evenly lit.
- Sound: Ensure your audio is clear and at a comfortable volume.
- Performance: Be energetic and enthusiastic, and maintain eye contact with the camera.
Presenting Your Module Introduction
It’s important to consider where your video will end up and how it will be presented. If you’re a course writer, the most straightforward method to present your module introductions is to include them as the first component within your module. If you’re the facilitator of a course and do not have editing privileges within your institution’s learning management system, you can drop links to module introduction videos in an announcement that you create before the start of each module.
Embedding vs. Linking
Web-based videos can either be embedded or linked. When a video is embedded, it plays on the Web page where the embed code is dropped. If a link to a video is provided, the user is taken to an entirely separate website. If possible embed your video within your course. This keeps the student learning experience within the learning management system, and may provide some insight into student engagement, should you choose to examine any analytics. It’s not the end of the world if you have to link to a video. After all, many video delivery services have many excellent video features on their websites, such as download links, comments, video quality pickers, and many others. When you insert your link to your video, consider electing to have the browser open a new window or tab for the video, so users maintain their spot in the learning management system.
Accessibility
No discussion of videos is complete without accessibility. If you add videos to your course that are required, you must provide a text-based alternative. If you don’t, you need to provide a transcript and captions. (So, in a way, if you use video, there will need to be some text-based version of your video available.) Your module introduction video will likely be short, so hopefully it won’t be too difficult to generate a text-based version of it. It is additional work, however, there are services like Otter Ai that will help transcribe videos.
Conclusion
It may be the case that your institution may have a recording studio available on request or support staff who can assist you with some of the more technical details. But with a little bit of technical know-how, you can produce module video introductions yourself with little effort. Using the equipment you already likely possess, you can easily create short, engaging videos that can greatly aid in enhancing students’ retention, establishing instructor presence, and providing much-needed context.
References
CAST. (2014, November 12). UDL guidelines: Theory & practice. Retrieved from http://www.udlcenter.org/aboutudl/udlguidelines_theorypractice
Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of MOOC videos. Paper presented at ACM Conference on Learning @ Scale, Atlanta, GA. doi:10.1145/2556325.2566239
Teven, J. J., & McCroskey, J. C. (1997). The relationship of perceived teacher caring with student learning and teacher evaluation. Communication Education, 46, 1–9.
