A few years ago,
when we started creating videos for our introductory geology course,
we had no experience in video production.
Many of you may be in a similar position
so we thought it might be useful to share what we have learned
and offer some suggestions for folks who are considering creating their own instructional videos.
While we are geology instructors, the principles we discuss here are not domain specific
and can be readily applied in many disciplines.
We hope that this video will help you figure out how to design
and produce an effective video learning experience for your students.
Even if circumstances require you to rapidly transition from face-to-face instruction to an online environment,
you should be aware that teaching with videos can have some potential benefits.
For example, we found that videos could result in more learning than reading the equivalent passage in a textbook.
And we found that students could learn just as much from watching a video we produced
as listening to us lecture about the same material in class.
Many of the principles we will discuss were identified by the research of Dr. Richard Mayer and his colleagues.
He literally wrote the book on multimedia learning.
We will include some key Mayer references at the end of the presentation.
There are three big ideas that we need to take into account.
First, research on the multimedia principle
tells us that people learn more when lessons feature a mix of words and visuals rather than just words alone
Second, learning is more effective because of the dual-channels principle
which notes that when we watch a video we are using both our eyes and our ears to take in information
in contrast to using just one channel when we read a textbook.
However, the third principle, limited capacity,
reminds us that our working memory can only process a small number of new items at a time,
So we have to be careful not to overload the system with cues
And that means being thoughtful about how we design our videos
So, putting all that together
if we create a video with a good mix of images and words,
students can process the information in their working memory
and combine that information with their existing knowledge to learn effectively.
All right, that sounds good in theory, how do we actually do it?
Glad you asked,
we are going to boil down some of Mayer’s recommendations into three goals.
Let’s start by addressing how to avoid cognitive overload when we are designing our videos.
Signaling directs student attention to key points
and helps clarify what the instructor wants the student to learn.
Just as we did here, we like to identify one or two specific learning objectives for each of our videos.
To avoid overloading the limited capacity of the working memory,
the coherence principle directs us to take a minimalist approach to text and images
that excludes extraneous details that are irrelevant to the learning objective.
For example . . .
Shield volcanoes have a distinctive low angle profile that forms broad triangular landforms
that are thought to resemble an overturned warrior's shield
Next, the redundancy principle tells us that graphics and narration alone
are usually less distracting than a combination of graphics, narration and on-screen text
The correct placement of labels and text is addressed by the spatial contiguity principle
which recommends that any labels be placed adjacent to the corresponding feature.
Essentially, avoiding the standard caption-style format
where the description of an object is placed below the picture of the object.
The related temporal contiguity principle
suggests that visuals, their labels and any related narration should occur together.
For example . . .
First, we will have a descending plate that is pushed down into the mantle.
In this example, we have a plate composed of oceanic lithosphere that turns downward along the trench
which represents the boundary between the two plates.
OK, time for goal #2. This one describes two principles
about how to present the information you want your students to learn.
When presenting information online we need to think differently than when we deliver a face-to-face lecture.
Research on the segmenting principle reveals that we should break the information we want to present
into smaller chunks that students can control.
For example our GeoScience Videos are typically around 6 minutes in length
and it would take multiple videos to cover the material in a standard lecture.
Further, we often have short embedded assessments within the videos
that ask students to apply what their just learned.
For example, we speeded up one of the assessment exercises here . . .
Next, research on the modality principle
demonstrates that it is better to pair images and spoken words than images and written text.
We can compare the bathymetry and the age of the ocean floor on these spinning globes
It's relatively easy to identify the divergent boundaries toward the center of the ocean basins
using the features we've just described.
This animation paired with narration uses both the visual and auditory channels
but visuals and text together would overload the visual channel.
Goal #3 examines two principles that seek to make your video more engaging and informative for your audience.
Research shows that students learn more when information is presented in a conversational style.
This is referred to as the personalization principle.
Whenever possible, avoid formal or technical language and use the first or second person.
Lastly, the embodiment principle addresses the role of people appearing in videos.
Generally, having an instructors “talking head”–like image on-screen
has little impact on learning and may simply be a distraction.
However, students typically learn better if a person on-screen
is actively involved in demonstrating or modeling an activity.
For example, it is better for an instructor to draw and explain a diagram on a whiteboard
than it is to explain an existing whiteboard illustration.
So, let’s remember that these were our three design goals.
We described nine different principles that supported learning based on the research of Mayer and others.
While all of these principles have been shown to improve learning, some have a greater impact than others.
If you had to make a prediction, which two do you think might result in the greatest learning gains?
Here are the results.
The Embodiment and Signaling principles actually have the lowest, but positive effect
while Redundancy and Temporal Contiguity have the greatest impact.
We encourage you to review the Mayer paper cited here for more information about these studies.
OK, there are some great general principles you can apply as you think about producing your own videos.
But to put some of those ideas in a more specific context,
we are going to briefly walk you through our design process for making our GeoScience Videos.
Let’s start by thinking about the balance between the spoken words, the images on screen and any added text.
We will start with narration.
An important early step for us is to write a script.
The length of the script essentially dictates the length of the video.
Our average narration rate means that most of our scripts are around 900 to 1000 words.
Shorter scripts usually reflect the presence of some type of student activity
when we stop talking for a moment or two.
We typically try to find an image to go with each script item.
We try to use images from the public domain, or that were shared by a creative commons license,
or that are created by colleagues and used with permission.
We have made some images and video clips ourselves when we couldn’t find anything suitable.
Fortunately, many state and federal agencies
have created and shared some spectacular images and animations.
After getting your visuals sorted, the next step is to sync the visuals with the narration.
If we can match one visual or combination of images with each script item,
we end up speaking around 40 words per scene.
Just like I did here.
Applying the redundancy principle, we make an effort to keep text to a minimum
but it is may be necessary for vocabulary terms, labels and occasional brief descriptions.
So, let’s say that you have your script and some of your images, what’s next?
Well, chances are, you still have to acquire a few more visuals and record the audio.
But don’t worry, none of this needs to be too sophisticated.
We made most of our videos with smartphones, an ancient video camera
and a USB mic that plugged into a laptop.
We created storyboards for our first videos by sticking sheets of paper to the wall
and writing an outline with colored markers.
Subsequently, we placed visuals and text on slides in PowerPoint
with blank placeholders for future images or video clips that were going to be added during editing.
Finally, you have to make a decision on how comfortable you are with video production technology.
We have settled on Camtasia which gives us some flexibility in editing
without requiring us to take a short course on how to figure out how to use it.
You will need to find what works for you. There are lots of options out there.
Camtasia takes in the original slides and audio track from PowerPoint and allows you to add
additional images or videos and call outs to highlight particular parts of each scene or slide.
. . . And this is the final version of this scene after editing in Camtasia.
We will start with the atmosphere
We live in the lowest layer of the atmosphere
and this layer contains all the weather that we experience plus all the air we breathe
The air includes a small fraction of carbon dioxide
along with the more abundant nitrogen and oxygen gases
This tiny amount of carbon dioxide makes an out-sized contribution to Earth's climate.
So, boiling all that down, here is a summary of what we discussed
We had two learning objectives for this video. How confident are you that you could complete these tasks?
Thanks for watching, and listening, and here are those Mayer references we promised.
And finally, please take a look at our YouTube channel if you would like to see what our finished videos look like
and please feel free to share this video with friends and colleagues.
Stay safe.