What have you learned thus far about designing instruction from a video media perspective?

        Teaching and designing instruction from a video media perspective has been my favorite method for designing instruction. I have learned that you must spend time mapping out your scenes and writing your script prior to recording your video. Mapping out the scenes and thinking about the cuts to the new scenes helps you create a better end product. Also, it is a good idea to record the same scene from multiple angles. Record them close up and farther away so that your cuts from one scene to the next seem more natural. The change in scene looks best when you go from a close up to a distance scene or from distance to close up. Also, I found that getting the lighting in our classrooms to look right was very difficult with the lights that we have in our classrooms and labs. So, if I did this again, I would want to bring extra lighting in addition to the classroom lighting.

Using video to deliver the lesson was beneficial to me because I tried to make it similar to our face-to-face trainings. It was more natural to teach this way. I could explain a step, and then record the demonstration of completing the step. Perhaps the only drawback of delivering instruction in this format is that learners don’t have the opportunity to immediately ask clarifying questions if they are having trouble with one of the steps. If you use this method in web-based instruction, then you would want to ensure that dialogue could take place either between other learners or between the learner and the instructor.

I think that the most difficult component of designing this instruction was ensuring that the cut from scene to scene was smooth and made sense for the learner. Again, mapping out your scenes and writing the script prior to recording your video can make this process much easier.

        It changed the way I think about learning and teaching by helping me realize that through the use of video you can reach and serve many students.  A teacher can post a video for students to view during class time, or the teacher could flip the instruction, so students could view the instruction outside of class time. In addition, if students were having trouble grasping the concept or forgot a step, they could use the video as a resource to help reinforce the step or skill.

      Using video versus a single medium for delivering instruction is helpful because you can develop the lesson similar to face-to-face instruction. Teachers can use text, audio, and visuals in the video to help explain the concept that they are teaching. So, the use of video naturally incorporates several formats in the lesson design.