The Value of Video

Awesome! You made it to the first page of our module. This module is going to walk you through everything you need to know to create your 2-3 minute, imperfect welcome video. At the end of each page, click the Next button to move to the next page in the module.

A Communication Channel

While there was chaos and confusion with the transition to online in Spring 2020, we had the benefit of having had met our students face-to-face in the classroom during those first 6 weeks of the semester. They'd already shared physical space with us prior to moving online. This won't be true for most of us for Fall. We'll need to find ways for students to feel safe learning with us in this new online learning environment. Using a video to welcome students and introduce ourselves will help students to get to know us better so that we can begin to build those learning partnerships. "Videos open up a line of communication in the online modality, allowing teachers to reveal appropriate personal details that can be used to discover commonalities that support our students' academic achievement" (Costa, p. 16). 

Trust Generators

"Trust between teachers and students is the affective glue that binds educational relationships together" (Brookfield, p. 162). As you consider the ways in which you will be welcoming students to your online class, be intentional about how you can begin to build trust with your students. Trust will help to build community in your course and it will help to build the learning partnerships with your students (Hammond, 2015). Trust is a difficult thing to pinpoint, isn't it? Hammond (2015) identifies the following trust generators:

  • Familiarity: People develop a sense of familiarity with someone who they see often in a particular setting such as at a bus stop everyday or in the cafe on a regular basis. 
  • Concern: People connect when another shows concern for those issues and events important to another, such as births, illnesses, or other life transitions. 
  • Competency: People tend to trust others who demonstrate they have the skills and knowledge, as well as the will to help and support them. 
  • Similarity of interests: Sharing hobbies and similar likes/dislikes is another way for us to bond with each other
  • Selective vulnerability: We connect with people when they show their imperfections. Being vulnerable is being human. 

"At the core of positive relationships is trust. Caring is the way that we generate the trust that builds relationships" (Hammond, p. 85). Using videos with our online students is another way to convey that we care about them and we want them to be successful. 

Video Postcards

Fabiola Torres, Ethnic Studies faculty at Glendale College, uses brief, imperfect videos to send her students video postcards from non-academic locations (this is pre-COVID, by the way).

Check-In Videos

Denise Maduli-Williams, an ESL and English faculty at San Diego Miramar College, uses Clips (a mobile app for Apple iOS devices) to record off the cuff, supportive check-in videos with her students. 

Storytelling

Michelle Macfarlane, an Agriculture faculty at Sierra College, used Adobe Spark to create this personal story for her Q&A Discussion forum, which she has titled The Truckstop. 

Bumper Videos

A bumper video is a 2-3 minute, visually-oriented video designed to clarify a specific tricky topic, introduce a new module, or serve as a promotional video for your course. This video by Matt Mooney, a History faculty at Santa Barbara College, provides a visual explanation of the Triangle Trade, a topic that students don't always comprehend through the reading alone. Matt embeds this within the module that includes this topic so it scaffolds his students' learning.

 

Brookfield, S. (2000). The skillful teacher. New York: Jossey-Bass.

Costa, K. (2020). 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos: A guide for online teachers and flipped classes. Stylus Publishing.

Hammond, Z., & Jackson, Y. (2015). Culturally responsive teaching and the brain: Promoting authentic engagement and rigor among culturally and linguistically diverse students.