The Lock, Stock and Barrel of Videos for Online Learning:

The Lock, Stock and Barrel of Videos for Online Learning: Practical How To’s, Tips, and Research Evidence for theDIYer Lena Paulo Kushnir, Ph.D., Kenneth Berry, MSc.,

Our Plan for today: • Part 1. HOW TO… • Equipment • Set Up • Time to Record and Edit • Part 2. TIPS • Recording • Production • Part 3. DATA and FINDINGS How much How long How hard What about all this: engages students impacts learning impacts social presence perceived authenticity What should videos include: video of instructor embedded resources other??

Part 1. How To… • Equipment • Studio in a Box • Back Up Drive • Sufficient storage for large videos • e.g., the videos that are recorded from the iPhone 4S are 1080p HD (1920 x 1080) video and up to 30 frames per second. • = approx 180 MB/sec • sweet spot; portability: we found that a 1TB (1024 GB) external hard drive was sufficient. • CamtasiaStudio 8 (Screenflow…) • Computer to work with files • Processing Power!!! • …

Processing Power: • A significant amount of processing power is needed. • minimum specs for Camtasia Studio 8 (PC version) are: • Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7, or Windows 8 • Dual-core processor minimum ~ Recommended: Quad-core processor or better • 2 GB RAM minimum ~ Recommended: 4 GB or more (more is better) • 2 GB of hard-disk space for program installation (500+ GB for video storage and manipulation) • Display dimensions of 1024x768 or greater • Dedicated video card recommended with 128 MB video memory or greater.

Set Up • Find a quiet spot to set up your “studio in box” • Download a sound meter app on your smartphone to measure this • Time to Record and Edit • Light editing (example, just recording, compressing, converting and posting with very little to no editing): 1 hour of lecture = up to 4 hours • Medium editing (example, same as above but with some editing, inserting embedded quizzes into video, and chunking video into segments): 1 hour of lecture = 7-12 hours (depending on how much quizzing and chunking) • Heavy editing (example, same as above but with lots of editing, panning in video, zooming and focusing on specific components rather than a whole screen of activity, stitching in other video clips, photos, voice overs, etc.): 1 hour of lecture = up to 25 hours (and possibly more depending on complexity of editing, skills, etc.) • too many individual differences; get to this shortly

Time to Record • Translates to costs $$$ • ~ $25 - $30 per hour (if you’re going to pay someone to do this for you) • $5000 - $8000 for a 12 week course (dependent on many factors) • Light editing: 1 hour of lecture = up to 4 hours • Medium editing: 1 hour of lecture = 7-12 hours (depending on how much quizzing and chunking) • Heavy editing: 1 hour of lecture = up to 25 hours (and possibly more depending on complexity of editing, skills, etc.) 6 lectures mean = 9.5 hours 6 lectures mean = 27.5 hours 1 @ 43.75 other 5 mean = 20.5 hours

Part 2. TIPS • Recording • Get a special camera mount for iPhone or other smart device and tripod so that you can have stable videos.

Ensure your devices are fully charged and get additional batteries if necessary (use external power supply). • Put phone in airplane mode to avoid any incoming communication that may interrupt recording and also to conserve on battery usage. • If instructor is reading from a computer screen, reduce the brightness of the monitor so that it does not cast any unwanted light and/or shadow on the person being recorded (glare with glasses). • Videos should be recorded at highest quality as possible so that you have a good source .

Recording continued… • Don’t sit, stand as if teaching in front of class • (especially important for typical lecture setting); • animated and natural • Wardrobe (season neutral; make up; jewelry, etc.,) • Date, time and weather neutral (especially important for reusable objects) • Speak with deliberate pauses for editing • First couple of takes are always the best; • generally become increasing unnatural as number of takes increases • Instructors have to get past how they look and sound (that’s what students see/hear)

Few more tips…

Production • Use noise filtering on the videos to clean up the audio. • Microphones matter!! Lots of options here; depends on your needs • Use green screen post-production; graphic design • Use blurring techniques (privacy), call outs (focus), etc. • zooming post-production doesn’t work very well • (pros and cons of zooming at recording) • We used WinFF to reduce/compress our videos from 1080p HD to 640 x 480, • a size that was more than sufficient for web purposes. • The videos will not only take up less space but also require less processing power.

Bandwith • Be aware of bandwidth limitations when uploading videos to online servers such as Camtasia relay especially when doing this from home. • Upload speeds are usually 25% of downloads speeds so uploading may be much slower than expected. • The Camtasia relay client does not perform any processing or compression on the videos on the local computer • So entire videos are uploaded to the server for processing. • Also, uploading large videos consumes your monthly internet usage allowance based on the package that you have!!

(no audio; watch for the fuzzy hair and mood change in the transition) • Top three TIPS • Don’t sit, stand as if teaching in front of class • Speak with deliberate pauses for editing • (see following video for example, but not without problems!) • 3. Computing: bandwidth, processing power and storage .

Typical workflow for us in TTS: 1. Record video using iPhone 2. Transfer video from iPhone 4. Import video and Screen Capture into Camtasia Studio 3. Compress video 6. Keep a record of parameters (size, position and location) for consistency 7. Produce and export videos in required format 5. Combine video, Screen capture and other media

Part 3. DATA and FINDINGS Background : • Online learning initiatives are popular and help meet a variety of goals • But what’s the evidence that online tools and teaching strategies supported by such tools are effective for positive learning outcomes? • PART 1: compared face-to-face learning to online learning • PART 2: compared 2 online groups

Objectives of our research: • To evaluate the impact of various online tools and teaching strategies on • student learning outcomes, • student engagement, • satisfaction of learning experience, • workload and overload, • reports of cheating, • social presence (and how well students felt they got to know the instructor), • isolation, • authenticity of course materials and lecturer. …and are there any variables or teaching strategies that can impact these and/or correlate to better outcomes? What are students’ experiences online?

Our study: Part 2 Part 1: 31 F2F 29 OL Podcasts/ comments 52 students in 2ndyr Psychology course (online) 25 s01 27 s02 • ½ hr - 1 hour lecture clips • messages and course announcements via LMS (text) announcements tool • 5 - 15 min lecture clip chunks with embedded quizzes in some clips • messages and course announcements via SAVISYS (video) messaging using Media Rich Material • Learning outcome measures, • plus… • no significant differences • first year average • cumulative average • high school entrance average • What parts of the course contributed most to their learning? • What was the workload like and did they feel overloaded? • Did they cheat? Think others cheated? • Plus some new social presence, authenticity questions… • How well they felt they got to know the professor? • How authentic the course felt? • How well did they really learn (who learned the most)? …plus more • What findings would you predict? Differences, no differences, etc…

Our findings: • Measures of how “things were going”…any differences between the groups (s01 & s02/2013; summer 2012)? Or are they having similar experiences? • Half-way checking-in survey (formative type feedback) • End of term survey (summative type feedback) • Learning outcome measures • 6 Quizzes (10%), • 2 Term tests (40%), • 1 Final Exam (30%), • 1 Assignment (10%), • Peer Instruction and Participation (10%), • overall Final Course Grade • …let’s take a look at what we found…

What aspects of the course are most successfully contributing to your learning? (Choose all that apply.) F2f/OL podcasts Summer 2013 Summer 2012 S01: large clips/text announcements S02: short clips/video announcements Study Groups

S02: short clips/video announcements In what part of the course, or what course activities did you feel most engaged? Summer 2013 S01: large clips/text announcements S02 S01 Summer 2012 F2f/OL podcasts

S02: short clips/video announcements Did you feel isolated in the course? Summer 2013 Summer 2012 (ONLINE only)

Please be honest; we’re just curious and your answers are anonymous (we will NOT follow up on this). Over the course of the term, did you cheat online in this course (e.g., use some help like the text or have a friend help) during the online quizzes and/or Peer Instruction questions and discussions? Summer 2013 Summer 2012 (ONLINE only)

Do you think other students cheated? Summer 2013 Summer 2012 (ONLINE only)

Considering that this was an online course with different types of interactions with the instructor than you might be used to in face-to-face courses, did you feel like you got to know the instructor? Summer 2013

How well did you feel like you knew the instructor? Summer 2013

(Choose all that apply to you.) Considering that this was an online course with different types of interactions......which of the following made you feel like you knew the instructor? Summer 2013

Compared to other lecture courses you’ve taken and considering that the lectures in this course were pre-recorded, how authentic (or real) did the lectures feel to you (e.g., lecture videos seemed natural and sincere, or unnatural and a bit fake, awkward or artificial)? Summer 2013

If the lecture videos had embedded quizzes did you feel more engaged? Summer 2013

Learning outcome measures: • 6 Quizzes (10%), • 2 Term tests (40%), • 1 Final Exam (30%), • 1 Assignment (10%), • Peer Instruction and Participation (10%), • Overall Final Course Grade NOT Statistically significant

Now what?

Compare f2f to various OL sections on the various measures introduced each session. no credit • Completely Online using live online proctors (students don’t come to campus to complete course requirements) • Analytics software (speaks to embedded quizzes and gives students immediate feedback on comprehension/gives instructor feedback on overall student comprehension: inject JIT teaching opportunities) • Online with exception of tests and exam (same as summer/13 Section 02) • No analytics software Compare Summer14 to summer13 for quiz impact. Compare S1 to S2 for impact analytics has on teaching and learning. • Make embedded quizzes worth credit for all students (students had to complete quiz previouslybut not worth any credit, just part of video). • Provide analytics to inform students and instructor about levels of comprehension (new integrated software) • Online test invigilation: assess academic integrity + impact on student experience and outcomes.

Did we answer the questions? Instructors know their skills and needs Lecture Videos, Quizzes, Peer Instruction (online discussion) – but nothing that differed between the groups; they all reported this. How much How long How hard What about all this: engages students impacts learning impacts social presence perceived authenticity What should videos include: video of instructor embedded resources other?? Nothing, if grades are what we’re using to measure learning. BUT there were other measures that were impacted. Grp with mini lectures (embedded quizzes and video messaging): reported feeling less isolated than any of the other groups and generally more positive ratings. Grp with mini lectures: reported more often than longer lecture Grp that lectures were “very authentic”. The video messages could have had an overall effect on this group but neither grp reported that the videos were unauthentic. No significant differences between the grps NOT even podcast grp (summer 2012) who had no video of instructor, only had audio and lecture slides; jury is still out (at least for TTS whether we need to invest so much time and $$ in videos; need more efficient way to do this).

Thank You! Lena Paulo Kushnir, Ph.D., lena.paulo.kushnir@utoronto.ca Kenneth Berry, MSc., kenneth.berry@utoronto.ca

The Lock, Stock and Barrel of Videos for Online Learning: