11 Part G: Humanizing through Videos, Photos, and Presence

A primarily text-based online course may leave students feeling disconnected from the instructor and the material. But a course that makes thoughtful use of multimedia (prepared by the instructor for the purpose of improving the sense of connection) may help with this problem. Underdown & Martin^[1] note that “lack of personal connection between student and teacher presence,” which is a major drawback of online education, can be mitigated through the use of instructor-prepared videos. Conrad^[2] also connect the use of online video technology with cognitive, teaching, and social presence. Sharples^[3] suggests that animated media, such as short animated movies, may be useful in helping students to learn topics that could otherwise be difficult to teach online through text or pictures – such as topics involving movement, dynamics, and procedures, or steps in problem solving. Jaggars & Xu^[4] discuss instructor use of technology in a sense that “does not include text-based readings, lecture notes, or slide presentations, but may include instructor- and publisher-created audio/video presentation tools, communication software or strategies, online information resources/archives, instructional software, etc.” These examples are more engaging for students, facilitating “diversification of instructional activities.”^[5][6]

In practice, this can look like:

• Don’t over-edit your course videos. Keep some of the stumbles and the not-so-polished bits.
• Cultivate a reflective and a conversational speaking style. Is there a tricky part that you know is coming up? Say so. Breaking the fourth wall every once in a while in an online lecture acknowledges that there is ‘someone out there’.
• Be aware of attention drop off, which is discussed in the University of Waterloo’s resource on creating useful online learning experiences.
• Consider recording videos outside, not only in front of your computer. A good idea might strike when you are walking your dog, or just strolling. Having a video of that moment that can add to the content for that week, and shows students that instructors care about the subject and have insights while doing mundane things.
• Keep the “chunks” of video short.
• Intersperse lecture chunks with either required or optional additional materials (videos, podcasts, museum websites, etc.).
• Tag videos into segments for later asynchronous use.
• Create follow-up activities, even a very short recap, for students to solidify and self-assess their understanding. This can be either directly embedded in video clips or in separate activity formats. The goal is to give students time and place to articulate in their own words what they learn from those multimodal materials.
• Speak as if you’re in class, not “online”. Stiffness/formality/reading can kill the links you’re trying to form in a video lecture.
• Include a description of the video, including its length, alongside the clip to summarize what the video is about and why it is important to view as part of the course.
• Edit captions if you can.
• Alt-text the images and graphs that you upload.