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Reflection

The process of creating the procedural tutorial and collecting the opinions of the students has been helpful with my understanding of the potential opportunities that exist for the use of screen casting. From a educational practitioners perspective, I see the value in the ability to record procedures provides for an opportunity to develop an archive of instructional videos, that may be accessed and referred to by students when required and where access allows. This in turn allows for time in sessions to be focused on other forms of teaching learning, and assessment. However, there were barriers that emerged with reference to production consideration may affect the quality of recordings. An example of this is the narration of steps without the use of a script. Whilst the videos were successful in demonstrating and explaining the steps, from a production standpoint, however, it lacked flow in parts and gave the impression of being amateurish. This experience highlighted the challenges of allocating the large amount of time required to film and edit procedural videos that had a professional feel. However, taking in to consideration my own practice and reflecting on feedback received from students, I recognise the added value that procedural videos may add to enhancing the learning experience of students. The use and role of video in providing an accessible and inclusive learning experience is paramount to my pedagogy, the use of video as a teaching tool is effective from the perspective of a learner and practitioner. However, there are barriers that emerge with regards to production time, which I will aim to overcome by allocating 1 day a week to produce videos. This will also be supported with the use of scripts, or cue cards to improve delivery and flow. Future development and potential exist for screen casting to record spoken word lectures in a flipped lesson, or provide evidence for alternative forms assessment by students. To enhance inclusion of hard of hearing students, I will also include a script transcript.  These are areas, I will be considering to explore and experiment with in future by recording more examples of procedural tutorials and presenting  theoretical topics.

Developing Learning Communities

The findings from my project I hope to present to my colleagues in the School of Media Teaching and Learning working group to disseminate my experience of producing and using procedural videos and its effectiveness as a method of pedagogy.  It is hoped that the potential for developing procedural video tutorials will allow more time in classes for experimentation and developing of knowledge by students through a constructivist approach.

Bibliography

British Educational Research Association (BERA) (2011) Ethical guidelines for educational research. Available at: https://www.bera.ac.uk/researchers-resources/publications/ethical-guidelines-for-educational-research-2011 [Accessed 11th May 2019]

Flipped Learning Network (FLN). (2014) The Four Pillars of F-L-I-P™ Reproducible PDF can be found at www.flippedlearning.org/definition.
[Accessed 15th March 2019]

Fisher, A & Exley, K & Ciobanu, Dragos. (2014). Using Technology to Support Learning and Teaching.

Hoic-Bozic, N. Mornar V. and Boticki, I., "A Blended Learning Approach to Course Design and Implementation", IEEE Transactions on Education, Vol. 52, Issue 1, pp. 19-30, 2009, Available at: http://www.fke.utm.my/new-academics/skel/admission.php [Accessed 15th March 2019].

Murray, D., Koziniec, T. and McGill, T. (2015). Student Perceptions of Flipped Learning. In Proc. 17th Australasian Computing Education Conference (ACE 2015) Sydney, Australia. CRPIT, 160. D'Souza, D and Falkner, K. Eds., ACS. 57-62
https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/7c6f/51595edb20ac396ce80b0309b86f3ab538c1.pdf
[Accessed 15th March]

Nicholson D.B,  & Nicholson, J, (2010) "A stream runs through IT: using streaming video to teach information technology", Campus-Wide Information Systems, Vol. 27 Issue: 1, pp.17-24, https://doi.org/10.1108/10650741011011255
[Accessed 15th March 2019]

O'Byrne, W.I. & Pytash, K.E. (2015). Hybrid and Blended Learning. Journal of Adolescent & Adult Literacy, 59(2), pp. 137–140. doi: 10.1002/jaal.463

Sincero, S. M. 2011. Cognitive Learning Theory. https://explorable.com/cognitive-learning-theory
[Accessed 16th March 2019]

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The first step in the creation of the practical video tutorials was  developing my understanding of Screencast-O-Matic through attending a workshop that introduced me to the functions and uses of the application. I found the workshop useful and saw the potential for the production and basic editing of procedural videos. The application enables the recording of onscreen production processes with a narrative to compliment the action. However, in addition, I felt there was a role for the recording of theoretical/traditional lecture delivery with supporting material.

As conveyed in my rationale, my technological confidence identified screen-casting/video production as an area for potential development. My practise as a technical lecturer is primarily focused on delivering practical subjects with instructional processes, underpinned by theoretical knowledge and conventions. I saw the potential value of screen casting as a new delivery technique and resource for learners to refer to when they are not in the classroom.

I identified and selected topics with technical processes that I felt would benefit from a video screencast delivery. Due to initial technical compatibility issues, I was unable to launch Screencast-O-Matic, but decided to progress with the project by using a technology that I previously considered, but was aware did not record audio (Quicktime video). Assistance was requested from the technical department to investigate the compatibility issue and rectify.

During this period, I recorded three procedural video tutorials without sound on the subject of using Adobe Illustrator, which is a vector image graphic design tool. I decided on this topic, due to the previous introduction to the application, being produced as a text-based instructional piece. This I felt would be a good measure and comparison to the effectiveness of video tutorials. To minimise the impact of the loss of audio. I slowed my movement down and empathised tool identification and use. On completion and publishing, these videos were positively received by the students, however, there was a criticism with the lack of audio. I felt this experience would as a good pilot for the Screencast-O-matic versions, when the software was installed on my MAC.

Once Screencast-O-matic was successfully installed I created a further three tutorial videos. The production process was straight forward, but due to my lack of experience with video editing, I decided to attempt to complete the videos in one take, this required the use of a crib sheet for dialogue reference. Initial ideas for further development, include exploring and experimenting with the editing tools to create a more professional production. Upon the successful creation of the videos and they were published and made available on Moodle for access by the class.

The initial reaction and feedback through informal questioning to the videos reception was positive. Observation of the cohort in class, resulted in a significant number of students accessing and viewing the videos.

To measure the perception of the usefulness of screen-casting for students and how this compares to the normal method of tutorial delivery via the medium of print. I have designed two quantitive questions using the Likert scale method for ease of understanding, clarity and collection which will be included with the module evaluation form.  The two questions are "The video tutorials were helpful" and
"I prefer video tutorials to text instruction tutorials", the scale measure ranged from 0 Definitely Disagree to 4 Definitely Agree. Based on the the informal initial reaction to the video tutorials, it is anticipated that the results will be positive, however, there maybe some variation with the strength of feeling. The sample size of the respondents will be small due to the cohort size, however, all class members will be given the opportunity and encouraged to complete the survey.

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Ethical Considerations
To evaluate the effectiveness of the video tutorials, I felt it was important to collect and analyse the perceptions of the students towards the use of video and print based tutorials. In line with the British Educational Research Association (BERA) guidelines, I decided to include two questions in my module evaluation survey asking learners to rate the perceived helpfulness of video tutorials. The questions were designed to meet ethical guidelines with respondents answering anonymously so as not to prejudice against age, gender, religion race, sexual orientation, disability etc.  Permission was sought and granted from the Course Director to conduct the survey and and an individual explanation was given to all respondents of the purpose of the survey, and how the data was to be used, and securely stored. All respondents were reminded that their participation was voluntary and they could withdraw at anytime and all who took part consented to their participation in the study (BERA, 2018).

Results

The results of the survey were positive and provided a narrow snapshot due to the number of respondents of the the perception of video tutorials. There were 8 respondents from a total of 18, which represents a response rate of 44% . The first question of "The video tutorials were helpful" received a response of 62.5% for "Definitely Agree" and 37.5% for "Mostly Agree". This presents an overwhelmingly positive perception of the utilisation of video tutorials for delivering technical instruction.
The second question asking "I prefer video tutorials to text instruction tutorials" received a response of 50% for  "Definitely Agree", 25% for "Mostly Agree" and 25% for "Neither Agree or Disagree". Although there is a slight variation in the respondent answers, the data suggests that the responses are largely positive with regards to the perception of the use of video tutorials when compared to text based instruction. To support this perception, the standard qualitative module feedback question "What are the best features (strengths) of this module?" directly mention the use of video tutorials with the helpful responses of:

"Learning new visual communication techniques that can be applied to future work. The video tutorials are also very useful to refer back to.
video tutorials alongside powerpoint instructions" and "video tutorials alongside powerpoint instructions".

These quotes from students highlight and underpins the impact of video tutorials for the delivery of procedural knowledge resulting in this pedagogical method being a strong point of the module and effective with the facilitating of student development and understanding. This viewpoint is supported by Nicholson and Nicholson's (2010) and Murray et al (2015) research in to student perceptions of instructional videos use by remarking that by using a multimedia component, students benefitted from greater satisfaction, understanding and a reduction in the time required to complete assignments and overall improved the learning journey for those students and the appreciation to be able to follow along with computer aided demonstrations.