Snapshot
Type of Interaction: Asynchronous, Instructor-Student Communication
Type of Course: Online/Hybrid
Credit
Dr. Lynda Harkins – Department of Respiratory Care
Description
Online education once had the reputation of being lifeless. One of the common beliefs about distance education to date is that; it is an online platform where students study the content presented to them with little to no interaction with the instructor or fellow students.
Online education has evolved over the years. Most fully online courses these days include some number of community building activities such as discussion forums and teamwork to help foster student-to-student learning. However, despite these efforts, students tend to complain about the lack of instructor presence in asynchronous courses.
Most online instructors communicate with students via assignment feedback, discussion responses or email. However, receiving only written communication from faculty can contribute to students feeling stranded in an online course.
In order to tackle that problem, Dr. Lynda Harkins, graduate faculty in the Department of Respiratory Care, uses video announcements to increase her presence in the online course to keep the students engaged and motivated throughout the semester.
In 3-5 minute-long weekly video announcements, Dr. Harkins discusses themes that are current and relevant to that specific week. She touches on topics such as weekly homework, upcoming events/assignments, clarifications about the syllabus etc. She also tries to keep the conversation really customized to her class by recognizing students and mentioning their names in the context of outstanding performance on an assignment. Dr. Harkins uses these videos to talk to students about her life’s occurrences which helps her create better relationship with her students.
In her after-class survey, a student left a comments saying that “The support and guidance provided by the instructor via weekly announcements was very helpful.”
Recommended Software
Any video recording software could be used to record weekly video announcements. Texas State supports TechSmith Relay and Zoom, both of which can be used to record videos with screen share if desired. Other options include Window’s Movie Creator, Mac’s Photobooth, and the Recording tab available in PowerPoint (formerly Microsoft Mix).
Once the video is produced it can be uploaded on the Mediaflo video streaming server. The link to this video can then be included in the course site announcement.
FERPA Implications
Faculty who wish to implement this strategy in their online classes must make sure to avoid reusing announcements from another semester. This is to make sure that the information in the video is always current. This practice also keeps faculty from having any FERPA violations.
Faculty should also be aware of the need to provide a transcript or closed captions for students with hearing impairments. Mediaflo includes a voice recognition solution for adding closed captions to a video recording that can save time in addressing this requirement.
Here is an example of one of Dr. Harkins’ video announcements:
https://mediaflo.txstate.edu/Watch/b4HWi3r8
Additional application: Faculty could adopt a similar strategy to provide video/audio feedback to individual students via Assignments.