Introduction Videos with Purpose

Stop me if this sounds familiar. You've just started a new semester in school and each teacher/professor would like for you to introduce yourself to the class. They each have a slightly different list of questions or topics they'd like for you to address, but for the most part, the questions are the same. What's your name? Where are you from? What's your current occupation? Why are you taking this class? What would you like to gain from this course? Give one interesting fact about yourself. I think you get it. These lessons serve a purpose in that we get to know our classmates and our professors a little more and can make connections with those we will be working with over the next several months. In the world of online classes and fewer face-to-face sessions, the introduction assignment has become a staple in online courses. This assignment is not the most exciting, but it is a necessary evil that professors and students must trudge through each semester. But what if it didn't have to be that way? What if our introduction assignments were creative and fun instead of uninspired and boring? What if we were allowed to use more than a discussion board post with a character limit or a Flip video under sixty seconds? Experts, educators, and students agree that online learning experiences are less engaging than in-person experiences (Kushlev & Epstein-Shuman, 2022). So what if we created an introduction assignment that was engaging and fun to create and participate in?

In my current coursework, one of my professors is having our class redo our original introduction videos. We are to recreate or edit our video with a new audience in mind while using the clips. After much reading and exploring, we have to recreate our video into something that uses several concepts we've learned about digital writing and how to present information. The first step in this assignment was to watch our original video with a critical eye. We were to write down several parts that we could cut, change, enhance, etc. Here's the list I created after watching my original video:

Observations/Changes: 

• I did not do a great job of scripting what I wanted to say. My original video was more of an informal, conversation-type video. 
• I did not add images, graphs, or videos to go along with my introduction. This would have made the video more interesting and memorable for the audience. 
• I could have added a soft background song or other sound effects to help keep my audience’s attention and to make the video more engaging. 
• I did not do much editing of the video after I finished filming it. I knew that this video was just for my classmates to see and didn’t think that it needed too much added. 
• I could have added the questions I was answering on the screen, so the audience knew more about my answers. 

With these notes, I decided to move into step two of the assignment with several ideas to improve my video. Here are a few, but not all I came up with: add an intro slide/graphic, add background music, add text to the screen, and add transitions. I began transforming my video in iMovie into an introduction that shows more of my personality and something I know people would enjoy watching. My original video was simple, which was fine for that assignment, but to make the assignment more meaningful and engaging, I needed to add a little more. In thinking about my new audience and how the video could be used outside of class, my professor forced me to take a basic assignment and turn it into something creative and useful. When providing online instruction, instructors should intentionally choose the appropriate strategy to increase students’ engagement to improve learning (Xu, Zhou, Watts, & Kogut, 2023). This is what introduction assignments should be like. These assignments should push students to learn about writing and new tech, while also showing their personalities in a fun way. While it can be difficult for students to create good media to use in their projects, the process helps them understand the intellectual work that goes into creating such materials (Hicks, 2013).

I will post my original video and my "redo" to show the difference between the assignments and the outcomes.

      

References:

Hicks, T. (2013). Crafting digital writing: composing texts across media and genres. Portsmouth, NH, Heinemann.

Kushlev, K., & Epstein-Shuman, A. (2022, February 12). Lights, Cameras  (on), Action! Camera Usage During Zoom Classes Facilitates Student Engagement Without Increasing Fatigue. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/5bz3j 

Xu, Z., Zhou, X., Watts, J., & Kogut, A. (2023). The effect of student engagement strategies in online instruction for data management skills. Education and Information Technologies: The Official Journal of the IFIP Technical Committee on Education, 28(8), 10267–10284. https://doi-org.ezproxy.montevallo.edu/10.1007/s10639-022-11572-w