Student Perceptions and Engagement in Video-based Learning for Microbiology Education

Online learning increases the physical distance between instructors and students and depending on the mode of delivery, it can be challenging to close this gap. To ameliorate this potential for student isolation, instructors need to communicate to students in a variety of ways, blending original online resources with synchronous interactive learning activities. During 2020, 34 lecture videos were created for a large undergraduate microbiology and immunology course offered at The University of Queensland. The teaching team applied a subset of Mayer’s multimedia learning design principles – embodiment, mixed perspectives, segmenting, signalling – to create videos featuring instructor presence, multiple presentation styles, and dynamic pacing. When compared to voice-over presentations created by automated lecture capture software, the outcomes of this design process increased student engagement in video-based learning across the 2020 and 2021 course offerings. Analysis of student perception data collected by online questionnaires and interviews revealed broad agreement with the design principles used for video-based learning. However, their value of on-screen instructor visibility, graphics, and text was variable as a result of individual preferences. Together these findings present a case study in which instructional videos were developed iteratively through the selective application of multimedia design principles and strategic adaptation of existing learning resources

Flipped Classrooms in the Humanities: Findings from a Quasi-Experimental Study

This quasi-experimental study explored the effects of flipping the classroom on perceptions of students in humanities settings. This control-matched study examined the effects of the flipped classroom on seven subscales from a satisfaction inventory. Out of 130 students, n = 62 (47.7%) completed the study. Flipped classes reported a more ideal classroom environment on Innovation and Individualization (p \u3c .001). Additionally, flipping provides instructors more time to focus on deeper learning strategies than traditional courses

Using video in the construction technology classroom: encouraging active learning

During the last fifteen years the use of video in the classroom at all levels of education has increased while at the same time most research into educational technology has concentrated on personal computers and the internet. Consequently there is a lack of research into how video is used in teaching at a time when it is one of the most used technologies. What research has been carried out (mainly in the medical education domain) has generally found video to be effective in promoting student learning and that students are receptive to its use. However it is necessary to ensure that students engage in active (rather than passive) viewing. This paper reports the authors’ experience of using the materials produced by the Video Project at the University of West of England (UWE) in teaching Level 1 domestic scale construction technology at Anglia Ruskin University. The research is concerned with how the videos may best be used in the lecture theatre. Data, collected by questionnaire from over 200 students largely support the authors’ approach of using a short but carefully focused quiz as an ‘orienting activity’ to encourage ‘active learning’. Feedback of the quiz results can then be used as the means by which further detail and reinforcement of key points is provided

Making training more cognitively effective: making videos interactive

The cost of health and safety (H&S) failures to the UK industry is currently estimated at up to £6.5 billion per annum, with the construction sector suffering unacceptably high levels of work-related incidents. Better H&S education across all skill levels in the industry is seen as an integral part of any solution. Traditional lecture-based courses often fail to recreate the dynamic realities of managing H&S on site and therefore do not sufficiently create deeper cognitive learning (which results in remembering and using what was learned). The use of videos is a move forward, but passively observing a video is not cognitively engaging and challenging, and therefore learning is not as effective as it can be. This paper describes the development of an interactive video in which learners take an active role. While observing the video, they are required to engage, participate, respond and be actively involved. The potential for this approach to be used in conjunction with more traditional approaches to H&S was explored using a group of 2nd-year undergraduate civil engineering students. The formative results suggested that the learning experience could be enhanced using interactive videos. Nevertheless, most of the learners believed that a blended approach would be most effective