What are "video tutorials"?
Videos Don't Come with Instructions -
Teachers Create Added Value
Unfortunately, most videos don't come with instructions! And that's why we think that video viewing by itself is a low-value activity. A tutorial guides a student's participation in the viewing experience, and requires higher order cognitive skills for processing information deemed of value by the instructor.
What are purposes of video tutorials?
A goal of using video multimedia is to transform a passive viewing experience into an active learning experience. This is accomplished through "video tutorials". A video tutorial is a student handout is written to accompany a specific video.
An exemplary video tutorial -
- informs the student of the purpose of viewing the video
- instructs the student to make observations and record information
- challenges student with questions related to information presented in the video
- directs the student to discuss questions with classroom peers, evaluate responses, and write conclusions
- engages the student's thinking on a variety of cognitive levels, for example, from simple recall, description and identification, to analysis and evaluation
- invokes multiple modes of expression, and therefore cognitive processing, from the writing of text, to the sketching of shapes, diagrams, and organized objects
Written responses to video tutorials may be collected for formative assessment of student understanding, and iterative evaluation of video effectiveness for engagement and instruction.
Video Tutorials = Active Learning
- Lecture time is limited and valuable
- Passive watching of a classroom video adds little pedagogical value
- Value of video snip is enhanced through active student participation guided by "video tutorials"
- Video tutorials are student- and group-centered
- Sample video tutorials ready for classroom use in Earth Science are available here
How to modify classroom instruction for video+tutorials?
- instructor replaces some lecture time with video viewing and student interactions
students watch video snips (arbitrarily short)
in small groups, students discuss questions that address video information
students describe, analyze, evaluate, write about observations, arguments, conclusions
- instructor then leads discussion about observations, arguments, viewpoints, issues, to guide and enhance student understanding
- written responses may be used for feedback and formative assessment
Video Tutorials for Teaching Earth Science
Several ready-to-go video tutorials are found in Video Tutorials for You..