Category: Best Practices

Best Practices, Pedagogy, Small Teaching Tip, Teaching Advice

Small Teaching Tip #10: Creating Connections

leea5

One of the most challenging aspects of education is getting our students to use prior knowledge and to connect that with the new information we are trying to teach them.  It seems as if students walk into each class and compartmentalize it in their brain, often, it feels as if they do this for each unit within a single class.  So how can we have them see the bigger picture?  How can we get them to view their education as a living, changing whole instead of a segmented path?  James M. Lang (2016) offers some tips and strategies to bring in prior knowledge before building upon it.

  • Have the students take a short quiz prior to class asking them to pull from prior knowledge, use the first few minutes of class to go over the results.
  • In the beginning of class tell the students what the lesson is about and have them write down everything they know about the topic, take the next 5 minutes to solicit responses.  
  • At the start of the semester pretest or use group activities to assess prior knowledge
  • After the first class of the semester have the students write down three things the know about the subject matter and three things they would like to learn, discuss these during the second class.
  • Have the students create a minute thesis connecting different themes throughout your course.  You can have them do this in a few minutes or over a whole class period.  Have them share their ideas and discuss it as a class.
  • Create concept maps linking together ideas throughout the course.  Have the students share and explore their peer’s ideas.  They can add to these maps for the whole semester or make new ones depending on the topic at hand.

Remember, as experts in your field it is easy for you to draw connections and see the big picture but for your students it may take more time and coaching.  Make sure to provide the framework for these connections and refer back to them often.  Again, James M. Lang (2016) offers “Quick Tips” on helping your students to connect concepts.

  • Ask students about their prior knowledge at the beginning of the course with oral questions or a “class knowledge dump”
  • Give students the scaffolding or framework of your lecture ahead of class time and let them fill it in using their prior knowledge.
  • Offer examples from everyday life and allow students to offer their own.  Help them to connect the “real world” with class concepts.

In order for us to really educate our students we need to help them see the bigger picture, help them create connections and guide them along the path of a whole, connected, educational career.

This post is part of a series which presents low risk, high reward teaching ideas, inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning.

Easily Share Large Files
Best Practices, Productivity

Secure Share: Securely Share Files (replaces FileLocker) Available Now! 

Mendi Benigni

Authored by CofC Information Security

What is Secure Share?

Secure Share is a Web-based application, developed by Liquid Files, that allows users to securely and temporarily share files. You can access Secure Share from off campus as long as you have an internet connection.   This is a great way to share files that are too big for email or shouldn’t be sent through email for security reasons.  Secure Share is available to staff and faculty at the College of Charleston. You may also share files with members of the general public.

Use of Secure Share is subject to US Copyright Law, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), College of Charleston policies, and all applicable State and Federal laws. 

 Please note that this is for sharing files temporarily, and files will be deleted after 14 days.

Why replace FileLocker?

FileLocker was developed as freeware by a Purdue University security team more than five years ago. For the last three years, no support or development has occurred for the software. As the product no longer meets information security standards for the College, a new system was installed to allow for secure file transfers. FileLocker will remain available until Jan. 5, 2017.  All files within FileLocker will be purged on 01/05/17.  

Get Started!

Questions?

If you have any questions, please contact the Information Security by emailing it-informationsecurity@cofc.edu

 

Assessment, Best Practices, Collaboration, Distance Ed, Events, Innovative Instruction, Pedagogy, Teaching Advice

DE 2.0 Workshop: Humanizing Your Online Course

Amy Ostrom

humanize-your-content-900x423
“I miss getting to really know my students. It’s just not the same.”

“There’s no way of knowing who is on the other side of the screen.”

Sound familiar? If so then you aren’t alone.

Not only do some instructors feel this way about online learning, but students do as well. Often they feel isolated, disconnected, and insignificant. These feelings of seclusion can often lead to decreased motivation, attention, and engagement. As part of the online learning process, it is vital to intentionally design elements to make sure that that the human connection isn’t lost in the online learning process.

 

What is Humanizing?

Humanizing your course involves considering the teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence of all participants in order to build community and enhance communication. The ultimate goal of this process is to make online education as personal and individualized as possible while building relationships between your students, the content, and yourself.

About the DE 2.0 Workshop

This 3-week long, self-paced session will take you through some strategies that you can use in your online class to make you and your students feel more connected. While this course is held fully online, it does contain three optional synchronous sessions with experts in humanizing online education from around the world!

You might be interested in this session if:

  • You feel you are not connecting with your students in your online class the way you do in your face-to-face class.
  • You feel like your online class lacks community.
  • You want to make your course more engaging and personal for the students.

 

humanizing-youronline-course

Workshop Goals

  • Discover the elements of teaching presence, social presence, and cognitive presence as it applies to the online learning environment, particularly in the areas of facilitation, learning domains, and course design.
  • Research assessment and engagement strategies, community building/maintaining platforms, and technology tools for increasing the humanized element.
  • Discuss elements of humanized learning with other faculty teaching online at College of Charleston.
  • Ask questions, exchange ideas, and meet other CofC faculty teaching distance education courses.
  • Create engaging content and online activities that foster the elements of teaching presence, social presence and cognitive presence.

Learning Outcomes

  • Explore instructional theories that lead to a more humanized online class.
  • Identify areas of your course that can be made learner centered and/or interactive.
  • Revise and/or create course interactions, including social learning experiences, content delivery methods, and assessment of student learning.

Register now on TLT’s DE Readiness Blog!

Applications are open until January 31, 2017!

 

6 reasons to use google docs
Best Practices, Google, Google Apps, Productivity

6 Reasons To Use Google Docs Instead Of Word

Mendi Benigni

The latest installment in my series on 6 Reasons To Use Google Apps For Education will take a look at Google Docs.  Google Docs is a free, web-based, word processing application that is basically like Microsoft Word.  All files are automatically saved to the cloud so you never lose anything and can access your work from any computer, anywhere, using just a web-browser. In my mind, this alone is reason enough to use it.  As a matter of fact, a month ago my computer died…completely.  However, all of my files were saved to Google Drive so I didn’t lose ANYTHING!   The other benefit to using Docs is that your students already have CofC Google accounts and it’s easy for them to use and access if you want to use it in your classes.  Just like Microsoft Word, Google Docs allows you to write and edit documents, autosave, add images and tables, and create footnotes and bibliographies.  But there are so many more features that set this tool apart from Word (way more than six)!  Google Docs has all of the same collaboration, sharing and revision history that the other Google tools have (see the other posts in this series on Google Sheets and Google Slides to learn more) so I’m not going to include those below.

So without further ado, here are six reasons you should be using Google Docs instead of Word:

Reason 1: Speech To Text

Speech to text iconSpeech to Text allows you to speak into your computer’s microphone and Google Docs will type what you say.  It isn’t perfect but it’s pretty darn good.  I am impressed with its accuracy without any of the voice training normally required by these types of applications.  I recently read an article that discusses how well it does with dialects and accents.  It also apparently works with a plethora of languages.  NOTE: It only works with Google Chrome web browser but that shouldn’t be a deal breaker.  To learn more visit Type with your voice on the Google Docs help pages.

Reason 2: Add-Ons

I love the concept of add-ons for a program because it allows users to add features that aren’t built into the program.  My two favorite add-ons right now are SAS Writer Reviser and EasyBib, but there are others that sound really helpful such as VexTab Music Notation, Math, Rhyme Finder, and Teacher Rubric (disclaimer: I haven’t tried the last four).

Reason 3: Document Outline

If you use the built-in style headers then Google Docs will automatically build a document outline that allows you to jump to any point in a document.  Unlike a table of contents in Word, this outline always stays on the side of the screen, allowing you to easily navigate the document.  Also, unlike the table of contents, the outline is updated automatically each time you add a new header.  No more need to refresh the table.  Access it under Tools > Document Outline.  To learn more visit Edit and use a document outline in the Google help files.

screenshot of the Explore panelReason 4: Explore

The Explore feature is available in each of the main Google tools but it does something different in each tool.  In Google Docs, clicking on the Explore icon in the lower right corner of the window will bring up suggestions related to your entire document or to just the text you have highlighted.  In Docs, Explore will show you topics included in the selected area, creative commons images that are related to the text, and related research articles pulled from the public web and Google Scholar.

Reason 5: Built-in Drawing Tool

Google Drawing is built-in to Google Doc, allowing you to create charts, diagrams, and drawings without leaving your document.

Reason 6: Publish To Web

In addition to fantastic sharing and collaborating features, Google Docs allows users to save their document as a webpage.  While you may be saying, “Well Word lets you save as a webpage,” you would be correct, however what Word doesn’t do is publish it to the web and give it a URL.  This makes it very easy for students to share their work to an outside eportfolio or a blog or just publish it on the web for others to read.  Giving our students a public audience for their work is an important component of some majors and this is an easy way to accomplish it.

I hope that I have been able to sway you, if not to completely change to Google Docs, at least to give it a try.  It has evolved over the years into a stellar product so if you haven’t tried it in awhile (a year) then give it another chance.  I think it will win you over!

 

Incorporating frequent quizzing encourages students to practice memory retrieval, which results in deeper, long-term learning.
Assessment, Best Practices, Small Teaching Tip, Teaching Advice

Small Teaching Tip #6: The Benefits of Frequent Quizzing

Jessica Smith

In a previous post, I discussed the important role memory retrieval plays in learning.  To briefly review: each time we recall a piece of information, we strengthen the neural pathways that move the information from our long-term memories to our working memories.  So the more times we retrieve the information, the more deeply we learn it.  This is known as the “testing effect.”

There are numerous ways to encourage students to practice memory retrieval, but one of the best strategies is frequent quizzing.

Tips for Frequent Quizzing

While quizzing is an effective method to practice memory retrieval, not all quizzes are created equal.  There are a few empirically-tested stipulations that must be considered:

  • First, make the quizzes count towards the course grade.  While we would love our students to complete quizzes simply for the joy of learning, most require extra incentive.  That being said, the quizzes should be relatively low-stakes.  The purpose of these quizzes is to practice retrieval, not to have an anxiety attack each week.
  • Second, avoid the pop quiz.  Pop quizzes are only effective at intimidating students into coming to class.  For most students, they do not encourage actual learning.  But quizzes that students know about in advance do.  Rest assured, these assessments do not need to be lengthy or require labor-intensive grading (there are countless instructional technologies that can help facilitate this process).
  • Third, design quizzes to be at least partially cumulative.  This requires students to reach back to concepts covered earlier in the term, developing deeper understanding and more complex mental models.  Remember: greater retrieval efforts equal greater learning (note the emphasis on the word effort).
  • Fourth, include question types that will be similar to what students can expect on exams.  This allows students to familiarize themselves with those formats so the exam is a test of knowledge instead of exam-taking ability.
  • Finally, occasionally assign quizzes that students complete before they learn new material.  This may seem strange, but a pre-quiz encourages students to consult their previous knowledge to help them grapple with new ideas.

If you don’t have enough class time to devote to frequent quizzes, consider using online quizzes through OAKS.  Most textbook publishers provide gigantic test banks that provide more than enough questions to create multiple quizzes throughout the semester. These banks are designed to be quickly imported into OAKS and quizzes can be automatically-graded, making quiz creation and administration simple.  But to ensure students are practicing retrieval, restrict the time limit so they don’t have the leeway to look up every answer in their notes or book (20-50 seconds per multiple choice question is advisable).

Providing frequent opportunities for retrieval will not only help your students remember important information, it will also open the door to higher levels of cognition.  I’ve shared one simple but powerful way to help your students learn that does not require an overwhelming amount of grading or extra preparation. Want more ideas?  Check out the rest of our Small Teaching Tips series!

References

Roediger, H. L., Agarwal, P. K., McDaniel, M. A., & McDermott, K. (2011). Test-enhanced learning in the classroom: Long-term improvements from quizzing. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 17, 382-395.

Roediger, H. L., & Karpicke, J. D. (2006). The power of testing memory: Basic research and implications for educational practice. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 1, 181-210.

Leeming, F. C. (2002). The exam-a-day procedure improves performance in psychology classes. Teaching of Psychology, 29, 210-212.

Lyle, K. B., & Crawford, N. A. (2011). Retrieving essential material at the end of lectures improves performance on statistics exams. Teaching of Psychology, 38, 94-97.

Richland, L. E., Kornell, N., & Kao, L. S. (2009). The pretesting effect: Do unsuccessful retrieval attempts enhance learning? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 15, 243-257.

This post is part of a series which presents low risk, high reward teaching ideas, inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning.

Best Practices, Pedagogy, Small Teaching Tip, Teaching Advice

Small Teaching Tip #4: Incorporate Active Learning into Your Lectures

ratcliffcr

Most faculty members have lectured to their students at some point in their careers. In traditional lectures, this means that the instructor speaks while students listen. While some lectures can be dynamic, engaging, and even entertaining, research has shown that student concentration typically drops after 10-15 minutes. With many questions during a traditional lecture being purely rhetorical, there are few opportunities for students to engage with the material or their instructor and classmates. What can you do to be sure that your students are engaged?

Try implementing low risk, high impact strategies such as interactive lecturing. Instead of a traditional hour-long lecture, break the content into several 10-15 minute “chunks.” In between each chunk, incorporate small, structured activities. This can be as simple as asking a question that requires student responses, encouraging students to participate in a brief think-pair-share exercise, or having students complete a one-minute paper. These active learning strategies will re-focus student attention as soon as concentration begins to drop while also giving you the opportunity to assess student comprehension throughout the lecture.

What kind of active learning strategies have you used to enhance your lectures? Please share your tips!

This post is part of a series which will present low risk, high reward teaching ideas. Inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, this series will inspire you to implement small but powerful changes to your teaching.

Small Teaching Tip 3: The first five minutes of class should be devoted to engaging students' attention, setting goals for the class period, and activating prior knowledge.
Best Practices, Pedagogy, Small Teaching Tip, Teaching Advice

Small Teaching Tip #3: The First Five Minutes of Class

Jessica Smith

The crux of a class period, and perhaps the most challenging to plan, are the beginning and ending.  Unfortunately, these are the two parts of a lesson that faculty typically devote the least amount of attention.  Often, the first few minutes of class are spent taking attendance, setting up technology, or rattling off reminders.  This type of housekeeping is necessary, but it shouldn’t be the only way you begin class.  As Kate Sussman, Professor of Biology at Vassar College, points out, we all need time to “warm up”:

“Maybe they just woke up. Maybe they rushed over from their previous class. Maybe they just finished a big paper or assignment. Whatever the cause, it’s most likely that your students are distracted and not really mentally ready to be in your classroom when they first get there. We need to add a little transition time to the beginning of class to help our students get mentally ready to focus.”

To prepare students for learning, the beginning of a lesson should prioritize engaging students’ attention, setting goals for the class period, and activating students’ prior knowledge.  Here are a few simple methods to accomplish these aims:

Incorporate teasers

Teasers are provocative statements, sometimes called “hooks,” that serve to grab students’ attention and draw them into the upcoming lesson.  To be most effective, the teaser must clearly relate to the subject matter and it must deliver.  If you use a teaser that makes students wonder what the heck you’re talking about, it will simply confuse rather than pique curiosity.  And if your lessons don’t live up to the hype you’ve built, the anticlimax will eventually cause students to tune out.

A classic way to begin class is to ask a question that creates a compelling need for students to know the answer, appealing to what Carnegie Melon University professor George Loewenstein calls the “curiosity gap.”  You could also begin with an unusual photo, humorous video clip, perplexing statement, or a shocking statistic.  I once had a professor who began each class with a promise, such as “by the end of class today, I promise you will be equipped with three strategies for handling passive-aggressive people.”  He told me that making such promises gives students confidence that they will leave each class with something useful and it also holds him accountable for reaching those objectives.

Close the circle

You are probably much more organized than I am, but I sometimes feel like my lectures lack enough structure and, therefore, veer off course.  One strategy to address this comes from James Lang, author of Small Teaching.  He suggests providing students with a few questions to guide their homework and asks them to bring their responses to class.  Ideally, the questions you ask cannot be answered by simply looking up a definition in the textbook and also require students to connect the current topic with those you’ve discussed previously.

At the beginning of the next class, display those questions so students can refer to them as they enter the classroom and get settled.  As you take attendance and complete other housekeeping tasks, ask students to turn to a neighbor and share their responses.  Then, towards the end of the period, return to the questions and ask if students’ responses have changed since listening to your lecture.  This could spark discussion or serve as an exit ticket.  Using these questions at the beginning and end of class metaphorically “closes the circle” and reminds students that each session has a clear purpose and structure.   

Activate prior knowledge

According to James Lang, research suggests that whatever knowledge students bring into a course has a major influence on what they take away from it.  Thus, student learning can be improved by consistently revisiting, not just what they learned in the previous class, but what they already know about the subject matter.  So at the beginning of class, you could say something like: “Today we are going to focus on _____. What do you know about _____ already? What have you heard about it in the media, or learned in a previous class?”  

Another memory recall strategy is to simply ask students to remind you of the key points from the previous class period.  But rather than calling on a single student, consider asking all students to participate such as prompting them to complete a “minute paper,” draw a process, create a diagram, or illustrate a main point.  Any effort students make to recall course content — without the help of notes or textbooks — benefits their learning.  

No matter the strategy you choose, I challenge you to put more thought into how each of your class periods begin.  Those few minutes offer us a fertile opportunity to build anticipation and prepare students for learning.  How do you start class?  Please share!

 

This post is part of a series which will present low risk, high reward teaching ideas.  Inspired by James Lang’s book Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning, this series will inspire you to implement small but powerful changes to your teaching.

6 reasons you should be using Google Slides
Best Practices, Collaboration, Google, Google Apps, Presentation, Productivity, TLT

6 Reasons You Should Be Using Google Slides Instead Of PowerPoint

Mendi Benigni

We all use PowerPoint to create and deliver lectures and for student presentations.  But PPT lacks one major feature…collaboration.   Google Slides, part of our Google Apps for Education, is a PowerPoint-like presentation application that has that collaboration piece, making it more useful in an academic environment.

Here are six reasons you should be using Google Slides instead of PowerPoint.

  1. Consistency — Your presentations look and act the same way on all computers.  Have you ever created a presentation or lecture on your office computer only to have it look or behave differently on the teacher station in the classroom?  With Google Slides, all fonts, images, videos, animations etc. are stored online (in the cloud) so your lectures/presentations will look the same on every computer.
  2. Easy Access — Since both the application and the presentations are saved in Google Drive, it’s easy to access and work on them from any computer or mobile device.   Just log into drive.google.com and you have access to all your presentations, documents and spreadsheets.
  3. Backchannel for Questions — Google Slides has a new Audience Q&A feature which allows your students/audience to ask questions during the presentation.  When activated a web address is automatically added to to the top of each slide allowing the students to ask their questions or make comments.
    screenshot 
  4. Tracking Work in Group Presentations — faculty love group presentations but hate not knowing who did what.  Google Slides has a Revision History section (File > See Revision History) that shows all changes made to the presentation along with who made them.  This is a great way to hold students accountable for a collaborative project.  Because it’s web-based, all students in the group can actively create and edit content within the same presentation at the same time.
  5. Easy Sharing — With one easy trick you can share your lecture presentations so that the students can copy it into their Google Drive and then take notes directly in the presentation Notes area.
    • Open your presentation and click the blue SHARE button
    • Click GET SHAREABLE LINK and click COPY LINK
    • Now paste that link either in OAKS or an email to our students BUT before sending it make one minor change.  At the end of the link change the word edit to copy ex. edit?usp=sharing  /copy?usp=sharing
  6. Efficient In-class Group Work — Create one blank Google Slides presentation and share it with your class.  During the group work each group with create their own slide(s) with their contributions.  At the end of class you have only one file you have to look at and all the groups have access to each other’s contributions.  This also makes it easy to bring the presentation up in class to discuss the group findings.
    screenshot
Best Practices, Distance Ed, Events, Pedagogy, Training Opportunities

Wanted! CofC DE Instructors Interested in Professional Development

Amy Ostrom

TLT is proud to announce the start of a new training opportunity for online faculty!

DE 2.0 is a series of immersive workshops that will be delivered largely asynchronously online. These sessions will be focused on topic specific items for faculty who are currently teaching online and want to dig a little deeper into updated technology and pedagogy for online learning.Now that you’ve taken the DE Readiness Course and taught online, what do you want to learn more about?

2.0 Deuces wild flyer

One workshop will be offered each semester starting Fall 2016.

Here are some examples of faculty nominated workshop topics that will be offered:

2.0 Card table

More information about these workshops will be available on TLT’s DE Readiness Blog by August 15th.

Do you have a session topic you’d like to suggest for the future? Or a resource that you’d like to see?

Visit http://blogs.charleston.edu/dereadiness/de-2-0/ and fill out the suggestion form.
headshot of Dr. Kate Mullaugh
1-1-1, Best Practices, Presentation, Video

Faculty Guest Post: Using iMovie to Make Instructional Videos

Mendi Benigni

Our guest blogger is Dr. Kate Mullaugh, Assistant Professor in Chemistry.

 

These instructions are based off iMovie version 10.1.2 on a MacBook Pro Laptop.

Do you teach a course or lab that requires students to carry out a task using a specific hands-on technique? You may have experienced of a large group of students huddled around you as you demonstrate some critical technique only to look up and discover half the class is straining to get a peak at what you’re doing. And a couple weeks later when called upon to use the same technique? Many students could probably use a refresher. If you’ve experienced this in your teaching you may want to consider producing instructional videos using iMovie. Here are some of the benefits:

  • Everyone gets a front row seat!
  • Students can get a quick review if they haven’t performed the task in some time.
  • Videos can easily be replayed if students don’t quite catch everything that is presented the first time around.
  • If different instructors teach multiple sections of a course or lab, you can ensure students are a getting consistent message across all sections.
  • If there are hazards associated with the technique (or being in lab in general), safety can be represented in a way that is consistent with your department’s standards.
  • You can free up time in the classroom or lab for other instruction.
  • Once produced, videos can be used again and again for semesters to come!

I know…it sounds great, but you don’t know anything about filming and editing videos and you don’t have time to learn. I was surprised how easy it was to use iMovie after attending an iMovie session at TLT’s Faculty Technology Institute and I highly recommend taking an hour to sit in on a training session. Below are some tips and best practices I’ve discovered in making instructional videos for a lab course I teach, “Fundamentals of Analytical Chemistry.”

Recording Videos

  • This can be done using an iPad (on loan from TLT if you don’t have one) or other device. Before you get started make sure you have plenty of free space on the device because the video files will be large.
  • Use some sort of stand (i.e., a stack of books) so your footage isn’t shaky.
  • Have your device in a horizontal orientation.
  • Have a cameraperson. I have done some videos where I set up the camera and record myself, but inevitably something is just out of frame and I have to reshoot.
  • Don’t try worry about sound or narrating what you are doing while you film. As you will see iMovie makes it very easy to edit out sound a record a voice over for videos.
  • Err on the side of capturing too much footage. You can edit it down later.

Import videos from iPad to computer

  • When you plug in your device to your computer, the screen to the right will appear.
  • Select “Import All New Videos.” You probably want to have “Delete items after import” selected, which will help free up storage on the device. You may have to do this periodically if you are trying to capture a lot of footage and your device has limited storage.

Edit your video in iMovie

  • Open iMovie and go to File   New Movie. You will first be prompted to select a theme. I personally like “Simple” because it does not clutter the screen with busy graphics.
  • Click “Create” and name your project.
  • Drag and drop all files from the “Photos Library” into your new movie on the left panel of the screen (under “Project Media”). If you have still images you want to use, you can do this as well. You can even drag and drop files from a folder in Finder.
  • You are now ready to start building your movie. To do so, select the title under “Project Media” and drag video clips or images to the panel at the bottom in the order you think you want them to appear. Of course this can be changed later. You may need to take care to ensure the whole clip (or portion you want) is highlighted in yellow before dropping it into the bottom panel.
  • As you add elements and make other changes, pay close attention to where the cursor (the vertical line in the bottom panel) is. Also note that the aspect you are editing at any given time will be highlighted with a yellow border.
  • If you need finer control over where you are editing within a video, you can expand it by using the slide bar in the middle of the right side of the iMovie window.
  • You will periodically want to watch your video as you go. To do so, place the cursor where you want to start watching and press play in the viewing panel on the right.

Make a Title Slide

  • I like to start off my movies with a title slide to give them a professional look. To do this I use a still image and over lay it with text. For my series of lab videos I used the same image so they had a consistent theme.
  • When displaying still images, the iMovie default is to use a slow pan for the aptly named “Ken Burns” effect. To change how the still image appears, double click on the picture in the bottom panel. There you will see two rectangles representing the beginning and end shot. You can change these to zoom in or out, or pan across. To simply display the picture or a cropped version of the picture, select “Fit” or “Crop to Fill,” respectively.
  • To add text to your title slide, click on “Title” at the top of the screen.
  • Double click on the version you like (I use Standard) and you will get a warning to turn off automatic content, which I recommend doing to get more flexibility in how the text appears.
  • Double click on the parts of the title you want to change.
  • The amount of time you want to have the title displayed can be controlled by expanding or contracting the purple bar appearing above this segment of the video in iMovie.

Picture-in-picture Effect

  • You may like to do this to for adding a video within another video, which is the same as what I am going to describe here for putting a still image within a still image that is serving as the title slide.
  • I used the C of C logo for my department to give it an official look. You can access C of C logos for departments across campus from the marketing department here. You will need a C of C Google Drive account to access logos.
  • Once you have a picture (or logo) located in a folder, you can drag and drop it into your project in the left panel of iMovie. From the “My Media” panel, drag it down so it lands above to the portion of the video where you want it to appear.
  • Select the picture so it has a yellow border around it. And then select the icon that looks like one solid box with a dashed box behind it.
  • From the drop down menu select “Picture in Picture.” This is also where you find a side-by-side option, which you may find helpful for some other purposes.
  • Just like for the still image, the default is again the Ken Burns effect so you will probably want to select “Fit” instead. You may also have to use the crop icon depending on how much of the image you want to appear.

Cut It Out!

  • If you took the approach of taking a lot of footage for your video, the bulk of your editing will be cutting stuff out.
  • Once you determine a place where you want to cut something out, place the cursor there and then go to Modify Split Clip and it will make a cut. Repeat at the end of the section you want to remove. Then select the section of the video you want to remove (outlined in yellow) and hit Delete.

Transitions

  • You will now have somewhat abrupt transitions from clip to clip. Adding smooth transitions will make the final product look significantly more professional.
  • Go to “Transitions” at the top of the iMovie window.
  • With the cursor in the gap between clips, select your transition by double clicking. I mostly have used “Fade to Black” for subtle transitions, but you might prefer something flashier.

Add Text Over Video

  • You can add text to emphasize certain points by selecting “Titles” along the top of the iMovie window
  • With the cursor where you want the text to appear, double click on the type of title that you want to use (I like “Soft Edge”) and double click on the purple box to change the text. You can also edit the justification and font color/size once it is inserted.
  • The default for displaying text is 4 seconds, but you can easily change it by expanding or contracting the purple box. I think about 10 seconds is a good length when it’s a full sentence and the audience is paying close attention to what is happening on screen.
  • If you want to just display text on a blank background at certain points, you can do so by selecting “Backgrounds” at the top of the screen. Here you can insert a plain background (black is probably best) and then add the text as described above. I like to do this to emphasize a particular point or at the end of the video to make “credits”
  • Note iMovie will not underline misspelled words so make sure you edit your text!

Removing Sound and Adding Narration

  • I like to remove all sound from the get go. Knowing that I can add in narration later allows me to focus on getting the best visual footage during filming.
  • Remove audio by selecting a clip, then go to Modify > Detach Audio. The audio will appear as a green rectangle below the corresponding video clip in the lower panel. Select it and hit Delete.
  • With the background sound removed, I record a voice over. Usually I watch the video without sound and write a rough outline of what I want to say as I go.
  • To record narration, make sure the cursor is at the beginning of the video and then I press the microphone icon that is located below and to the left of the video panel (close to the middle of the iMovie window). Then a red circle will appear. Recording will begin after the 3-2-1 count down.
  • You can edit sound clips the same way as the video above. For example, if I know I was sounding good and then I messed up, I can split the clip just before the mess-up (make sure the audio, not the video is highlighted in yellow) and then delete what I don’t want. I can then pick up the recording where I left off by having the cursor in the appropriate position.
  • TLT has various microphones you may use, or your computer may have a decent one built into it. I’ve found that the microphone on the headphones that come with an iPhone works great. You should listen to your recording (it’s painful to hear your own voice, I know!) to make sure it sounds good.

Making Videos Available on YouTube

  • This can take some time depending on the length and resolution of your video.
  • I like to save the video as an .mp4 file so that I can upload it directly to OAKS or share it with people in ways other than YouTube, but you can also upload it directly to YouTube from iMovie. See the menu in to the right.
  • Edit the title and description if desired and then click “Next…” to export the file and select the folder where you want it to be saved.
  • Once the export is complete, go to YouTube and click on “Upload.” You will be asked to sign in using your Google username. Then select the file from the folder where you saved it.
  • While it uploads, you can edit the title and description to how you want it to appear. I also like to make videos unlisted so if someone searches for videos they won’t come across what I’ve done. Students will be able to access unlisted videos as long as they are provided with a link.
  • Under advanced settings you can disable comments, which I recommend.
  • Once the processing in complete, click “Done” and the link will be provided. Make sure you copy the link somewhere so you will be able to access it later.

Making Videos Accessible to Students

  • A standard approach to this would be to embed the YouTube videos or provide links on your OAKS page.
  • Perhaps a more useful approach that would allow students to readily access the videos “on the fly” while they are in class or lab would be to provide QR codes that can be scanned with a smart phone to access the videos.
  • There are numerous free QR code generators out there, but here is one I like, which allows you to make up to five QR codes for free: http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ 
  • Once the QR code is generated, you can copy the code then paste it where you want it. QR codes can be scanned from printed pages, on a computer monitor or when projected on a screen.

Best Practices

  • There seems to be a sweet spot of video length that students will watch. If a video is too short (< 2 minutes), students might view it as unimportant and won’t bother. If a video is too long (9+ minutes…yes, really, that is considered too long!), they may not watch it. So extra effort put into making lengthy videos is likely time wasted!
  • There are several ways you can use videos to more actively engage your students:
    • Ask students to “star” in you videos. Students are often excited and flattered to be asked to be in a video.
    • Make a video without sound and ask students to write a script to go along with it, maybe even record their voices narrating it. This gets you out of having to listen to your own voice when editing!
    • Document common mistakes in your videos and ask students to critique what they see.
    • And of course you could always ask students to make their own videos as a project!