Tag Archives: video

Courses have gone Hollywood

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Professors often need students to view an entire mainstream Hollywood movie as a course requirement.  Some traditional solutions that faculty have found to provide access to movies include:

  • ordinary_people_poster_thumbreserve a copy in the Library
  • require students to buy the DVD 
  • point students to Netflix or the local video store

In some cases the title may be obscure, older, or otherwise hard to find.  The NI recently helped adjunct Communications faculty Katy Roybal provide student access to a movie in a new and exciting way.  She needed students in her online Conflict Resolution course to watch the entire film entitled, “Ordinary People” filmed in 1980.  It was critically acclaimed and included big name stars, but it was still difficult to find in video stores.

The Solution:

Digital Campus, a newer product from industry leader Swank Motion Pictures Inc., provides access to over 18,000 film titles with a viewer that integrates directly into course management systems.  Swank has been around since 1937 and is the largest non-theatrical distributor of movies in the industry.  They represent most, but not all of the major film studios (Fox being a notable exception).

Pedagogical advantages.

digitalcampus_interactiveThere are other benefits to using Digital Campus (DC) besides convenience.  DC provides an interactive feature integrated into the movie viewer that allows the professor to custom-build a lesson plan around the movie, pointing the student to specific sections of the movie, embedding notes, questions, other documents, and gathering comments from students.  Plus the instructor is assured of equal access among students (high speed internet connection required of course) and students have the convenience to view anytime and multiple times.

Practical advantages.

You buy the service “by-the-title” relatively inexpensively.  Roybal’s film cost $125 for her course section and it can be used for a full calendar year.  The movies are higher quality without needing excessively high network bandwidth and the system is highly available.

Of course you can still navigate the maze of copyright requirements and exceptions as it applies to the educational use of media such as ”fair use” and the “Teach Act“.   If you follow “fair use” guidelines carefully you can show short excerpts of films from  publicly available sources such as YouTube.  Also, many movies and government documentaries are in the public domain.

Let us know if we can help you with any of your course media needs: northinstitute@oc.edu 405.425.1850

DIY Instructional Media

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Do-it-Yourself Media – How to create and share

  • How do I make a video showing students how to perform a task on the computer? 
  • How do I narrate a presentation while also showing a shot of me as the presenter?   
  • How do I post audio and video media for students to see?

Tabular list of tools and featuresThis table was shared in the last NI training session of the Spring 2011 semester (click to see the full size .PDF version).  It shows a sampling of current tools that the NI uses to create, share, and edit instructional media such as videos, audio, and screencasts.

It illustrates the unfortunate fact that there is not one simple answer to the above questions.  However, even though there are many tools available, you may be able to just choose one and stick with it once you understand the features, strengths, and limitations of each.  Your first task is to decide what you want to teach with your media; then choosing the right tool makes sense.

This list is a “shorthand” reference tool.  Please call or come by the North Institute for detailed explanations or demonstrations.  This is not a comprehensive list and the tools constantly change and evolve so we periodically update this list.

The matrix is divided into tools that are used to create media (pink) and tools that are used to share media (yellow).  There is another category of tool that is used solely to edit media (i.e., iMovie).  Editing tools are not discussed here.  Some tools even combine the features of all three categories.  Notice the features listed in the column headings at the top; some tools are Mac-only, some Windows-only, some are both, and some are simply web-based tools.  The web-based tools usually limit the amount of time you can record.  We tried to list mostly free options, but you usually get more features and longer time limits with the paid versions.  Not all tools listed will allow you to record video; some will not allow screen recording, but some will allow both simultaneously.

Examples of our current favorite free tools:

Screencast-o-matic Example

Important Tips to Consider:

  • Keep it short: Think in terms of learning modules or discrete subjects rather than recreating the entire 90 minute classroom lecture experience on a video.
  • Clear audio is the most important component:  Great visual aids are ineffective if the student can’t hear what the speaker is saying clearly.  Test the sound quality in your room by recording a short sample video.
  • Consider audio only:  If the content can be conveyed with little or no visual aids, record an audio podcast.  Students can subscribe to the feed and be notified as soon as something new is posted. They can also listen on mobile devices while doing other things.

Using Public Domain Films

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Kent vs. the Killer Bees from heartland collab on Vimeo.

If you are creating a movie with only a “talking head”, it sometimes helps to incorporate some other media components in your movie, as shown on the clip above.   The movie above is made for educational purpose an instructional video production workshop I attended earlier this year.   If it is safe to incorpate a movie clip in a video you are producing, it is possible to download a clip from a web resource such as Youtube with real player.  You can then edit and embed such clips in your own videos using a movie editor of your choice.  In my case, I  use iMovie on Mac and Movie Maker in Windows.

The trick is which movies you can safely use without having to pay the copyright owner a hefty sum of money or getting sued by them .  This led me to explore the kind of movie clips we can safely use.   Attorney Stephen Fishman’s book The Public Domain is very helpful in helping us have an understanding of what to look for and what to be cautious about in using copyright free resources such as books, music, films.

As more and more of our faculty are using videos for their teaching,  such information he provides may come in handy.   Dr. Fishman’s chapter on films  give a nuanced distinction of situations where films fall into the “public domain” category.

Green Light Situations:

I am delighted to learn from the book that there are many films in the public domain already, for instance:

  • “All films published in the United States before Jan 1, 1923 are in the public domain.” This group inlcudes films by Charles Chaplin and Harold Lloyd.
  • “All pre-1923 newsreels are also in the public domain.”
  • “All U.S. government films are in the public domain.”  I think this includes films made by the Department of War  for military morale, which I once used in producing a family history movie.  The only caution one ought to take is to read the copyright notice if any at the beginning of the movie just in case the movie is produced by a private vendor who might have had it copyright protected.

Yellow Light Situations:

However, there are many situations where judgment and research are required.   There are lots of gray areas in using public domain films.   The author says that “films first published in the United States during 1923-1963 and not renewed” are in the public domain.   Yet it is rather difficult to determine if a renewal was given without consulting some resources.  The author recommends we consult The Film Superlist: Motion Pictures in the U.S. Publci Domain by RIchard Baer for information on renewal. The author cautioned that if such movies are based on a previous work whose copyright has been renewed, then the movie cannot be used.  It is also tricky to use music from such movies as some music’s copyright may have been renewed separately.   I call these yellow light situations in which you should pause and research before directly use such films.   Of course sometimes it is so complex to determine whether it is safe that it may be easier to make a clip yourself.

Red Light Situations:

There are some scenarios where you should not even try to determine if it is in the public domain.  For instance, the author  describes that all television programs produced after 1963 automatically receive 95 years of copyright protection, so one had better not use such programs.

However, even if some films are not in the public domain, it is sometimes possible  to use materials under the “fair use” principle.

I strongly recommend that you check Stephen Fishman’s blog for more information about “copyright free resources” you can use to produce instructional media to enrich your teaching.

Reference:

Fishman, S. (2010). The public domain : how to find & use copyright-free writings, music, art & more (5th ed.). Berkeley, Calif.: Nolo.

Creating Instructional Podcasts

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If special circumstances prevent you from coming to class, consider using podcasts to broadcast your teaching. A podcast is “a series of digital media files (either audio or video) that are released episodically and often downloaded through web syndication. The word usurped webcast in common vernacular, due to rising popularity of the iPod and the innovation of web feeds.” (Wikipedia entry on podcast) On a campus where the ownership of iPod/iPhone/iPad is almost ubiquitous, it really makes sense to make more frequent use of podcasts.

This would be a perfect way for you to make up for your class due to the Martin Luther King holiday.

Based on the length of your lecture, the platform you use, the source of your video or audio, many options exist for you to create and host your podcast content.   Our most frequently used hosting service is iTunesU which we can set up for you upon request.

For instructions to create and publish your podcast content, please visit our post about do-it-yourself instructional media.

Good and Bad Use of Videos

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Does any of these sound familiar?  Youtube, Vimeo, Academic Earth, Youtube Edu, TeacherTube, iCue, Hulu, LinkTV, FloraTV?

You are probably using these daily, but have you considered including some videos in your class (online or in the classroom)?  Here are some advice been given by Dr. Bonk and participants in a recent workshop held at the Heartland e-learning Conference held at the University of Central Oklahoma:

Good uses:

  • Use videos as supplemental materials;
  • Use videos as discussion starters;
  • Use videos as  ”vaults”, repositories of reusable teaching content;
  • Use videos as discussion starters (bringing it all together);
  • Use videos to improve memory (something you want students to learn till they get it);
  • Use videos of experts students would otherwise be unable to “meet”;
  • Use videos as an “add-on”;
  • Use videos in a “mix” in a flexible combination of learning objects;
  • Use videos as “advanced organizers” to structure a discussion;
  • Use videos for “pause and reflect” during your teaching process;
  • Use some “summary” videos to end a teaching session (to sustain interest);
  • Use “pro and con” videos to present two sides of the argument to promote critical thinking;
  • Use videos for healthy competitions;
  • Ask students to find, share or even create relevant videos before class meetings.

Bad uses:

  • Irrelevant uses;
  • Overuse;
  • Using videos of poor quality;
  • Using videos that are too long;
  • Risking copyright violations;
  • Having limited time for use (showing a 10-minute videos when you have only 2 minute left);
  • Not watching a video yourself before releasing it to students;
  • Using video as “babysitter” (use it because you cannot be there to teach the same content);
  • Including automatically generated “related” videos that may not be relevant at all.

Also, try to post some of your own videos, if you don’t mind the potential risk of becoming a “Professor Celebrity”.

How to convert footnote and endnote

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The bibliography application we have is called ENDNOTE, which is used mainly to add and manage research references in various academic styles (such as APA, MLA). It helps you to add a reference in the paper you write, but this is not necessarily the same with the “footnote” or “endnote” you sometimes have in addition to such references or bibliography.  They could be the same in some styles, though.

You can add footnotes or endnotesrather easily in Word, and convert footnotes to endnotes or the other way around, provided you have added these notes using Word’s automatic footnote insertion function. Here is a short tutorial on how to do this.  Once you click on this link, you will see the North Institute iTunesU page on which this tutorial will be selected.  Double click on it to play.  Also, you are more than welcome to subscribe to this podcast so that similar tutorials like this can be fed into your iTunes.

As mentioned in the tutorial, using hotkey combinations would make it easy to add such notes:

  • For Mac, press Command + Alt (Options) + F to add footnote;
  • For Windows, press Ctrl + Alt + F to add footnotes.

Please give it a try and let me know if  this will work.

Dr. O’Neal on Online Teaching

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We recently invited Dr. O’Neal to share with us his thoughts on distance education at Oklahoma Christian University.  In this talk he discussed why it is important to have online teaching, how it could extend our mission, and some faculty members who are already very innovative in bringing technology into teaching.  Thanks to Dr. O’Neal for sharing!

Dr. O’Neal’s Speech on Online Teaching from North Institute on Vimeo.

Time Signups

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Looking for an easy way to allow your students to signup for an advising time slot? You should take a look at our Signup application. Signup can be used for any situation where you need people to be able to sign up for time slots that you make available. This could be advising sessions, presentation days, project checkups, or anything else that requires people to signup for a time or day. The Signup application is available for use by anyone on the OC campus, faculty/staff and students alike. Find out more about it via the links below -

Signup Project Page
Signup Tutorial Video