Lesson 7 - Choosing Media

One factor that makes video powerful for learning is its ability to show the relationship between concrete examples and abstract principles, with usually the sound track relating the abstract principles to concrete events shown in the video (see, for example: Probability for quantum chemistry, UBC). Video is particularly useful for recording events or situations where it would be too difficult, dangerous, expensive or impractical to bring students to such events.

Thus its main strengths are as follows:

• Linking concrete events and phenomena to abstract principles and vice versa
• The ability of students to stop and start, so they can integrate activities with video
• Providing an alternative approach to the presentation of content that can help students having difficulties in learning abstract concepts
• Adding substantial interest to a course by linking it to real-world issues
• A growing amount of freely available, high-quality academic videos
• Good for developing some of the higher-level intellectual skills and some of the more practical skills needed in a digital age
• The use of low cost cameras and free editing software enables some forms of video to be cheaply produced

It should also be remembered that in addition to the features listed above, video can incorporate many of the features of audio as well.

The main weaknesses of video are:

• Many faculty have no knowledge or experience in using video other than for recording lecturing
• There is currently a limited amount of high-quality educational video free for downloading, because the cost of developing high-quality educational video that exploits the unique characteristics of the medium are still relatively high. Links also often go dead after a while, affecting the reliability of outsourced video. The availability of free material for educational use is improving all the time, but currently finding appropriate and free videos that meet the specific needs of a teacher or instructor can be time-consuming or such material may just not be available or reliable
• Creating original material that exploits the unique characteristics of the video is time-consuming, and still relatively expensive, because it usually needs professional video production
• To get the most out of educational video, students need specially designed activities that often will have to sit outside the video itself
• Students often reject videos that require them to do analysis or interpretation; they often prefer direct instruction that focuses primarily on comprehension. Such students need to be trained to use video differently, which requires time to be devoted to developing such skills

For these reasons, video is not being used enough in education. When used it is often an afterthought or an ‘extra’, rather than an integral part of the design, or is used merely to replicate a classroom lecture, rather than exploiting the unique characteristics of video.