5 misconceptions about teaching with digital videos
- Sarah Lasseter
- Jun 25, 2020
- 5 min read
Many STEM educators hesitate when asked about teaching with digital videos.
Can I be sure my students will learn from these?
It's not how I was taught.
How will I know my students will watch the videos?
It's just not the same as teaching in-person.
These gut reactions raise important points about digital video instruction worth addressing. Here are 5 common misconceptions educators have when teaching with videos!
Misconception 1: A good video needs to include everything a teacher would say in class.
When using a video to flip or supplement instruction, it's tempting to find or create a replica of what would have been taught in person. But teaching with video is a completely different modality. A word-for-word recording of what would have happened in-person will not have the same benefit as a carefully constructed video.
High-quality instructional videos should boil content down to the most essential ideas and concepts. Then, instructional activities and practices can supplement and enhance the ideas presented in the video. When creating a video for instruction, think about the most essential ideas needed to convey the learning objectives at hand. Keep it concise.
While delivering information, restricting the presentation of content to essential information via limited pathways can be more effective for processing and retention than a complex, redundant delivery with extraneous words, graphics, or details.
Videos should be short. Students will stay engaged with digital videos for relatively short periods of time, and selecting videos that are short can help students pay attention and learn the content better. Digital videos 6 minutes or shorter have been shown to foster the highest level of engagement among introductory learners.
Misconception 2: Videos with fun features like music, pictures, and animations will help with learning.
Many teachers want to use engaging videos to convey instructional material. It's a common belief that students will pay more attention, and thus learn more, if videos include flashy and entertaining features such as sound effects, music, fun images, and animations.
Research in multimedia and learning sciences has shown us this is not the case.
Graphics for graphics' sake do not improve learning. Teachers should select graphics that support learning and foster the construction of connections between the words and pictures. Students exposed to effective graphics rather than complex images or animations will remember the content better and perform better on assessments.
Images in videos should be simple. Students grasp concepts better when these are simple representations of complex ideas rather than real-life pictures or complicated graphics. Simpler diagrams and images with conveniently located text lead to better outcomes in application. For example, a simple diagram of the steps of mitosis will lead to better learning outcomes than micrographs of a cell actually going through mitosis.
Music, animations, and sound effects should be limited too. Unless these features come at the beginning or end of a video section, these types of distractions can seriously detract from learning.
Misconception 3: Videos are just for lecture content.
Many teachers use videos to replace or enhance lecture or information delivery in their classes, but there are so many more applications for videos! Take a look at the list below for applications in STEM classrooms.
Suggestions and examples of videos in the STEM classroom
Lecture: Gene Expression in Prokaryotes
Worked Examples: Law of Cosines Practice Problems
Greetings: Welcome to Biology – Meet your teachers!
Parent Communication: Biology Vlog – Back to School
Instructions for Students on days with Substitutes: Student Activity Instructions
Lab Instructions/Background/Setup: How-to Use a Micropipette
Lab Demos/Walk-Throughs: Echinoderm Dissection
Content Vocabulary: Communities & Ecosystems Vocabulary
Study Guides/Practice Answer Keys: Ecology Practice Questions
Data Bank/Troubleshooting: How to Make a Line Graph in Google Sheets
Project Instructions: Cure for Cancer Project Intro
Entry Document for Project: Lab & Law
Content Review: Quick and Dirty Chemistry
Place-Based Experiences: Virtual Field Trip: Ecoregions
Supporting Resource for a Project: Overview on Soil Erosion
Class Norms: How to Email your Teacher
Conventions: Science Writing Tips
Project Resources: Making Videos for Class Projects
Study Tips: Best Ways to Study
Misconception 4: Teachers engage with their students less when using videos.
Many teachers worry they'll lose key opportunities for engagement with students when integrating videos into their instruction. For many who use videos in their classes, the opposite is the case. Often, teachers find more opportunities to engage with their students when videos are part of their curricula.
While using videos, students can participate in basic content acquisition on their own or at their own pace. Teachers can then shift their pedagogy away from instructionist models of learning and make the most of their newly gained classroom time through constructivist practices.
In many STEM classes, this can lead to more labs! But there are many approaches on to how to use this time. Some of the most effective are project-based learning, problem-based learning, and inquiry experiences. Instead of simply moving the lecture from inside the class to outside the class through video, teachers can develop inquiry-based pedagogies where content delivery and discovery is combined with relevant engaging activities.
Misconception 5: Students won't watch the videos teachers assign.
The idea that students won't watch the videos assigned is one of the most common arguments against blended learning. There are many strategies to address this concern, and they begin with questions teachers should ask themselves about their personal instructional models.
At the start of any school year, teachers set norms and expectations for their classes. Think about how video watching can be part of those expectations. Is the video part of a required homework grade? Is there a specific deadline to watch the video? What video-watching evidence will be required? Maybe teachers want to assign videos as steps in a larger project, accessible to students at their own pace. No matter the requirements, teachers need to be clear with students about their expectations for video-watching.
For my ninth grade Biology students, I introduce the importance and expectations of note-taking early on. Many students arrive in my classroom never having taken notes from a lecture or video before, so I ease them into the note-taking process with two main strategies:
Providing guided notes for videos
Establishing the value of handwritten notes, making accommodations when necessary
The first strategy begins with simple, fill-in-the-blank notes sheets I provide at the start of the school year. As the year progresses, these notes become less and less structured as students become more comfortable with taking notes from videos.
There are many other strategies teachers can employ other than note-taking. Maybe teachers prefer to assign practice problems or a task based on the video content. Maybe teachers are concerned about their students not watching the videos and want to see evidence they are watching appropriately.
Below is a list of student-driven accountability methods for video-watching.
Guided Notes: Include diagrams, key vocabulary, and a link to the video on the notes. Teachers can spot check with stamp or their initials upon students’ arrival in class. We recommend Cornell-style notes.
Student-created notes: Require an appropriate length or style, model good note-taking strategies in class.
Entry Tickets: Paper, online form, and/or student digital devices. Have students compile their entry tickets for the week in one document or journal location. Use tools like Google Forms, Pear Deck, or Kahoot for a digital check-in. Live results and group feedback opportunities are available.
Worked examples or practice problems from videos: Students follow along with videos and complete example problems presented. Students can also work on open-ended problems to demonstrate transfer skills from the video content presented.
Video Quiz: Students answer teacher-created questions based on content presented in the video. Quiz students on basic content from video. This can also identify misconceptions and misunderstandings. Using tools like Google Forms, EdPuzzle, or Playposit, students can complete quiz problems while working through the video.
Mastery Model: Students must show evidence for watching a video in order to “unlock” an activity or assessment opportunity. Students can show notes, practice problems, diagrams or other evidence in order to move forward in the class. Students are not graded on compliance, rather they are motivated to do the work and watch the video in order to accomplish their class goals.
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