Sophie Horowitz: hey my name is Sophie Horowitz and i'm in the philosophy department Kirsten Helmer from the CTL asked me to make this video explaining how I make videos for class.
Sophie Horowitz: And I gotta say I was really surprised when she asked me to do this because I never thought my videos were that great but.
Sophie Horowitz: My students have responded really well to them, and maybe my main message to you is just going to be the your videos don't have to be that great in order for students to get a lot out of them.
Sophie Horowitz: So okay.
Sophie Horowitz: let's see here are the questions that she gave me and i'm going to answer these five questions in this video.
Sophie Horowitz: So one just sort of broadly how I record i'll say a bit about software and things like that, how do I prepare, what do I focus on what about rerecording how many takes Do I need to do and what have I learned What challenges that I had things like that.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, so First, how do I record and I really wanted to include this part because I do not do anything high tech, as you can probably already tell so.
Sophie Horowitz: My setup is pretty minimalist I learned how to use zoom I learned how to use ECHO 360 but I haven't downloaded anything crazy or done any you know bought expensive equipment or anything like that.
Sophie Horowitz: The only thing that I did buy was an external MIC and, as you can see, I don't even try to make my slides fancy this is some default template on PowerPoint, and this is what to use.
Sophie Horowitz: Alright, so this is my setup you can see all the important things that I have here.
Sophie Horowitz: I think the only things that are actually important for you to notice i'm using my laptop camera it works fine i'm using this microphone and it does make a difference in my case.
Sophie Horowitz: My laptop speakers are not good, so this was a good purchase but i'm not using anything else fancy I have a window in front of me, which gives me natural light and then, if the sun is going down as it kind of is now.
Sophie Horowitz: This life here, and I can turn it on for some artificial light so i'll leave that on because the sun is going down.
Sophie Horowitz: And that's it all right that's, the first question on to the second one, how do I prepare.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, so I really prepare to record a video exactly the same way that I would have prepared to do lecture live.
Sophie Horowitz: I teach a class that has one to 200 students in it, I teach it very regularly it's medical ethics.
Sophie Horowitz: that's the videos that i'm talking about here, and when I prepare for a live lecture what I do is create a PowerPoint just like this one, and I focus at around three or four main points that I want to cover.
Sophie Horowitz: that's exactly what I do for making videos to.
Sophie Horowitz: Except after I get done with one of these little chunks.
Sophie Horowitz: Usually in class I would stop at that point to ask for questions or maybe give them something to do in groups or something like that instead I just stopped the video and start a new one, and so I end up with three to four little videos for the same amount of content.
Sophie Horowitz: I don't create a script I talked over the slides extemporaneously just like i'm doing right now and, just like I would do in class.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, I felt like I also should mention that I used to practice beforehand and make sure that it was going to be timed out correctly, I used to do this one.
Sophie Horowitz: was going to lecture to at the very beginning, now that i'm used to it, I don't do that I just start talking and I have a pretty good idea of what's going to take me about 15 minutes.
Sophie Horowitz: So that's what i'm shooting for for for length on each of these little videos hopefully this video will be about that length do.
Sophie Horowitz: next question, what do you focus on.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, so I just said that i'm replacing.
Sophie Horowitz: My content for a week with about three to four videos and this replaces actually to 15 minute lectures, for me, so I usually end up with three to four videos total for the whole week and the format of this class is.
Sophie Horowitz: Usually to 15 minute lectures and then 115 minute discussion section they're still going to that, so this is replacing the two lectures.
Sophie Horowitz: Each of the videos are about 15 to 18 minutes long, and so, if you do the math you'll see that it's last time, why is it less time.
Sophie Horowitz: Few reasons, one is having to do with the content, so I go off on fewer digressions in some cases I have fewer details sometimes i'll cut out something that's a little bit complicated.
Sophie Horowitz: And just focus on the basics, but, honestly that doesn't happen, a ton it's about the same usually the other things that make the time shorter.
Sophie Horowitz: Are the fact that there's no breaks for discussion and in class activities.
Sophie Horowitz: And there's no, you know all that waiting for people to shuffle in at the done their backpacks and then it's five minutes before class and they're all picking up their backpacks and.
Sophie Horowitz: there's some AV problem and I need to fix it all that stuff is not happening and that really does eat a lot eat up a lot of time in class, so I don't think I end up actually sacrificing a ton of material, even though the time is shorter.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, so i've cut down on the amount of material to cover, but not by a lot.
Sophie Horowitz: I focus on the main points I want them to take away from each topic and I really try to make that explicit in the videos so that they know what they can come back to if they need to watch it again.
Sophie Horowitz: And then I also raise some questions in the videos which then they have a chance to write up answers to so the way I do it is I just mentioned, the questions in the video I say, maybe.
Sophie Horowitz: pause the video and think about this you'll have to write it up later I don't try to do any fancy stuff with integrating quizzes and all these things.
Sophie Horowitz: Honestly that's a little intimidating to me and I just haven't tackled it yet.
Sophie Horowitz: But this is working fine, I just have a separate questionnaire and moodle which they need to do, every week and often that questionnaire raises the exact same questions that I raised in the videos so the videos prepare them for this reflection exercise that they'll have to do next.
Sophie Horowitz: Alright, that was the third question on to the fourth What if you need to re record.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, you don't need to re record, that is my short answer to that.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, but what if I mess up what if it's not perfect seriously don't don't worry record stuff is my main piece of advice here and it's worked really well for me.
Sophie Horowitz: I do record, sometimes, but I really, really try not to, and if you think about it when they show up for live lecture you don't get a do over and things aren't perfect and that's totally fine so when we record.
Sophie Horowitz: A couple situations, I did this this morning actually recorded something, because I realized that I just got confused and had misstated something in a way that was going to confuse the students.
Sophie Horowitz: And so, that was a bummer I had to restart that video wasn't a huge deal because the videos are short so it's not as if I was starting over an hour long lecture.
Sophie Horowitz: But that doesn't happen, too often, I also re record sometimes if my kids come in at the very beginning of filming and just kind of do real stuff that's in the past i've recorded because of that.
Sophie Horowitz: I do not re record if I make just a small mistake I just correct myself and go on it's not a big deal, and I do not rerecord generally if my kids interrupt on almost done.
Sophie Horowitz: Maybe if they need help, go to the bathroom or something, yes, I will stop I will not press on through that situation, but if they just want to come sit on my lap or whatever.
Sophie Horowitz: Then they just end up being the last couple minutes of the video.
Sophie Horowitz: and final question what have I learned after the past two and a half semesters What challenges have I have what am I doing differently from what I used to do, and all that.
Sophie Horowitz: Alright, so, to be honest, I actually have not changed my approach, a ton since I started this in the middle of last spring, when when all of us started this.
Sophie Horowitz: The biggest change that i've made is that I now use ECHO 360 to record and i'm not doing that right now.
Sophie Horowitz: Because of technical things that I frankly don't know how to deal with, and it will probably take me a whole day to figure out and satisfying here by using zoom, but I think ECHO 360 looks nicer so here's what it looks like this is my video from my 500 level class.
Sophie Horowitz: From last week, they can toggle them so that they're different sizes, many of you probably know how to use this software, but this is the universal capture software that can go on your own computer and you can record videos from there.
Sophie Horowitz: Unfortunately, it makes several video files and it doesn't allow you to compile them into one and that's why i'm using zoom instead for this video.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, the other change that i've made is that I don't spend a million years doing transcripts and part of that is that I just have access to better technology now.
Sophie Horowitz: So zoom is doing it automatically right now for this video and ECHO 360 will do it automatically as well, I was doing something crazy last semester, where upload it to YouTube and wait for the captions there I don't do that anymore.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay, but all of this amounts to saying I basically just use the software that umass provides and it's been totally adequate for me.
Sophie Horowitz: Okay The other thing I want to say to just wrap up this video is that the biggest thing i've learned is that I actually really liked teaching this way, and the reason is that I don't like being in front of a huge crowd.
Sophie Horowitz: This is a class again that has over 100 people in it and the worst thing for me is showing up to class and seeing like 10 people who are engaged and then 60 people behind them, who are looking at their phones and.
Sophie Horowitz: Maybe this says more about my lecturing abilities than anything else, but that is an experience that I don't like.
Sophie Horowitz: an experience that I do like is sitting down with one or two students at a time talking them to talking to them in a small group talking to them in my office.
Sophie Horowitz: and making these videos I think has allowed me to approach teaching more in that mode than in this lecture mode, where I feel like I have to be.
Sophie Horowitz: You know commanding their attention and talking loud and all this stuff So when I make these videos I really just imagine that i'm talking to someone one on one.
Sophie Horowitz: I can look right at the camera like i'm doing now and kind of simulate eye contact with that person, which is really impossible in a large lecture and it's just a much more pleasant experience for me so.
Sophie Horowitz: that's something that i've taken away from this over the past, almost a year now.
Sophie Horowitz: And I guess that's where i'd like to end this video so that takes care of the five questions from the cto i'll have a little more to say in my write up that they'll put on their website.
Sophie Horowitz: But otherwise that does it thanks for watching I hope this was helpful to someone out there.