7 Student-Produced Videos with Ryan Martinez — 03.27.2015

In the Active Teaching Lab on March 27th, 2015 Ryan Martinez (one of the course designers who helped teach UW–Madison’s first MOOC) shared how he used student-produced videos to tap into the personal relevance and prior knowledge of thousands of students.

Key Takeaways

• Start Easy: On the technical side, it’s no longer a big deal for students to create video. Most share phone video on social media fairly often. Set the requirements low (short, no titles or transitions required), and share a few YouTube videos on how to create a simple video. Encourage students to ask each other and their friends for help — even if they don’t have the expertise themselves, they probably have friends who do.
• Respect privacy concerns: Although the technical side is easy, it still requires a bit of bravery for students to share their work with classmates. Have them set YouTube privacy as “unlisted” and tell them they can delete immediately after the class sees it.
• Model it: Make a model of yourself doing an “embarrassing” and “simple” (low bar) assignment. Seeing that you can do it (and are willing to look foolish on camera) will bolster their work. It also alleviates the pressure to make a video that must be perfect and portray them as cool (don’t worry, some will still geek out on the assignment!).

If you’re interested in learning more about student-produced videos, watch the videos below and try using the video activity worksheet we used in this session!

The Active Teaching Lab, a Faculty Engagement program, provides a safe space for structured explorations of cool teaching tools and techniques that your colleagues are using to engage students and teach more effectively. During the academic year, labs are held weekly and will be listed on the Active Teaching Lab page.

Ryan’s Student-Produced Videos Story