From the Office of Curriculum and Instruction Support (CIS), this series will shine new light on our Media Maker Spaces. The next two editions of this newsletter will continue to debunk Maker Space misconceptions, demystify the experience of using our Maker Spaces, and provide suggestions to maximize the impact of your teaching and learning through course media.
Misconception(s): I have the same software on my computer; the videos I make in my office are just as good as what I could make in the studio. The Maker Space doesn’t offer anything that I don’t already have in my office, so it’s not worth the trouble.
Speaking directly to media variables that impact student engagement and success, we will show you some of our Maker Spaces’ features that make them “worth the trip.”
Production value.
Here are some of the production-enhancing elements that you get when you “go all the way to the library” to record your media:
- Professional, low distraction background with specialized lighting
- Quiet, acoustically calibrated area to record with high-quality microphones
- Tools optimized for each space (lightboard markers, markup tablet, stylus, etc.)
- Comfortable setting with space to prepare.
- On-site help with set up and support in real-time.
Individually, these features might not seem impressive, but combined they provide an environment that allows you to create professional, meaningful media products that your audience will watch and appreciate.
How do we know?
Viewership data and media research tell us that media type and quality dramatically impact the viewer experience and ultimately promote (or interfere with) learning (Brame, 2016).
Essentially, we know that the more professionally polished the media, the more:
- Students will watch.
- Video media research consistently supports a positive link between video quality and viewership. This relationship is particularly strong for instructional videos, such as those prepared for educational purposes. Further, distractions such as playback issues and advertisements have been shown to prevent media viewing. These deterrents are often more prevalent in external media platforms (such as YouTube) than they are in CMU-supported technologies used in our Maker Spaces (such as Panopto) (Halvey & Keane, 2007; Lagger et al., 2017).
- Students will cognitively engage with the content.
- Professionally produced videos, like those recorded in our Maker Spaces, eliminate cognitive load detractors that are unavoidable in-home/office recordings, providing more cognitive bandwidth for students to fully process content. Instead of (un)consciously filtering out that flickering light, crackling microphone, muffled sound outside, etc., students’ brains are able to allocate more focus and energy to you and the material. By creating a learning experience free of distractions (obvious and invisible), we set our students up to hear, see, cognitively manage, and ultimately learn more of our content (Jordan et al., 2020; Sweller et al., 2019).
- Students will take the source and information more seriously.
- Intentional or not, humans tend to draw conclusions about the value of information based on our perception of its “packaging” (Argyle et al., 1971). This aligns with evidence suggesting a strong connection between the visual aesthetics of course materials and students’ interactions with them (David & Glore, 2010). Since students’ perceptions of our media can dramatically impact whether they see value in engaging with it at all, we are compelled to prepare it as well as possible.
- Students engage with the instructor and the content.
- Research suggests that students learn and connect with instructors more in professionally made media, particularly media where students can see their instructor’s face and where the instructor is looking (Baker, 2010; Ladyshewsky, 2013; Stull et al., 2020; Young, 2021).
Don’t take our word for it…
Our Maker Space users say:
- “The video maker space is amazing. It is super easy to use and I believe enhances student experience. I’m convinced that student-teacher connection is enhanced because they can see me lecturing with the PowerPoint.”
- “Our students have commented on how helpful it was to have the video material and how it made them feel part of the campus community even within a completely asynchronous online program.”
CMU students say:
- “I feel less confident about the content/instructor when it seems disorganized or messy. Especially videos with lighting or audio issues… If [the] media content isn’t ‘professional’ or if it feels like the instructor didn’t know what they were doing, it makes me wonder why I should pay attention…”
- (about Maker Space produced media) “One thing I really enjoyed about this class was [the] lecture video format. I figured I would lose my focus, but I was very captivated.”
- (about Maker Space produced media) “This is by far the best method of videos that I have been through… It is nice to see the instructor as I am hearing the lecture.”
Experts say:
- “…human cognitive processing is heavily constrained by our limited working memory, which can only process a limited number of information elements at a time. Cognitive load is increased when unnecessary demands are imposed on the cognitive system. If cognitive load becomes too high, it hampers learning and transfer…to promote learning and transfer, cognitive load is best managed in such a way that cognitive processing irrelevant to learning is minimized…” (Sweller et al., 2019).
- “…when educators make instructional videos, it’s important for students to be able to see the teacher’s face, and particularly to see their eyes and where they are looking. When instructors make videos where they use their presence in the video well, the researchers argue it can ‘contribute to greater engagement, promote generative learning, direct efficient integration of the instructional material, and lead to better post-test performance’” (Young, 2021).
Be sure to check out our next and final issue of this Maker Space Misconception series, where we will debunk the myth of Maker Space perfectionism.
Resource(s):
- Argyle, M., Alkema, F., & Gilmour, R. (1971). The communication of friendly and hostile attitudes by verbal and non-verbal signals. European Journal of Social Psychology (3), pp. 385-402. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.2420010307
- Baker, C. (2010). The Impact of Instructor Immediacy and Presence for Online Student Affective Learning, Cognition, and Motivation. Journal of Educators Online, 7(1).
- Brame, C. J. (2016) Effective educational videos: Principles and guidelines for maximizing student learning from video content. CBE Life Sciences Education, 15(4). Retrieved from https://www.lifescied.org/doi/full/10.1187/cbe.16-03-0125
- David, A. & Glore, P. (2010). The impact of design and aesthetics on usability, credibility, and learning in an online environment. Online Journal of Distance Learning Administration, 13(4). Retrieved from https://www.learntechlib.org/p/52608/.
- Halvey, M.J. & Keane, M.T. (2007). Analysis of online video search and sharing. Proceedings of the 18th Conference on Hypertext and Hypermedia (HT’07). ACM, New York, NY, 217–226.
- Jordan, J., Wagner, J., Manthey, D., Wolff, M., Santen, A., & Cico, S. (2020) Optimizing lectures From a cognitive load perspective. AEM Education and Training, 4(3), 306-312.
- Ladyshewsky, R. (2013). Instructor Presence in Online Courses and Student Satisfaction. International Journal for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning. 7(1), 1-23.
- Lagger, C., Lux, M., & Marques, O. (2017) What Makes People Watch Online Videos: An Exploratory Study. Computers in Entertainment. (15)2.
- Stull, A. T., Fiorella, L., & Mayer, R. E. (2020). The case for embodied instruction: The instructor as a source of attentional and social cues in video lectures. Journal of Educational Psychology. Retrieved from https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2020-91562-001
- Sweller, J., Van Merriënboer, J.G., & Paas, F. (2019). Cognitive architecture and instructional design: 20 years later. Educational Psychology Review, 31(2), 261-292. doi:10.1007/s10648-019-09465-5
- Young, J.R. (2021) Do instructional videos work better when the teacher is on screen? It depends. Edsurge. Retrieved from https://www.edsurge.com/news/2021-01-14-do-instructional-videos-work-better-when-the-teacher-is-on-screen-it-depends