VIDEO PRODUCTION SKILLS DELIVERED ONLINE AT UCD
“We identified a need to learn the video production skills required to design and develop Health & Safety and Instructional lab videos. ”
What problems were being addressed?
- The need to equip academics with video production skills
- How to deliver a practical hands-on subject fully online
Who was involved?
The UCD EDTL Project Lead, Mairead O’Reilly, who was based in the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture.
Why did you choose to address the challenges this way?
- Face to Face delivery was not an option due to Covid restrictions
How were the goals achieved?
In November 2019, the UCD EDTL Project Lead, Mairead O’Reilly, ran a ‘digital needs’ analysis with academic staff in the UCD College of Engineering and Architecture. It identified a need to learn the video production skills required to design and develop Health & Safety and Instructional lab videos.
In response to the needs analysis, a pilot project was designed to deliver these skills through a series of face-to-face workshops. This was deferred in the context of Covid-19.
At this same time, Mairead was in the process of designing and developing a fully online video production module for PhD students. She embraced the challenge presented by Covid and leveraged the work in progress to roll out a streamlined, fully online Video Production Fundamentals short course for Academics.
Features:
- The course included two student Tasks
- Hardware and software agnostic
- Learning materials were streamlined
- Participants engaged in active learning
- Meetings were strategically scheduled to coincide with the phases of the video production cycle
- Participants showcased their project ‘tasks’ to peers for discussion & feedback
- The final project ‘task’ resulted in completion of a three-minute instructional/research video
Course Structure:
| Meeting 1 | Introduction & Overview Introduction to mini project, Task 1 |
| Submission of Task 1 video | |
| Meeting 2 | Pre-production & audio overview Group discussion on Task 1 Introduction to final project, Task 2 |
| Meeting 3 | Group feedback on Task 1. Production, demo of shot types and angles |
| Meeting 4 | Post-production, video editing demo Discussion on Task 2 progress |
| Submission of Task 2 video | |
| Meeting 5 | Video Showcase |
| Meeting 6 | Wrap up and evaluate |
There were five one-hour milestone meetings that were scheduled to coincide with the naturally occurring phases of the video production cycle. The participants engaged in two project tasks, ultimately resulting in solo or group submissions of a short research or instructional video, which were showcased at the final online meeting.
Ten members of academic staff completed the course. Feedback was very positive with participant’s agreeing that:
- Content was clear and adequate
- Materials were easy to find
- The schedule and time commitment was as communicated
- Approaches to creating lab and course materials will change due to taking the course
- Participants would recommend the course to colleagues
Due to the success of the pilot, a new iteration of the course was requested. It took place in January 2021, with a further ten participants. Feedback incorporated into this new iteration, included a short representative sample video, optional tutorials on video and audio editing and difficult concepts were reviewed and expanded upon. The course duration was also extended to 2.5 weeks.
Participants who completed either course were eligible for the Getting Started with Personal and Professional Digital Capacity digital badge. This was awarded by the National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning.
The course also had a wider impact:
- A number of disciplines have invested in audio and video equipment to facilitate future projects
- The regular meetings associated with the courses, created a cross discipline community of practice that continues to meet and showcase projects, share tips and discuss ideas
- The participants are sharing the knowledge they gained with colleagues
Interesting Insight:
The purpose of project task 1 was multi-dimensional. The primary objective was to practice the skills required to complete the final video production task. The underlying objectives were to encourage curiosity about how the Video Production process is utilised to create a storyline of fixed duration, as well as to convey a clear message. Participants were thrown in at the deep end, with just enough guidance to complete the task, this acted as a key motivator in learning the skills needed.
Participant Feedback:
“We were thrown in at the deep end but it worked for me.”
“The short first exercise gave me confidence; I felt that was clever course structuring”