Self-Check Videos
I use a flipped classroom model for my class. My students must watch assigned lesson videos and complete self-check videos before coming to class each week. My lesson videos cover the basics that are simple and easy enough to learn independently. Since we only meet 15 times per semester, I want to use as much class time as possible to give my students a direct and real-time support to actually apply the basic knowledge to design and create effective digital-age learning environments.
Design of Self-Check Videos
I use EDpuzzle to create all my self-check videos. EDpuzzle allows you to add testing features to any video you have (Figure 1). My self-check video consists of my lesson video I uploaded to my YouTube channel and the testing interface that EDpuzzle provides (Figure 2).
Immediately after the key concept is explained, the video pauses and a review question appears. The green question markers indicate where the test questions appear (Figure 3).
Purposes of Self-Check Videos
I use students' test scores to decide which concepts I need to go over again in class. For each self-check video, I primarily look at students' total scores (Figure 4). When quite a few students scored low, I investigate which questions many people got wrong by viewing the question stats (Figure 5). When a student didn't fully complete the self-check video, a red X mark appears next to the student's name (Figure 4).
For each student who didn't fully complete the self-check video, I further investigate what is going on with them by looking at the student's score details (Figure 6). For example, this student below only watched 70% of the video and didn't even see the last 4 questions. I make a note of who didn't study which question (Figure 7) and do not explain the concepts that the student skipped even if the student asks me to explain them in class. I instead ask the student what the self-check video said about it. Typically, the student wouldn't be able to answer it. Then I ask other students to explain it. Procrastination is not tolerated in my class.
Purposes of Self-Check Videos ②
I began incorporating these self-check videos out of my attempts to get all of my students to watch the assigned lesson videos. Before I turned my lesson videos into self-check videos, students didn't watch the assigned lesson videos. Only 2 out of 60 students watched lesson videos! Since I upload all my lesson videos to YouTube, I can check how many people have viewed each video. Typically, I only received 1-2 views for each assigned video although I had about 60 students each semester. Various attempts to encourage them to watch the videos such as asking them questions about the important concepts in the videos only increased the video views from 2 views to 10-15 views each semester (Figure 8).
|
Due to their lack of basic knowledge introduced in the lesson videos, most of the students could not apply the basic knowledge in completing their projects and assignments. They just got them done based on their past experiences and their own interpretations of the key concepts. They didn't get as much out of the assignments and projects as I expected them to except for 2-5 exceptional students each semester. Going over all the key concepts in the classroom did not solve the problem, either. Those 10-15 students would pay attention, but the rest of the students still didn't.
Self-check videos were one of my strategies to make my students accountable for their own learning. When I really need students to know particular concepts in the assigned lesson videos before coming to class, I turn those videos into self-check videos. Now, 97-100% of students (i.e., 58-60 out of 60 students) complete each self-check video (Figure 9), and most of the students know the basic concepts before coming to class.
|
But still students do not watch the lesson videos that I didn't turn into self-check videos. For example, during the 12 day period in which students were required to watch this particular lesson video, only 3 students watched it (Figure 10). The video itself received 153 views during this particular period, but they were mostly from the geographic regions my students did not reside in.
|