Small Bites, Big Insights: How Micro-lectures Get Courses Cooking
How micro-lectures get courses cooking
Looking to “spice” up your online teaching experience? Look no further than micro-lectures. In this episode, Alex Dowell, Amalie Holland, and Camie Wood discuss the benefits of this media feature in online courses. Video lectures are not new to distance learning, but strategically using micro-lectures can help take these courses to the next level.
UARK TIPS: How Micro-lectures Benefit Online Learning
Transcript
Alex – 0:00
Welcome to the pedagogy toolkit podcast in this episode Amalie, Camie and myself, Alex, spent some time talking about micro lectures, what they are, why we liked them so much and how you could potentially implement them in your online courses, stick around.
Alex – 0:49
We're here today chatting about micro lecture, and we're gonna get into that pretty soon. But Do either of you really love online recipes or cook?
Camie – 0:58
And I can't even deny it.
Amalie – 1:00
Yeah
Alex – 1:01
Who are your favorites online?
Camie – 1:04
Oh, gosh, what is her name? It's somebody's baking addiction.
Amalie – 1:09
Oh, nice. Cookie and Kate
Alex – 1:11
Cookie and Kate. That's who my wife and I use?
Amalie – 1:14
I love Cookie and Kate. That's hilarious.And Crepes of Wrath. No, I don't know if they're still around. But they were...
Camie – 1:21
They're really good. I just look pretty much everywhere. And find what what I can and I go, Oh, that recipe looks great. I think in my try that one, or I'll look at several. Because I like to kind of compare and see the recipes and see what form of that dish. I want to prepare.
Alex – 1:40
Yeah, I do that more. Similarly, I there's a few of my Cookie and Kate that I'll go to or my wife will go to. And we've kind of built those up where it's like we know these are our key. Go to recipes. But sometimes if I'm like, Oh yeah, how do I make bla bla bla all I'll jump online online real quick. But the thing that I think is a struggle is I want the recipe. But I'll get on the website and I'll click on it. And then I have to scroll and scroll and scroll and scroll learning about their time they were on their gap year. Yes, parasailing in the Bahamas, or catamaraning in the Mediterranean and how this the flavor... this flavor really inspired them. And I'm just please stop, please.
Camie – 2:24
My Favorite button is the jump to recipe
Amalie – 2:27
I was about to say that!
Camie – 2:30
It makes me so sad when it's not there
Alex – 2:32
They finally learned, hey, some people are here for the content. Some people are here for the CONTENT, which is the recipe Yes, I don't inflate the info, give me the recipe please. I want to eat I'm hungry. So that I think is what I was thinking of in my in my head whenever I was thinking about this topic today, which is micro lectures. And I think they're really great for online learning, because they help cut down on the content, so to speak, and help us just kind of get to the recipe in online learning. What are y'all is experienced with like micro lectures or lectures and online learning in general?
Camie – 3:09
Well, generally, as a student, I've enjoyed micro lectures because I feel like they get they're always centered on a specific topic. And you can do it very easy to understand. It's quick, and even in depth, which is surprising because it's quick kind of definition, working knowledge perception of a concept or theory. And I've loved those because a lot of times they give me a different perspective than I had before on that topic.
Amalie – 3:40
I think the reason I like them is I'm one of those people that needs to be able to take the information and then process it. When I whenever I have to sit in a long lecture, I haven't had any time to process the things that are being said to me, whereas the micro lectures that's built in, take that little bit and then when it's turned off, think about it, I can process it, I can start drawing the connections that I need to draw and then continue on with the rest of my learning.
Alex – 4:05
Yeah, and I think that's where they have such value in the online space because you can't in a face to face you can't really do that, you know, the faculty member, the instructor, you've got a limited amount of time, so much content to cover. But you can you can even a lecture has a little bit of back and forth give and take when students have questions when there's dumbfounded look on a student's face, the faculty member can be like, I'm sure can be like, Hey, what's going on here? Are we are we lost? are we tracking? We don't get that. So you can be doing that in an online lecture. That's 40 minutes and the students just kind of like... and they can pause I guess but if you're just transcribing what's being done in the face to face environment, into the online environment, you're going to lose that ability to interface more organically with the learner.
Amalie – 4:49
Well, and that's I was thinking of it from the learner perspective, specifically of I like to take in that information with that. But thinking of it from being at the front of the classroom, that is one of the hardest parts of going into an asynchronous classes, you completely lose that taking the temperature of the room. And with the micro lectures, you can then insert different small assignments, reflection pieces, you can put some of those low stakes, little things in there to read the temperature of the room, so to speak.
Camie – 5:15
Well, and I do not pay attention for as long as I used to be able to pay attention,
Amalie – 5:22
I'm sorry did you say something?
Camie – 5:23
Right? And so it's, it's hard to sit there through a 30 minutes or even hour long lecture. Sometimes I've I've seen instructors record themselves for an hour, and I cannot focus on what they're saying. So I lose a lot of the content. And also, from a teacher standpoint, when I use micro lectures, I really enjoyed that, because I knew what my students should take away from that video. Exactly. Right. And I knew that they would know by watching it, that that's what they should have taken away.
Amalie – 6:01
Fine tuned it for you what you were asking of them?
Camie – 6:04
Exactly.
Alex – 6:05
It kind of just dawned on me at this point, we've been talking about them, we might, what I might want to like define what it is for those who are listening, like, oh, you can talk about micro lectures like what exactly? Well, I mean, it's in the name, right? A lecture's typically a longer format scenario where an instructor is providing content to a course, out of their knowledge of expertise, and micro lecture is doing the same thing. But for online learning, typically, in asynchronous learning, 5 to 10 minutes is that sweet spot for a micro lecture. So recorded video of a micro lecture is going to be able to be used in those spaces where students aren't meeting face to face, in person or online with their their other students and their faculty. The key thing, you were just kind of mentioning things like for it to truly be a micro lecture, it has to focus on one key concept, you don't want to try and cover even in that 10 minute span three major points, you really want it to be a space that allows kind of a you were talking to, Amalie, the space to sit and think about this particular idea, this particular concept, and soak it in. And then when I'm ready, I can click to the next micro lecture video, or I can read the next thing.
Amalie – 7:15
And it kind of allows to take advantage of of latent learning. You know, I watched a study done where they were training a horse, they trained to the horse for like three minutes, walked away, 30 minutes later came back, that horse was able to do things they weren't able to do with the end. There's this time that your brain needs of processing information that's called latent learning where it takes your brain still putting it all together, and those little chunking your lectures out into those pieces allows for that latent learning to happen.
Alex – 7:47
There's, there's like a key transcendent principle in that with like relationships with my partner, my spouse to like, we're in an argument. And it's a it goes on for however many minutes. But if I step away, for 30 minutes, and then we come back, I've learned something and that time to process to make maybe makes the second approach at it better the next time around versus if I just power through.
Amalie – 8:12
It's giving you a chance to make those connections to some of those things too. So think about the last time you said that to them and how that turned out.
Alex – 8:20
It has practical application not now don't go making micro lectures in your relationships, people that will not work out well. And you'll have to apply latent learning there.
Camie – 8:29
But I will also say even if you aren't a synchronous, if say you're a synchronous online course or you're even face to face, micro lectures can be really helpful. When you notice students, let's say the class is getting off on a particular topic. And they're not understanding this one piece of content in it. Well, it's really easy to create a micro lecture and just say, hey, please watch this before the next class that gives them that time to process it. And then in class, you can discuss it and and kind of deal with it in a different way. Because they've had time to kind of see that from a different perspective, maybe.
Amalie – 9:06
And it allows for that tier 2 where you're looking at something and you're saying this is this group of students still hasn't quite learned what they need to learn. And it allows you to target that to just that group of students that still need that extra support. You don't need to make the entire class sit through a repeat of your lecture, you can drill down to just what it is that this discrete group of students needs help with.
Camie – 9:30
Right? I think that's just really interesting, because a lot of learning has kind of become individualized, you see more and more interdisciplinary programs popping up where people are creating entire programs for themselves based on you know, standardized criteria. But still you even see that in courses where students are, let's say they have an option on their assignment about what the topic is, as long as it's within this collection of content. I find this a lot easier to work with students who are struggling, or even those who want to advance further, say they're really interested in the topic. And they want to know more.
Alex –:Yeah, they have a lot of functionality. Obviously, in our world of Global Campus, we're thinking a lot in terms of online asynchronous, but like you've touched on it, it transcends, and can and that's really great for instructors or teachers who are working across those lines, those lines are not clear cut most of the time, you're often maybe at the higher ed level, you're you're teaching a couple face to face, and maybe you're in online and then you're gonna have to blend some of your instruction because even though you're face to face, your students are submitting via their learning management system, and you can embed and make announcements. And so that's really where they become so valuable as they really can be implemented across all the different learning expressions.
Camie –:I was actually just actually, I was thinking about how, first, you know, when you were talking about latent learning, I kept thinking about interval training with athletes. And how learning isn't linear. It's not a process that you go into, and every day you learn the same amount and you know, your brain processes at the same way. You you run into this a lot with language learning, but it's like that with all learning. You can take in a lot of information before you ever see those jumps. And, and I think that these micro lectures really help with that. Because, one, you can always go back to them, because they're videos. So wonderful. But do you can, you can pinpoint what it is, you know, when you do make that connection, you come back, I think that is that thing that I remember learning about? Let me go back and see if it is. And let me watch that video, again, to make sure that I'm understanding this correctly. And so I just, I don't know, my brain kind of spiraled into that. And I...
Amalie –:To piggyback on that, while you're making your micro lectures, you can keep things as evergreen as possible, you're not giving due dates, you're not referring to assignments that may not carry over into other things, you'll find that some of those micro lectures will come in handy in other courses in other situations, the next time you teach that class, maybe again, you have one or two students that just didn't quite, it wasn't enough students for you to completely change your whole lecture. But it's a couple who still need a little bit of a boost, you've got that video on hand to pull from so you can build sort of a library of these micro lectures.
Camie –:Yeah. Having a library to pull from for years, because you know, the theories that you're teaching, they were created, you know, decades, if not centuries ago. And so those types of things are changing.
Alex –:You clearly aren't helping in digital marketing right now.
Camie –:But, I mean, that doesn't mean that you don't have new theories, right? Or that you don't build on those theories. But at least you have like, here's the foundation of what this theory is and means, right?
Amalie –:The opposite of that when the teaching is not done well in the first place. Too much time is not a good thing. And that's where those low stakes testing pieces come in. Because if you are continuing to hit the right points throughout...
Camie –:Well, in the fun thing with these videos, you can put a test right in the video. Yeah, you can put this little quiz questions and they don't have to count what the grade are, they can count like one or two points. But it's just something that you can do to help students say check their understanding, even check their own understanding. Did I understand what I just heard?
Alex –:Yeah, right, then they don't have to go back 20 minutes in a video or in a lecture, they even if they're listening to a long form lecture like that can be daunting. Sometimes I kind of scroll back and look, it's a five to 10 minute video. Oh, that's, I can I can right click, I can click replay on that real easy and have no issues but I kind of want to play devil's advocate here for a second. So let's suppose we have an instructor who is kind... not against but just like still need some more convincing corneas, certain disciplines, maybe my lectures or a narrative that like are telling a story to create, like a certain point. Or, you know, there's more work involved in building these micro lectures. If I can just record one solid video, that's 40 minutes. You know, why would I not do that and instead, create four or five videos that are broken up into small chunks that have to implement these things. What's what's really the net gain if I can complete this in a long form lecture.
Amalie –:See and my first response to that is, do you write your research papers that way? All in one go? Do you read a book? A long book all in one go? Because you need to have read all of it all at once you don't you read it in chunks, you read it in pieces, it's in chapters, you write your research papers in chapters. You have an abstract, you have an introduction, you have a description and a summary. And...
Camie –:Well, and you, you know, you talked about, right reading books, but if you read for 40 minutes, how long would it have taken the author to write that same amount of content that you read? And in addition to that, you know, you think about stories, and narrative in general, it has different points in the narrative. And I think having the pauses of the micro lecture instead of all on one go, that gives it you know, students again, back to latent learning, it gives them that time for that to sink in, like what is the point of this section? Also, we talked about, you know, pinpointing student issues, or being able to use these videos across other courses, your 40 minute lecture may not be the thing that they need to, you know, hear it may be just like five minutes of it, or it may not be appropriate for your other course. But this little five minute piece would be.
Amalie –:And it may save you that five minutes in the other course, like, yeah, I want someone to do micro lectures, where each one has a cliffhanger at the end. So that the students have to be looking forward to the next year.
Camie –:It builds, you can still build the entire story that way, right? Absolutely.
Amalie –:This is like Charles Dickens and installments of his novels.
Alex –:Yeah. So I'm going to play devil's advocate, refute myself now. And agree with you all to say that I would probably also argue that someone who is even a great lecturer in those longer timeframes is doing the chunking. Already, it's just not been mapped out to the same degree into the same intentionality for the learner there, they have that all in their head, I would probably venture to guess that any good lecturer knows the beats knows, the point does that naturally, and you're you're doing that already, and you're tracking with that. But again, for the learner, for the student who doesn't operate with this all the time, this isn't their expertise, and they're trying to gain that expertise... This is really where we, as teachers can stop and look back and reflect on... Okay, where are those natural break points? Where are those natural points of reflection, where it would be more helpful for someone who's newer to this content to sit with it and marinate on it a little bit longer? In the same way, as you mentioned, the books, Camie, like, I will learn a lot more on what I'm reading, whether it's narrative, I'll retain better, or like details, or I will, if it's non fiction, and I'm actually needed to take understanding from it. If I read in a five to 10 minute chunk, and then take a pause, versus I'm going to try and knock out 45 minutes reading. It's like I get done with that reading. Someone goes, What did you just learn? Brain melt at that point, like, I'm not gonna be able to recall everything I read in that time.
Camie –:It's fine. And think your point is fair to you know, you have to think as an instructor, you always have to keep in mind that you're the expert. And so it's very easy to forget what it's like to be a beginner in your area, it's very easy to forget that some students are experiencing not only this content, but this level of engagement and work for the first time.
Amalie –:That is probably the most important piece of advice that any instructor of anything will ever get is to always try and put yourself into a position where you are a novice learner to remember what it feels like for your students to not know what you're teaching them.
Alex –:One other benefit. I think that comes from moving toward this practice. I think it has the most value in the asynchronous format versus the face to face transaction. But again, it has that that flexibility, but is just it allows you to be much more approachable in the class, when it's asynchronous. And you're not meeting regularly in a live setting, whether over zoom, or in person where you know, even in a face to face setting, sometimes a long format lecture, that's more of a formal date, don't don't say dated because they still have value, but it's a more formalized way of learning. That kind of still puts a little bit of a divide between the instructor and the learner. Whereas I feel like a smaller format micro lecture that can be more digestible. It allows an especially in an online format, it creates more perceived presence of the instructor. The instructor is more integrated into the ongoing nature of the course you're seeing them, you're clicking on their face more often, to get them interact. If you're asking questions and your micro lectures, there's more of that perceived presence like, Okay, this, this person is engaged and cares about my learning by asking these questions in the same way they would feel that way, if you were to be doing that in the face to face environment, that helps build that satisfaction with someone who's using an online course, that asynchronous environment and I think what's fun is with asynchronous, like micro lectures, they don't have to fit one particular mold, like you can get creative with them, you can have fun with them. Whereas the long format lecture, you're just standing there, it's harder to like, but I mean
Amalie –:They take these on the road.
Alex –:Oh, one of our other instructional designers was saying how one of his old instructors he had worked with in the past, was like traveling for the summer, but building a course when working with him. And so when he recorded these, like, Intro lectures for the week, like he did them with a different background of like a new place he was at over in Europe, every single, it was kind of like a where in the world is Carmen San Diego. But like, Where in the world is Professor Jones or whatever. And it's like, the students kind of thought that was fun. And like it mixed it up, and it made it less monotonous. And it made it a little bit more engaging, oh, we're thinking about today. So it's like if you enjoy being outside, and you can have good audio quality.
Amalie –:So you don't have to go full hair and makeup?
Alex –:Only if you really want to. Depends on the the major and the course.
Amalie –:That's a good point.
Camie –:And I think that, you know, you are onto something that, that these micro lectures can really promote engagement, because if you're looking at a 40 minute lecture, I'm gonna procrastinate watching that a lot longer than I will five or 10 minutes, because it's gonna be harder for me to find 40 minutes of uninterrupted time, where I can watch through, and then think about all the many different topics that are covered in that 40 minutes. Whereas if I just watched a five to 10 minute video, I can easily think about that, you know, as as I go until I get to the next one and have time to kind of digest it about you know, kind of making your videos like you said, engaging and going, Oh, you promote engagement, making them fun. It is important for them to see your face a lot. Because that is more how people see you as a person when you're asynchronous online. But also, sometimes you may want to diagram whiteboard it, you know, talk that to them for a minute, and then switch it to the whiteboard on Zoom, because a lot of times like drawing something out, even if it's a concept map, you know, it doesn't have to be math for you to use the whiteboard, pulling up a picture into your whiteboard and talking about a person.
Amalie –:Everybody needs to scribble something on a napkin once in a while.
Camie –:Right, right, having your napkin scribbles and like oh, lectures can also be really helpful because it just it shows students kind of how to think in the process of looking at this. And so kind of making it a little bit. Not just fun, but engaging them in those processes, I think can really grab their attention and make them think about it in different ways as well.
Alex –:This is again, another topic maybe one of the days but I really like thinking about varying your instruction based on how can the content be best facilitated, so that it's translatable across informal learning settings. So that even when we're making a podcast right now, people can listen to this while they're driving in the car, they can listen to it while they're making dinner, they can listen to it while they're out on a nice walk, they can sit down and just write and take notes if they want to. And so even that micro lecture can be that other layer of of intentionality where, you know, I'm all for helping instructors learn, okay, how can I create content that maybe only needs to be consumed in an audio format if I'm teaching online, and that can be implemented in a way that allows students to learn in more organic spaces? While they're they're doing other things? Because maybe some students don't learn this while just sitting still. And...
Amalie –:Me!
Alex –:Amalie. And but then some may think, well, actually, I probably would need to ideate and show something. Okay. That's where micro lecture comes in. That's where utilizing this type of particular tool... and so it really does kind of always come back to the drawing board, ironically enough of like, How can I look at my content that I'm facilitating and really take each piece individually and build it in this type of space to really maximize its worth and its value? And there's tons of creativity in that that's what's really exciting and that's why I like the idea of micro lecturing. And again, you don't have to be to your point earlier you don't have to doesn't have to be high production. No, you don't have to do big hair and makeup. You can use an iPhone, you don't have to have text overlays and funky transitions. You can if you really want if that expresses your personality and you have time to do that, knock yourself out. But as long as you're organic and natural and yourself and you're communicating content clearly with with decent art with good audio and decent video quality, great!
Amalie –:I read something the other day that said everyone is a visual learner, because they were talking about learning styles and the usefulness or lack thereof, talking about learning styles and saying everyone is a visual learner. And if you're not using that a little bit, you're leaving something on the table. So even if someone isn't primarily happy, if that's not how they primarily like to intake information, it's one little piece. And so the more that you can take what you teach and break it into all those different kinds you're getting, you're getting it from every different angle.
Camie:Well, and that's always better, because we're whole learners. I mean, I'm a visual learner. I'm an audio learner. I'm a kinesthetic learner, I am all of the learners. And I need all of the things and so it, it really helps me but I will say one of my favorite ways to when I'm like reflecting on a topic or just really need to understand something that's going on taking a walk is my absolute favorite. And listening to a five to 10 minute lecture and then taking a walk just to meander over whatever that was. It can be really helpful, or listening to it while I'm walking sometimes. Because sometimes, you know, when you're walking and you're talking with your friend, you have some of the most meaningful thoughts or meaningful talks.
Amalie:I listen to audiobooks while I run. And then I'll pause it and run for a little while I'm thinking about what I just because I'll usually listen to nonfiction books while I run. And it's...
Camie –:It' s really helpful.
Amalie –:I need to be able to run.
Camie –:Yeah, it's, you know, it's easy to reflect, I think, when you're not just in front of a screen. And so having those lectures where people can play them on their phones and pop in their earbuds and just take a walk or do the dishes or ...
Amalie –:And listen to it while they're folding the laundry and come back to it later.
Alex –:And that that honestly meets the demographic more often of the today's online learners, they're not just full time students. They're also full time professionals, family members who have multiple responsibilities. And so that, again, shouldn't be the only thing that we ever have to take in mind whenever, you know, instructors are building courses. But it's important and we need to take that in to consideration as we're trying to build content and facilitate it in a way that really maximizes its gains. And its benefits because the contents good. But good content in a poor package. isn't going to be good. When I was nerding out earlier about coffee. This is the one coffee analogy I'm going to use. So I worked in especially coffee for a while people would always say like, Oh, if you get like a really good espresso machine, you're going to make really good espresso. The comparison I would say it's more about the grind than it is about the coffeemaker what why would see sometimes is people would talk about like they get this really nice coffee brewer but then they have like a one of those $10 Mr. Coffee blade coffee grinders grinding their coffee. Well, that creates like some of the chunks of coffee are huge some are really small and like it's not getting an even coffee brewing distribution. So the comparison was like you can I would rather have a world class $2,000 burr grinder, and a $10 Mr. Coffee Pot, and I can make phenomenal coffee with that. Versus get a $5,000 espresso machine and a $30 grinder, you're going to make terrible coffee.
Amalie –:You just justified the amount of money my husband spent on a grinder. Carry on!
Alex –:No, that was it. Still to this day, my favorite wedding gift we got was my $150 burr grinder that I still use to this day. It's almost a decade old now.
Amalie –:Nice.
Alex –:It's beautiful.
Camie –:So to summarize, to summarize our coffee analogy,
Alex –:Yes, tie it all together.
Camie –:Even learning academia, it carries a certain culture with it. But anytime you're creating content, especially for online audiences, you have to keep in mind your audience, right? Anytime you are presenting, who is your audience and who you're presenting to. And so knowing where to put the 20% of your effort to get the 80% of the results for people that what you want is thinking through some of those important questions, like, who am I talking to? When I'm making this video? What am I really trying to convey to people? And so I think that, you know, where they come from in terms of just where they are in life. Are they mom, dad, or even a child being a caretaker of a parent or working full-time or two jobs or whatever that looks like. A lot of times our online learners are the ones who are doing all those things. And that's why they're in an asynchronous program.
Amalie –:And micro lectures allow for that flexibility.
Alex –:Yeah. They do not always have an hour to sit and listen to the content or read as much as. They got to break it up and to do that.
Amalie –:But the people that do have an hour to listen, they can listen to several of your microelectronics in a row. This is the flexibility that allows for all your learners.
Camie –:And that's when they get the really good grind.
Alex –:So it's definitely something to keep in mind for instructors who maybe have traditionally taught in that face-to-face environment and have that traditional undergrad demographic. And then are switching over and maybe taking on courses in the online space. There's gonna be some crossover there. There's gonna be some blending there of demographics, but it is. That's where it'd be important to know your online school, and know the demographics and know who are enrolled and what their stories are. That even comes down to anytime you then get into the course, the beginning of the semester, those intro sections, those get to know you sections aren't just fluff like they really do allow you to and that's a whole other topic of conversation.
Camie –:And that's another really good reason to work with an instructional designer. Even when you're just teaching a course that's already been designed. They can help you kind of get a take on what's been happening in that course in the past. Who your students are coming in, just basic demographics. And even why is this course designed the way it is?
Amalie –:Why were the choices made that were made?
Camie –:Yeah, how do I use this course that was built by someone else?
Camie –:I do think that you made a really good point here where you talked about your energy has to be higher than normal because that screen does create a divide and your energy having that higher energy and your video and things like that, that helps kind of bridge that divide and engage people more. And so that's a really good tip when you're thinking about making micro lecture videos.
Alex –:Yeah, absolutely. Same thing here in like even in the podcasting space, It's like anytime you're not gonna be immediately face-to-face, but the person that you're interacting with it, that you want to not be yourself. It's not that you want to overcompensate, but it's more of … That you have to have that awareness that like - Okay, I'm on right now the same way you might be in that face-to-face environment like I got to give that a little bit of extra well, I got to make it seem like I'm here and I want to be here.
Camie –:Don't record your micro lectures when you're ready for bed. You know, that's really the tip right there. Be authentic always. But make it when you're at a point in your day when it's gonna be good energy for you.
Alex –:You’re not a morning person, don't record your lectures in the morning.
Amalie –:Well, and I don’t mean this to take away. Teaching is a performance. And I don't mean that to take away from the importance of teaching and the importance of what we all do when we are teaching. But it is a performance and we are giving information via a performance. And so that's why that energy is, that's another reason the energy has to be high. And it's a lot easier to do that in a five-minute chunk than a 45-minute. Think about how tired you are at the end of 45 min of lecturing.
Camie –:I have to be honest, I cannot keep it up for 45 min. That's why if you're face-to-face, you have those short little breakouts with like doing the jigsaw method and you say or do some activities because I can not keep that energy up for 45 min. I'm tired and old.
So when you're doing these micro lecture videos, one thing that's really important to consider is accessibility. If you have a micro lecture video, but you don't have closed captioning enabled or there's no transcript available for people to download. That can be a problem. Partially because people also listen at different speeds and can kinda hear you at different speeds. Or some people may be in a place where they can't listen out loud, right? And so they turn on closed captioning and just keep the volume on mute and watch it or download the transcripts and read it, and then go back and watch it later. The other thing, of course, is for people who actually have disability and need these things. Then it's really important to have those on your video. If you're doing them through Kaltura. You've got them. So that's that's usually not an issue with using going through the university. But it is a good thing to keep in mind.
Alex –:Yeah, it even helps learners, in summary, with transcripts, especially to hack with the Find feature, like let's say they need to jump to a key concept again, and they forgot exactly where it's at in a video. Control F, Command F, whatever device you're using, type in the word - boom, I can find it again. obviously in a microelectrode is only 10 min. But again, anything that we're doing to improve that efficiency makes it more accessible for learners of various skills.
Camie –:It is.
Alex –:One other thing that instructors want to keep in mind as they're building micro lectures, is we're big in instructional design on alignment. And so keeping in mind objectives, learning objectives, whether for the lesson or for the overall course, even being able to state those, maybe at the beginning of the lecture, micro lecture or at the beginning of a series of micro lectures allows the students see, okay, this is why this matters. That helps them know at the beginning, okay, this is what I'm gonna get out of this video. This is a seven-minute video, even if it takes 10 seconds. Hey, this is such and such. And at the beginning of this video, I just want to clarify, we're going to talk about this point and how it applies in this way. Great. Sometimes they're gonna get that out of the title. But just reiterating it and helps to put that into the frame of mind. And then creating a summary statement at the end of each micro lecture helps them say, hey, at this, in this video we talked about this. Keep watching and we're going to discuss bowl if you're making it into a series. That might work depending on how evergreen it's gonna be, maybe not, but that's up to teach instructors they build. But keeping those in mind really then helps when it comes to alignment to see, okay, does this video really fulfill a purpose in the grand scheme of the course? And it actually aligns to an objective or something that I want them to learn in this particular lesson or in the course overall? Or is it just something I really liked to talk about? Because I get that times, there are side discussions, as we've had this afternoon in the process of talking about a certain subject, but we get into other areas. And that happens probably more often in a 40 minute, 45-minute video lecture and then in a five to ten-minute one.
Alex –:So we've covered a lot of ground and I think a couple of key things I would just keep in mind if you are looking to implement micro lectures, are you are the greatest asset to the content and to the delivery of your course, specifically to micro lectures as you're applying them. And it's best at the end of a micro lecture to include a summarizing kind of topic statement or reiterating the point of why there are watching in the first place. So if we were to do that right now, Camie, how would you close us out?
Camie –:Thanks for that set-up, Alex.
Alex –:I'm happy to help.
Camie –:The summarizing statement is what is going to stick with students the longest. That's what they're going to hear at the end, right? So that's what they're going to remember. Like any good recipe that you're making. Presentation is part of it. So making sure that you have presented all the information that you need, you know, like we talked about earlier, getting confused and lost in the weeds of your trip to Scandinavia as if I'm the perfect cheese may not be what students are looking for. And so making sure that you've stuck with the content. Making sure that the directions are clear on what you're wanting students to walk away from that content with. So it doesn't necessarily have to be instructions, but being very clear with what you're saying, presenting it in a package that students want to engage with, right? You don't serve the entire cake generally to one person. You have a slice. And that's what a micro lecture is. Yes, a slice of the cake that you're giving the students over the lesson or even your course. And so making sure that you have given them the amount that they can handle, right then. That's what a micro lecture does.
Alex –:That's great, short, sweet and to the point, but still substantive. Happy to have shared about this content here. Thanks for joining us on the Pedagogy Toolkit Podcast. Be sure to listen next time. Thanks.
