Blended Content Studio

All materials are released CC BY.

Introduction

A week or so ago, a video I made for an internal course here went viral, and many people (a hundred or so?) tracked down my email and asked to be a part of it.

It occurred to me that both those emailing and many at WSU would benefit from having access to all the materials outside of the Canvas course shell. Not the quizzes and not the recorded sessions, but the videos and text in a meaningful sequence.

I am publishing this today with a couple hours that miraculously was not scheduled and there seems to be no current emergency. All the same, I do apologize that this will be put up in a basic form that wouldn’t meet course standards if I was teaching a public course. But I hope it’s useful.

The course consists of three core modules, structured around the Connect, Explain, Engage concept:

• Lesson One: Course/module introductions, video prompts
• Lesson Two: Explanatory videos and screencasts
• Lesson Three: Teaching with HyFlex/Zoomflex

Connect, Explain, Engage

Our tagline for this course is “Connect, Explain, Engage.” It serves as a reminder of what we do both in the classroom and with our educational materials.

In this video I talk a bit about what we aim to do in the course, and how we will show you how to use media and digital pedagogy to connect with students, explain difficult concepts, and engage them in activities that help promote learning.

One note on the above video: I recorded it before we really emphasized the HyFlex elements of this course as engagement strategies. So if that’s what you’re here for, don’t worry, we have a whole module on HyFlex/Zoomflex strategies.

Behind the scenes: uploading an unlisted YouTube video

I use unlisted YouTube videos for a lot of my materials. It’s not secure — anyone with the link can watch it. But for things where I don’t care who sees it, it’s a good technique for sharing course video. It makes a decent pass at closed captioning (still needs some cleanup), embeds easily in course materials, and downgrades to SD video for people with low bandwidth connections.

Our Anticipated Models: Zoomflex/Modified HyFlex

We’re going to show you how to create both asynchronous video and weave them into an online format. The following video sets up how I see the upcoming semester.

I put together that presentation a bit ago, but as things progress this summer, it becomes even more clear: we can’t put the face-to-face experience at the core of our planning. We need to develop a course that can function online, and then bring face-to-face into that if possible to do safely.

Incidentally, all the videos in this course are worthwhile, and I’ve slaved to get them as concise as possible. Watch them all! But if you only watch one, make it the above one. It’s the most important video in the course.