Research tells us the most important factors in student success are:
Connecting with others on campus
Support from home
Distance between their residence and school
The number of hours they work each week
As teachers we can only affect the first factor so it is critical for us to make personal connections with our students.
Ed Taylor was one of my favorite professors. He was a social psychologist. He encouraged us to think and share openly in the classroom. We talked about anything and everything. It was a truly stimulating experience for a college freshman. Even more so to this high school drop out who was sure he would fail at college.
One friday as I walked down the hall I felt Ed’s arm rest on my shoulder in a fatherly manner. He asked how long it had been since I was last at home. Then he did the most amazing thing. He instructed me to go to my room and pack a bag. He was driving his family to Chicago that afternoon and would drop me off at my parents house along the way. I don’t know how he knew I lived near Chicago but he did. We had a great trip and I was instructed to expect to repeat the trip often.
Dr. Taylor became much more than a classroom instructor to me. He was my mentor and friend. At times he might have even been a surrogate father. There was no way I was ever going to let him down. In fact, I kept in touch with Ed until his death.
He did me a big favor. I don’t know that I would have lasted my freshmen year with connecting with him. I seriously doubt I would have found my calling as a college professor. Yes Ed did me a favor and I’ve been trying to pass it forward to my own students. The problem is I get at least as much from hanging out with my students are they do so I’ll never fully pay it forward. I think that’s what they call a win-win scenario.
DePaul University released 6 vods (videos on demand) on using the Blackboard course management system to iTunes U. These vods are released in the spirit of the open learning which means they are freely available to all.
The first vod entitled SNL Blackboard Training was recorded on March 14, 2007. SNL stands for School for New Learning and its a DePaul initiative to offer degree programs online. This first vod in the series is a videotape of a live faculty in-service. The production quality is low. The lighting is poor and the sound fades at times. The room was dark while taping and the screens shots are merely projector screen images. Shooting was from an angle rather than straight on. The course was based on the book Blackboard to Dummies and I’m sure you’ll get more out of the book than watching this vod for two hours and thirty-five minutes. I could only watch it for about seven minutes. However, I did spot check it throughout and the lack of quality was consistent.
Use this vod if you ever want to demonstrate the need for professional technicians on campus to your superiors.
Moving on. The next two vods consist of the same video-taping session offered in two halves rather than a whole. This is slightly better because the vods are shorter but that is the only improvement. Still too long given the lack of production quality.
There is hope though. The next two vods entitled Explorer Print Tutorial and Firefox Print Tutorial demonstrate how to print Blackboard web pages. They are brief and to the point at just over a minute in length. It appears they are using screenshots with an out of focus camera but no but I believe they are actually videotaping from an overhead projector which causes focus issues. Why does DePaul want to kill trees anyway? Let’s become the promised paperless society and let the forests grow.
The final vod Internet Explorer 7 (IE7) and Vista Blackboard Tutorial is produced in the same manner but the focus seems a little better. Unfortunately all this vod does is show a work-around to solve problems with Microsoft’s new products. It seems Microsoft’s new operating system and browser don’t like user input. I have a better idea! Use a Mac.
Nice try but no cigar! This series illustrates the difficulties involved in video production. All in all I have to assess this work as a failure. There is information here but its too much effort to glean it. DePaul’s effort is appreciated and I’m sure their hearts of are in the right place but they need to redo. It is a great topic and need to be done well. Next time I hope they have a professional camera man and a director. They also need to break the material down into manageable segments. These are smart people. They’ll get it right.
Kudos for trying!
The rest of us need to remember taping a vod is the same thing as taping a television show or movie.
I’m deleting this series from my hard drive ASAP. Sorry DePaul, better luck next time.
