One of the first tasks that we needed to complete in this course involved creating our own instructor welcome video. There are so many reasons why it is important to have an introduction video. One of the biggest struggles in the eLearning world is creating a learning environment that is social in nature. In my past experience, if students do not feel connected to the instructor and their peers, then they are less likely to actively participate in the course. This goes hand-in-hand with the Community of Inquiry model (Garrison, Anderson, & Archer, 2000). In this model, social, cognitive, and teaching presence must all be present in order for students to get the most out of their learning experience. Cognitive and teaching presence are relatively easy concepts to master in the online world; however, social presence is always a tricky one. How do you create social interactions when you're not even in the same room at the same time with each other? Creating a video about yourself as a person (and not just a robot behind the screen) is a great first step at fostering these social connections. It also acts to help minimize the perceived distances that exist between the instructor and learners, as indicated by the Transactional Distance Theory (Moore, 1991).
I think the instructor welcome video is a great first step to bridging the gaps that exist between instructor and learner. However, I believe that it is only just a first step. Building relationships and increasing social presence is something that needs to be facilitated throughout the entire term of the course. I've found some good success by ensuring that I build in various tools for collaborative activities and use conferencing tools, such as Google hangouts, to decrease perceived distances between myself and my students. Last semester, I had my eLearning students book an appointment for a virtual check-in with me on a monthly basis using the video chat feature of Google hangouts. It was a lot of work on my end, as I had close to 30 students enrolled, but it was certainly worth the effort. I found that my students were more likely to reach out for extra help when they needed it and I think that they did so because they were comfortable with both the technology as well as with me.
To make my instructor welcome video for this course, I decided to use a tool called Raw Shorts as I have used it once before so I was familiar with its interface. Raw Shorts is designed for businesses to create explainer, demo, or marketing videos that are animated (Otalvaro, 2014). It is easy to use and includes a variety of animations and icons that can be used with the free version of the software. It also allows you to upload your own images to include in your videos. I thought that this would be the perfect opportunity to introduce my students not only to myself but also to my Bitmoji since I use it frequently in my courses. Bitmoji is a personalized cartoon avatar that you can create and then integrate into a variety of different contexts (Silbert, 2018). I found the process of making the introductory video fun but rather time consuming and I spent a number of hours on this assignment. The biggest challenge was getting the timings for the various transitions correct and I still feel like there is room for improvement in the final product.
Here is my instructor welcome video:
As I look forward to creating my online module, I will also be including a written transcript of my video so that screen readers can also access this content. Accessibility is definitely an important consideration when building any web-based resource and I want to make sure that I approach this task with a universal design for learning (UDL) framework (Traxler, 2016).
References
Garrison, D. R., Anderson, T., & Archer, W. (2000). Critical inquiry in a text-based environment: Computer conferencing in higher education model. The Internet and Higher Education, 2(2-3), 87-105. Available from: http://cde.athabascau.ca/coi_site/documents/Garrison_Anderson_Archer_Critical_Inquiry_model.pdfMoore, M. (1991). Editorial: Distance education theory. The American Journal of Distance Education, 5(3), 1-6. Available from http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/08923649109526758
Otalvaro, A. (2014, December 15). Make an animated video like a pro, fast, easy, and free [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.rawshorts.com/blog/make-an-animated-video-like-a-pro-fast-easy-and-free/
Silbert, S. (2018, July 3). What exactly is Bitmoji? [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://www.lifewire.com/bitmoji-explained-4137793
Traxler, J. (2016). Inclusion in an age of mobility. Research In Learning Technology, 24. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.3402/rlt.v24.31372
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