Thomas H' Calabrese

1
Creating Low Cost Video-Based Anchored
Instructional Materials

• Thomas H. Calabrese
• Andri I. Ioannou
• University of Connecticut

Presented at the Northeastern Educational
Research Association Conference, Kerhonkson, New
York, October 20, 2005.
2
Problem Statement

• Video-based anchored instructional materials like
  Jasper Woodbury series have produced impressive
  classroom results.
• The Adventures of Jasper Woodbury Series -
  Cognition Technology Group at Vanderbilt (CTGV)
• Such products have been slow to evolve because of
  their extremely high production costs (Hoekema,
  1992).

3
Purpose of Study

• Producing video-based anchored instructional
  materials at lower cost, using current
  multi-media software, and without compromising
  the educational benefits.

4
Methodology

• Target Population Mainly freshman
• N 61 52 male and 48 female.
• Developed test material focused on e-mail
  etiquette as part of the leadership studies
  program for a medium-sized Northeastern
  University.
• Designed based on The Systematic Design Of
  Instruction (Dick, Carey, Carey, 2005).
• Followed the paradigm of anchored and
  macro-context instruction.

5
Technologies

• Video shooting using a standard digital camcorder
  and tripod with a set of directional microphones
  attached to a Samson/Mixpad4.
• Video editing using easy to learn current
  multimedia software iMovie, iDVD, Macromedia
  Flash and Fireworks, Pro Tools.
• The team consisted of 3 production persons and
  seven actors.

6
Teaching Procedure

• Students were asked to watch the first part of
  the video carefully,
• The instructor paused the video to permit the
  class about 10 minutes to work on an e-mail
  response (role playing exercise),
• Students were asked to switch positions with
  their partners and watch the last part of the
  video,

7

• The instructor engaged the class in discussion to
  help students recognize key messages and
  important points,
• Students were asked to revise their partners
  e-mails, using Microsoft Word track changes, and
  to email the final product to the instructor,
• Students took a 10 question, on-line survey about
  their personal experience and satisfaction with
  the course.

8
Results - Evidence

• Project costs were minimal less than 5000 for
  all hardware and software (a one time cost), plus
  the cost of personnel.
• Higher interest levels in the video-based
  anchored approach compared to the traditional
  lecture-based classroom lessons.
• A qualitative inspection of the classroom
  exercises does reveal improvement in e-mail
  etiquette.

9

• What impact did the video-based instruction
  have on your learning today?

10

• After this lesson how confident are you in your
  ability to apply appropriate etiquette norms to
  your communications via email?

11

• Project costs are minimal compared to other
  video-based anchored instructional materials

12

• Demonstration behaviors learned based on our
  objectives

13
Conclusions

• Small (or in house) teams can engage in anchor
  video-based instructional design and production,
• Current multimedia software is viable, cheap and
  readily available to educators,
• Our method makes such productions accessible to
  the general population of educators with minimal
  technical training.