International Development Videos

International Development Videos Homepage

List of Videos and Curricular Materials

Faculty Discussion

Student Feedback Form

Project Director Info

TECHNIQUES IN USING THE CURRICULAR MATERIAL

Instructors may use the curricular material in whatever way they wish. The “Faculty Summary and Feedback” document describes each video and informs the instructor about important considerations such as appropriate courses and student levels, quality of the video, and so on. Often the faculty feedback advises instructors to provide students with background material or outlines of video material prior to showing them the video. This can help students understand a difficult video. Regarding the quality of the video, keep in mind that that the feedback is compiled by just one reviewer. Other instructors may find a video to be excellent despite a poor rating by the one reviewer, and vice versa.

Instructors will also find uses for the “Student Questions for Discussion” (and the “Faculty Answers to Questions for Discussion”). Since students seem to maintain attention and retain information better when following a list of questions for discussion, these questions can be duplicated and given to students in advance of viewing the video. (Caution: It is my experience that if the list of questions for discussion is too long, students will be unable to write down good answers to all questions and still pay attention to the video. This is especially the case for foreign language videos with English subtitles – students cannot view the subtitles while taking notes. Faculty should edit the questions for discussion as desired.)

Instructors may use the curricular material in a variety of ways. Some instructors ask their students to stay alert during the video, paying attention to the questions for discussion, while other instructors ask students to jot down answers. The latter is especially appropriate if there is insufficient class time to discuss the video the same day it is shown. Some instructors ask students to form small groups after viewing the video. Each of these groups might be responsible for one, a few, or all of the questions for discussion. Each group can choose a representative who will be responsible for summarizing her or her group's discussion to the entire class. Other students can then voice their opinions as well. As another technique, sometimes it is useful to ask students “opinion questions” related to the video topic before showing the video, and then comparing these with their answers after viewing the video. Many of the questions for discussion are opinion-oriented. Finally, a video can be shown by a teaching assistant or other individual if the instructor must miss class for a conference, for example. Students can fill out the questions for discussion as a way of demonstrating that they attended class on that particular day. Instructors will undoubtedly come up with additional techniques for use of the videos and curricular material.