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[histchick]

Hi, all -

I'm teaching an accelerated (24-day) history course online through my CC.  I opted to do "reading guides" rather than full-on lectures.  I've also made myself available via Wimba Pronto for several hours a day to answer individual questions.  I've also made a chapter-specific discussion board available for questions, as well as a "general questions" discussion board, so that the students could access these 24/7. 

1/3 of the grade comes from a total of 17 chapter-specific quizzes, and quite frankly, I don't know that many students would take the time to listen to lectures if I had taken the considerable time required to record them, but I'm curious to know your experiences, especially from anyone who teaches history.  I'm trying to decide how to further develop the course when I teach it during the fall semester (full-term). 

Thanks!
HC

[proftowanda]

I teach history.  I trained to go into online teaching, including in skills such as how to do video lectures, in workshops on my campus with colleagues already with experience -- and by then, they had conducted student surveys on video lectures vs. lectures that students could read for themselves.  Students greatly preferred lectures that they could read (most, like mine, lots of illustrations), primarily because that takes a lot less time than watching and/or listening to lectures but also because students found it much easier to return to the former lecture format as a reference throughout assignments, tests, etc., on the material.

There were some advantages of video/audio lectures, according to student surveys, but the benefits can best be summed up in the advice of these colleagues:  Use (very brief) video lectures at the start of the course to, say, introduce yourself and introduce the course.  Perhaps use them again to intro new components, units, etc., of the course.  But the bottom line was that every single one of these many colleagues said that the benefits to students were not sufficient to compensate for the incredible investment in time by instructors, better spent on other aspects of their courses.

[larryc]

Agree w/ ProfTowanda. There are so many fabulous Podcasts and lectures already online. I could record my derivative lecture about the Constitutional Convention, or I can link to Carol Berkin's talk on the same subject over at CSPAN. And should I give them my Reconstruction talk or David Blight's?

Don't create online content, link to it. And as for typing up your lectures, isn't it better to assign a good textbook?

[madhatter]

Agree w/ ProfTowanda. There are so many fabulous Podcasts and lectures already online. I could record my derivative lecture about the Constitutional Convention, or I can link to Carol Berkin's talk on the same subject over at CSPAN. And should I give them my Reconstruction talk or David Blight's?

Don't create online content, link to it. And as for typing up your lectures, isn't it better to assign a good textbook?

Concur. I do very short video talking head bits. I wouldn't really call them lectures. I sit at my desk and use my webcam and do 5-10 minute pieces. These are for things like introducing myself, giving a tour of the syllabus, generally trying to reinforce class procedures and deadlines, or covering a particularly interesting point of a topic. These are mostly to put a little personality and a face to my name, to get attention to things I want the students to focus on, and to break up the reading with a little variety.

[changinggears]

I agree with everyone else on this.  Don't reinvent the wheel.  If there's great content out there, use it.  Don't waste time creating a lecture on material they can read for themselves in a good textbook.  Occasionally, I can't find something on the net that I feel effectively addresses the content or I really want to tweak the info from their textbook because I have a certain way I want to teach it or extra material I want to throw in, so I'll create a 5 min. lecture video using text, images, an occasional snippet of a video or sound file.  If the material takes more than 5 minutes, I break it up into 5 min. segments so it's easier for them to find something they missed or need to review.  Alternatively, I'll create my own "textbook" chapter that includes diagrams, illustrations, hyperlinks, etc. and save it as a PDF for them to download.  Or I'll mosh together the best information from several different resources.  But my delivery method is contingent on the info. I want to deliver and what resources are the best at delivering that info., whether an existing YouTube video, the textbook, websites, something of my own creation, etc.

[histchick]

Thanks to each of you for the advice.  I was already leaning toward the short lead-ins, but found that even those were time-consuming for the three-week course.  Lessons learned by the newbie, I imagine. 

For the historians - I have found some good video clips (I was a little surprised that PBS has so many on offer), but I'm curious to know your suggestions on other "repositories" for these.  I am teaching world history right now, but I teach both world and U.S. throughout the school year. 

HC

[rcjett]

I guess I reinvent the wheel, because I make Power Point Lectures for each topic, with reading assignments contained therein, then a discussion for each lecture, then an essay assignment for each 3 or 4 lectures (where they have to compare readings and make assumptions). I link to the www when appropriate and I find that the link enhances understanding.

Just my opinion, but simply linking to others' lectures isn't really teaching. The students are there to hear your expertise & learn from your interpretations, which are backed by years of study and analysis. Additionally, I found that the assigned textbook isn't organized the way I'd like it, so I organize the lectures to create a "flow" for my students.

I'm adjunct at a small cc & have taught online for several years.

[wanna_writemore]

I teach a hybrid history course and spend most of my in-class time on discussions, so most of my lecturing is online.  I've posted 2-4 page text lectures, some with images embedded for most weeks, and have about 8 15-20 minute video lectures that are narrated powerpoints.  Students seem to like having a mix of both.  I also occasionally (3 times/semester or so) link to lectures in the US and World History sections of www.learner.org (Annenberg site) - there are also some European history series over there. 

[octoprof]

Since I teach in a number oriented technical field, I have created my own lecturettes. So, yes, you can say I do lecture. However, unlike my live classes (75 minutes long, generally), my online courses have short targeted lectures of 10 to 15 minutes at most. I cover each chapter in two or three of these (voice over powerpoint), and then I have short demonstration videos which are videos of me working a example on a tablet PC (i.e. I'm writing it, like I would in class) and talking them through it. These are made with Camtasia and OneNote on a Tablet PC.  Each chapter (after the introductory bits) has one to three of these short demo videos and each of those has an associated PDF of the example I am demonstrating so they can work it along with me or, better yet, attempt it on their own, first, and then watch the demo.

I can't imagine using other folks' lectures but I can see how for a specific topic in some course you might find something really good targeted to that. I don't see it happening in my field, though.

If you aren't giving them lectures (either yours or those you've found on youtube or wherever) what are you giving them? Just long reading lists?

Additionally, I found that the assigned textbook isn't organized the way I'd like it, so I organize the lectures to create a "flow" for my students.

I'm currently struggling with this as we've just adopted a new (chosen by committee...) textbook for the intro course, which I am teaching full online this fall. The flow of this new textbook seems nonsensical. But, I hate to bounce them all over the text... I'm still trying to decide what the modular design of the course is. I know all the parts, but if I put them in the order I think is best, they will be bouncing all over the text. Or, I can try it roughly in the order of the text the first time and see how it goes...

[fishprof]

I do lecture.  But my classes are hybrid, rather than fully on-line, so most of my lectures are really lead-ins to the f2f labs that are coming.  I've learned the hard way that more, shorter lectures works much better than recreating what I do in a f2f class.

[glowdart]

As long as you label everything clearly, Octo, having them bounce all over can work.  I used to do that with one textbook I used, and I just explained to them that we were going in that order for these reasons and to please be careful when looking at the syllabus.  These were freshmen non-majors.

It helps if you can label each section of the course with the section of the textbook.  That'll reinforce it for them. 

[wxdude]

Since I teach in a number oriented technical field, I have created my own lecturettes. So, yes, you can say I do lecture. However, unlike my live classes (75 minutes long, generally), my online courses have short targeted lectures of 10 to 15 minutes at most. I cover each chapter in two or three of these (voice over powerpoint), and then I have short demonstration videos which are videos of me working a example on a tablet PC (i.e. I'm writing it, like I would in class) and talking them through it. These are made with Camtasia and OneNote on a Tablet PC.  Each chapter (after the introductory bits) has one to three of these short demo videos and each of those has an associated PDF of the example I am demonstrating so they can work it along with me or, better yet, attempt it on their own, first, and then watch the demo.

I teach in the natural sciences and structure the course similar to octoprof. Short 10-minute voice over PowerPoint "lectures" with additional links to readings, videos and the like. The mini-lectures provide the structured content and the readings and videos reinforce the material with examples. Students seem to like the mixed media approach.

[histchick]

I teach a hybrid history course and spend most of my in-class time on discussions, so most of my lecturing is online.  I've posted 2-4 page text lectures, some with images embedded for most weeks, and have about 8 15-20 minute video lectures that are narrated powerpoints.  Students seem to like having a mix of both.  I also occasionally (3 times/semester or so) link to lectures in the US and World History sections of www.learner.org (Annenberg site) - there are also some European history series over there. 

I recently found this site, but good to have a referral!   Thanks! 

[yemaya]

I teach history.  I create my own lectures because my institution requires professor-derived content. These are usually about 5-8 pages with maps and images that support the lectures.  I also supplement these lectures with websites, video lectures, etc, along the lines of what LarryC does.

[in_vino_veritas]

I teach a hybrid history course and spend most of my in-class time on discussions, so most of my lecturing is online.  I've posted 2-4 page text lectures, some with images embedded for most weeks, and have about 8 15-20 minute video lectures that are narrated powerpoints.  Students seem to like having a mix of both.  I also occasionally (3 times/semester or so) link to lectures in the US and World History sections of www.learner.org (Annenberg site) - there are also some European history series over there. 

Thanks for providing this link!