Students as Creators of Instructional Videos: Best Practices and Lessons Learned

Abstract

Clear, detailed instructional procedures have an important role to play in laboratory teaching to not only produce consistent results but also ensure safe practices. Student success in using these procedures can be strengthened through the use of video resources. However, not all video content will have the same impact. Videos must have sufficient relevance and focus to connect with the user’s experience level. Achieving this target can be a challenge for a subject matter expert because they have come a long way from first learning the relevant lab skills. As a result, drawing on the fresh perspective of recent trainees to generate instructional video content can make a difference in the effectiveness of the final product. Trainees’ heightened awareness of new experiences can better focus the content on the most straightforward essentials and shape the content into a storylike format, amplifying the power to connect with future users. In this article, we identify and explain elements that contribute to the development of robust student-generated video resources, including principles of cognition, instructional design, and social networking. We also demonstrate how key aspects of procedural communication can be applied to making and using instructional videos in academic teaching labs.

Keywords:

• Collaborative
• Cooperative
• Student-centered
• Laboratory instruction
• Multimedia
• Web-based