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finding-and-using-academic-videos-for-your-class

Video is popular. In fact, in December, more online video was consumed by Americans than any other month in history.

As a professor, you might want to use video from the web for your course. Videos can help engage your students by appealing to multiple learning styles. You can reinforce your message by bringing in video of other experts discussing the same content your class is discussing. Assigning video between class sessions can free up in-class time for more active learning exercises or class discussion. There are many potential benefits of incorporating video into your class. If you have questions or you are interested in a workshop for your department, you can contact the Instructional Design Librarian.

As a student, you might want to use videos as resources for your assignments. As the content quality of video on the web increases, some serve as good primary source material or can provide other good supporting research for your work. Some class presentations require visual components, and you might even find that some of your professors will accept a short video clip.

Luckily, there are several good resources out there to support your work, whether you’re teaching or learning.

  • Academic Earth: Contains video of lecture from Berkeley, Columbia, Harvard, Michigan, MIT, NYU, Princeton, Stanford, UCLA, Yale. You can browse on subjects, universities, instructors, or playlists as well as doing more advanced searching.
  • Hulu (PBS and other programming): Hulu streamlines your ability to watch television online. Some shows stream directly from the site. Other times (as is the case with some PBS programming) Hulu redirects you to the website that contains the video.
  • OpenCourseWare by MIT and others: OpenCourseWare follows similar principles to Open Access publishing, if you are familiar with that concept. In this case, content creators allow their intellectual property to be available online for others to use. Many times, this includes videos of lectures and other course content.
  • TED Talks: An acronym for Technology, Entertainment, and Design, TED brings together leaders on a number of topics to give short talks (no longer than 18 minutes) on their subject of expertise. These highly engaging talks range in topics from the arts to the sciences.

In many of the above cases, you can actually embed the video you’re using in your Blackboard, Sakai, or other course website. If you have questions about this, we’re happy to help!

Video is clearly gaining popularity and is easier to work with than ever before. As online video becomes more mainstream, we can anticipate increased popularity in the classroom as well. Do you think this technology has the potential to enhance your classes?