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We've had some experiments at Kenyon with making videos for lab methods. Making them well is no small commitment, but it looks like we're not alone in thinking that some processes are better shown than written down. (h/t to Jen Smith for the link.)

Here are some rather simple guidelines for developing online videos for your courses, pushing these to your students, and maximizing their pedagogical impact.

We're seeing increasing interest in video communication for class purposes, from bringing in guest lecturers or co-teachers, to connecting Kenyon students with other students around the globe, to coping with weather or illness. This is a good 2-page rundown of the idea from EDUCAUSE.

Simple suggestions for improving the quality of "flipped classroom" screencasts. Suggestion 1: buy a microphone. (The CIP is recommending the Samson GoMic, retailing around $50.) Suggestion 2: look at your lighting. You may need to turn 90 or 180 degrees, or get a desk lamp, to look your best. (I decided to post this under the title from the print edition of the magazine, instead of the online title "The Problem With Flipped Classrooms: Teachers Shoot Lousy Video.")

Kenyon alum Rob Edsall (K'91) has been involved with the creation of an app for community input on the Portneuf River. Community members and tourists can record sites of interest - positive or negative - as they enjoy the environment.

This Chronicle blogger concedes that "modularity" will not work at residential colleges -- at least not for all courses. Personally I think this reductionist trend is going too far. Students choose a major discipline. Students (often) choose a sub-discipline. Students choose which courses to take among all the possibilities. Students choose from among professors teaching those courses. The post takes this down to the level of the 10-minute video (or lecture). Really? What can one learn in ten minutes that stands alone so much that ALL the related knowledge can be ignored. Here's an example. A student watches a 10-minute video on coral reefs and learns that reefs are in danger due to rising ocean temperatures. Fine. But what is the reason? Does the threat to coral stem from the fact that they build their skeletons out of calcium carbonate? From the fact that modern corals are aragonitic and not calcitic? Does the symbiotic nature of corals and zooxanthellic algae play a role? Is there something else involved here? A combination of factors? Factoids? Do we really want our future generations making decisions about important matters based on what they remember from a 10-minute lecture or video?

Video is a powerful and increasingly common pedagogical tool - but what's the experience like for a student with a disability, or just one who forgot her headphones?

This is Paul Andersen, a high school teacher in Bozeman, MT. He was 2011 Montana Teacher of the Year, and he has delivered Ted talks and is a prolific web video producer. In this video he describes some of the trends in the evolution of educational text books, but, moreover, he touches upon some recurring deep problems in teaching modern students. These are problems for teachers, especially us at the higher end of education as the students coming our way will be more demanding of our product. I think this is a large driving force for pedagogical change. I thought this was a tough one as far as tags are concerned; if you have better ideas for a tag, please send it my way.

An interesting study out of Stanford. While drawn from experience with MOOCs, I think many of these principles are relevant to flipped classrooms at a small college as well. I was surprised by recommendations #3 and #4 (regarding "personal" vs. "professional" production values); I had expected high production values to be more important for classes with no face-to-face contact.

An interesting study out of Stanford. While drawn from experience with MOOCs, I think many of these principles are relevant to flipped classrooms at a small college as well. I was surprised by recommendations #3 and #4 (regarding "personal" vs. "professional" production values); I had expected high production values to be more important for classes with no face-to-face contact.

As we think increasingly about the use of screencasting software for laptops and desktops, we should also consider those small computers in everyone's pocket.

An interesting idea about the flipped classroom model. The professors in the article are not only challenging the idea of class time and homework time, but the idea that the whole class needs to move through the same syllabus at the same pace. From the article: "We would rather our kids actually know 80 percent of the content, instead of being exposed to 100 percent of the content," said Bergmann.

"A microlecture is a short recorded audio or video presentation on a single, tightly defined topic." ELI wraps up some of the important points to when considering this approach to a "blended" or "flipped" classroom.

Three good suggestions for classroom activities which get groups of students interacting deeply with course content. Notice how these would work whether your "flipped" classroom relies on videos or more traditional out-of-class reading.

Xtranormal is an online service which creates animated videos based on your script. In this Chronicle article, the author describes using this approach to help students learn to write arguments by assigning the sides to animated characters.

This is a video posted by the Harvard Business Review. The speaker provides examples of how disrupting one's routine -- and of those around you -- can lead to new ways of doing things. I think the analogy of Miles Davis with a professor is pretty clear.

LibGuides. Producing Video for the Flipped Classroom. Introduction.

Vassar has invigorated its common reading program for first-year students by integrating video mini-lectures and Moodle discussion forums. A more active program seems to be helping the first-year cohort form and introduce the campus culture before students move in.

This video project includes faculty members from a variety of disciplines talking about the meaning of academic integrity, and the importance of citation and originality, in their fields. A very interesting example of talking to students about the positive side of academic honesty.

There are more topics covered here, and these best practices codes are mainly for students learning how to make documentaries and to post online videos. However, there are documents and links in here that would be of use to "regular" professors who simply want to make use of video clips in their courses.