Why teach with video?

When students have access to video content to watch outside of class, class time can be used for comprehension checks, discussion, and reinforcement of content.

Multimedia content helps to vary and enhance the learning process, and leads to better knowledge retention.

Educational video can provide more opportunities for students to engage with the content.

Students around the world can learn from course content made available through video.

Video can sometimes demonstrate complex ideas and access other times and places better than speaking can.

Video can help instructors overcome limitations like large class sizes and limited time.

What can we do with video?

Instructors can use video to provide supplemental materials for their students. This can help reinforce content and give students resources to prepare for assessments.

Many professors have benefitted from using video to flip their classroom. A flipped course is one in which students absorb new material largely outside of class time.

Instructors benefit from flipped classrooms. When a course is flipped, professors have more time available to engage with their students, rather than racing through introductions to new content. Once an instructor has created video content, they possess a permanent library of learning resources which can be reused for new students in various learning contexts.

Students benefit from flipped classrooms. In a flipped course students have more opportunities to engage with their instructor and peers. Students also can take greater ownership over their education, and are allowed a level of flexibility that is unavailable in traditional class structures.

Massive Open Online Courses, or MOOCs, are created largely through video. These courses consist of a series of learning modules that explain content, punctuated by comprehension checks at the end of each section. They are valuable for students around the world learning in diverse contexts.

How to Use Video as a Tool to Enhance Learning and Comprehension

Using Video at BU

BU supports multiple valuable platforms for creating and editing educational video. EdTech supports Echo360 as well as MyMedia (which includes CaptureSpace). Many BU faculty also make use of platforms like Camtasia.

Success Stories

Pary Fassihi of the CAS Writing program flipped her ESL writing course, and soon found that class time was used more effectively and that her students’ comprehension of the content improved.

Bruce Anderson of the CAS Earth & Environment Department flipped his class. As a result his students were better prepared for class, and he could better address student difficulties. Additionally, his student evaluations improved significantly after the course restructuring.

Wayne LaMorte of the School of Public Health flipped his course using online modules. Consequently, he had more time in class for discussion and problem solving. 98% of his students reported that they found the modules helpful.

Lorena A. Barba of the College of Engineering supports flipped learning.

Read the full stories and watch the documentary videos of these successes on the Success Stories page.