Facilitating the Creation and Evaluation of Video Projects in Education

FACILITATING THE CREATION AND EVALUATION

OF VIDEO PROJECTS IN EDUCATION

DMGT 732: Facilitating Creative Thinking | Spring 2011 | Professor Christine MillerGretchen Chern | Krista Siniscarco | Adrian Watkins

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Contents

Project Overview ...................3Introduction .......................................................4–5

Contacts ............................................................... 6

Timeline ................................................................. 7

Methodology .....................................................8–9

Website Page Examples ...............................10–11

Pre-Survey ........................................................... 12

Post-Survey .......................................................... 13

Workshop Schedule ........................................... 14

Value Proposition ............................................... 15

Indicators .............................17Facilitate Creative Thinking? ........................18–19

Best Moments ................................................20–21

Outcomes ............................23Pre-Survey Analysis ............................................. 24

Group A Video Critique ..................................... 25

Group B Video Critique ...................................... 26

Post-Survey Analysis ......................................27–29

Group 1 Video .................................................... 30

Group 2 Video .................................................... 31

Video Evaluation Rubric ...............................32–35

Reflections ...........................37Why is this a DMGT Problem? .......................38–39

Is this Primarily a Thinking Exercise? ................... 40

Potential Benefits Beyond Quarter .................... 41

PROJECT OVERVIEW

Facilitating the Creation and Evaluation of Video Projects in Education | Gretchen Chern | Krista Siniscarco | Adrian Watkins

Introduction

We live in a media saturated society where media affects the way that we interact with and understand the world around us. While the concept of media literacy has been around since the early 20th century, its only in the past 10 years that it has gained momentum and wide recognition in academia. Media Literacy is a two-fold process. The first possesses the ability to understand, dissect, and crit ical ly analyze the information that is being presented. The second component is the action of taking that understanding and using it to create an effective and meaningful production. Oral and written communications are necessary skills in today’s world and are appropriately emphasized in our education system. Media Literacy combines both of these traditional forms in conjunction with visual and aural communications.

Media-based projects represent a way to communicate complex ideas to broader audiences. These types of pro jects have been recent ly infiltrating the academic world as accepted scholarly communication tools. However, disconnect is present between the expectations of the professors that are assigning and evaluat ing the projects and the students who are asked to create them.

The idea for the basic videography workshop was inspired by the work of Marshall McLuhan. McLuhan is a renowned media theorist from the 1960s who co-wrote the book The Medium is the Massage. The title references the phrase “the medium is the message”, a term coined by McLuhan, which plays on the idea of human manipulation of media. McLuhan’s philosophy on media and communication is based on the idea that, “the form of a medium

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embeds itself in the message, creating a symbiotic relationship by which the medium influences how the message is perceived.”* While McLuhan focused mainly on form over content, we believe that the successful marriage of the two can lead to the creation of compelling scholarly works.

Due to the wide-spread nature of media, students are faced with the recognition of the importance of having the ability to clearly communicate their ideas by effectively manipulating various mediums. Understanding and interpreting media, as well as the ability to tie together form and content,

are both important in effectively communicating complex ideas. This ability is becoming more a prevalent requirement in academia.

The goal of this project is to facilitate creative thinking with a group in order to develop a rubric system for the design and evaluation of video projects. The components that make up the rubric system will be taken directly from the results of the creative exercises.

*McLuhan, Marshall and Quentin Fiore. The Medium is the Massage. Corte Madera, CA: Gingko Press Inc, 1967.


Contacts

The following list features the groups that we would like to target as participants in our facilitating creative exercise.

Establishing a relationship with our contacts proved to be a challenge. We exhausted Contacts A & B after several weeks of no responses to our emails. Our team then reached out to the School of Design faculty and students and found much success with willing participants.

Plan C*

Faculty in the School of Design who assign digital media-based projects

– Owen Foster

– Sara Jo Johnson

– Christine Miller

– Robert Fee

– Dianna Miller

Plan D*

Students in the School of Design who are assigned digital media-based projects and are looking to enhance their techniques

– Design Management

– Service Design

Plan AGraduate student teaching program at SCAD

– EDUC 740: Student Teaching w/ Professor Christina Ortiz

Plan BProfessors in the Liberal Arts

– Contact Susan Falls

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Timeline

Week 5Midterm presentat ion of project proposal

Contact possible participants to set up dates for exercise

Develop needs/experience assessment survey for participants and post online

Week 8Distribute post-survey to participants

Evaluate surveys and workshop data

Use data analysis to create evaluation rubric

Distribute evaluation rubric to faculty for testing and feedback

Week 6Reframe of initial idea and redesign of exercise

Create website, collect resources prepare workshop materials

D i s t r i b u t e n e e d s / e x p e r i e n c e assessment survey to participants

Week 9Collect and assess rubric feedback

Assess the survey results for conclusions

Create process book and f ina l presentation

Week 7Conduct Videography Workshop

Collect Data (photo, video, and pre-surveys)

Week 10Final Presentation


Methodology

Fun Theory:One of the methods used for facilitating creative thinking is Fun Theory. This creative method was developed and used by Volkswagen in conjunction with an ad agency called DDB Stockholm. The idea behind Fun Theory is that behaviors and attitudes can change based on the interactive experience of having fun. We introduced group activities throughout the workshop that allowed people to work together in fun and unique ways in order to learn about and create media-based projects.

Six Thinking Hats:Dr. Edward de Bono’s Six Thinking Hats Method is widely used amongst groups of people as a way to structure effective thinking and collaborative results. In this method, the user is involved in parallel thinking that looks at a problem and addresses what could be, instead of what already exists. This method includes six hats; each hat represents a different perspective, and the group focuses on one point of view at a time when addressing problems.

The students who attended the Videography Workshop were utilizing this method when they were asked to create their own one-minute videos. The students required a facilitator – the blue hat, that could organize the video shoot and keep the project on track. The white hat was necessary in storyboarding the video with facts and to frame out the video systematically. The

students wore green hats to create a interesting and compelling story and red hats to add a bit of humor. At the end, the students were asked to place on their black and yellow hats and critique each others’ work.

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Unique Method:On Saturday, May 14th, 2011, we held a Videography Workshop that was open to 25 students from Design Management and Service Design. This workshop was created in conjunction with our Facilitating Creative Thinking Design Management final project. We believe that this project is valuable because video has become such a powerful tool for communication and students are being asked to create video projects to enhance their portfolios and convey complex ideas that are the synthesis of their course work.

Students who create these video projects often find that they are lacking in the videography skill set, yet they are being evaluated on such projects for a grade. Often times, this type of structure creates disconnect between the expectations of the students and the evaluations from the professors. The goal of our project is to develop an evaluation system for grading media

projects. Our rubric is based off of the results that were gathered from the workshop and the student surveys.

The goal of the workshop was to work with students who have limited experience in videography and expose them to techniques that would benefit them in creating more meaningful and professional video presentations. Prior to the workshop, we had the students fill out a survey as their registration that would serve as an assessment test to assist us in conducting a workshop that is tailored to the students’ specific needs. Following the workshop, we asked that students fill out an exit survey in order to assess the benefits of this workshop and possible future workshops.

A Basic Videography website outlining the seminar was constructed so students could have a future reference point. Sections include The Basics, Techniques, Digital Storytelling, Storyboarding, Video

Editing, and Excercises. All of these components were addressed in the workshop and could essentially be used as notes for the students during and following the session. The website link is: http://sites.google.com/site/basicvideography

After educating the students on basic elements of videography such as lighting, framing, audio, and storyboarding, we conducted two group exercises. The first exercise was exposing them to a video and having groups go through and dissect the basic elements based off of knowledge they had just learned. The second exercise involved the groups setting out to storyboard and shoot a 1 minute video on how to tie their shoes by only editing within the camera (no post production video editing software was used). The students worked in groups of 4 and had 30 minutes to carry out this task.


Website Page Examples

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Pre-Survey

We created a pre-survey to assess the participants’ skills and experience with videography. This survey acted as registration for the workshop.

Here are the quetions we asked the students:

1. Name/Email

2. What platform is your personal computer?

– Mac

– Windows

– Linux

3. What video editor are you planning to use?

– iMovie

– Premiere

– Final Cut Pro

– Windows Movie Maker

– Other

4. How would you rate your video knowledge and expertise?

– 1 - Little to None

– 2 - Premiere

– 3 - Final Cut Pro

– 4 - Expert

5. What experience do you have with video recording and editing?

6. When turning in a video project (for a grade) what do you think your professors are evaluating you on?

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Post-Survey

We created a post-survey to gain f e e d b a c k a n d i n s i g h t s o n t h e workshop itself, and whether student’s perceptions and skills related to video have changed.

Unlike the pre-survey, this survey was anonymous because we wanted to encourage honest responses.

Here are the quetions we asked the students:

1. After attending the workshop, how confident are you in attempting a video project?

2. Did you find this workshop useful? Why or why not?

3. What, if anything, would you change for future versions of this workshop?

4. After attending this workshop, how do you feel faculty should be evaluating video projects?

5. Please explain how your ideas have changed of what a “good video” is.

6. What do you think of the idea of an organized series of skill-building workshops offered for students by students? What types of workshops would you want offered?


Workshop Schedule

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Value Proposition

For students who are interested in enhancing their skills in classes where media-based projects are being assigned, and for faculty who are interested in improving their evaluation techniques for said projects, our facilitating creative thinking exercise is designed to strengthen students’ videography skills and to create a grading rubric that encompasses elements of both form and content.

We do this by developing a videography workshop that is tailored to meet the needs of attending students and incorporates both tacit and explicit learning. The results of the workshop exercises are then used to create evaluation rubrics for faculty to assess video projects.

Unlike existing learning resources that show disconnect between form and content, our workshop offers the students the opportunity to practice manipulating the medium in order to create meaning, as well as providing the faculty with an evaluation tool that marries both form and content.

INDICATORS


How does this project facilitate creative thinking?

In DMGT 732: Facilitating Creative Th ink ing, we have learned that everyone has the ability to be creative. Creativity may be expressed differently amongst individuals and may be shown by utilizing various skill levels. People often assume that students in the liberal arts and similar fields are not as creative as fine art or design students. Along with this notion, professors in the liberal arts field may not see the merit in this type of learning.

In the Medici Effect by Frans Johansson, we learned about assumption reversal. By breaking down barriers that are creat ing these assumptions with media-based projects, we can allow people from many different fields to think about projects in a completely different manner. This is also called the intersection.

The manner in which media-based projects are assigned can either support or hinder the product that is created.

In our readings from Flow, Mihaly Csikszentmihayli discusses how levels of skill sets and challenges affects how humans react to situations. For example, if a challenge is set too high and the skill set is low, people develop anxiety and if the skill set is high and the challenge is low, people will be bored. The ultimate state of productivity and enjoyment results when people are highly challenged and have the skills to complete the task. This is precisely the condition we attempted to create in our workshop.

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What was the best moment?

One of the best moments occurred when Krista was talking about how to match up both audio and video for editing purposes. She taught the students that they can make a loud clap with their hands, then use the spike in the audio wave to sync the two files. This concept is exactly what directors do when they use the black clapperboard or “clapper” before each scene in with roll/scene/take written on it. There was a collective “aha” from the students as no one realized before why clappers were used. We discovered that at that moment of participant engagement, the workshop did, in fact, have merit and had been accepted and recognized by the attendees.

It was also great to watch the students collaborate to create a video in only 30 minutes. The students were smiling and laughing as they worked together to figure out ways to tell their story through video. We had a hard time stopping people when the 30 minute time frame expired because they were so involved in their creations and wanted to keep going. The above observations validate that these students were enjoying the moment and were excited to explore their new skills after the workshop was over.

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OUTCOMES


Pre-Survey Analysis

What p lat fo rm i s your personal computer?

9 Mac users

13 PC users

What video editor are you planning to use?

8 iMovie users

6 Premiere users

2 Final Cut Pro users

4 Windows Movie Maker users

1 After Effects user

1 Doesn’ t know what p rogram

How would you rate your v ideo knowledge and expertise on a scale of 1–5, 1 being no knowledge?

13 out of 22 students said that their knowledge experience fell at “little to none”.

5 out of 22 s tudents l i s ted thei r knowledge as beginner

4 out of 22 students said they had intermediate experience

No student l isted their knowledge experience as expert level.

Given the variety of the resources, experience, and tools that the students came to the workshop with, we attempted to accommodate them as best as we could.

When turning your project in for a grade, what do you think that your professors are evaluating you on?

Professionalism (1)

Video quality (7)

Editing (3)

Content (8)

Creative use of images and sound (6)

Craft (2)

Storytelling (10)

Clarity (2)

Emotional impact (3)

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Group A Video Critique Exercise

* The artifacts taken from this exercise were used to design the evaluation rubric.


Group B Video Critique Exercise

* The artifacts taken from this exercise were used to design the evaluation rubric.

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Post-Survey Analysis

Fol lowing the workshop, we sent out an anonymous post-survey to the 13 students that attended. We were interested in gaining feedback not only about the videography workshop, but potential workshops as well. We received 8 responses.

After attending the workshop, how confident are you in attempting a video project?

“I am more confident than I was before I attended the workshop. I feel a lot better about being able to tell the story, but I still feel somewhat daunted by attempting a video project because of the post-production work.”

“I learned a lot of technical stuff which makes it much less intimidating and more do-able.”

“ I t was a great in t roduct ion to

videography and really shows you the things you should be looking for.”

Did you find this workshop useful? Why or why not?

“Yes, now I know how to set up my camera. I understand more of what angles are better to make a scene and everything that you taught was useful.”

“I expanded my list of considerations to make in preparing to create a video, such as setup, lighting, composition, and camera angles.”

“This workshop was really useful since videos have become a necessity media of communication in many classes.”

“The presentation was concise without being ‘elementary’ and so the content was suitable for the audience’s range of experience. The discussions between

moderator and members of the group was also great in bringing forward any other tips and tricks that were not included in the digital presentation.”

“The idea was to learn how to shoot video properly so that editing wouldn’t be such a challenge.

“Yes, you went over all the parts of successful video and let us try out the concepts. F i rst , by watching an existing video and analyzing it, and then by mak ing our own.”

What, if anything, would you change for future versions of this workshop?

“I would have l iked to have seen examples of videos maybe to illustrate examples of the different concepts....”

“Make it a two part series.”


“I would like to learn more about editing sofware, Premiere in particular, but that would have to come in a series of workshops tailored to the 3-4 main programs people use.”

After attending this workshop, how do you feel faculty should be evaluating video projects?

“Content for sure, clarity of message, the explanation of the context, ability to create suspense intrigue and climax scenes, in the final showing of the concept.”

“We are all designers and so we should always be evaluated on: Content, Storyline (flow of information), Dynamics (videos should surpass static framing, compositions for shots should support and enhance the overall message to be communicated.”

“Ability to tell a story using creative methods.”

“Aesthetics, (art of filming, subject not directly in center, pretty setting, etc.), Quality (attention to sound distractions, shaking, clarity, etc.), Story (how well is it set up, told, and what was learned), Editing (entertaining, clear, holds attention, added music, effects, etc.)”

“They should still grade more on content but also give artistic quality some weight.”

Please explain how your ideas of what a “good video” is has changed?

“It was helpful to realize that pre-production is often the most important, yet most neglected part of the process.”

“I now know that even with basic tools, planning can enhance your final video tenfold. Good videos don’t have the highest resolution or the best lighting

and sound... but rather communicate the message clearly while keeping the viewer engaged.”

“I thought a good video (in terms of design management videos we make for class) meant having good graphics. Now, I am realizing that manipulating the camera, lighting, sound, etc should play a bigger role.”

“A “good video” would demonstrate a clear and concise thought process, one that you can tell was well-planned and thought out. Using different angles and effects in regards to lighting and post-production would help in taking a project from a “nice consideration” to “thought changing.”

“Before, I only thought a video was good if it grabbed my attention. But now, I can see all the thought processes that go into each shot, and how they all lend themselves to the finished product.”

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What do you think of the idea of an organized series of skill-building workshops offered for students by students? What types of workshops would you want offered?

“Yes, please! We have such a diverse group of students with so many skills to share.”

“You can never go over the basics enough... there is always something that can make our lives easier:”

“Absolutely. Even though we have access to online tutorials, live workshops using the technology and software for video editing have many advantages. The ability to interact with others, ask questions, and receive one-on-one assistance is irreplaceable.”

“We all come from different background and different undergraduate schools, i think workshops should be given on how to present yourself and your work.”

“We work so hard, and may have bril l iant ideas, it would be nice to have workshops that teach you skills in successfully and professionally selling your ideas.”


Group 1 Video

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Group 2 Video


Video Evaluation Rubric

Based on feedback from the students in the workshop and data collected from the exercises, a rubric was developed to assist faculty in grading student video projects. A group of faculty was asked to view the short video clips created in class, grade the videos with the rubric and provide feedback about both the videos and the rubric itself. The grades

were based on the Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) grading scale. Faculty were allowed to determine the weight of each category in the rubrics and asked to explain their decisions.

The fo l lowing pages show some examples of the feedback that we obtained from the professors.

We would like to further test the rubric before we make any adjustments and finalize it.

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Evaluation Rubric

Content 25%

Clarity of Message

25%

Storytelling 20%

Visual Elements (Lighting, Angles,

Composition) 10%

Use of Audio Elements

10%

Pacing 10%

Final Grade

Group 1

C…limited on ‘How To’

C+…refer to Content

C…once again limited

B…pretty good use of zoom in and angles

D…very little if any used

B…the pace of shots worked for them

76.4

Group 2

B-…the sign gave it reason

C+…not focused on the ‘How To’

B…story works on a humor side

C…funny but not right use of instruction

C+…sometimes a little much

B…spend more time on the shoe itself

79.5

Comments on the Video: The videos were very different. Both can work but I think both missed on the true reason of the video.

What categories did you give greater weight to in determining the Final Grade? Please explain your reasoning. Content and Clarity…then Storytelling. If the content is strong about why you are doing the project and it is stated in a clear way then everything else can be used just to strengthen the concept. Storytelling is needed in any design or concept presentation.

What is your overall opinion of this rubric? Would you recommend any changes and why? Not bad. I asked the questions before of who am I grading? Why am I grading this? Question like this are very important to the understood knowledge/experience of the person/team being graded. As for topics, each person will read and understand them differently. You can not get around this.

Professor 1

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Evaluation Rubric

Content Clarity of Message

Storytelling Visual Elements

(Lighting, Angles, Composition)

Use of Audio Elements

Pacing Final Grade

Group 1

D

C C B D n/a

Group 2

B

B B A (hokey fall!!) D (odd voice over)

B

Comments on the Video: Woman walks in. Woman mutters to self. Woman ties shoe and mutters a little more. Odd clicking noise. I feel like it was filmed well… But beyond what you term ‘visual elements,’ I didn’t see these other rubric categories developed. But, I must say, I quite like this rubric. And I would hope, that if students chose to use this as a medium, that each of these cats would be strategically planned and well executed. II. More compelling story. I guess I’m murky as to what type of deliverable this would be—because these videos are reflective of a short workshop. They could possibly be acceptable as a beginning process for a class- but as a final/client ready/thesis-related clip?! Those (clips) are typically the video projects that I would realistically evaluate, correct? What categories did you give greater weight to in determining the Final Grade? Please explain your reasoning. See above. I imagine that the workshop was about tacit video/production skills—rather than the more nuanced areas of content and storytelling… II. Everything is context specific. It didn’t appear that these workshop folks had any attachment/fluency in their subject—which would not be the case if students were generating clips for a class (they’d, of course, have extensive secondary research under their belts and some degree of primary)…

Professor 2

REFLECTIONS


What makes this project a compelling DMGT problem?

Media L i teracy i s becoming an increasingly necessary skill in today’s world. Media-based projects represent a way to communicate complex ideas and students are expected to be able to manipulate information, using a variety of different tools, in order to create these projects. Unfortunately, there is a disconnect between the expectations the professors who are assigning and evaluating the projects and the students who are asked to create them.

Rubrics have been developed for the assessment of media projects in the past. However, designing a facilitation method for creating these rubrics is unique. The goal of the project is to facilitate creative thinking with a group in order to develop a rubric system for the design and evaluation of video projects.

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Is this primarily a thinking exercise?

The Videography Workshop offered the students more than just a thinking exercise. The workshop was designed around constructivism to incorporate experiential learning. Students united theory and pract ice to c reate knowledge by working through hands-on, interactive exercises. The students gained skil ls that they can use to create video projects in the future and experienced physical activities throughout the exercise. They learned how to conceptualize and storyboard, and they even had time to practice shooting a short video during our facilitation session. The students were given feedback so they can improve

their videography techniques on their next project.

The second component of this workshop is another element that impels more than just a thinking exercise. Based on feedback from the students in the workshop, we developed a rubric that professors can use in their classes to grade student media projects. We also tested our rubric by asking a few professors to view the short video clips created in class, grade the videos with the rubric and provide feedback about both the videos and the rubric itself.

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Does this have potential beyond this quarter?

The rubric we created can be adapted to fit projects in any class, becoming an integral part of the education system. Professors will be able to address form and content and weigh different elements based on specific project goals. Our rubric can serve as the basic framework that can be tailored and further developed.

A skil l-building workshop series for students is absolutely something that can have a life beyond this quarter. The workshops can essentially take on any topic students wish to excel in that are not taught directly in courses. Workshops topics could include both hard and soft skills with topics such as

intermediate videography, blogging, portfolio creation, poster presentation, public speaking tips, and interviewing skills. We are hoping this is the first of many workshops developed and delivered on by students for their fellow classmates.

The websi te we created for the workshop is also available online for any student to reference. It contains all the presentation material we went over in the workshop as well as links for video editing software tutorials.

There is potential to discuss this type of teaching and grading method at educational conferences such as NMC,

EDUCAUSE, ELI, NERCOMP and NITLE. All of these organizations focus on the use of technology in teaching and learning.

NMC - New Media Consortium

EDUCAUSE - Non-profit promoting technology in higher education

ELI - Educause Learning Initiatives

NERCOMP - Northeast Regional Computing (Subset of Educause)

NITLE - National Institute for Technology in Liberal Education

Documents

Facilitating the Creation and Evaluation of Video Projects in Education