Using Videos to Introduce Key Organic Chemistry Lesson Topics to Enhance Student Learning

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1 Using Videos to Introduce Key Organic Chemistry Lesson Topics to Enhance Student Learning Richard L. Comitz This paper was completed and submitted in partial fulfillment of the Master Teacher Program, a 2-year faculty professional development program conducted by the Center for Faculty Excellence, United States Military Academy, West Point, NY, Abstract Often times, for students, the goal of taking a college class is to find out what they need to do to pass the class rather than how can they learn as much as possible about the subject of the class. In order to enhance student learning, it is necessary to give the students many different ways to engage the course material. The traditional way to engage the students is to assign reading and homework and then discuss the material in class. These are successful techniques, but if there were other ways to get the students thinking about the material, especially in an area that they are very comfortable with, like videos linked through social media, and then students might become more invested in learning the material for the pursuit of knowledge rather than just a grade. The research presented here, uses videos to introduce key Organic Chemistry lesson topics to give the students another avenue to think about the material and to focus their attention while doing the reading and homework. The videos also help connect topics with the labs they perform and real world applications. Survey results show that there was no statistical difference in grades. Also, survey results show that the majority of the students didn t view the videos, but those that did said they were helpful. 1

2 Introduction Teaching techniques must evolve as the way students learn evolves. The students of today are born with technology, so it is not surprising that technology has been increasingly incorporated into their learning. The use of videos in education, across all disciplines, has been accelerating rapidly in recent years. 1 A 2011 study concluded that online video is by far the most common type of social media used in class, posted outside class or assigned to students to view, with 80% of faculty reporting some form of class use of online video. 2 Although I believe that videos should never completely replace live classroom instruction, the use of videos can increase the amount of exposure and engagement the student has to the course material. There are many benefits of the videos being online. Online access to videos can allow students to take control of their learning and work towards more independence. The videos can be accessed at any time and virtually at any location allowing the students to best use their time. Students can work at their own pace and watch the videos as many times as they desire. In a study conducted by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting in 2004 concluded that educational videos reinforce reading and lecture material, enhance student comprehension and discussion, provide greater accommodation of diverse learning styles, increase student motivation and enthusiasm, and promote teacher effectiveness. Videos have the potential to engage students, stimulate stronger interest in the topic, activate emotional states, and facilitate the absorption and processing of information. 3 There seems to be enough evidence that there are definite benefits to using videos to enhance student learning. The next question is: what are the features of videos that would most enhance student learning. The answers to this question were best summarized by the following table from an article by Philip J. Guo, Juho Kim, and Rob Rubin in

3 Finding Shorter videos are much more engaging Videos that intersperse an instructor s talking head with slides are more engaging than slides alone. Videos produced with a more personal feel could be more engaging than high-fidelity studio recordings. Khan-style tablet drawing tutorials are more engaging than PowerPoint slides or code screencasts. Even high quality pre-recorded classroom lectures are not as engaging when chopped up for a Massive Open Online Course (MOOC). Videos where instructors speak fairly fast and with high enthusiasm are more engaging. Students engage differently with lecture and videos Recommendation Invest heavily in pre-production lesson planning to segment videos into chunks shorter than 6 minutes. Invest in post-production editing to display the instructor s head at opportune times in the video. Try filming in an informal setting; it might not be necessary to invest in big-budget studio productions. Introduce motion and continuous visual flow into tutorials, along with extemporaneous speaking. If instructors insist on recording classroom lectures, they should still plan with the MOOC format in mind. Coach instructors to bring out their enthusiasm and reassure that they do not need to purposely slow down. For lectures focus more on the first-watch experience; for tutorials, add support for rewatching and skimming. Method Videos were made for each chapter studied during the first semester of the Organic Chemistry Course. Videos were usually between 5-10 minutes in length. The goals of the videos were not replace class preparation, but to enhance it by focusing the students on the lesson objectives, pointing out areas of difficulty, and relating the lessons to laboratory experiments and real world examples. The videos were recorded on a tablet PC. The backdrops of the videos were Powerpoint slides with figures for the book and bullets to focus on key ideas. The videos were then narrated by the instructor and annotated by drawing on the slides to further explain, clarify, or emphasize topics. The videos concluded with a summary and tips for the student to use to study the chapter. Videos were made available on YouTube with links to the video on the course website and linked through Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram. The students were made 3

4 aware of the videos in the beginning of the course but were not mandatory. The students were surveyed about the use of the videos and their opinions of how the videos enhanced their learning at the end of the course. Grades were also compared with those from the previous year to see if there was any appreciable impact. Results The results of the grade comparison of the class that had access to the videos to those of the previous year, who didn t have access to the videos, did not show a statistical change. The average grades were almost identical at 86.34% for the students that had access to the videos to 86.88% for the students that did not have access to the videos. Even when comparing individual tests and the final exam, there were only slight differences in scores (usually less than 2%). The results are presented in the table below. Current AY14-1 Points: Percent: Points: Percent: Highest: % % Average: % % Lowest: % % Standard Deviation: Average Letter Grade: B B+ Course GPA: Total Number of Cadets: The results of the survey were not very telling for the majority of the students. Of the 75 students that took the course only 34 completed the end of course survey. Of those 34 only 12 students said that they watched the videos and only nine watched the videos consistently. The majority of the nine that did watch the videos consistently did have positive attitudes toward the videos and believed that they enhanced their learning. The following section shows the results of each of the survey questions with a brief discussion. The first question simply asked if the students viewed the videos. Since this was not a mandatory assignment, I was curious how many students would take it upon their selves to explore all of the assets available to them for this class. They were informed about the videos during the first class and there was a link to the videos on the class website. The survey results showed that only five students watched the videos consistently and another seven watched the videos occasionally. The fact that the majority of students did not watch the videos can be attributed to a few things. First, it will be discussed later when addressing the free comment questions, but there are 4

5 some students that claim they either did not know about the videos or did not know where to find them. Second, there could be a time management problem with students. Many times, students will not do the assignment or only do the bare minimum to prepare for class. Since the videos were not mandatory, they fell lower on the priority list and often times did not get viewed. E9. Did you view the online videos for each chapter that were available via YouTube, Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter? Yes 5 (15%) No 22 (65%) Sometimes 7 (21%) The second question was targeted at gathering information on what source students used to access the videos. This was intended to gain insight about what sources can be leveraged in the future. The results show that the students that did watch the videos accessed the videos by either Facebook or YouTube. This information can be used when designing future teaching enhancements. E10. If you viewed the chapter videos, which source did you use to get to the videos? I did not view the videos 24 (71%) YouTube 5 (15%) Twitter0 (0%) Instagram0 (0%) Facebook 5 (15%) The next quest was aimed at asking the students if they believed that the videos helped them prepare for class. Each video was intended to outline the material for the chapter and give the students some areas to concentrate their study efforts. Five of the students that watched the videos consistently strongly agreed or agreed that the videos helped them prepare for class. Three students were neutral as to whether the videos helped them prepare for class, and it seems that one person did not find the videos helpful at all. 5

6 E11. The chapter videos helped prepare me for each lesson. Strongly Agree [6] 1 (3%) Agree [5] 4 (12%) Neutral [4] 3 (9%) Disagree [3]0 (0%) Strongly Disagree [2] 1 (3%) I did not view the chapter videos [1] 25 (74%) Question E12 was slightly different from E11, in that this question focused on whether the video helped focus the students studying. This question was geared at gathering information as to whether the student thought they got anything out of the video that enhance their studying. Only three students either strongly agreed or agreed that the videos helped focus their study efforts, whereas, five students were neutral. So from this, one can conclude that although the students thought the videos were helpful in their preparation for each lesson, they did not feel that they helped them study for graded events. E12. Viewing the chapter videos helped me focus my studying. Strongly Agree [6] 1 (3%) Agree [5] 2 (6%) Neutral [4] 5 (15%) Disagree [3]0 (0%) Strongly Disagree [2] 1 (3%) I did not view the chapter videos [1] 25 (74%) The next question asked the students if they thought the videos were effective at capturing the important points in the chapters. To this question, six students strongly agreed or agreed that the videos captured the important points of the chapter and three were neutral. From this, I can say that the video content was appropriately covering the key points of the chapters, at least in the opinion of the students. 6

7 E13. The chapter videos effectively captured what was important in the chapter. Strongly Agree [6] 1 (3%) Agree [5] 5 (15%) Neutral [4] 3 (9%) Disagree [3]0 (0%) Strongly Disagree [2]0 (0%) I did not view the chapter videos [1] 25 (74%) Question E14 asks the students if they would recommend watching the videos to other students. Seven students said they would recommend the videos to other students and two said they would not. Even though this is a small sample size, it seems that the students did get something out of the videos. The key to the future is getting more students to actually take the time to watch the videos. E14. Would you recommend watching the chapter videos to future students? Yes 7 (21%) No 2 (6%) I did not view the chapter videos 25 (74%) The free comment questions had a few constructive ideas for improvement such as adding synthesis examples and 3D animations. These are definitely possible for future iterations. What was disheartening, was the fact that the students claimed they did not know about the videos or felt they had to constantly be reminded to view them. The videos were talked about during lesson one by showing them the link and also noted on the PowerPoint slide with the class resources. In the future they can be reference more, but I am not sure what the appropriate level of reminding is. I believe the students she take responsibility for their learning and should not have to be constantly reminded, but the videos can be mentioned more in future classes. 7

8 E15. What would you change about the chapter videos? There were 34 responses. 1. The videos were something I came across when I was exploring the class website. I thought they were very helpful when I used them to prepare for upcoming quizzes in the class. They should definitely be more emphasized during class so that all the students know that they are there; I am certain that most forgot since they were so caught up with other things in their academics. Additionally, for some chapters there were no videos uploaded to review the material. The uploads should be more consistent so that cadets can use them as a reliable resource. 2. None 3. Nothing 4. I did not view the chapter videos. 5. I would continue to reference them to the class in order to encourage the students to go to them. 6. I did not view chapter videos 7. More examples, a few practice syntheses 8. na 9. I did not watch them, I didn't even know they existed. 10. did not view the videos 11. Didn't watch. 12. n/a 13. I did not know we had chapter videos. I would make this more known. 14. N/A 15. I did not view the videos 16. N/A 17. N/A 18. NA 19. I did not watch the chapter videos. 20. Making it clearer that these videos were available Make them more accessible on the website. I had difficulty finding them. 24. N/a. 25. N/A 26. I did not view them. If they were that helpful, it would have been nice to have that information emphasized. 27. I should have watched these but I didn't know these existed 28. I did not view the online videos 29. I'm not actually aware of any "chapter videos," though I do remember some videos here and there that were useful. 30. I did not watch them Include 3D animations rather than just voice overed pictures. 33. N/A 8

9 34. I did not realize there were videos E16. If you have any additional comments about the chapter videos, please write them here. There were 34 responses. 1. Possibly exploring deeper into the material in each of the videos. I thought the videos were relatively short and condensed given the material that was covered in the textbook. 2. None 3. N/A 4. I did not view the chapter videos. 5. I don't have any additional comments, but I must fill in this block to submit the survey. 6. None 7. N/A 8. na 9. I did not watch them, I didn't even know they existed. 10. did not view the videos 11. N/A 12. n/a 13. N/A 14. N/A 15. I greatly enjoyed this course 16. N/A 17. N/A 18. NA 19. I did not watch the chapter videos. 20. N/A N/A 24. N/a. 25. N/A 26. None 27. N/a 28. I did not view the online videos 29. I don't have any additional comments. 30. I did not watch them Good info, I just prefer a more 3D, dynamic type of visual. 33. I could never find the chapter videos 34. None 9

10 Conclusion Although, the results of this trial were not stellar, there is some information that shows that, for a few, the videos were helpful and did enhance their learning. It did not seem to impact the course as a whole in terms of increase in grades. What I learned from this project is that it might be necessary to require the students to watch the videos in order to get a true assessment form a larger sample size. I do think that this is a valuable tool that can enhance students learning, but it might have to be in lieu of some other class preparation task. This project also helped me understand how students prepare for class and manage their time. I have been asked several times by book publishers to carry an online supplement to the course text, and after this project and other conversations with students, these additional requirements just overwhelm the student rather than help them in many cases. I cannot help but think that for many, it was a matter of time management and remembering that the videos were there to begin with. 1 Kaufmann, P. B., & Mohan, J. (2009). Video use and higher education: Options for the future, copyright clearance center/intelligent television/new York University Moran, M., Seaman, J., & Tinti-Kane, H. (2011). Teaching, learning, and sharing: How today s higher education faculty use social media, pearson learning solutions and babson survey research group. educators/pearson-social-media-survey-2011-bw.pdf 3 Marshall, J. M. (2002). Learning with technology: Evidence that technology can, and does, support learning. White paper prepared for Cable in the Classroom by Dr. James M. Marshall, a member of the Department of Educational Technology at San Diego State University. 4 Philip J. Guo, Juho Kim, and Rob Rubin How video production affects student engagement: an empirical study of MOOC videos. In Proceedings of the first ACM conference on scale conference (L@S '14). ACM, New York, NY, USA,