The one where I make a video and gain an even larger appreciation for e-learning teachers.

Welcome to my fourth learning project post: the one where I make a video and gain an even larger appreciation for e-learning teachers. 

But seriously! Not only is filming yourself speak so incredibly difficult and frustrating, but having to watch yourself back on film? Definitely not my cup of tea… but I have to get comfortable being uncomfortable (and you can totally tell I am uncomfortable when watching my video). 

This week, I started to actively look at the sources I collected and I began to gather information. I created a new document for research on each of the main topics so that it would be easier to navigate when starting to create content for each module or segment. For example, I currently have research documents for building relationships, as well as communication and engagement. 

Because I want this course to be effective, I know that I cannot rush it. Instead of trying to complete all of the topics at once and risk them being mediocre, I have decided to focus on two topics more thoroughly. This means that I will only be creating half the course throughout the duration of this project. I was still follow my outline as normal, I will just have to go back and add after the fact. 

The next step in my outline after researching is creating the learning objectives for the course! Essentially, I have to decide what it is exactly that I want participants to take away and be able to do upon completion. This is really difficult for me as I have never had to do anything like this before. I found a pdf that has a structure and list of verbs for creating objectives. I really appreciated the verb bank and I referred to it with every objective I created. The learning objectives that I created are in no way finalized. I will likely add or remove as time goes on, as well as reword, revise, and rethink to ensure that the most important material is included. As I start to create content, I will send my learning objectives to various people to see if they are reasonable and apt. Perhaps some of my EDTC300 classmates will be able to help me with this!

This past week, I started the Respect in Sport online course. It is a fairly long course, and because I am very busy I have not had the chance to finish it yet. However, I have a fairly good idea of how the course functions. I really like that the modules are broken down into segments, and that the amount of time it takes to complete each segment is visible. This way, if I only have 30 minutes before my next class, I know that I have enough time to complete the 7 minute segment. I feel that it helps me to manage my time more effectively. I appreciate that there is an outline for each segment as it helps me keep focused. Something that I do struggle with a bit is the presentation. The segments that I have completed so far have been a slideshow with a voice over. This makes me feel very disconnected and does not keep my attention. I would prefer a balance of a visual presentation,like a slideshow, and a video of the person speaking to me. I think that this feeling of connectedness would help me stay engaged with the content. 

Lastly, I would like to talk about actually creating my video. I used one of the chrome extensions we discussed in class called Screencastify. It was incredibly easy to download and use! I absolutely love that the video is ready to go as soon as you stop recording, and the fact that it automatically uploads to Google Drive is a gamechanger. I swear that exporting and uploading files can sometimes be the hardest part, but this extension has it all covered! I can definitely learn a bit more about the tools that you can use on the screen, but if I am being honest that was not quite a priority for me this video. My priority was making it through filming without crying. I was going to say yelling, but I did that multiple times out of frustration. I was not frustrated by the program by any means… I was frustrated with myself! I would be on a roll and then just completely blank and stare at the screen, so I had to restart numerous times. Or I would really stumble on a sentence and I would have to refilm it! I do not even want to know how many times I attempted to film this simple five minute long video. It really is not perfect, but at least I did it! Watching the video of myself after was just excruciating (maybe I am a little dramatic). I mean I don’t think there are a ton of people who like listening to their voices on recording. All in all, I started to familiarize myself with a tool that I will likely use again in the future, so really I call that a win. HUGE shoutout to all of the e-learning teachers right now who have had to tackle this! I hope it hasn’t caused you as much anxiety as it did for me. 

Thanks for tuning in to this week’s post! 

x Paige Hamann