The online course seemed to do worse again on the second midterm, especially on the analytical parts. I decided that I really needed to video record my class lectures on analytical topics. I tracked down the equipment and recorded nearly all the subsequent class sessions. This was tedious since it involved carrying the video camera and tripod to and from class each day. There was not really any place I could store them in the building in which I teach.
I took the raw video and cut it down to bite-sized chunks, never more than 10 minutes long. It was genuinely interesting to see myself “in action.” I discovered that video-editing takes a tremendous amount of time. I cut out my jokes, and other digressions such as wrong answers by students. A video/lecture which simply presents content is tighter and shorter than the sort of interactive lecture I typically give to draw out the content from my students. The video of the latter is probably a waste of time for online, since I don’t think that viewers would appreciate the pauses and digressions, which were important to the students in my classroom (e.g. my responding to questions that were off the topic of the day), but not to those viewing it after the fact.
