Student-generated videos: Demonstrating competencies and increasing engagement.

Student-generated video demonstrates learned competencies, broad and specialized knowledge promotes presentation skills and encourages dialogue. In a virtual setting, student recorded videos provides opportunities for oral presentations, communication skills and to share a little about themselves with their peers. Videos can personalize the learning experience and become an informative data set for assessing student comprehension of material and their ability to synthesize and present. It’s a creative and simple implementation of Web 2.0 technology which encourages a community to learners to share their accomplishments with their peers and faculty.

Our shared experience of student created videos in online courses have included students presenting their Capstone projects, demonstrating Web accessibility tools, rolling out marketing plans and illustrating newly acquired skills with various software programs. These activities also become a very important component of social learning (McLoughlin & Lee, 2008). The students became active practitioners and exchanged ideas, experiences and contributed to community body of knowledge. Peer-to-peer learning took place, sharing tips for using the programs and how to upload materials and to successfully record narration.

The tools are often free, the students largely enjoy the novelty of creating something unique and it supports an inviting class dialogue. Student-generated videos can demonstrate student learning, personalize their experience and contribute towards the community of practice.