Guest post by Dr. Kimberly Smith, Assistant Department Chair, Chemistry Professor
In the Fall of 2016, CHM 130 went OER (open educational resources) meaning all our teaching materials are now created and housed here at GCC. We wrote our own textbook, online worksheets, and I created some teaching YouTube videos to go with the online text we wrote. At the end of the semester, we gave a survey and asked 229 students about the course. Regarding the videos, 49.8% said they strongly agreed the videos were useful, 36.2% agreed, 10.5% were neutral, and 3.5% disagreed. As the overwhelming majority found the YouTube videos useful, I created 7 more videos in the summer of 2017 for CHM 130, a course with about 2000 students annually.The videos I make use the program Camtasia in the CTLE – make an appointment with Cheryl Colan to get started on your own videos! I use two different formats. First I make some videos using PowerPoint presentations. The video screen shows the Powerpoint slides with a small image of me next to them talking about each slide. You can use such videos to “flip” your classroom. Require students to watch the video and then in class you can go straight to problem-solving or discussion over the content. The second video format I use is to record my hands writing and solving a problem on paper using a document camera and microphone. These videos need to be kept short, 3-6 minutes to keep student attention. I have made over 50 of these videos showing problem-solving or discussing concepts in chemistry. This type of video is more of a supplemental material for students who need additional practice problem solving or understanding difficult concepts.
My videos are located in the third column of this website: http://web.gccaz.edu/~kimld88531/rev130.htm
In the spring of 2017, I talked to my own students about the videos and several students suggested topics for future videos. Getting student input into the topics they need or the problems they would like to see help guide you in your video making. I hope you consider making videos for your own students. I would be happy to discuss this with you!
George Gregg
August 22, 2017 — 12:18 pm
Just a note that these materials – and especially the videos – have been so well received that we are making them available to CHM150 and CHM151 students, as well, so they can be used for review.
So the work Dr. Smith and others put into developing the OER materials for CHM130 are being used beyond the scope of that course, too!
George Gregg