Using Community Clips & Power Point to Create an Effective Video Demonstration for Math, Statistics or Other Disciplines

Author Information
Author(s): 
Dr. Paula Jones
Institution(s) or Organization(s) Where EP Occurred: 
Eastern Kentucky University
Effective Practice Abstract/Summary
Abstract/Summary of Effective Practice: 

Sometimes faculty members need the ability to use the chalk board in an online class room. There are times when the instructor wants to hand-write an example or demonstrate a problem being solved, just as they would in a face to face class. The Instructional Development Center at Eastern Kentucky University has combined the use of Power Point with a free screen capturing software provided by Microsoft call "Community Clips. The ultimate goal of using these combined software tools was to provide faculty members an efficient method that allowed them to record their voice and capture video of their hand written demonstrations of creating formulas, solving problems on screen, and/or provide written analysis in a quality video product for students to access easily through a streamed video or even a course management system. Faculty seem to value that this type of quick production can be done in their home or office and there is no expensive equipment or studio required.

Description of the Effective Practice
Description of the Effective Practice: 

When teaching math, statistics or English online, it is vital that faculty members have a quick and effective method for sharing with students methods to solve problems or view hand-written demonstrations of formula writing or even provide hand-written edits via video. With the budget constraints at many of the higher education institutions today, sometimes the software and technology skills needed to create this type of video could prevent faculty members from developing good quality video clips that demonstrated these skills for students to access and review. By combining Powerpoint with "Community Clips," (Community Clips is a free add-in from Microsoft), faculty members can quickly develop rich and powerful videos that allow them the ability to record their voice, write freely on slides and create videos for students to review to develop their understanding of calculations, statistics or even review and listen to recorded/written feedback on an edited document. In fact, with a couple of quick steps, faculty members become empowered to capture slides in a video format while they use the writing tools available within Powerpoint to write freely on individual slides. At the same time, faculty members can record their voice to enhance the video demonstration. A basic example of a final product using Power Point and Community Clips can be found at: http://www.people.eku.edu/jonesp/PPT%20with%20Writing%20ToolExample.wmv. Once the faculty member is aware of the benefits of this free add-in to Power Point, they can then share it with their students and have students demonstrate their own problem solving skills by capturing their slides, adding their own edits to a body of text or use the writing tools in Power Point to write their own solution on the individual slides. The student can do all of this while they record their own voice to explain their steps and submit their video clips as a final product for evaluation by the instructor. By using Community Clips with Power Point, the most powerful result is that the user has the ability to "write" freely on the screen while the user records their voice to the slides. The final product is always a Windows Media Video (but can be altered to a another video format using a free online resource, such as Zamzar) -- and in 2 clicks the user or developer has a rich, final product to share.

Supporting Information for this Effective Practice
Evidence of Effectiveness: 

The evidence of effectiveness is clear. 1. Power Point is a fairly popular software and most educational systems have access to it. 2. Community Clips is very easy to use -- just 2 button (start and stop recording); the software automatically renders out the product as a WMV file. 3. This add-in software is provided free from Microsoft office. 4. If an organization needed the final product rendered in another format, they could use a free file conversion resource, such as Zamzar, to make the conversion. 4. Community Clips can be used in all MS Office products to generate video demonstrations of the software. At the same time, the user could minimize the MS Office software and use Community Clips to capture other web sites or tools.

How does this practice relate to pillars?: 

1. When students see the faculty's quick video demonstrations of formulas, problems being solved, edits, or written examples -- they report that the "teacher is back in classroom." 2. Providing small videos in online classes allow students to access and review the demonstration repeatedly, as needed to understand the content or methods that are demonstrated.

Equipment necessary to implement Effective Practice: 

The faculty member needs Powerpoint software (2003 or later is recommended). Community Clips can be downloaded free from the following site: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/communityclips/Pages/Default.aspx. (Optional) To help with using the writing tools effectively in Powerpoint, faculty members may want to purchase a Bamboo Writing Tool. Examples can be found at the following site: http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/hardware/ss/wacom-bamboo-2009.htm

Estimate the probable costs associated with this practice: 

$0 -- Community Clips is a free add-in for Microsoft Office products. If the Bamboo Writing tool is purchased, it has an estimated cost of $75 or less.

References, supporting documents: 

Community Clips is a free add-in provided by Microsoft at the following site: http://www.officelabs.com/projects/communityclips/Pages/Default.aspx Zamzar is a free file conversion resource and is available at: http://www.zamzar.com/ Bamboo Writing Tools are available through office supply stores. Examples located at http://graphicssoft.about.com/od/hardware/ss/wacom-bamboo-2009.htm

Contact(s) for this Effective Practice
Effective Practice Contact: 
Dr. Paula Jones
Email this contact: 
paula.jones@eku.edu