• In what way are learners likely to respond to the video on their own, e.g. make notes, do an activity, think about the topic (learner-generated)?
  • What activity could you suggest that they do, after they have watched the video (designed)? What type of knowledge or skill would that activity help develop? What medium or technology would students use to do the activity?

Although “The Five Ways to Wellbeing” video is a bit too simplistic for our Interactive Learning Resource, the reason I selected it for this particular prompt is that it can be used as a learner-generated interactivity medium. Unlike James’ programming language example, this video is not as concise and focuses more on soft rather than hard skills, but both videos encourage rather than push students to engage with the material. For example, James suggests that learners could engage with his video by taking notes to better organize and process information. One way in which learners could engage on a deeper level with mine would be by keeping a diary to keep track of how well they themselves follow the tips introduced in the video such as being active and continuing to learn. The speaker in the video explicitly addresses the viewers by instructing them to follow mental health improvement advice provided in the video. The background music and animation create an atmosphere that promotes reflection.

Post #4 – Making of Good Interactions

In the course my group is creating, videos will be an important part of the material needed for success in both individual and collaborative activities. One of the activities our learners will engage in is keeping a self-care journal. We do not assess it, but it is a great way to promote learner-material interaction and self-analysis. Similar to the tips listed in “The Five Ways to Wellbeing,” we would ask our learners to privately list their personal goals for mental health maintenance and create a plan for how they will apply the strategies we have presented them with to achieve those goals.

  • How would students get feedback on the activity that you set? What medium or technology would they and/or you use for getting and giving feedback on their activity?
  • How much work for you would that activity cause? Would the work be both manageable and worthwhile? Could the activity be scaled for larger numbers of students?

Our collaborative activity, on the other hand, is going to be assessed using the SOLO Taxonomy as a guide for our rubric. The rubric will evaluate the level of insight our learners demonstrate as they work in small groups of 3-4 individuals to create blog posts in response to the course-related prompts we give them and annotate others’ blog posts using hypothes.is. This activity should take about 30 minutes for each group and is meant to promote learner-learner interaction. It would be most suitable for 15-25 people, a number that would give learners enough options when it comes to choosing which post they would like to annotate as a group but would not overwhelm them with those options. This collaboration piece will help expose students to others’ ideas, develop their teamwork skills, and make them feel more connected to their classmates. Therefore, I believe it is worthwhile.

  • How could the video have been designed to generate more or better activity from viewers or students?

The video presented in this post could potentially generate more activity if it consisted more of questions towards viewers rather than just explanations and instructions. For example, asking the viewers “When was the last time you felt you have learned something?” is more personalized and is a more effective way to promote deeper reflection.

Sanctuary. (2020, May 19). The Five Ways to Wellbeing – boosting mental wellbeing [Video]. YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gJ5V525SCk

UPDATE (Nov 22, 2021): My pod and I have actually decided to go with the interactive Hypothes.is group activity for the formative assessment and with a short-answer quiz for the summative assessment. We came to the conclusion that the Hypothes.is activity would be a more effective way of engaging our learners with the material as well as their peers, while a self-care journal would be a more personal and more difficult exercise to provide instructor feedback for. Both the group activity and quiz will be marked using the SOLO Taxonomy.