Using Video to Orient Students to a New Semester

Each semester, I rely heavily on the use of video to orient students to a new semester. Orientation videos, demos, and tutorials can help ease students into a new semester, particularly in online courses, and prevent this reaction in students. The start of the semester certainly isn't the only time it's beneficial to use video, but I've come to realize that the time it takes to create these videos early in the semester pays off in huge ways.

Below, I share a few videos I created over the past week in preparation for the start of the spring semester. I use Camtasia or Snagit for nearly all video creation. However, you will notice that one of the videos below was created using Screencast-o-matic, as my Camtastia software needed to be updated at the time.

course orientation video

course orientation video

explanation of using playlists for blended learning, created for my student teachers in blended classrooms

demo of Diigo Groups for resource-sharing and discussion