99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos

by Karen Costa, Michelle Pacansky-brock (Foreword)

The research is online learning works best when faculty build regular, positive, and interactive relationships with students. A strategy that helps forge such a relationship is the use of videos. Student satisfaction and course engagement levels also increase with the use of instructor-generated videos – the subject of this book.Beginning by outlining the different types of videos you can create, and what the research says about their effectiveness, Karen Costa explains how they can be designed to reinforce learning, to align with and promote course outcomes, and to save you time across your courses. She then describes how to create successful videos with commonly available technologies such as your smartphone, and without a major investment of time, demonstrating the simple steps she took to develop her bank of videos and build her confidence to deliver short, straightforward learning aids that are effective and personal.Embedded QR codes in the text enable you to view sample videos and screencasts that bring the book’s advice to life as you read.If you’ve been wanting to include videos in your teaching but haven’t found the time or confidence, this book will help you to develop a simple and sustainable video development process, supporting both your success and the success of your students.

Genres: Teaching, Technology, Education

200 pages, Paperback

Published March 27, 2020

About the author

Karen Costa is a career higher educator with a passion for discovering her own purpose and path, and a desire to help others do the same. She has been teaching college and life success skills to first-year college students for over a decade, helping them to create the lives of their dreams.

Karen’s first book, 99 Tips for Creating Simple and Sustainable Educational Videos (Stylus, February 2020), focuses on helping faculty and teachers to make creative use of videos in their classrooms.

Karen is a staff writer for Women in Higher Education. Her writing has also appeared in Inside Higher Education, The Philadelphia Inquirer, On Being, and Faculty Focus. She is involved in various faculty development initiatives including as a facilitator for Faculty Guild.

Karen graduated with honors from Syracuse University with a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology. She holds a Master of Education in Higher Education from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and a Certificate of Advanced Graduate Studies in Educational Leadership from Northeastern University. A proud lifelong learner, Karen holds a Professional Certification in Trauma and Resilience from Florida State University, and will complete her Certificate in Neuroscience, Learning, and Online Instruction from Drexel University in early 2020. Karen is a certified yoga teacher and Level 1 Yoga for Arthritis teacher. She lives in Massachusetts with her family.

Reviews

[Susan · Rating 5 out of 5]

First, I do know the author of this book as a former colleague and neighbor. That said, I sincerely tried not to let this history influence my review. Truth: This is the book I’ve been waiting for and, since I’m on the tail end of my teaching career, I wish I had known these techniques earlier. This is really a handbook that should be used throughout a semester. There are so many good pieces of advice here, simple techniques with video that can be done for many purposes, like a 5 minute video to clear up confusion on the discussion board. This really resonated with me. I’ve seen students coming to the same wrong conclusions on the discussion board but I never thought to address this through a short video that would most likely appeal to them more than written notes. The strategies are clearly outlined with lots of video examples. This is a book I will use repeatedly in my classes.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is an excellent book for anyone getting started with a instructional videos. There are great tips on making this a sustainable and fun practice, and relevant research is thoroughly cited. The author writes authentically. However, it’s not 99 tips. Some are repeated or restated several times, which I don’t love. There are a small number of tips I disagree with, but they align with the goal of making video easy and sustainable for faculty. An example would be “don’t use a script.” This conflicts with advice about keeping videos brief, and with advice to caption them. In my view, if you have a script, your captions are done. It’s a question of spending that time in preparation or after recording. This is not a big deal and shouldn’t keep anyone from getting a lot out of the book. I would give 4 stars if it weren’t for repetitive tips. I guess I felt shortchanged! 🤣

[Karen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a helpful and confidence-building book! The title is a bit of a misnomer, because she doesn't actually have 99 different tips; I'm sure it was just a catchy way to grab readers ... since who could have known when this book came out in March that the world would be immediately plunged into a global pandemic and suddenly all sorts of folks would be needing to make videos! The book is mostly geared toward asynchronous online college courses, but I'm finding it incredibly helpful for my synchronous online high school courses, and I think that there are some standard videos that I'll use year after year even when the world returns to "normal" and we're back in the classroom. I have visions, for example, of "flipping" my grammar instruction. One of the best parts of the book is that it includes QR codes to videos that Karen Costa has done to illustrate various suggestions she makes, and those short videos make it clear just how much personality and warmth can be injected into an online course through videos.

[Tara Brabazon · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a basic guide to 'how to make educational videos.' It does what it says on the tin. The weakness is the question of motivation. Why would students watch a video? How to make a video is a simple question. Why to make one - that is the educational challenge. But for tips and tricks - this is a solid book.

[Tanya · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was one of the best book purchases I've made. It is a wonderful resource if you're teaching online (as so many of us are, or will be very soon), thinking of flipping your course, or even just want to add some additional resources for your students. I had created some educational videos before (having taught online and flipped/blended classes), and this book has been helpful for me to make better and more varied videos, but will also be incredibly valuable to those who've never made videos before.

Costa presents practical information/suggestions along with the background evidence to help educators understand the many ways in which educational videos can be used. The tips provide targeted instructions, suggestions and caveats. She consistently emphasizes aspects of simplicity and sustainability throughout the book, and her writing is clear, engaging, and kind. I mention this as it can often be daunting for busy educators to learn and take on a task like video production, and it is all too easy to feel like we have to produce "perfect" videos even if that is at the expense of our well-being. Costa not only gives us permission to NOT be perfect, but reminds us of the value of allowing ourselves to be imperfect (caring) humans with our students.

While it is unlikely that a single educator would need every single tip of the 99, I think most of us will find most of the book to be helpful in identifying which types of videos will be appropriate for our courses, when we can/should use them, and how we can make them as effective as possible (without burning out in the process).

The book is focused primarily on making videos, but Costa discusses aspects that educators will probably find useful in other areas (e.g., teaching/lecturing strategies, PowerPoint presentations, setting up your LMS). And if you are in a hurry, you can choose to just read some of the tips that are relevant to your most-urgent needs (though you may want to come back later and read the rest).

[Brandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I love a great educational teacher book,they are often hard to find though. Either they are too elementary for me (high school teacher), too focused on only brick and mortar setting (new virtual teacher but taught for 11 years) or they are too researched based and boring. This book was none of the above! The author did a great job appealing to all teachers - regardless of grade or type of teacher. It was filled with great video examples that connected to the topic and offered a wonderful example as a model! I highly recommend this book for all teachers - with technology changing and students being in a Tik tok generation videos are a wonderful way to connect to students!

[Drew · Rating 3 out of 5]

Generally, I thought the book was well presented. It’s notable that this is written for college professors, unabashedly; yet there was still value for others, like me.

That said, nothing struck me as earth shattering, and my highlights were far fewer than I’d have thought, so I didn’t get as much out of this book as I had hoped. Barb Oakley’s “Teaching Online” course on Coursera offered a lot of overlap with this book, but offered much more depth - despite my expectation that it be the other way around.

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a game changer! I read this at the very beginning of the Pandemic and it changed the way I designed and delivered my courses online. I've always used videos, but Karen Costa's recommendations for making them quick and easy has saved me time, allowed me to connect more to my students, and just all around made the process more fun. I highly recommend reading it!

[April · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great actionable items!

Great descriptions of specific things an instructor can immediately incorporate into their online courses. The actionable items are small individually, but together can work to build better content for online instruction.

[Tricia Nolfi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Practical simple tips for creating educationally sound videos.

[Allyson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book to get started and continue learning how to create videos for online learning

[Neregauzak]

2021/05/25