Learning Video

 

Project OverviewScreenshot Flute Intro Video

  • Responsibilities:

    • Instructional design

    • eLearning development

    • Video recording and editing

    • Photo editing
    • Audio recording

  • Target Audience:

    • 5th grade instrumental students

  • Tools Used:

    • PowToon

    • iPad

    • Adobe Photoshop

    • Adobe Premiere Pro

    • Audacity

    • Blue Snowball microphone

 

Problem & Solution

ISD 166 needed to update their music curriculum. The school needed introduction material for their new beginning band program with 5th grade students. The material needed to be engaging for the learners and short enough to keep their attention and be used during station work.

My proposed solution was to create an animated learning video with recorded “how to” sections showing the learners how to put together and play their instrument. Every video was kept under 5 minutes.

Process

I chose to use PowToon for this project because of the work towards achieving a competency badge in this skill and the effectiveness of this medium. The ability to create simple animation and to combine sound, writing, video and animations in one presentation was appealing in terms of keeping my audience’s attention.

Through action mapping, I narrowed down the basic knowledge I wanted my students to know before coming into their first lesson. The three categories were putting the instrument together, the playing position of the instrument, and keeping the instrument safe. The actual instrument-specific maintenance will be taught in their lessons. The goal of the video was to be brief so the students would not lose focus. Including the specific cleaning and lubing steps for each instrument would have extended the videos by several minutes. Additional videos could be made for this if the music department wishes.

I wanted an introduction slide with the school’s information in it, followed by an introduction to the video itself. From there I included a slide with the learning objectives of the video. Each learning objectives section varied in length depending on the instrument; some instruments are more complicated than others in terms of putting them together and holding them. The videos are all kept under 5 minutes to maximize the student’s interest and engagement.

All videos and photos I included were taken using my iPad. I created transparent backgrounds for every photo using Adobe Photoshop. All edits made to the instructional videos were done in Adobe Premiere Pro. 

After creating the general slide master layout in Powtoon, I was able to input duplicate it for each instrument. I worked iteratively, with each pass adding more detail to the slides. To ensure I did not max out my student’s cognitive load, I chose to include either text or voiceover, but never both, on each slide.

 

 

Want to see more?

Experience the project