Using video: While Viewing

One of the key points to remember about designing your viewing activities is that students will be both listening and watching as the video is playing so make sure that any tasks you set require only a minimum response. Asking students to read or write at any length whilst they watch will be far too demanding, so if you decide to use any kind of questions about the content of the video it’s best to choose things like true / false statements or multiple choice questions that only require a minimal physical response like ticking a box.

Make sure that if you do use questions you also give students plenty of time to read and understand the questions before they watch. Setting questions or using the readiness activity of getting students to create their own questions about what they want to know can have some advantages in that it gives students some ideas about what they are watching for and what they might expect to see.

It can be more informative though to avoid creating questions about what you think students should look for and understand and just allow them to watch and then find out what they thought the important information was and what they understood.

Here are some activities you can try with any of the videos.

1. Ask the students to watch and check their own predictions (from the previous readiness activities)

2. Create a short list of true / false statements about the video and ask your students to tick the true ones as they watch.

3. Get the students to watch and talk with a partner to summarise what they saw in the video.

Procedure

Procedure for setting the activities

1. Many students have a tendency to panic the first time they watch and hear authentic video and say that they can’t understand anything. If you have used some of the readiness activities you will help to reduce this, but it is good to assure students that they will be able to watch more than once and not to expect too much from them on their first viewing.

2. Make sure that the students have read and understood the tasks or any questions or statements they have to respond to during the video before you start to play the video.

Procedure for using the activities

1. Make sure that you allow your students to watch more than once before you clarify answers to any of the tasks you set.

2. Give students the opportunity to discuss in pairs what they saw between each viewing so that they have the opportunity to check and hypothesise about their understanding of the content.

3. Try to maintain their level of curiosity and encourage the students to collaborate and understand together by not giving them the ‘answers’ or correction for as long as possible.

4. Use the video tool bar to play and replay short sections of the video and highlight for students key moments in the content that can help them to answer the tasks.

5. Always make sure that at the very end of the viewing tasks the students are clear about what the correct answers are and why they are correct.