Overview

If you are a participant in one of my instructional design courses, then it is likely that I have included the creation of an instructor welcome video as one of your first course activities.

Evaluation

In the Creating Instructional Videos chapter, I discuss a single-point rubric for creating high-quality instructional videos developed by Ackerman (2019). For the Sharing Instructor Welcome Videos course activity, we will use a rubric that has been adapted from Ackerman’s, with a focus on using videos to establish instructor and social presence in your online course spaces.

Instructor Welcome Video Rubric Criteria

• Video Sharing (2 pts)
  1. Link to instructor welcome video is shared as per in-course instructions. (1 pt)
  2. Video is published to an appropriate platform, with appropriate privacy settings so that is accessible to all potential viewers. (1 pt)
• Extraneous material is excluded. (2 pts)
  1. The video introduces the instructor, and focuses on getting to know the instructor, as opposed to the presentation of course overview information. (1 pt)
  2. The video avoids statements or references that would likely become quickly outdated (thus, increasing the return-on-investment for the time it takes to create the video and increasing its reusability). (1 pt)
• Narration, graphics and text are used appropriately. (4 pts)
  1. Graphics with narration (appropriately minimal use of on-screen text). (1 pt)
     • The most effective instructional video provides audio narration to explain graphics. Except for close captions (which users can control), avoid explanatory text on the screen.
  2. Any on-screen text that is included uses a single font family that is easy to read (preferably a sans-serif font). (1 pt)
  3. Narration and corresponding graphics are synchronous. (1 pt)
     • If there is animation that stops before the explanation does, leave a static image on the screen until the explanation ends. Once the graphic is explained, remove it from the screen.
  4. Any narration included is conversational and expressive. (1 pt)
     • Avoid computer-generated narration and overly scripted narration.

• Content is chunked appropriately. (1 pt)
  • • The most effective instructional videos tend to be brief (less than about 6 minutes).

• Accessibility considerations are addressed. (2 pts)
  1. The video includes closed captions, descriptive video narration, or a transcript (to increase the accessibility of the video to all audiences). (1 pt)
  2. Color combinations are easily viewable and distinguishable on screen (maximize the color-contrast ratio between foreground and background). (1 pt)

Download a PDF copy of the Instructor Welcome Video Rubric

As you can see, this rubric includes a total of 11 pts. The Sharing Instructor Welcome Videos activity in your course may have a different value towards the overall course grade, in which case your make will be converted from 11 pts to match that grading scheme.

But Wait! What If I am Not Developing an Instructor-Led Course?

You may determine that the online module you will create for your ISD project will be self-paced, as opposed to fixed-paced/instructor-led — in which case, a personalized instructor welcome video may not be suitable. If that ends up being the case, do not fret! Your efforts will not be in vain. You can still create and post a short instructor welcome video as a way of introducing yourself to your classmates and then save that video to reuse in future online modules that you develop. Or, you could post it to your course website for any classroom/blended-mode courses you teach. You can use the skills you’ve honed in creating your instructor welcome video to craft a more generic course welcome video for your self-paced module for your ISD project.

Submitting Your Welcome Video

Instructions will be provided in your course space as to how to share your welcome video with the class. Depending on the course and term, that may be through a combination of a dedicated discussion forum, a wiki page inside the course, or a shared online document where you can either embed your video, or post a link where we can access it. Of course, feel free to also share your video to the Sharing Welcome Videos Padlet wall (found in the chapter Adding a Human Touch to Online Learning, Right From the Start!

References

Ackerman, G. (2021, November 30). An Instructional Video Rubric. Hacksciennce.education. https://hackscience.education/2021/11/30/an-instructional-video-rubric/