In this short video, number two of three in a series on the textbook ELearning and the Science of Instruction by Ruth Covlin Clark & Richard E. Mayer, Dann Hurlbert digs into how these important concepts should impact instructional video production. The book is an in-depth, research-based look into best practices surrounding using audio and visuals in e-learning. Elearning is only a part of its application, though. These principles are also highly applicable for those creating instructional videos for flipped classrooms or other hybrid teaching styles. In this second video, Dann reports that, while audio is easy to produce, it’s often less effective. He also provides some insight on how you can easily supplement your audio to create more engaging and effective content. To learn more about Dann and Carleton College’s Academic Technology department, visit https://www.carleton.edu/academic-technology/aboutus/
Tag: eLearning
Instructional Video with Professor Dave Explains
I recently came across some great instructor videos by a guy who goes by Professor Dave. He’s actually a Carleton grad, and his videos (on lots of science-related topics) are well developed, attractive, and engaging. Instructors who connect an assessment to these videos could easily have some great learning with Professor Dave! Dave’s style also gives some cool ideas of how instructors can film and produce their own instructional videos! –dann
https://youtu.be/pYVgB2lnztY via @YouTube

Tutee or Not Tutee: Who should be on camera in your Instructional Video?
Effective instructional videos can vary in style. This short video, inspired by an Arizona State University study, reveals preferences and effectiveness in two different styles:
- Should you teach to the camera/viewer or
- Should you teach a student who is also on camera and film that interaction?
This video featuring Dann Hurlbert, Carleton College’s Media & Design Guru succinctly recaps a 2018 study from ASU’s Katelyn M Cooper, Lu Ding, Michelle Stephens, Michelene T. H. Chi, and Sara E Brownell.
Facing Instructional Videos
How important is it for instructors to include their own faces when creating instructional videos? The answer might surprise you. Dann Hurlbert, Carleton College’s Media & Design Guru (and an actor, director, and inventor of the Little Prompter) leans on research and his own expertise to offer guidance.
Instructional Video Workshops Fill up Fast!
I’m already excited to be a part of the team hosting this Instructional Video Workshop at Carleton in late July! Attendees will not only take-way a concrete and replicable process for creating process, but they’ll create [at least] 3 Instructional Videos they can start using right away. The seats filled-up so fast, there is no doubt we’ll be doing more of these in the future! More information on the workshop itself is available here. And if you’d like to be notified when we host another one, please complete this short form. — dann
Business Video Benefits (in Education)
Dann Hurlbert, Carleton College’s Media and Design Guru provides an overview of Matt Bowman’s article in Forbes Magazine about video marketing in business. There is a reason businesses are using more video: it’s working. It can work well in education, too. Take a moment to reflect on Matt’s article — and nibble on the possibilities video can provide educators by watching this:
Tips for Getting Started with Online Teaching
Even for schools that don’t see themselves as “online” institutions, there are ways to gradually get started teaching online courses. In this video, Dann Hurlbert of Carleton College’s Academic Technology walks viewers through some research on and tips for getting started.
Special Thanks to Yiwen Lou for her work on this video.
Dann’s Spring 2018 Update
Transcript, below.
Hey Folks, spring is on us. Here is a little of what I’ve been up to, and what I’m looking forward to.
Leaning on my MFA in Digital Cinema and 15 years of teaching experience, I’ve designed a stand-alone two credit course focused on Civic Engagement and Documentary Filmmaking that I’ll be co-teaching with the impressive Palmar Alvarez-Blanco here at Carleton. The curriculum can actually be coupled with nearly any course, pairing students with community organizations that need greater support and visibility. Students will spend the term researching, meeting with, and interviewing members of these community organizations, and then . . . giving a tangible video resource back to that community organization. We’ll cover topics such as bias recognition, visual storytelling strategies, interview techniques, non-linear editing, and social media marketing. This is going to be a fun and engaging class that results in rich civic engagement, valuable documentary filmmaking experience, and a concrete and useful video for several community organizations.
I’m also going to hit the road this spring presenting at conferences including OLC, the Online Learning Consortium, in Nashville Tennessee and at Innovate! Teaching with Technology conference at the University of Minnesota Morris. I’ll be presenting sessions on Planning, Producing, and Evaluating Instructional Video, and Creating Effective Instructional Videos, and I’ll be co-leading a discussion on Online Teaching and Learning for Small Liberal Arts Schools with my colleagues Janet Russell and Andrew Wilson.
Spring is also exciting because one of my personal projects–a compact teleprompter I call the Little Prompter, is ready to hit the market. Over the past year, I worked with a creative and crafty colleague on the design (Thanks, Eric Mistry up at St. Scholastica!); I then ran a successful fundraising campaign to get it manufactured, and am now ready to market and sell it. The Little Prompter is more than just a pet-project, too. It’s got great pedagogical value. Even for experienced instructors, delivering a lesson on camera can be a little intimidating–and even minor discomfort and hesitation on camera can greatly impact how a viewer perceives the speaker and how long a viewer stays engaged with the content. Now, with the Little Prompter and a little pre-planning, faculty can flawlessly deliver their lesson directly into the camera—improving eye-contact and viewer retention. Faculty here at Carleton (and around the world) can learn more about the Little Prompter—and even order one for yourself at www.littleprompter.com.
Writing with Light & the MN eLearning Summit 2016

In late July, I attended and presented at the Minnesota eLearning Summit 2016 at the Minneapolis Community and Technical College. My presentation, Writing with Light: Building A Low-Cost Lightboard at Carleton College, was selected as a session. I’ve embedded a screencast of it below, as well as on YouTube. Here’s how my conference went, as a story in annotated tweets…
Very excited to present on the #Lightboard at #mnsummit2016! Looking forward to an interesting two days! @mnlcorg pic.twitter.com/HTesFc7iVW
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
I was selected as one of the speakers for the summit and chose to speak on the Lightboard, which we designed and built at Carleton College. Our Lightboard is notable for its very low cost and ease of use.
Excited to see @RandyBassGU speak. Really enjoyed his previous talks at @CarletonCollege. #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/t7eCDNDYdr
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
It was thrilling to see Randy Bass speak again. He came to Carleton last fall and gave an engaging and thrilling set of talks, inspiring us to think about the future of education and our roles within it.
If we were designing higher education for this moment in history, what would it look like? –@RandyBassGU #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
One of the big questions we need to ask ourselves while thinking about education and the choices we make.
“I want to write a book called ‘Everything’s Fine’…” –@RandyBassGU on the state of #higherEd. #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
People panic about the changes in education that are happening and will happen, but that panic is often unwarranted.
Using technology in education not combo of online and face2face… It’s machine/algorithm + human judgement. –@RandyBassGU #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
Summarizing a complex concept in a tweet is tough!
Thinking with scale is important on the web and in education… –@RandyBassGU
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
The power of scale as it affects technology and education cannot be underestimated. We can use this scale to great advantage. We must also be careful of how scale can overwhelm.
ePortfolios: most important is that they connect disparate sectors of a student’s education. –@RandyBassGU #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
My excitement went into overdrive went Dr. Bass started talking about ePortfolios. This is an area of intense interest for me. Dr. Bass had some very interesting data on ePortfolios.
Incredible data from @RandyBassGU on #ePortfolios… Pretty strong correlations between retention and presence of ePortfolios #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
ePortfolios as a social pedagogy, in the context of learning, have twice the effect. @RandyBassGU #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/LCOxKpncYU
— Jeff Plaman (@jplaman) July 27, 2016
Most impressive was the correlation between use of an ePortfolio and retention. It seems like students who use the ePortfolios to reflect on their work and themselves take more away from lessons.
Knowledge of the Domain, World, and Yourself… What every course should teach… @RandyBassGU #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
Finally, Dr. Bass ended with an appeal to have every course teach three things: knowledge of the Domain, knowledge of the World, and Knowledge of Oneself. These three overlap to create an transformative learning experience.
It’s #Lightboard time! Come see us in Room 3360 at #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/HuALS7VIWJ
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
Then it was time for the Lightboard! I had an engaged group who really enjoyed getting the details on how our Lightboard functions and playing with the scale model I brought with me.
Come to room K3360 at 10 AM to meet the #Lightboard! #mnsummit2016 #WritingWithLight @CarletonAT pic.twitter.com/8ErZr8tgg8
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
This is the small-scale Lightboard I brought with me!
Here is a screencast of my presentation. Tweet at @EricMistry if you have any questions!
Great Google presentation with @wwolfe105– so many great tips! #mnsummit2016 #formsarethebest pic.twitter.com/9N5ev0NXkD
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
Next I attended a fantastic talk on various ways to use Google apps, such as docs and forms, to enhance the classroom experience. Wendy gave an engaging, well-organized presentation.
Great tip from @wwolfe105 – Search Google Images using “site:.gov” to find high quality public domain images. #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 27, 2016
This was one of the many tricks and tips she shared. See more from her full presentation by clicking here.
Really impressive and thoughtful presentation on video production at the U of M. … 93 videos in June & July is impressive! #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
This was really interesting. The team from U of M had some useful advice for dealing with video creation and editing at scale…
Now for a session on Informed Course Design by Tracy Wilson, Noah Holm, Mary Jetter, & Jane O'Brien! #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/BcK6zNLCY6
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Diverse team in course design is huge asset… Drawing on the whole university's assets and knowledge -Tracy Wilson #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Next, I saw a short presentation on informed course design. This was very interesting as they emphasized the need for teams to be comprised of diverse perspectives in order to better meet learners.
Excited to hear about long-term thinking on LMS futures from Leslie Blicker! #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/KOmZD9ppog
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Next was a look at the future of LMSs.
LMS evolution… 1.0: Self-built walled gardens; 2.0: Big Players with walled gardens; 3.0: ???
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
The stages of the LMS are pretty interesting. I’m not sure where they’ll go next, but it could be anywhere.
Current market value of LMS systems: 1.7 BILLION pic.twitter.com/YyFoBiMnXc
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
There is big money in the LMS sector. It’s impressive to think about and we should be pretty thoughtful about why so much money is funnelling towards it.
Wow… rapid movements in market share of diff LMS. Check out the rise of Canvas (purple, low right) #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/4WtfVQXAfC
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
This was a great visual representation. Canvas is definitely a company to watch.
"Equality is saying every child gets a pair of shoes; equity is every child getting a pair that fit" -Steve Dibb, MNDep of Ed #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
This was a very moving line from one of the introductions to the next keynote.
Time for the second keynote!!! #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/n81vLkIhTs
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Dr. Marie Norman gave a really great talk on taking lessons learned from designing online courses and translating that to all teaching.
Good books recommended by Dr. Marie Norman during #mnsummit2016 #keynote pic.twitter.com/gzRbawGhRj
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
You have to love a talk that comes with an awesome reading list!
A lesson from online learning: use lecture less and keep lectures short! #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Often, straight-up lecture is not the best way to convey information. This is especially true for online classes, but we can take ideas of working around this and apply it to the classroom as well.
"Scavenger learning" – send students out to discover answers with well-designed questions. #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Scavenger learning is a useful concept that we can apply everywhere. Like with clickers, the important thing is asking well-designed questions.
Online learning can promote participatory culture. Big emphasis on creating and sharing. – Dr. Norman #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Creating and sharing resources is a major component of online learning and teaching. We can take that culture and bring it to the traditional classroom.
PREACH: "Beautiful learning environments matter. Aesthetics matter." –@marieknorman6 #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Being in a well-designed online world makes a huge difference. Lets translate that across education. #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Design is important, no matter where or how you are teaching.
Learning is strongly linked to social/emotional –@marieknorman6 #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/bheFpX0Y50
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Learning doesn’t exist in a vacuum. We need to think and teach accordingly.
"Information is 'stickier' when you engage more senses" –@marieknorman6 #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
This is a great thing for instructors to remember. Different students learn in different ways. If you engage them on all fronts, they’ll have a better chance of retaining knowledge.
Very excited to join a session on #eportfolio creation in WordPress led by @HamlineU! #mnsummit2016
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
Comparing WordPress, Weekly, and Google Sites for #ePortfolios #mnsummit2016 pic.twitter.com/bOjCtFIKiv
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
I enjoyed talking more ePortfolios with Hamline’s team and other educators. It was helpful to talk problems and strategies to solve them.
Great location for an #elearning conference! #mnsummit2016 https://t.co/uHyd6jpQzS pic.twitter.com/sjvQ5J9cTJ
— Eric Mistry (@ericmistry) July 28, 2016
…and then we were done! This was a great conference. I met and interacted with some passionate educators and other academic technologists. There are so many impressive and incredible things happening in this space. It makes me excited for the future of education.