Thread by @monicarysavy

Cohort-based course creators (CBCs) increase students' understanding of topics when they teach complete topics in a brief & easy-to-understand manner. This thread shares what I observed & learned from Session 2 of @cahouser & @julia_saxena's "Minimum Viable Video Course". 1/

If you missed my previous thread (

https://twitter.com/monicarysavy/status/1384421798041767938

), I'm reflecting on my CBC experiences to provide a "peek behind the curtain" for others interested in joining in the future and hopefully to inspire fellow course creators to level-up their teaching practices. 2/

1st: minor context: I'm watching this at 4 AM the day after the lunchtime session as I wasn't able to attend live. Course Creator Takeway: I'm still finding tremendous value even though I wasn't able to attend live. Recording quality should not be an afterthought. 3/

1st observation: The video shared is under 37 minutes. AWESOME! Note: these sessions are advertised as an hour, but as someone who learns quickly and is a busy working adult I was thrilled to see a brief session recording. 4/

Now had the session been longer but was cut into relevant, topical chunks? I still would have been happy. Wading through a two hour+ Zoom recording with no time-stamps and/or chapter headers? Not so happy. 5/

I have skipped many CBC video recordings that were posted carelessly with no timestamps or chapter headings. It takes a little work to do some editing of your videos. But consider this: Our students are paying us to LEARN EFFECTIVELY from us. This means that the live session & 6/

what we provide in recordings needs to be polished and easily digestible. A few minimum requirements when you post video recordings for students: 1) Cut irrelevant dead space like time spent on camera with students working but it's silent work time. 7/

2) Cut Intro call "get to know you" chatter, 3) Unless students know you'll be doing this, don't record breakout rooms. It's invasive and creepy. Similarly, remind students that you are recording them before you start recording, 8/

4) Provide a transcript of the video & the chat, and 5) Include time stamps of relevant points in the video on the page where you post the video in your course site - preferably to the actual point in the video if possible. 9/

The 2nd thing that I noticed was that @cahouser started the course session by giving "shout-outs" (kudos) to two students who gave early above & beyond contributions to the course. 10/

Course creators should definitely consider trying this with their students. Here's a simple recipe for doing this in your next class:

"I saw X students (name them) do X cool things (describe but don't take up too much time here), and it was great because (explain why)."

11/

Doing this validates students working ahead and encourages others to consider trying it as well without being too forward about it. @julia_saxena bookended @cahouser's shout-outs; while Cam's were focused on students who went above & 12/

beyond, @julia_saxena's feedback focused on assignments students completed. This was a great way to highlight & acknowledge the expected completed work of students and to subtly remind those who hadn't done the work that there's an assignment out there to do. 13/

3rd: @cahouser & @julia_saxena again reminded us where we are in the roadmap of the course by showing the course roadmap. Here's where we were, here's what we're doing today, here's where we are going. Simple to do, yet so powerful. 14/

4th: Pick a lesson to share that you can share concisely & clearly in a fairly short amount of time. Think: If my students learn nothing else from this lesson, they walk away with X. In this session, @cahouser did this with the ALF framework. 15/

I learned super simple tips about making videos that while I knew them separately already, I hadn't thought about them together, and now I won't forget the acronym either (A=Audio, L=Lighting, F=Framing). The tips made sense, they were easily digestible, and they made me feel 16/

like I could easily make a quick video later this morning without too much crazy effort & time investment if I focus on using the ALF method. And my final takeaway to share from session 2: Activity framing. 17/

5th: If you are going to have an activity; which I do recommend; activities are certainly more engaging than having someone lecture the entire time, have a clear introduction to the concept of the activity before you send students off to the activity. 18/

I often observe teachers teaching in a live CBC session & then sending students off to breakout rooms with minimal connection to why the activity is being done in the first place. @cahouser did this very well in this session. He framed the idea: 19/

"Storytelling is Powerful" without getting too much in the weeds. He introduced the concept of asking questions as storytelling prompts (introducing it by briefly mentioning an academic article, to a NYT article that went viral on the same idea, to applying it to questions we 20/

could ask to help us get ideas for videos to make. He then transitioned to what was supposed to be actually done in the breakout room (a "Breakout room agenda"!) and to tips for how to get the most out of the breakout room - behaviors & norms expected for participants. 21/

I really enjoyed this session & got a lot out of it. CBC Creators Takeaway: It takes more than a bulleted outline & slides to deliver a high-quality session that is valuable to students who watch it in a recording later. @cahouser & @julia_saxena's planning ensured this for me. \