Integrating Video Content into Humanities Teaching: a case study

Abstract

Screencasts and other video content offer an innovative means of improving communication between tutors and students and addressing student concerns about limited contact hours, which can be particularly pressing in English Literature. Our students’ comments make it clear they require further guidance and support, despite extensive feedback provided on written work and guidance provided in module handbooks. This likely results from the nature of the subject which foregrounds self-reflective learning and has fewer contact hours than science subjects. In the most recent NSS, 76% of Keele English students felt that ‘the criteria used in marking have been clear in advance’ and 81% felt they had ‘received sufficient advice and guidance’ (unistats.ac.uk). These percentages are much lower than other areas on the NSS (such as the 90% of Keele’s English students who said ‘staff have made the subject interesting’, or the 100% who felt ‘my course has provided me with opportunities to explore ideas or concepts in depth’). The impact of this communication gap between staff and students is felt more widely; only 57% of students responding to the most recent NSS said they ‘feel part of a community of staff and students’. This paper examines the use of video technology to supplement three areas of student learning: seminar preparation, assessment guidance, and assessment feedback. We prepared three informational videos to supplement a second-year English Literature module in order to explore the impact of this technology on student achievement, student feedback, and staff time and resources, to determine whether screencasts offer a feasible solution to the students’ perception of a communication gap between students and tutors in the English programme.