Neil Hammond - Learnbase

Filming Q&A 4: Will splicing together too many clips look bad?

Ok. Promise you won’t admit this to your filmmaker buddies. For most online educational videos, if we film in 1080 definition we have a degree of wiggle room to ‘zoom’ in a little when editing stage when needed. That is if we need to splice a paragraph-worth of speech from one take with a paragraph…

Filming Q&A 3: How do you keep track of the production?

The Learning Designer / Director should keep brief detailed notes so that whoever needs to edit the all the pieces of the final video together has a clear idea of exactly what material to use. We use a table with the following headings: Video File | Audio File | Scene | Take | Quality |…

Filming Q&A 2: Just how small a crew can you get away with?

Once everything is set up, during the shoot, you’ll need to be juggling at least the following: 1. Camera 2. Sound 3. Autocue 4. Makeup 5. Keeping notes 6. The presenter 7. The script 8. The delivery While we had more people in the early days we generally just have a crew of two once…

Filming Q&A 1: One or two cameras?

If we are filming a panel discussion, live workshop or some other event, we need two cameras to ensure nothing is lost when swapping out batteries, memory cards or in case someone walks in front of one of the cameras. But for controlled talking-head situations when we can control when to roll and when to…

Making The Working Artist promo video for organizations

Our client Crista Cloutier of The Working Artist has had great success with her course among a fast-growing cohort of artists learning how to reframe (pun intended) their art careers. Here’s a video we made for her to help explain the programme to universities, art colleges and other art organizations…

Valentines in the classroom: inclusive or intrusive?

Prior to Valentines Day, one of our kid’s teachers sent home this: “I have spoken to the students and have stated that if you bring a Valentine for one student you must bring one for everyone. This ensures that this day of celebrating friendship and caring makes everyone feel included. I will send students home…

It ain’t the length, it’s the lecture

Some research out of the University of Rochester recently suggests that optimal video length to ensure engagement is about 6 minutes. This is not a cognitive study, simply an observation of how long students can sit through a video on EdX without turning off or dropping out. Tell that news to any good classroom teacher…

Towards a litmus test for when to issue an open badge

Please note: This is an abridged version of a previous blog, focussing here purely on the issue of finding a litmus test for open badges. In discussions around the development of an approach to Open Badges the same worries and examples of poor practice that trivialize the value of a badge come up again and…

Using Open Badges to Add Meaning to Descriptor-Based Assessments

One thing that excites me about the Open Badges movement is how is can help to remedy, rather than merely challenge, the paucity of descriptor-based assessment that has been the norm these last twenty years. To ensure this, we need to insist that badges, especially in this early phase, escape becoming merely descriptor-based in themselves….

Weary of online learning ‘environments’? Who’s for dim sum?

I’m growing weary of traversing online-learning environments. I’ve built them. I’ve used them. I’ve explored them. I’ve got lost in them. I’ve spent a lot of time wandering these environments, frequently spending way too much time finding my way to, through and back to the content and tasks when all the time I just want…