From “Text-heavy slides” to “That image did a lot of the work”: Five faculty transition from text to visuals in online video instruction

Abstract

Instructional videos offer learning value to students in online college writing courses, but faculty lack training in composing effective videos, and research on video education has not addressed videos within text-heavy disciplines such as writing studies. This qualitative study examines how 5 writing faculty move from composing text-heavy videos to composing videos that use visuals in place of text, in keeping with practices demonstrated as effective in video education research. Study participants completed training grounded in Universal Design for Learning and Cognitive Theory of Multimedia Learning. Study results demonstrated that this training enabled faculty to produce videos better suited to supporting student learning while developing understandings of how students learn through video.