Salik April 2022 TechTalk

Category

Professor Steve Salik

Clinical Assistant Professor
Mary Lou Fulton Teachers College

Q: What is your favorite teaching technology that you are using right now?

A: Adobe Creative Cloud Express formerly Adobe Spark Video

Q: Can you share an example of how you are using this technology?

A: I create “bookends” in each unit of my courses that introduce the of the content we’re going to take on in that unit, and a summary of what’s been covered at the end of the unit. Unit introductions are normally talking head videos and are made in advance of the course being launched and can remain viable for a couple of years if the content doesn’t change. I use I use the video feature of Adobe Creative Cloud Express to create Unit "Wrap-ups" that provide a summary of what’s been covered by focusing on the discussion elements of the course.

Because of the way the video tool in Adobe Creative Cloud Express works, it’s extremely easy to build a presentation one or two slides at time while students make discussion contributions across the unit. As you build your presentation, you call out specific students who make good points or raise saliant issues in their discussion contributions. While the intro videos do convey a sense of instructor presence, the Wrap-ups create a sense engagement and social presence because calling students out by name, makes it clear that you’re “present,” and that the course is “alive” and not a digital correspondence course.

Q: What are the best outcomes for students when you use this technology?

A: Calling out students by name in your wrap-ups helps students develop and understating you’re actively engaged in the online course you're teaching. A lack of instructor presence is one of the most frequent complaints students make about online or blended courses. Creating higher levels of instructor and social presence generally creates higher levels of student engagement which often translates to better student performance across the board. From the “What’s In It For Me?” perspective as a faculty member, my experience has been that comments about the instructor “teaching the course” and being “present” show up in course evaluations along with higher ratings in those evaluations.

Q: What advice would you give colleagues who would want to adopt this teaching technology?

A: Don’t obsess over perfection and production values. Additionally, each slide is limited to 30-seconds of narration which helps keep it salient, to the point and short, no more than three to five minutes. Focus on want students need to know and not what’s nice to know. Stay focused on the content of the discussion and keep other peripheral issues about the course out of it.

Examples of the great work that Steve Salik is doing: Creative Express for a Unit Wrap-up.

See how Steve Salik uses this technology in this easy to follow demonstration of a Unit wrap-up.