We Video – How video creation can enhance your student’s experience

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By Matt Gilooly (Learning Technology Media Advisor / Associate Lecturer in Media Production)

For some time, we have rolled out We Video across the university in a multitude of ways from media based assessments to video creation to enrich module content.

For those of you who haven’t experienced WeVideo, it is a video editing platform similar to Movie Maker or iMovie, but with a big difference! It’s cloud based, which means all your video content and assets sit on the cloud and you edit through an online portal without having to install big and heavy programmes on your machine. This is beneficial for lots of reasons, as it allows you to pick up an edit on any machine just by logging in and it allows real time collaboration on edits between multiple users while constantly backing up your project just in case your internet cuts off. Find out more about We Video.

So, getting back to how we are using it, as a Learning Technology Media Advisor, my job is to promote its use with media creation in lots of ways e.g., media-based assessments and the creation of course content. However, this involves helping academic and professional service colleagues  and delivering workshops to facilitate those actions. These normally are the conversations that academic colleagues enjoy the most as I can help them to transform taught module sessions and embed core digital literacy components for their students to learn and develop.

Feedback from colleagues has been overwhelmingly positive with academics using it on a weekly basis with their students to create rich course content. See below what they think:

A profile photograph of Dr Pouria Liravi, College of Business, Law and Social Sciences. The text underneath reads: I create announcements and develop short videos in study materials. Students seem to watch videos more than reading announcements! In last year MEQ they have mentioned that they liked to watch the video before the session as it provided information on the topics that will be covered during the session.
A profile photo of Dr Malcolm Schofield, College of Health, Psychology and Social Care. The text underneath reads: The content [students have to create] will be a video to disseminate their research projects. It will be used primarily for assessment, but possible for marketing. Last year the students enjoyed creating the videos, and got lots of positive feedback.
A profile image of Kelly Williams, Change and Portfolio Management Office Analyst. The text underneath reads: As Change Manager on some strategic projects, I have used WeVideo to create content for the projects as 'push' communication tools. Personally, I find it very easy and quick to use for my purposes, and really like having it in my tool box of content creation tools.