The “Lecturette”

Instructor Profile:
Julia Mikhailkova has experience teaching a Russian Heritage Language course online for Slavic Languages Department in the Faculty of Arts and Science.

Essential Idea:
To make the best use of student’s time and her own time developing online course materials, Dr. Mikhailova chose to create very short lecture videos highlighting key learning points in Russian language spelling and grammar. Produced using a simple camera set up with a white board in her office, the video content forms a series succinct tutorials that can be accessed and replayed by students as needed.  The professor’s presence in the video and the hand-written content provides a personal touch that enhances the sense of instructor presence within the course.

Benefits for Students:

• Provides variety to address flexibility in student learning.
• Allows for active learning by alternating direct instruction with active learning.
• Provides well organized structure to course content providing resources in a well-organized manner.

Tips and Tricks:

• Requires a camera. Most conventional laptop webcams will be perfect. You can also consider using a smartphone to record video.
• Requires a microphone. Many headset microphones will work well. Your built in laptop microphone will also work. You can also consider purchasing a table top directional mic to capture the best audio quality.
• Store the video on the UTL MyMedia server for ease of access. Link from the online course shell to the online video.