Author: Elie Maksoud & Shannon Behrman
It’s no secret that iBiology and the Science Communication Lab have undergone significant evolution in recent years in order to better meet the needs of both students and educators.
We have sharpened our focus on producing and delivering short films and video-based curricula for undergraduate and graduate-level biology education. As part of this effort, we are evaluating the impact of our products and the evolving needs for video content in higher education. That’s why we want to hear about your experiences and goals in a large-scale survey. Here is what iBiology’s Senior Director, Shannon Behrman, had to say about it:
Can you tell us a bit about the goal of the survey you are leading and what inspired this initiative?
The goal is to learn about how undergraduate biology educators use video in their classrooms. More specifically, what do they look for when searching for video content? What are their needs and expectations with video and how can we better address them as an organization who produces videos for higher education?
What are some of the key areas that the survey will focus on in terms of understanding educators’ needs?
Key areas of focus include why and how they use video and in which context. Our study will also examine what type of video content educators would like to see more of, and what they think of current short films offered. These insights will allow us, at iBiology, to make videos that specifically fit the needs of educators and improve their overall experience.
How do you see the results of this survey impacting the content and resources that iBiology generates in the future?
The results may inform several different aspects of our future video content: what stories we tell, who and/or what we feature, how we tell the stories, and how we package & deliver the content to educators.
What are your expectations for the results of the survey, and how do you plan to use the data?
We’ve already done a focus group analysis with undergraduate educators, so I have some idea of what to expect. However, that was a small group of educators who already know us and use our content. I’m interested to hear from the educators who may not be as familiar with us. With that in mind, I’m open to what we learn as I think it will take us in an exciting new direction no matter the outcomes.
As I’ve said before, we’ll use the data to plan our next video projects and how we’ll share them. We also plan to make the data public so that the community of content creators, teachers, and education researchers can learn from it and apply those lessons to their work.
Who should educators address in case they have any questions?
They can email me. Happy to answer questions about this and/or other initiatives that we are working on.
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