Video has come to be recognized as powerful medium of communication. Planning and production of new video program is an exciting experience. Video is based upon electronic principles. It is capable of creating high resolution full-color images, still and moving. Video can capture text, graphics and computer animation as also computer processed images.
Teachers who use instructional video report that their students retain more information, understand concepts more rapidly and are more enthusiastic about what they are learning. With video as one component in a thoughtful lesson plan, students often make new connections between curriculum topics, and discover links between these topics and the world outside the classroom
Video is uniquely suited to:

• take students on impossible field trips–inside the human body, or off to Jupiter
• take students around the globe, to meet new people and hear their ideas
• illustrate complex, abstract concepts through animated, 3-D images
• show experiments that can’t be done in class
• bring great literature, plays, music, or important scenes from history into the room

By exploiting the medium’s power to deliver lasting images, teachers can:

• reach children with a variety of learning styles, especially visual learners, and students with a variety of information acquisition styles
• engage students in problem-solving and investigative activities
• begin to dismantle social stereotypes
• help students practice media literacy and critical viewing skills
• provide a common experience for students to discuss

Inspiring and engaging students

Willmot et al (2012) show that there is strong evidence that digital video reporting can inspire and engage students when incorporated into student-centred learning activities through:

• increased student motivation
• enhanced learning experience
• higher marks
• development potential for deeper learning of the subject development potential for deeper learning of the subject development potential for deeper learning of the subject
• development of learner autonomy
• enhanced team working and communication skills
• a source of evidence relating to skills for interviews
• learning resources for future cohorts to use
• opportunities for staff development

Role of interactive video

Interactive Video (IV) is an effective method of delivering information to remote distance educational settings. Interactive video supports two-way video and audio communication between multiple locations. Most IV systems utilize compressed digital video for the transmission of motion images over data networks. The video compression process decreases the amount of data transmitted over the lines by transmitting only the changes in the picture. By minimizing the bandwidth required to transmit the images, video compression also reduces the transmission cost (Woodruff & Mosby, 1996.)

Advantages of Interactive Video

It provides access to education to those who live in remote locations and cannot travel to the university; it can provide access to at-risk or special needs students.

It enables large numbers of students to be taught simultaneously by one instructor; outside speakers can be involved who would not otherwise be available, and students can become linked with others from different communities, backgrounds and cultures.

Interactive video is effective because it allows for “real time” or synchronous visual contact between students and the instructor or among students at different sites.

It supports the use of diverse media. Thus, many things common in the traditional classroom can be used in the interactive classroom, such as blackboards, documents, videos and transparencies.

Disadvantages

It is expensive, especially the initial cost.

Since it involves sophisticated technology there can be audio and visual difficulties, which cannot be resolved by the teacher herself

While compressed video holds great promise for expanding the classroom, it also amplifies poor teaching styles and strategies.

Instructors must devote greater than normal effort toward preparation and development of instructional strategies that actively encourage learning.

Instructors typically spend more time initially preparing for the interactive class, paying special attention to the development and production of visual material

The teacher must be vigilant in making sure the students remain involved in the course, a task more difficult when classes are taught at a distance.
National Teachers’ Training Institute (NTTI) has developed the following strategies to help teachers in making use of video for teaching.

Before Class

• Preview the program to make sure it is appropriate and useful, and to assess the value of the program’s support materials.
• Select segments that are most relevant to the curricular focus of the day. A brief video clip can spark student interest or demonstrate a concept. Showing a particular segment conserves valuable classroom time and can focus the lesson for students.
• Prepare the classroom for viewing by checking equipment (monitor, VCR, remote control), arranging seating and lighting, and cueing the tapes ahead of time. Lights should be left on as much as possible to reinforce the fact that the video is not passive entertainment.

During the Video-based Lesson

• Begin with an introductory activity that draws students into the lesson and lets them know what to expect in the video. You might introduce new vocabulary or a new idea, or conduct a related hands-on activity.
• Give students a Focus for Media Interaction: a specific task or responsibility to keep in mind while the video is on. This keeps students on-task, and directs the learning experience to the lesson’s objectives.
• Use the Pause button — your greatest ally in using video effectively! You might pause to:
  1. Control the pace and amount of information
  2. Check for comprehension
  3. Solicit inferences and predictions
  4. Define a word in context
  5. Highlight a point
  6. Ask students to make connections to other topics or real-world events.
  7. Change the pace by asking students to come up and point to something on the screen, or write in journals, or replicate what they have seen
• Ideally, teachers will encourage students to determine pause points on their own. Students should be able to request a pause for clarification or analysis.
• Teachers can give instructions ahead of time so that students ask for a pause each time they see   a particular image or get a new piece of information.
• Eliminate the sound or the picture from a video segment. When you eliminate sound, you can use any video to instruct at almost any grade level, using your own age-appropriate narration.
• Encourage media literacy by helping students recognize elements of video production, such as camera angles, music, shot composition, and the role of the actors. Students can analyze a video’s effectiveness, and discuss the ways that audiences might be manipulated or influenced by choices made during production.

After the Lesson

Students should feel that the video is an integral part of their learning experience, so teachers need to follow up the video with culminating hands-on activities, student-centered projects, and student- or teacher-designed investigations. Ideally, video will be used in conjunction with field trips, guest speakers, letter-writing projects, and journal writing — the variety of activities that make up an expansive, hands-on learning experience.

Features of educational video

1. Information value – programs with high awareness value and information about new products and processes are shown. Information is provided by showing real-life events, remote locations etc. it is usually presented by renowned experts and well-known presenters.
2. Motivational value – programs created around new areas of knowledge i.e, thrust areas, advanced technology, new discoveries are very suitable. Exposure to viewers motivates them to learn for  themselves other viewing. After all, not much can be covered by the video medium; books and journals provide further knowledge.
3. Learning effect – video medium can present the real thing in motion with special effects such as slow-motion, freeze-frame, split-screen etc. Images can be frozen and dissolved into graphics which can again be animated, if desired. Better learning effect can be created for the viewers through such techniques.
4. Demonstration value – video programs can demonstrate some skills and processes. Steps of performing the skills can be shown in slow motion and viewers can initiate the same for learning.
5. Points of view – it is useful to present different viewpoints through expositions, interviews and discussions on topics of general interest. Viewers are enlightened to listen different aspects of the problems.

Advantages

Realistic feels or events- The video experience, a combination of sound and picture, is the closest to reality.
Availability-Best talent of teaching available at some places can be made to reach out to other places through video lectures.
Can cover a wide geographical area-Video can bring the industry and field-work into the classroom; can take the classroom to the distant places.
Motivating capacity-It can motivate the viewers, i.e. create greater interest in learning.
Change in attitude-It can bring about change in attitude of the viewers.
Maintains records-Video recordings of field trips, guest speakers at seminars and conferences as also public functions permit us to maintain records of events.

Limitations

Limits interaction and increases passivity-In the absence of interactivity, viewers may merely watch and hear passively.
Loss of interest-It is shown longer than a few minutes at a time, the viewers can lose their attention.
The programs are made for an average learner.
Less or no control-There is no control over the viewers. They may not be seated, not fully attentive and not fully taking notes.
No follow-up-There is no follow-up of the television broadcasts.
Barriers-Distractions due to poor quality of program, transmission and reception may result in barriers to learning.
Less or no control over rate of transmission-It is not possible to control the pace of information, both visual and verbal.

Guidelines for teaching through video

• Keep the information density low
• Plan the program in small sequences
• Provide a pause and/or summarize every sequence
• Prepare the audience before viewing
• Provide interactivity during viewing
• Give quizzes or ask questions after viewing
• Use advanced technology for better learning effect
• Employ innovative formats of programs
• Incorporate improvements through audience research.

References
Assignment

1. Download different types of interactive videos and observe their structure
2. Following the procedure of NTTI, use Interactive Video in UG class and measure out come.