The new service allows professors to review their lectures and students to better understand the course outlines before registration. Students can now view video clips of professors demonstrating their lectures through the ITL Web site (http://myhome.ewha.ac.kr/user/ectl/).
In the five-minute-long video clips, professors give an overall description of the course, including contents, lecture plans, grading systems, and project guidelines. Professors also utilize visual aids, such as slides and images in the video.
The ITL developed this system to simulate the closest environment of an actual class in which students watch and listen to the lecturer, the expectation being that they will receive an adequate impression of what the lecture will be like.
“For students, being able to experience a lecture beforehand can be helpful, especially when they have not yet taken any of the lecturer’s classes,” said professor Jo Il-hyun (Educational Technology), the director of ITL.
This semester, video syllabi of 15 undergraduate courses, five graduate courses, and 33 Ewha Global Online (EGO) courses were available for students online before registration.
Also, students can suggest what they want to know from the video syllabi of courses by posting on the “Syllabus I Would Like” board.
The ITL notified professors about the new system during winter, and professors were assisted in producing two videos each at maximum. The videos were then uploaded on the ITL homepage through video streaming sites such as YouTube and linked to the syllabus page of each course.
“I made the video syllabus because students prefer watching and listening from media products to reading from a text. I also thought it would be fun for the students to meet their professor before class, and they actually seem to have enjoyed it,” professor Yi Kyoung-ok (Health Science) said.
Students welcome the video syllabus because they can preview not only the course outline but also each professor’s distinctive lecturing style, another important factor in deciding what to register.
“The course outline videos helped me decide which courses to take this semester. I was able to get a good sense of what the lectures would be about and would be like because I watched and listened to the lecturers,” Yoon Hyeon-ji (Economics, 2) said.
More video syllabi will be available on the Ewha homepage next semester.
Moon Bo-ra
boramoon@ewhain.net