Exploring the long history of biopower on campus at University of Melbourne

Clients: School of Historical and Philosophical Studies, Faculty of Arts

Impact: Dynamic and absorbing engagement

The feedback I got was very positive. Most students mentioned that the videos were of a quality not seen in their other online learning materials. I did say I was lucky to have such a good production team, which is very true.  I'm extremely happy with them and I think it demonstrates what can be done with the right vision and technical support.

– Dr James Bradley (Lecturer in the History of Medicine and Life Sciences, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies)

Process: Maximising student's time and attention

As Dr James Bradley engaged in collaboration with Learning Environments while developing the course content for his new subject, he was able to be flexible with the form his project took. This meant that this documentary was able to be incorporated with other resources so that they play complementary pedagogical roles. Without production design and delivery to worry about, Dr Bradley was able to focus on the heart of the video – engaging delivery of rich academic content.

Creating the space for Dr James Bradley to discover why he wanted videos for his course meant we were able to carefully consider the strengths of a variety of genres. This process led to the development of a short documentary series rather than simply recording lectures. Not only do shorter videos stand out on the LMS, but they also allow for the incorporation of elements such as music, animation and object-based learning in a smaller budget. We’ve found that prioritising quality over quantity maximises student learning. Students are immersed in snippets of organic conversation between subject matter experts, centring on significant objects and documents, interwoven with scripted insights.

Even though the whole series of eight videos adds up to less than the length of a lecture, this modality allows students to engage with multiple locations, artifacts and opinions in a matter of minutes. Walking between the Peter Hall Building and the Library archives in-person would typically take the good part of a class. With the magic of video, we were able to eliminate this travel time entirely and jump straight from one piece of content to another, without sacrificing the richness that a variety of environments and perspectives provide.