Reflective Blog Post

Final Reflective Blog Post

One of the things that I learned early on in my time in the MALET program is the value of having a finished product by which you can analyze and evaluate.  During the course of a project, there are so many different directions that you can take on your way to a finished product and there is always a way to make things better.  This freedom of choice that you have during a project is valuable but can result in a never ending project.  The resistance that someone may have over letting a project go could be due to the fear of having regrets.  What I have learned is finalizing and submitting a project is the best part of the journey in learning.  When you have a chance to step back and get some distance from your project, your ability to objectively assess your  increases greatly.  Ending a project is not the final step that some people may believe but an opportunity to see what elements of a project were effective and areas that can use improvement.  The ability to grow during this process motivates me and it is with that feeling that I make my final reflection.

From the work I have completed in the Advanced Design Seminar class, I have grown by leaps and bounds in my perception of multimedia materials.  During the class, I ambitiously tackled a project that was housed in a learning management system.  This LMS included several different forms of educational material and the primary method of teaching was video instruction.  During the course of the assignment, I made five videos that provided a foundation of set design.  While the content was adequate, the overall quality of the videos was stifled by my amateur video production skills.  When the project was completed and I reviewed the outcome, I saw several faults that I can immediately improve on to increase the overall value of the project.  Without this reflection devolving to a discussion on that project, I noticed that I needed to make myself more accessible to the audience and become a more friendly presence on-screen.  There are some practical methods that I utilized in doing this and some less overt strategies that I used as well.

Canon T5i

Early on, my focus was to increase the visual quality of the production.  I did this by purchasing a high quality digital SLR camera, tripods and lighting equipment.  Crisp, well lit scenes are inherently more effective than dim scenes being that they can allow less obstacles in determining what is going on.  The viewer can more immediately interpret and understand the content they are seeing and the accessibility of content allows for greater information retention.  According to an article by Paul Chandler and John Sweller, "Cognitive load theory suggests that effective instructional material... direct[s] cognitive resources toward activities that are relevant to learning rather than toward preliminaries to learning" (Chandler & Sweller, 2009).  Through this, the presentation that is easy to see allows learners and viewers alike to concentrate more on the content.

Still of  stop motion animation of the platform.

In discussing the visual elements of the video, I diversify the presentation of content between live footage, still pictures and animation.  One of the many goals that I outlined in the projects conception is the necessity in making the video humanly accessible to watch.  Recording the video of myself, talking to the viewer and using more common language should not only make it easier for the viewer to understand but make them feel a connection with me, the presenter.  The use of still images met a functional need and provided examples of concepts that I discuss.   The animation, the third visual presentation style that I used, provided another variation in material and was functional because it allowed me to show steps in a process that I had previously not recorded.  In addition to the demonstrative properties it has, it runs concurrent with a sentiment in the education community to make the aesthetic of material friendlier, in a sense.  With softwares like PowToon, GoAnimate and Animaker, the value of animation is clearly seen for many different types of presentations and the medium creates possibilities that live recording does not offer.



In following the professionalism of the videos that I made, I paid close attention to the audio.  In the outcome of the video, I made sure that primarily my vocal quality is clear so that there is no misunderstandings.  In addition, I added some background music in hopes of increasing the entertainment value of the videos.  On the website articulate.com, a source that discusses background music inclusion in e-Learning, there are several advantages to including background music.  Background audio tracks can "impact retention" and "Some studies suggest that

The uptempo intro music helped to create an energetic cadence
which I maintained throughout the video with background music.

The intro theme song helped establish an uptempo cadence in the video combining narration, ambient audio, and background music can impact retention.  This makes sense because you’re giving the brain a lot of audio information to process at the same time" ("Should", 2009).  When I refer to the "entertainment value", I believe that it relates directly to the emotional cues that I am trying to elicit in the videos.  As much as this is an instructional video, I also want to develop a "call to arms" feeling and the uptempo background music soundtrack supports this.  The background music also adds a cadence to the work as well which further substantiates the entertainment value that this video has.

The content is multimodal--meaning that it meets the needs
of visual and auditory learners. 

The content that I have provided in the video should be seen as valid as it is directly related to work that I have done.  Being that my purpose of this video is education in technical theatre, I have made sure that I am making material that is multimodal.  According to education.com, "the more senses or modalities we can activate, the more learning will take place" (Powell, 2013).  The entire video is narrated and in doing so I cater to the verbal learners who learn best with auditory cues.  Another reason for the narration throughout the video is because there is a stress on the ability to communicate with others.  Using the proper terminology, which includes the pronunciations of different words, is key in facilitating a cohesive group experience.  Therefore, there is an importance in hearing the words pronounced for proper identification.  I also cater to visual learners in that processes are displayed on the screen and where appropriate, words are also displayed too.  Just as it is important to know how to properly pronounce tool and material names, it is equally important to see how they are spelled, or at least have some understanding of spelling.  So far in my work in this field, communication seems to be a large part of productive group work and that is a theme that I stress in all my work in technical theatre learning projects.

Preparing material for the video project allowed me to curate
material that showcased the work I've done so far.  

As part of one of my successes that I feel I've had on this video, I was able to document all of the work that I've done and provide the exact material that I wanted to include because I generated all of it myself.  Of course I have limitations in the abilities in the software that I've used so far but the fact that I was able to use it and create a narrative in the progression of the set is something that consider to be one of my biggest successes.

With any learning experience, there is a need to identify and evaluate the areas in which you must grow.  In the beginning of my project, I was a bit ambitious and over estimated the amount of work for this project for my skill level  in the tools that I've used.  In retrospect, I've realized that doing a project of this scope requires so many different elements is quite a task.  Creating not only the animation, but the live footage, the audio and the materials itself is time consuming.  In the future, I would like to concentrate on one role and delegate tasks out to others.  In concentrating on particular elements, I hope to improve my on screen personality and with more videos and feedback, I can craft my performance to be even more entertaining.  The more I practice it and refine, the better I believe I'll become.  

Additionally, I would like to establish more of an identity in the videos and fill them out with a more professional intro or title.  To me, this is one of the most immediate indicators of a professional video.  The opening title to me is like the beginning of a book and it really speaks to what type of video it will be.  Another aspect to identity that I would like to work on in future videos is the environment that I am speaking in.  I believe that a shop that is clean, displays tools and projects is more akin to a professional traits.  As much as I hope that people are paying attention to me, I think that the environment can really act like a setting in a narrative and it tells a story as well.  As I generate more videos and watch videos myself, I hope to pick up bits and pieces so that the presentation meets the quality of my content, which I believe will increase and immerse my viewers in the world of technical theatre.



Chandler, P., & Sweller, J. (2009). Cognitive Load Theory And The Format Of Instruction. Cognition And Instruction, 8(4), 293-332.


EOS Rebel T5i 18-55mm IS STM Lens Kit. (2015). Retrieved April 22, 2015, from http://www.usa.canon.com/cusa/consumer/products/cameras/slr_cameras/eos_rebel_t5i_18_55mm_is_stm_lens_kit


Powell, S. (2013, July 24). Learning Modalities. Retrieved April 19, 2015, from http://www.education.com/reference/article/learning-modalities/

Should You Add Background Audio to Your E-Learning Courses? - The Rapid eLearning Blog. (2009, December 1). Retrieved April 21, 2015, from http://www.articulate.com/rapid-elearning/should-you-add-background-audio-to-your-e-learning-courses/