Writing Good(?) Questions Around Videos
Including questions with videos is recommended in order to shift videos away from a passive and toward an active learning experience (Brame 2016). Questions associated with the homework assignments were focused primarily around the process of science and linking concepts discussed in the video with other course topics. Common question styles included interpretation of a data figure shown in the video (or found in related publications), evaluation of a hypothesis proposed in the researcher’s study, explanation of an outcome reported in the study, and consideration of which related course topics were illustrated or applicable to the video content (though not explicitly stated in the video). Homework 3 received 5-15 times more negative comments about the homework questions than any other assignment (Fig 5 ). This homework assignment was the only one that required calculations and also went the furthest beyond just the content presented in the video, asking students to extrapolate the concepts in the video to a fictitious scenario without a worked example. Interestingly, this assignment received a similar number of positive comments about the homework questions as other assignments.
In an introductory course of over 300 students, preparedness and background knowledge on course concepts varies considerably between students. Homework 3 contained 7 questions which varied in difficulty and included two challenging questions to prepare students for possible exam questions. Just two challenging questions led to extreme student frustration with the assignment, which in retrospect, could have been alleviated by either explicitly framing the difficulty for the students before hand (see Importance of Framing section) and/or providing a small hint within the assignment to put students on the correct logical ‘path.’