From pitch to published: new heights for the ‘vlog’ as an assessment device

It’s two years to the day I blogged about my first ‘call to action’ VLOG! In that time, I have experimented with my students on vlogging assignments, creating various iterations, and developed criteria for adoption for wider share and application by various education stakeholders across the globe.

Distinguished from the more common ‘reflective design’ used for formative or summative assessment, or ones that focus on various media curation, the newly coined ‘Professional Context Vlog’ (PCV) as a summative assessment device targets oracy, critical thinking, authentic voice, authority, and flow in an argument, for application in a professional context.

Originally at UWTSD’s Nexus + and followed by a global learning conference share at the World Conference in Online Learning (2019), attracting a Best Paper Award, it led to a host of different institutions requesting further detail. The International Council for Open and Distance Education (ICDE) followed in publishing it as a recommended tool for educators at the start of the covid crisis.

It is thus with great excitement I share its inclusion in a 2021 Routledge academic publication edited by Professor Stefan Hrastinski, KTH Royal Institute of Technology at Mid Sweden University. A chapter contribution, ‘Authentic vlogs’ in ‘Designing Courses with Digital Technologies: Insights and Examples from Higher Education‘.

Available to purchase this summer, the book offers guidance for higher education instructors integrating digital technologies into their teaching, assessment, and overall support of students. Written by and for instructors from a variety of disciplines, this book presents evaluations that the contributors have implemented in real-life courses, spanning blended and distance learning, flipped classrooms, collaborative technologies, video-supported learning, and beyond. Chapter authors contextualize their approaches beyond simple how-to’s, exploring both the research foundations and professional experiences that have informed their use of digital tools while reflecting on their successes, challenges, and ideas for future development.

It’s quite a feeling to receive confirmation of the assessment design being selected for inclusion. I reflect on all the trials, tests, tweaks, and quite powerfully on how nervous, and insecure I had been when I made my first vlog public. Being naturally camera shy.

As well as being able to contribute to fit-for-world-context assessment design, I celebrate the joyful products of ‘feeling the fear and doing it anyway’.

I can now look forward to my ‘pitch to published’ story, and furthermore look forward to confronting and embracing new fears in 2021, with an eye on growth, development, and authenticity.

Pre-order : https://www.routledge.com/Designing-Courses-with-Digital-Technologies-Insights-and-Examples-from/Hrastinski/p/book/9780367700003

A special thank you to the Routledge publishers and of course editor Professor Stefan Hrastinski, but also to the key players and institutions who encouraged, and gave space for my voice. Thank you to the hosts and organisers of WCOL19, with a call out to Dublin City University’s Rob Lowney who facilitated its passage (& also appears in the book), and ICDE. I also thank the support of my team at the International Institute of Creative Entrepreneurial Development (UWTSD) and my UWTSD students who have so enthusiastically embraced the challenge; commitment and reflections. And also to Neil Dolman, Tata Steel Trostre’s Operations Manager, who contributed key thoughts on graduate skills for real world application.

Creativity requires the courage to let go of certainties :- Erich Fromm

The original VLOG I posted on Linkedin

“Video Killed the Radio star” (The Buggles, 1979) was the 80s hit tune that acknowledged the power of the then emerging video medium. I believe, within academia, we have yet to fully make use of the VLOG communication device. Here I argue the ‘VLOG’ has the power/agency to disrupt written discourses in some areas of business and management academia.

“Don’t Ask Anyone To Do Anything You Wouldn’t Do…” so view my VLOG below, which is a call to action for fellow educators and professionals to make more use of VLOG activities/assessment, to develop skills in its effective use by business/management graduands, and in developing skillsets of the talent of Industry 4.0.