Ready Made Content

Searching for ready-made content online in my subject area was an exercise in frustration. Most of the material is in print form, much of it is commercial, and I found nothing of a level I would want to present online to students.

In a classroom, I have typically used ready-made content to increase the entertainment value of class, but I’m not confident some of my uses of video content in class was not a breach of copyright. Teaching online offers the benefit that I can hyperlink these items with impunity. However, I would want to know they offer something that is truly valuable. An online student, when bored and needing a break, has the option of walking away at any time.

Here's my link to a video I do like to use in tax class, as a way to add a little lightness, and introduce the topic of taxation with a little Canadian flare: Tax Freedom Day

There are more recent versions of this clip, however, they do not appeal to my '60's folk-music sensibility!

I’m convinced that creating our own content offers a lot more potential to give on-target video, but I think we need to develop our ability to put out things quickly and easily so that it’s not an excessive burden, and we are not tempted to leave old, stale content on our sites.

One of the issues to think about as we develop online courses is who will be the teacher? I don’t think I would want to use video content produced by another teacher. I’m not sure another teacher would want to use video content produced by me.

These are dilemmas going forward.

Lynn