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lished, though, periodically, NSF posts com- and whether the video format is a comfort- students, who have longer attention spans
petitions for innovative researcher or stu- able and effective way for them to learn that for geoscience content.
dent videos related to its funded research content. We are using the ConceptSketch 5. Always include “closed captions.” Closed
(see as an example https://www.youtube assessment approach (Johnson and Reynolds, captioning makes an animation or video
.com/watch?v=g4IiUTZ_XsU). 2005) along with written responses to mea- accessible to the hearing-challenged, and it
The educational impacts of student use of sure learning, and short interviews with stu- is also useful in noisy environments or
video animations of geoscience phenomena dents to assay their views on the videos and when viewers don’t want to disturb those
as compared to traditional instructional gather formative data for refining the videos. around them. YouTube offers a closed-
modalities have not been well studied. We We’ve collected classroom data on two UTD captioning service for videos, but you will
obtained IUSE-EHR Program Exploratory videos (Three Great Ways to Melt the need to edit the captions before posting.
grant funding to assay both how to make Mantle: https:// www.youtube.com/ watch?v= 6. Guide viewers to where they can learn
effective video animations of tectonic pro- LqWVXRtcSiA&t=90s; Continental Rifts, more. Use textbooks and peer-reviewed lit-
cesses and to see if using these videos in Ocean Basins and Passive Continental erature for the video content, and list these
geoscience courses leads to improved stu- Margins: Plate Tectonics Basics 2: https:// references at the end of the video.
dent understanding of these natural phe- www.youtube .com/ watch?v= W6oJKsSiLEI& 7. Give credit generously, wherever it is due,
nomena. Our project has leveraged the t=26s). Student responses to the animations for images downloaded from the Internet,
interests of University of Texas at Dallas as instructional tools have thus far been for experts interviewed, and to those who
(UTD) undergraduate and graduate stu- uniformly positive, and their written and helped put the geoscience animation or
dents, affording them an opportunity to sketched responses point to improvements in video together: the best videos are ulti-
develop basic videography and animation learning, with some interesting complexities mately team efforts.
skills in the context of a UTD course, related to the recall of visual content.
“Geoscience Videos and Animations” Some pointers to keep in mind to start
taught by the first author. A nine-minute making your own geoscience videos or ani- REFERENCES CITED
Johnson, J., and Reynolds, S., 2005, Concept
video about this course is at https://www mations include: sketches —using student and instructor generated
.youtube .com/ watch? v= k2LYe9DqGx0&t=9s. 1. Use animation sparingly. Video is much annotated sketches for learning, teaching, and as-
The course targets upper-division geosci- easier to do than animation: one minute sessment in geology courses: Journal of Geosci-
ence majors, who by this stage know a lot of of video can be made in 1% of the time it ence Education, v. 53, p. 85–95, https://doi .org/
10.5408/ 1089-9995-53.1.85.
geology, and gives them the means to takes to generate one minute of a simple Prensky, M., 2001, Digital Natives, Digital Immi-
explore a geologic topic of interest via mak- animation. Geoscience expertise plays a grants Part 1: On the Horizon, v. 9, no. 5, p. 1–6,
ing their own video animation about it. The big role in making scientifically correct https://doi.org/10.1108/10748120110424816.
class does not depend on the video-making animations and largely decides how Project Tomorrow, 2008, Speak Up 2007 for Stu-
or animation skills of the first author (which quickly one can make a geoscience edu- dents, Teachers, Parents & School Leaders: Se-
are extremely limited!), as the students are cational animation. lected National Findings: http://www.tomorrow
.org/speakup/ (last accessed 10 Mar. 2020).
eager to learn and teach each other the use 2. Good sound is the most important part of Rainie, L., and Anderson, J., 2008, The Future of
of videography and animations software. any video. Recording good sound quality the Internet III: Pew Internet and American Life
We use Adobe Creative Suite applications is a challenge, and good sound quality is Project, https://www.pewresearch .org/ internet/
to make video animations, Illustrator (AI) critical to making videos and animations 2008/12/14/the-future-of-the-internet -iii/ (last ac-
for figures and animation elements, Pre- that students will want to use and that you cessed 20 Mar. 2020).
miere Pro for editing, and After Effects for will want to share. Stern, R.J., Lieu, W., Manley, A., Ward, A., Fechter,
animation and special effects. The ability 3. Avoid lecturing. Try to tell a story about T., Farrar, E., McComber, S., and Windler, J.,
2017, A new animation of subduction zone pro-
to make a video or animation is a job skill, the topic of the video—a good storyboard cesses developed for the undergraduate and
and students like being able to add this to is the first step in video making. Good community college audience: Geosphere, v. 13,
their résumés. stories make viewers want to learn more p. 628–643, https://doi.org/10.1130/GES01360.1.
Assessing the instructional benefits of a about the topic at hand. Thomas, M., 2011, Deconstructing Digital Natives:
geoscience animation can take different 4. People have short attention spans and will New York, Routledge, Young People, Technolo-
directions depending on what one wants to “click away” when they get bored. Most of gy, and the New Literacies, https://doi.org/
10.4324/9780203818848.
know. In our project, we are most interested the UTD geoscience videos are three to five
in whether students can accurately recall the minutes long; our 10-minute videos are Manuscript received 21 Jan. 2020
workings of dynamic, deep-Earth processes, more ambitious and target only upper-level Manuscript accepted 26 Feb. 2020

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