LESSONS FROM THE WEB

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Creating Law School Review Videos and Slides and Putting Them on the Internet
Professor Gregory E. Maggs
George Washington University Law School

This essay describes my recent experience in creating and posting on the internet videos of seven short review lectures for one of my law school courses. Each of the lectures runs between 7 and 15 minutes and is accompanied by about half a dozen slides. When students view the lectures, they see the video on one side of the computer screen and the slides on the other side. The slides change automatically at preset times, and students can pause or repeat any portion of the lectures. (You can view the lectures at www.law.gwu.edu/facweb/gmaggs/cprev/cp-review.htm.)

As I will explain in more depth, I recorded the lectures on videotape in my home using an ordinary video camera. I next loaded the lectures onto my computer system and converted them to RealMedia™ format using a video capture device and the free version of RealProducer™ software. I then transferred the lectures to a law school computer, which uses the free version of RealServer™ to make the lectures available to internet users. The lectures are accessible to anyone who has access to the internet and has installed the free version of RealPlayer™ on his or her computer. (All of the necessary software is available at www.real.com.)

Motivation for the Project

For the past seven years, I have taught a course at George Washington University called Commercial Paper--Payment Systems. The course requires students to learn a large number of rules in the Uniform Commercial Code. Although I like to think that we go over the material thoroughly in class, students often have questions when the end of the semester arrives. For years, I have found myself conducting multiple review sessions in my office. I might spend five or ten minutes revisiting material for one set of students, only to repeat the process for another group who show up later.

There is nothing wrong with meeting with students to review course materials. I enjoy talking to them, and they generally benefit from face to face contact with their instructors. Yet, from their questions, I began to think that I probably ought to find a more systematic approach to reviewing course materials.

My initial idea was to develop a "frequently asked questions" page on my website. My plan was to write down questions that my students typically asked, and then prepare detailed answers. This idea still strikes me as useful, but after getting started on the project, my ambition grew. I decided that I would like to try to summarize the entire course.

Various authors already have written excellent commercial outlines in the area of Commercial Paper, but I wanted to produce something different. I wanted to create review materials that were interesting enough (or at least short enough) to hold the students' attention. I also wanted review materials tied closely to the exact coverage of the course.

Eventually I decided to prepare short video lectures with slides. This idea for this format was not original by any means. For several years, continuing legal education providers have offered similar video lectures on the internet. My achievement was proving that a law professor could put something similar together without great effort or expense.

Method of Accomplishing the Project

My first step in accomplishing the project was to divide my course into seven parts, roughly corresponding to the divisions in my syllabus. My goal was to make each part small enough so that I could review the relevant material in 10 to 15 minutes. This length seemed about right in terms both of my capacity to talk into a camera and a typical student's ability to listen to me.

For each part, I prepared about half a dozen "slides" to accompany the lectures. The slides are simply web pages in standard HTML format. (I made the slides using Microsoft's free FrontPage Express™ software, but other software would work just as well.) I designed each slide so that it would fit onto the screen and could be viewed without scrolling.

I next recorded my lectures onto videotape by sitting in front of an ordinary video camera and talking. This step proved rather tedious. I had to get through each lecture without making serious mistakes because I had no easy way to edit the tapes. Naturally, I had to start over many times; my appreciation for glib talking heads on television has grown enormously.

After successfully recording the videos, I converted them to RealMedia™ files using a video capture card and the free version of RealProducer™ software. (If you do not have a video camera and a capture card, you also could make the RealMedia™ files using RealProducer™ and an inexpensive web camera and microphone.) I then watched the videos, and noted the precise times at which each of my slides should appear. A special program accompanying the RealProducer™ software can add this information to the RealMedia™ files so that slides in the form of HTML files automatically are sent to the user's internet browser at preset intervals.

My law school has an internet server running RealServer™ software. The final step was simply to transfer the files from my computer to this server. In this way, the RealMedia™ files and the slides became publically accessible.

Lessons Learned

In completing this project, I not only had some fun playing with computers, but I learned seven things worth passing on to others who might want to try something similar.

First, my students appreciated the lectures very much. I did not require anyone to watch them, but most students considered them worth the effort. About half of the 65 students in the class told me that they had seen the videos, and most of these students identified others who also had watched them. I received numerous notes and emails from the students thanking me for creating and posting the lectures. To my mind, this expression of appreciation amply justified the effort. I am now preparing similar lectures for another one of my courses.

Second, despite the student enthusiasm, I could find no clear evidence that the students learned more last semester than they had in previous semesters. Their exams were good, but they were fine in previous years also. In addition, another factor may have affected student performance. Last semester, for the first time, I posted on my website the answers to my earlier exams. Many of my students told me that they found these answers even more helpful in preparing for the final than the videos. This kind of uncertainty, of course, arises whenever law professors experiment with new educational techniques -- how much more satisfying it would be to have some way of measuring what works and what does not.

Third, the videos did not affect class attendance because I made them available only at the end of the semester. I did not reach this decision after careful thought and reflection; I simply had not finished the videos until November. Next year, I will have to decide whether to make them available immediately or to hold them back.

Fourth, a ten minute lecture took me at least three hours to produce. I would spend about an hour making the slides and planning what I would say. I then would spend an hour recording and re-recording the lecture until I had something satisfactory. I would work for a final hour on various details, like determining the exact timing of the slides and posting the lectures on the internet.

Fifth, after making several videos, I discovered a crude but effective technique for simplifying the task of memorizing and reciting what I wanted to say into the video camera. In particular, I placed the video camera in front of my computer monitor, and used the monitor as an ersatz Teleprompter. After tinkering with the camera angle, I eventually found an arrangement allowing me to look at the screen while appearing to look at the camera. I placed a mouse pad on my lap, so that I could scroll through my prompts as the camera was running.

Sixth, the students gave me two suggestions, one of which I already have implemented and the other of which I will address in the future. At their request, I made it easy for them to print out all of slides so that they could take notes while watching the videos. They said that was very important. Next year, I am going to give the students the option of seeing the slides with audio but without video; some of them told me that their modems just could not keep up.

Seventh, before beginning, I should have done more checking with the computer services people at my law school. I asked about the capabilities of our servers, but I failed to inquire about what computers the students might use. I assumed that they they could view the lectures the machines in the law library computer lab, but it turned out that the lab's computers do not have audio hardware. (Our librarian wanted to keep the library quiet.) Eventually, I did locate a few computers with audio hardware and earphones. In addition, most of the students also had access to computers with audio equipment at home or where they have part-time jobs.

Conclusion

All in all, the experiment of creating and posting video review lectures took only a little effort, it taught me something about the internet, and it pleased my students. I would be delighted to hear from others who want to take on similar projects.


APPENDIX: TECHNICAL INSTRUCTIONS

Here are some technical instructions for creating the files necessary for putting the video lectures on the internet. They explain the basic steps that I took. Naturally, others might want to modify these steops to serve their own purposes.

1. Creating Slide Files

Each of my slides are separate HTML documents. Although I used only text, slides could contain pictures or anything else possible in a web page. The only constraint is that each slide should load promptly becaue the video continues to play and the student may become distracted. I used Microsoft's free FrontPage Express™ software to create the slides, but Netscape Composer™ or even the simple option in WordPerfect™ of saving in HTML format would work as well.

2. Making RealMedia™ Files from Video Input

To create a file to hold the video of your lecture, you need to download free software called RealProducer™ from www.real.com. After installing this software, use it to capture video from a media device -- either a video capture card attached to video camera or a webcam -- and to store it in a RealMedia™ format file. The software comes with excellent instructions. A RealMedia™ file (designated by an ".rm" extension) can played by RealPlayer,™ a program that you also can download from www.real.com. When capturing the video input, be sure to use the option in RealProducer™ of specifying multiple rates for playing the video back. Some users might have fast internet connections and others might rely on slow modems.

3. Modifying the RealMedia™ File to Call Up Slides in HTML Format

After creating a RealMedia™ file, watch the file using RealPlayer,™ and write down the exact time when each of your slides should appear. A timer clock appears in RealPlayer™ beneath the video, simplifying this process.

Next create a text file saying when each slide should be shown, based on what you have just written down. For example, I created a file called "events1.txt."


The first line of this text file specifies that the slide in the file called "slide1-1.htm" should be called up immediately (i.e., 0 seconds), placed in the left frame on the screen , and should remain up until 57 seconds. The next slide then should appear at 58 seconds, and so forth. (I indicate below how to create frames.)

After creating the text file, merge it into the RealMedia™ format file by typing the following line at the MS-DOS prompt in the directory containing RealProducer™:

rmevents -i video.rm -e events1.txt -o clip1.rm


This line will merge the text file into the RealMedia™ file called "video.rm," creating a new RealMedia™ file called "clip1.rm."


4. Creating HTML Files for Displaying the Slides and Video

You now need to create two HTML files for the purpose of displaying each video. The first file (which we might call the "base" file) divides the screen into two frames, one for the slides and one for the video. The second file (which we might call the "player" file) contains the necessary commands for displaying the video using RealPlayer.™

The base file, which is where the student begins, divides the screen into two frames. The base file needs to include only the following HTML instructions:

<html>
<frameset cols="*,320">
<frame src="slide1-1.htm" name="leftFrame">
<frame src="player1.htm" name="rightFrame">
<noframes>
<body>
</body>
</noframes>
</frameset>
</html>


These instructions divide the screen into frames called "leftFrame" and "rightFrame." They fill the leftFrame with the slide in file "slide1-1.htm." They fill the right frame with the player file.

The player file displays the video and video controls using RealPlayer.™ The player file requires the following HTML instructions:


In these HTML instructions, the http address is the location of the videos. (You will have to ask your law school computer services staff for the identification of a server running RealServer,™ and put the videos on that server.) The first embed command calls up the video in file called "clip1.rm." The second embed command then plays the audio and displays the audio controls. If you only want to play audio, simply remove the first embed command.

You may wish to add additional text to the player file. For example, you might want to a put your name under the video and you might want to a put a link back to your homepage.

© 2001 by Professor Gregory E. Maggs. All rights reserved.
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 The views expressed in this column are solely those of its author, and do not reflect those of JURIST, its Advisory Board, its staff or its host institutions.
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