We often take videos for granted, but how effective are they in a classroom? A three-part questionnaire was recently distributed to some of the faculty.

THE FIRST QUESTION concerned how a video promotes thought in students about the subject. Responses varied across the departments. Some respondents cited the central role that video plays in class.

A Media Arts professor, who supported this view, wrote: "Using videos is integral, not adjunctive. The discipline demands their use."

An Anthropology professor wrote: "I use" [videos] "to give students a feel for what people and their cultural settings look and sound like."

A Psychology professor wrote about the video Personality Disorders: "The video included many first person accounts of personality disorders. The vividness of the information triggered thoughtful questions from the class."

One Political Science professor wrote, "the entire class was taught with film."

The Anthropology professor, quoted above, also wrote: "It is especially important that the students become aware that in spite of their different lifestyle, the other cultures we study belong to people with many things in common with us...I look for tapes in which people speak about their culture and history, make jokes, do ordinary daily tasks, etc. If students work strictly from texts, they often come to think that 'others' are not conscious and capable decision-makers like us and that their values are radically different from ours because their lifeways are. So using videos helps convey both the differences in a peoples' day-to-day existence as well as their common humanity with us." This Anthropology professor also explained the value of the video Stranger Abroad: Sir Edward Evans-Pritchard, Strange Beliefs. The video shows "that ideas like witchcraft are part of a logical, rational system of thought, a philosophy about cosmology and human agency, conflict, misfortune and death which is complex and sensible when it is studied in detail."

THE SECOND QUESTION asked if the "live" nature of a video expands teaching beyond the limits of a lecture or reading assignment.

The Media Arts professor, quoted earlier, answered by writing: "No, it is simply another way of learning. But obviously teaching visual literacy must involve analysis of the visual."

A second Psychology professor, describing the class reaction to the video The Power of the Situation / Constructing Social Reality, wrote: "Some video clips were very emotionally charged (Nazism, racism)-which seemed to engage the students at a level where straight lecturing did not."

A Business professor commented about the video series Michael Porter, the Competitive Advantages of Nations and wrote: "What is generally missing in any text book is examples from live industry situations which explain how the concepts apply to real life situations. This is the gap that the video amply fills." This person compared reading to watching a video. "Keep in view the time frame-here in 30 minutes students get what would have required at least 6 hours of reading."

A Biology professor commented about the video Digestive System in Animals: "It was easier to explain the process of digestion. Test scores in this topic confirmed the students' impression." The first Psychology professor also wrote: "Particularly for students at LIU, non-verbal (i.e. visual) presentation of information is important."

THE THIRD QUESTION asked what was the subject and how well did the video treat it.

The same Psychology professor described the video Personality Disorders as "A combination of 'experts' and patients discussing symptoms, causes and treatment. An excellent video."

The Business professor also added: "The students first are assigned chapters on a topic to be read from a text book. They come prepared to class with the reading assignment completed." This professor outlined a very sensible approach to showing videos in class: "I follow pretty much the same pattern while using videos in my other classes: 1) Give a reading assignment; 2) Have class discussion on material read; 3) Show the video and encourage note taking; 4) Discuss learning generated by video viewing."

Students have expressed satisfaction with this type of instruction because concepts become clearer and they under-stand how textbook theories translate to real life. They better retain what they've learned, and retain it for a longer time. And, not unimportantly, videos help students stay awake in class! One proponent of video instruc-tion suggests a few cautionary guidelines: Don't use videos which are longer than 30 minutes, and never start a class with a video without first pointing out its relevance to the students. Also, students should be told that this is serious stuff, and not chosen to give the lecturer a break. And always conduct a post-video discussion of the material.

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