Visual/video literacies

- Context/background of project; Video is ubiquitous, two thirds of knowledge on the internet is now in video format and YouTube statistics (“Statistics”, 2015) reveal that, since March 2014, there has been a 40% increase in the number of people engaging with video - either producing it or viewing the content. Videographics (the use of visual images) and infographics (the visual representations of data) are areas of increasing importance. Forbes Insights (“Executives embrace non-text world”, 2010) highlight that executives and business people prefer using non-text formats for a wide range of goals. Visual thinking strategies, video storytelling and Vlogs (video diaries/blogs) for reflection are also on the rise. According to the National Commission on Writing (2006, p.15), "Thinking on the screen" is as important as "thinking on paper" in the 21st century. This under researched area is rising in importance and competence in video and visual thinking is crucial for communication in education and business. In Higher Education(HE), the EU is lagging behind the rest of the world in modernisation and internationalisation, for example, in the UK the bienniel UCISA Technology Enhanced Learning survey (2014) found that Massive, Open, Online Courses (MOOCs) have made little impact on HE however, video recording of lectures is increasing. Video technologies are being increasingly used in online learning and particularly in MOOCs. MOOCs have great potential for opening up education and making it accessible to all irrespective of institutional boundaries, national borders, or educational context. The need for competences in video/visual thinking is increasing. - Objectives The ViLi project aims to improve the performance and efficiency of education and training by: - developing the competences of educators in video and visual thinking strategies, by delivering a MOOC that is open to all in e.g. vocational training, business and further education. - supporting the opening up of education by providing pedagogical materials and open educational resources (OERs) developed and evaluated through the delivery of the MOOC on video/visual thinking strategies. - Activities and Methodology To achieve these objectives the project will: - research current practice in the use of video/visual thinking strategies and to combine it with a review of literature to develop an innovative theory that encapsulates best practice and theory and draws from experience in multiple fields. Pedagogical materials will be developed based on this new theory with a mosaic of case studies that show how to improve knowledge representation or construction exploiting the potential of visual/video thinking strategies. - to promote the use of video and visual thinking strategies in online learning and MOOCs through the dissemination of OERs developed and evaluated through the delivery of a MOOC on video/visual thinking strategies. A design based research methodology will be used to develop and evaluate the OERs and pedagogical materials and informed grounded theory methodology will be used to generate the innovative theory of best practice in video/visual thinking. Social media will be used to inform stakeholders and recruit participants to the MOOC. The MOOC will enable testing and evaluation to lead to refinement of the resources, as well as the creation of a supportive learning community that co-creates a WIKI of case studies to showcase examples and encourage re-use of resources. - Impact There are two major intellectual outputs produced: pedagogical materials; and open educational resources (e.g. MOOC on video/visual literacies, WIKI, videos). The pedagogical materials and OERs can be freely reused by educators, vocational trainers and those working in human resources, wholly or in part. The supportive learning community and WIKI will help to ensure the sustainability of the resources produced. The potential impact on HE, vocational train...