Successful Blended Courses - Miami Dade College - PlayPosit by WeVideo

All images courtesy of Miami Dade College

 The challenge

With limited time in lecture to cover important topics, Dr. Maria Guerrero, a math and natural sciences professor at Miami Dade College - Padrón Campus began to look for ways to make her students’ in-person time more meaningful. Dr. Guerrero also felt like she didn’t know if students were actually reading the information until they showed up to class; when she sometimes asked direct questions about the material and got silence in return, she knew they weren’t reading for sure.

The solution

Dr. Guerrero decided to adopt a blended classroom approach, and used PlayPosit by WeVideo to empower the change. Now, she uses interactive video to teach course material from the textbook, so class time can be dedicated to honing in on concepts students need more help to understand.

Additionally, Guerrero proactively uses interactive video analytics to determine where she needs to spend more time. She no longer has to play a guessing game and can meet her students (and their diverse needs) where they are.

She quickly applied this strategy to labs in addition to lectures and continued to watch as efficiency improved and learning (rather than just presenting) became the focus of classes.

The results

Dr. Guerrero noticed both quantitative and qualitative results, especially when she rolled the strategy out for labs, from this shift: 

• Students began asking questions that they would be too afraid to ask in a classroom setting.
• Lab experiences were safer, with fewer wasted resources, because students were informed about what to do.
• During the lab, she saved time when she didn’t have to spend it explaining the lab. 
• 80% of surveyed students felt this PlayPosit strategy helped prepare them for their labs.

Key takeaways

Interactive video makes blended learning intuitive and can be a way to make in-person classes more efficient and engaging. Additionally, it empowers educators to better understand learning gaps and address them almost in real-time, in the classroom. 

This cycle creates a natural and valuable feedback loop between students and instructors without asking anyone to do the additional work of polling or sending out a survey. 

Hear their story

As part of her presentation during the PlayPosit Exchange, Dr. Guerrero explained the tools and strategies she used to get the most out of the platform for blended learning. Hear her in-depth analysis below. 

Benefits of interactive video

• Engages visual learners with graphics and animations
• Frees up class time for discussions and activities by delivering lecture content to students ahead of time
• Can replace pre-lab quizzes

Practical strategies for educators

• Start small and keep the videos short.
• Use the data available to tailor lessons to the class and cover weak spots more intentionally. 
• Score videos to hold students accountable, and experiment with grade allocation to find the right way to weight the scoring.