STANDARDS

COMMUNICATIONS

• Communicate clearly to achieve professional goals using visual and verbal modes to explain and persuade.

ARTIFACT

EDTECH 561: Advanced Web-based Multimedia Development
Project: Educational Video Workshop – Virtual Office: Working in a Non-Traditional Environment (Quicktime Video)

Context and Project Description

One of the assignments in EDTEC 561 was to create a short educational video program that will help a target audience enhance their knowledge, skills or attitude.  For my project, I created a 2-minute video clip about working in a virtual environment. Used as a promotional clip for prospective members of the International Virtual Assistants Association (IVAA), the purpose of the video was to present a brief overview of what it is like to work in a non-traditional workplace and what it takes to succeed. To complete the project, I prepared the content outline, wrote the script, developed the storyboard, recorded and edited the video.

How The Artifact Demonstrates The Standard

To effectively communicate the goals of the video, I used a mixture of media. For the overview, I compared different types of working environment by showing still photos and movie clips of different office settings accompanied by a narrated description. I also included a short interview of a virtual worker explaining her reasons for working virtually and pointing out the different challenges she faces.  To highlight what it takes to succeed, I added a self-assessment portion in the form of a question and answer video clip which showed the importance of assessing one’s capabilities and readiness for the virtual working environment.

Challenges and Opportunities

I chose this topic because an initial needs assessment was already conducted by the organization. The main points to be presented were already decided upon while the specifications for the media to be used were left up to me. Given the resources and sources available to me (SMEs, software, brochures, images, video clips) it was an excellent opportunity to use video as the medium of delivery.  My biggest challenge was narrowing down the final product into a 2-minute version. I sometimes felt that I was editing portions that were important in communicating the goals of the project. The only other concern during the development phase was choosing the right audio (background music) and making sure that no copyright laws were violated.

What I Learned

This project taught me the importance of proper planning and preparation, especially with video projects which are costlier to develop and produce. Describing the goal of the project in one sentence kept me on target and helped streamline the rest of the development process thus avoiding unnecessary reshoots or rewrites. The written content outline, script and storyboard were also very useful in explaining and sharing with other stakeholders in the project, confirming that we were all reading the same page when discussing our progress. As for the media used, I learned that just because one can does not necessarily mean one should.  I sometimes felt the urge to add a specific still photo, video or audio because it looked good and it was available for me to use but after reviewing the end result, I realized that it did not add to the overall effectiveness of the video. 

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