e-Clips: Cornell's Premiere Digital Video Clip Collection

Using Video Clips

• The value position
• What do educators want?
• Why is editing into clips so important?
• Why use the Cornell Business, Enterpreneurship, and Leadership Collection?
• How do video clips improve learning?
• Using video clips in class
• Selecting clip formats

The value position

The e-Clips collection allows educators interested in adding multimedia to their teaching materials to get what they want when they want it.

Video clips from the collection provide a cost-effective and time-efficient way to incorporate real world wisdom into the classroom teaching on entrepreneurship. Instead of sorting through long video segments for relevant sound bytes, the user of this collection has access to thousands of short video clips on focused topics.

Because e-Clips can be searched by keyword, educators can go directly to material relevant to a particular teaching point. Because the collection also allows the user to view pre-selected sets of video clips that relate to common teaching themes (cash flow is king, getting funding for startup, business planning for startup), it is easy for the educator to incorporate the clips with his/her existing course structure.

What do educators want?

According to the survey administered at the 2003 meeting of the National Collegiate Innovators and Inventors Alliance, Entrepreneurship Educators are anxious for video material that is:

1. Edited for teaching purposes in terms of size (short) and content (focused), so they can quickly and easily fit it in with classroom teaching or out-of-class uses
2. Easy to find and download
3. Tailored to their audiences in terms of types of
1. Entrepreneurs
2. Businesses

There is also broad-based interest in having a centralized place where educators can send their own additional material to be processed quickly and conveniently.

Why is editing into short clips so important?

Cornell’s e-Clips collection is derived from 1-2 hour interviews with entrepreneurs and experts. The interview questions are designed to evoke material that fits into course topics in entrepreneurship courses. The editing process consists of cutting the in-depth interview into smaller pieces (30 sec.-3 minutes), organized by topic. Instructors can search on:

• keywords on any part of the clip (transcripts, keywords, themes, summaries, etc.),
• characteristic of the entrepreneur (female, family business, 100+ employees, etc.)
• aspects of the clip (file format, length, etc.)

The short clip can be inserted in lecture material as an added way to integrate the real world.

Why use e-Clips?

Cornell’s collection value proposition derives from:

1. Our format. Our short (30 sec.- 3 min.) clips were created by educators interviewing experts specifically for use in the classroom. The collection has been in use by the creators for almost 8 years.
2. Our diverse collection:
• Includes thousands of digital clips from cases that range from small and large businesses and from high-tech players to traditional businesses.
• Includes entrepreneurs in special niches (e.g., designers as entrepreneurs, social entrepreneurs, lifestyle entrepreneurs, ag- and food-based entrepreneurs).
• Includes both well-known individuals and the “everyman” entrepreneur, making it useful to a wider range of university and college environments, unlike other collections, which may be limited to high-tech, high-growth businesses.
• Includes special topics, such as ethics and entrepreneurship.
3. Our database. Our pilot project has resulted in a robust design for highly intelligent searching. We are focused on searching and downloading video clips. You might think of this as Cornell having a database design that provides both depth and breadth.
4. Our capacity for partnering. Because we have a highly streamlined production process, we can easily partner with other institutions and to receive and incorporate material from other contributors.

How do video clips improve learning?

Using video clips in the classroom enhances the learning experience in two crucial ways:

1. Serves as a “change-up strategy” in lecture and
2. Helps to integrate real world experiences with conceptual material.

Research shows that straight, uninterrupted lecturing is not an effective way to teach. Studies (Cashin, Day) show that there is a 3-5 minute warm-up period at the beginning of lecture, followed by a 10-18 minute attention span. Strategic use of short video clips (30 seconds to 2 minutes) can help renew the attention span again and again. Clips can be used to add diversity, inspire debate, create virtual opposing points of view and to increase student interaction. In addition, insertion of video clips intermingled with structured lecture material helps to integrate classroom and real world learning in a very effective manner.

Imagine you are teaching students about cash flow management, a potentially dry topic. As their heads drop toward the desk, you flash up a video with an entrepreneur saying “Cash flow! It’s more important to than your mother…I almost let success kill me because of cash flow!…” Suddenly students are alert and attentive. In a very short diversion from the material (less than 3 minutes), you have motivated them to take time to study the spreadsheets and definitions in front of them.

Students form a type of bond with entrepreneurs that they hear from throughout the semester. Slowly they get to know the individual, and with clips inserted at the right “teachable moment,” they get a picture of the business, the individual journey and some key insights. It is this integration of classroom learning and real world reality that I have found to be extremely valuable in my own teaching experience.

References Cited

Cashin, W. E. (1985). Improving lectures (Idea Paper No. 14). Manhattan, Kansas: Kansas State University, Center for Faculty Development and Evaluation.

Day, R. S. (1980). Teaching from notes: Some cognitive consequences. In W. J. McKeachie (Ed.), Learning, cognition, and college teaching: New directions for teaching and learning, No. 2 San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Using video clips in class – comments by Deborah Streeter

In my experience, using video clips to improve lectures is extremely effective. Integrating video content into a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation, is almost as easy as using clip art or pictures, but you’ll need to learn about a few special aspects of digital video media.

Content Issues - Choosing the right clip

A starting point is to think about what you would like to achieve with the video material. For example, I use clips for a variety of purposes:

• To break up dry material with a memorable remark
• To reinforce my conceptual point with real world wisdom
• To introduce conflicting points of view to spur discussion
• To create a question to be discussed by the class
• To create a diverse “mosaic” of entrepreneurial faces for my diverse audience

For purposes of 1, I might look at the featured clip that appears on the right hand side of the first page on the website. You can also click on “see all featured clips” and see the most memorable comments of each of the cases. If I am aiming for 2,3, or 4, I would most likely use the search feature of the database, looking for terms that would appear in comments that would achieve my goals. Another approach would be to search under Hot Topics to see if my material for the day is covered by any of these theme categories. Finally, if 5 is my goal, I might simply click on a few faces and check out the one-page summary to see if the person is a good role model for my purposes. Then a quick glance through the clip titles would enable me to choose some relevant content.

Let’s work through an example. At the beginning of my business planning class, I always have an overview session. Perhaps my key slide headings would be something like:

• Nobody likes business planning
• Why bother planning
• It’s about the process, not the document
• What investors look for in a plan
• Overview of the plan – standard outline

When I go to the site, I notice the clip of the day is a Cuban–American entrepreneur, Remedios Dias Oliver, saying: "You have to have a plan, not only a business plan, but plans in life for what you intend to do tomorrow." I like that. Next I go to the Themes and take about 5-6 minutes looking through the dozen or so clips that are under Business Plans – Are they necessary in the startup phase?. I just quickly scan the transcript – don’t need to play the video. I choose Bob Felton’s comment, “If you don't know where you're going then anywhere's okay.” Then I scout another theme: Business Plans – What makes a strong business plan. Here I find several outstanding clips. I choose them and print out the bio information on each of the experts I am going to include.

My next step is to mark the choose the right file format (see below for more on this), mark the clips for download, and download them to my hard drive. It is important to move the clips into the same folder where I have created the draft ppt (more on this later).

I choose the spots in the ppt where I want to insert the material and create an “intro slide” for each speaker so I can say a few words about him/her before playing the clip. After the intro slide, I choose a blank slide, perhaps making the background black or another solid color and insert the video clip by using Insert/Movie/Movie from File and pointing to the relevant clip. Sometimes I add some kind of title to indicate the question that is being answered or topic that is being addressed. You have the option to have the slide begin when you move to the slide or activated by a mouseclick.