Video Based Student Evaluations

and
Marketing them with Social Media

Literature Review
EDT 593

Kimberly Purcell

Video Based Student Evaluations

Advancements in technologies to be used to assist instructors with the evaluation
processes of their students are made quickly in todays increasingly technology-based
society. Video based student evaluations are becoming more common for instructors to
use, as there has been proof pedagogical literature that there are major benefits for
both students and instructors when using of video recordings in the classroom
(Gonzalez). Video based evaluations can be, considered as the instrument or tool
influencing the outcome of the object of learning, and the tool has proven to be
successful in learning outcomes for many students in various grade levels and subjects
(Lofthouse & Birmingham). The continued advancements in technologies to create
easy to use and effective evaluations for students and instructors are necessary for the
advancements of the entire educational profession.
Lofthouse and Birmingham found that, video interventions provide objective
evidence that can be used in a positive and proactive way by students...and their
mentors. The use of video recorded student projects, demonstrations and speeches
allows for concrete reality based opportunities for evaluation as well as the ability to
show the student exactly what they were doing during each part of the video that was
evaluated. It gives the instructor the opportunity to provide positive feedback for
specific observable behaviors, as well as evidence when providing poorer feedback and
offering proactive assistance for the student to have future improvements or success
with the same material.
The initial use of video for evaluations might seem awkward or make students
more nervous during recording sessions, but, experience has shown that while
students (and their teachers) may be distracted by the video-taping equipment in the
beginning of the lesson, this distraction may lapse soon after the lesson begins; if videotaping is done in consecutive lessons, then the eect of the presence of the camera is
negligible from the second lesson onward. In this sense, videotaping may be less
intrusive than live observation, especially if the latter involves more than one observer
(Trucano). Todays younger students tend to already possess a high comfort level with
the use of video, as they can often encounter video-based recordings of their social or
family life daily and since birth with the advancements and cost-effectiveness of video
recording devices that were not commonly used by individuals fifty years ago. Todays
students, video-record everyday life situations with their mobile telephones, and deal
with video regularly in the Internet as users of You Tube or other similar interfaces,
making the use of the same technology in a classroom setting an obvious needed
modification for the educational system (Gonzalez).
Video evaluations also provide a permanent record of what a student has done.
Fifty years ago, instructors and students might have to rely on memory alone to recall
and then evaluate a speech, demonstration or other graded activity. This would account
for the increased opportunities of mistakes in evaluation or simply forgetting parts of
what is being evaluated. Occasionally evaluations might take days or weeks to be
completed and returned to students, and without a recorded history of the evaluated
performance, it would be difficult for both the student and the instructor to remember
any sort of details of the original performance when a question or discussion over the
final evaluation is made. Video recorded evaluations provide for the opportunity for

permanent possession of a tool to view multiple times, rewind or pause- allowing the
instructor the opportunity to provide detailed and more effective evaluations for their
student (Trucano). Instructors can use video evaluation tools to also avoid interrupting
students during an evaluation to point out smaller mistakes, instead focusing on the final
product and being able to critically evaluate the students performance through the use
of the video recording at a later time, or immediately after the performance (Katchen).
Using tools such as an iPad mini to record and evaluate students, empowers teachers
to own the observation and reflection process, as they can consistently and
permanently access the data from the student performance (Lauer).
It is important to note that students also can benefit greatly from the options of
using video evaluations. In a study by Lofthouse and Birmingham, one student
participant stated that through the use of video evaluations, I suddenly saw the points
my mentor had highlighted as areas to work on. It wasnt until the video, that her
comments made any real impact. If the instructor uses the video to explain the
evaluations to the student, the student can see their performance through the eyes of
an objective viewer and see why the instructor might have evaluated them in a certain
way in a more obvious fashion. Video evaluation processes like this also provide more
opportunities for one-on-one open communication in the instructor-student relationship.
In the same Lofthouse and Birmingham study, students expressed the viewpoint that
they were more trustworthy of the instructor evaluations. Instructors also expressed the
viewpoint that the engagement process became more mutually supportive as well as
creating a more relaxed relationship between the instructor and student.
Today, low cost video cameras can be a cost-effective way to produce video
based evaluations in the classroom (Trucano). Although more advanced and
complicated video cameras or equipment can be ignored or avoided due to lack of
knowledge on how to use the technologies, or lack of knowledge about how to use them
in a classroom setting, the use of iPad technology tends to be simpler for even
technophobe instructors to adapt to quickly (Katchen). The use of iPad apps such as
Eye Observe can be easily learned by less technologically advanced instructors, and
can provide many benefits for the classroom. Eye Observe is, unique in the way it
integrates video and photographic evidence with the appropriate observation forms. It
also has built-in aggregate reporting features that allows users to quickly see how many
reports are being submitted, and by whom, thus making it ideal for both instructional
coaches and administrators alike (DMR Digital Stats).
The use of video evaluations is not new. Athletes have watched videos of their
performance with their coaches for decades in order for them to have direct and useful
evaluations of their performance and execution of the actions necessary for success in
their sport (Katchen). Just like when athletes watch their own video while being
evaluated by their coaches, it is important to have students in a classroom understand
how and why video evaluations can improve their successes or eliminate their obstacles
towards success. With Eye Observe an instructor can provide the evaluation sheet to
the student prior to the evaluation, so that the student can focus proactively on their
success. The evaluation sheet can also be provided to students to use to evaluate their
own performance while watching the video of their performance, or providing peer
evaluations of the performance of other students. Because they (students) are
preparing something tangible, producing a product they can see, most practice harder

to put on a good performance. Students can learn to become more self-critical. They
can see their problems and chart their improvement (Katchen). Using video evaluation
in this proactive manner can create all-around better student outputs and increase
retention or abilities of the students after the evaluation has been completed.
Social Media
The current knowledge that social media is the top daily activity for Americans
necessitates a business need for corporations to focus on how to interact and make
their products well known through the use of these social media channels (Social Media
for Marketing). Facebook alone has over 1.5 billion users total, and over 65% of those
users go to Facebook daily (DMR Digital Stats) Just a few decades ago, companies
could rely on print based advertising (such as newspaper ads or mailers), or on taped
commercials that needed to be played during specific shows or time-slots in specific
communities in order to reach their preferred audience and consumer. Focusing on
these older advertising methods is no longer the best way to reach the consumer.
The tools and approaches for communicating with customers have changed greatly
with the emergence of social media; therefore, businesses must learn how to use social
media in a way that is consistent with their business plan (Paquette). Using social
media for marketing purposes can enable the larger world-renowned companies just as
much as a small business can use the benefits of social media to reach potential and
current consumers (Social Media for Marketing). To ignore social media is business
suicide in todays market. Fortunately over 93% of marketers today use social media to
promote businesses and products, and it is imperative for success that all businesses
make a solid social media presence (da Cunha).
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more are
places where, consumers can learn more about their favorite companies and the
products they sell. Marketers and retailers are utilizing these sites as another way to
reach consumers and provide a new way to shop (Paquette). Social media usage for
businesses is more complex than advertising or customer communication from just a
few decades ago. With social media, every customer or potential customer can interact
with your advertising or posted messages, they can provide personalized content in
online discussions using social media (even on the businesses main pages), and they
can positively or negatively impact the impression that other consumers or potential
consumers have with the business or product (Paquette). Social media provides a
world-wide word of mouth experience for every business or product out there, and
businesses need to participate in this experience in order to assure their consumers are
satisfied with their products and the company as a whole.
When using social media to market a product or business, there is no universal
template that can be followed for consistent success. The strategies and techniques at
your disposal are almost as varied and diverse as the types of people to whom you can
market your goods and services, and while getting started with social media marketing
is relatively straightforward, knowing how to launch, run, and optimize your campaigns
from the outset is critical (Shewan).
One suggestion is to focus creating a social media marketing presence that is
centered on at least one of the following: establishing and growing a brand recognition,

increasing leads for your business or product, or improving customer relationships (3).
Ideally all three would be best, but for smaller and newer businesses or products, such
as Eye Observe, focusing on establishing and growing a brand recognition must take
center stage, while creating new customer relationships and consistently improving on
those customer relationships should be the second priority. Increasing qualified leads
might be more difficult for a startup business.
Eye Observe must first do an audience analysis of its current users, as well as
what it would like from its future desired consumers (is it the same as its current users?
Is it different? If it is different, how is the future desired customer different?). Social
media marketing requires that the business know that it should be focused on creating a
community, not on just increasing the total number of followers on its social media
platform (da Cunha). This idea is similar to the adage, quality over quantity. The
followers that a business has should be followers that will benefit from the product the
business provides, and realistic potential future customers. Eye Observe might be able
to achieve a million followers, but if only 100 of those particular followers are actually
interested in their product, they have a successful marketing rate of .01%. But if Eye
Observe is thoughtful of their social media presence and advertising ability, if they have
1,000 followers where theoretically 200 are actually interested in their product, they
have a successful marketing rate of 20%. Eye Observer can ensure that they are
interacting with the correct market by initially focusing on ensuring that they are using
that has the largest potential target market (Paquette). In many instances, this issue
can be absolved by creating a correct audience analysis, where a business like Eye
Observe can find out if Facebook is where their target audience is most prevalent, or if
Twitter, Instagram or another platform might be a better marketing focus for their
product.
Once the preferred social media platform is decided upon, the next business
target should be to interact with your potential customer at the right time (Shewan).
This need can be leveraged by Facebook by using their Life Events parameter, or by
Twitter and Instagram by using the appropriate hashtag (such as #videoevaluation or
#edtech). Many different types of social media targeting are available in all of the
platforms, and many, like the hashtag, can be used in multiple platforms at once.
Although targeting methods can coincide, it is still important that the business using
social media marketing is aware that, each social channel needs to be treated as a
separate entity. There can be content that is spread across all channels...but you should
adjust your strategy depending on the audience for that channel (da Cunha). Platforms
such as Instagram cannot handle providing video content more than even a minute
long, while Facebook can have hours long video linked to the timelines of the users.
Twitter has a limit of 140 characters per tweet, while Facebook has no such limitations.
Each social media platform can be used differently, and their users expect content to fit
the format they are used to seeing on each platform.
The use of social media sites for marketing are also more advanced and useful
than older techniques such as print based advertising or television commercials
because social media sites can find and store information about their users. Social
media sites store, information on all its users thus ensuring marketing reaches a
retailers specific target market. Social media sites are a great stage for retailers to
create an experience and retailers can use information stored on social media sites to

improve user experience with their brand (Paquette). Each social media site might
collect and store different types of information about the users that can be applied to
searches for the potential best consumers (based on audience analysis). Knowing that
each social media site can find your perfect customer using these searches is
important when building your following through social media. If your potential perfect
customer doesnt know about you, they might not ever find you. But if you know about
your potential perfect customer, YOU can find THEM over social media.
In the case of small or new businesses, there is limited research on how to use
social media for marketing purposes from their perspective (Paquette). Small and new
businesses tend to have limited budgets toward advertising and market presence, which
makes it difficult to reach large numbers of potential users. The benefit of social media
marketing for small and newer businesses is that they can provide more personal
communication and product information. By focusing on building a customer base on
social media that trusts the business, the word of mouth of your customers can reach
around the world in a split second over social media. The impact of social media on
small and newer businesses or products requires more research, but the potential of
social media marketing is limitless. Crowdfunding campaigns such as Kickstarter have
seen enormous successes from word-of-mouth (Kickstarter campaigns are often shared
over social media platforms, most often Facebook). These successes are more easily
measured with the information that Kickstarter itself can provide. Recently the card
game Exploding Kittens made over $8.7 million from over 200,000 backers
(Takahashi), but how can we duplicate this online success story with a new product like
Eye Observe by using social media marketing? It is only through careful planning,
audience analysis, online community building, consumer communication (and maybe a
little luck) with the social media platforms that we can only hope to find a fraction of that
success.

References
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