Sunday, April 19, 2015


15/5 for week of 4/6

1.       I am the Instruction Designer; so I have been monitoring the course development and contributing as needed.  This week I tackled the task of cutting up the client’s video into segments that would fit into our online course.  The client’s video assets are VOB file format; I was surprised to find that this format is not workable in my video editor (Adobe Premier Pro), so I had to find a way to convert the file format to one that is accepted in that program.  At the time, I was not at all familiar with that process.  I spent about 3 hours researching conversion options.  The first converter that I downloaded did not work well; I wasted about an hour on that option.  My second choice worked fine and the conversion itself was quick—about 30 minutes total.

Once the files were converted, I cut the video into sections for the developer to use.  The sections were an introduction, Why Co-Teach, Implementing Co-Teaching, an introduction to the strategies and the seven strategies themselves.  That took me about an hour and a half.

Once the files were converted, I cut the video into sections for the developer to use.  The sections were an Introduction, Why Co-Teach, Implementing Co-Teaching, an introduction to the strategies and the seven strategies themselves.  That took me about an hour and a half.

I think that my obligations are complete, but am remaining flexible and open if my teammates need more input from me.

2.       What did I do?  My teammates and I decided that these video segments would be valuable in the online course, but in sections and not as a whole.  I got it completed in a reasonable timeframe so they could work with it.

What was important about what I did?  Did I meet my goals?  Videos are a great visual and audio presentation because it sets an example for the learner to easily remember and imitate.  However, my understanding was week because I underestimated the format discrepancy that my video editor was limited by.  After studying the conversion process, I understand the file formats a bit better and have a downloaded converter to use again.  I met my goals.

When did I do this before?  Where could I use this again?  This was my first encounter with file format conversion, but I’ve researched many software options on various topics.  I looked for reviews of the providers and found an article that highlighted their top ten favorite video converters and listed pros and cons for each.  I also looked into working with free vs paid providers and verified on the providers’ websites which ones converted VOB format.  So the process of specifying questions that I want answered and looking for a review article are pretty standard method for me and definitely are tools that I will go back to.  The video conversion is definitely a skill that I could employ anytime I have purchased video footage that I want edit.

Do I see any patterns or relationships in what I did?  My pattern is looking for an expert and finding out their opinion and going with that.  I find it difficult to try every option myself looking for the best fit.  That is a much quicker way for me to get my work done.

How well did I do?  What worked?  What do I need to improve?  I spent quite a lot of time looking into the video conversion process.  It turns out there are tons of options out there and I didn’t want to fool around with grade B processes.  So it was time consuming to do the research, but I think that trial and error is more time consuming and definitely more headache building.  I think I did ok on it and on the timing.

What should I do next?  What’s my plan / design?  I research video file formats this summer after the course is over and plan to make myself a cheat sheet---of what the various file formats are for, pros and cons of each.  I have in my mind that I would like to make an infographic and post it on LinkedIn.  At the very least, I will make a table with the information for myself.


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