Abstract
Abstract This article reports the development of a “course trailer” video series that communicates the professional and academic value of general education courses' core competencies and describes the results of a survey measuring the impact of those videos on student perception. Although general education programs represent a staple of U.S. undergraduate education, enrolled students frequently misunderstand the nature and value of the programs' core goals and or competencies. Universities are making increasing use of devices such as catalog descriptions, mission statements, course websites or blogs, and course trailer videos to communicate and clarify their general education competencies and values; however, little empirical research exists demonstrating the efficacy of such devices. This study's results provide statistically significant evidence that the course trailer video series improved students' understanding of how general education course fit into both their academic and professional plans.
Highlights
Despite a prolonged debate over the effectiveness of general education programs, 76% of U.S institutions continue to use distribution requirements – an approach that requires all students to take several courses outside their major in broad fields like humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences (Hart Research Associates, 2016)
This study reports the development of a “course trailer” video series that communicates the professional and academic value of general education courses’ core competencies and describes the results of a survey measuring the impact of those videos on student perception
In order to understand the effectiveness of the contextualizing message of the course trailers, the survey inquired about student understanding of the course fit in their academic and professional plan before and after watching the video
Summary
Despite a prolonged debate over the effectiveness of general education programs, 76% of U.S institutions continue to use distribution requirements – an approach that requires all students to take several courses outside their major in broad fields like humanities, social sciences, and physical and biological sciences (Hart Research Associates, 2016). Critics of this approach point to a lack of thoughtful integration of these different fields of study. Students had to access their course’s trailer video to ‘unlock’ the remainder of the first week’s readings and assignments
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