Learning Through Movie Production with the MovieClassroom

Abstract

The MovieClassroom website allows student or faculty users to create and share Geoscience themed digital videos. Movie production can promote learning by encouraging meta-cognition and the synthesis of multiple concepts in an engaging, project-based exercise, with the ancillary benefit of producing educational media useful for peer-learning. The website was tested by students in an introductory Earth Science class (Weather and Climate) who created extra-credit movies designed to be shown to future students. Results of student self-assessments indicate that the website is easy to use and that students took exceptional pride in producing a creative product that could be shared with others. Almost all of the students' movies were scientifically accurate. The website interface and database are currently being upgraded to enable viewer ratings and to facilitate the adaptation of published movies. These changes are designed to allow quantitative assessments of student learning through movie production, and explore the reciprocal hypothesis that student produced digital movies may be an effective means of introducing geoscience concepts to social and cultural peers. The MovieClassroom is an open-source project, therefore details regarding the website design, pedagogy, applications and assessments together with forums for discussion and suggestions are all available on the project wiki.