3.2 Case study B: creating assignments

Hi, I'm Jason from Oten Western Sydney Institute, the largest provider of online distance education and training for TAFE New South Wales. We're here today to show you how to plan, shoot, edit, and finally submit your student assessment video. Now, this can seem like a pretty daunting task, but don't worry-- you're not shooting a Hollywood blockbuster. So if you follow these simple steps, you'll be well on your way to success.

Now, before you even pick up a camera, the first thing you need to understand is your assessment criteria. In this case, we need to identify a plant that needs to be pruned, select the appropriate technique, and then simply prune the plant. We're going to show you how to film a pruning assessment with Oten student, Kelly. Hi Kelly.

Hi, Jason.

Now, before you start filming your assessment, you're going to need a few items. Firstly, you're going to need your student assessment checklist, any personal protective equipment, the tools needed for the job, a video enabled smartphone or tablet, and a tripod. Better yet, get yourself an assistant.

An extremely important aspect of any filming is lighting. There's only really one rule you need to remember-- don't ever shoot into the sun, otherwise it's going to look something like this. What you should be getting is something like this.

Another key aspect of making any video is sound. You want to make sure that find a quiet location to do your assessment so that you can hear everything that is said-- unlike here.

And one of the most jarring things about watching video is short, sharp, jagged movements. And one way to avoid this is to place your device in a tripod. So one of these won't set you back too much, so it's a worthwhile investment. The final shooting tip is probably the easiest to remember, and that is try to shoot all your video in sequence. This will make life much easier for you in the next step.

So let's put some of that theory into practice. Now, I'm here with Oten student Kelly who's going to film her own video assessment. She's done the planning stage, and now she's up to the shooting stage. So are you ready for this?

I sure am, Jason.

I'll leave you to it.

Hi, my name's Kelly Smith, and today I'm recording my assessment task for the unit-- Prune Small Trees and Shrubs. First thing I've got to do is refer to my checklist. My teacher has given me this just to make sure I don't miss any of the important steps. One of the things is "personal protective equipment," so I'm wearing a broad brimmed hat, long-sleeved shirt, long pants, leather boots and gloves.

OK, so the plant I'm going to prune today is a hedge of Cissus Antarctica. It just needs a bit of a haircut to tidy it up. So I'm just going to take a close up shot of the foliage for you so you can identify the plant properly.

The next thing on the checklist was "choose the right tools and equipment for the job." For this job, I'm using a pair of sharp hedge shears, and I'm just going to start pruning. Just trying to keep a nice straight line.

I have finished pruning the hedge, so that's the end of that assessment. All that's left to do now is to sweep up.

Is the job done, Kelly?

Yeah, that's it.

Great. So you took notice of the lighting, close enough to the camera for sound, and captured all your assessment tasks.

Sure did.

Success.

Open up your editing app and import all of your assessment footage. Now that you have all of your footage in the app, you can begin by trimming down each of your videos so that you leave only the bits that you want. Once you have all your clips trimmed, you simply drag them into the timeline in the order that you shot them. Once you're happy with the edit, you can go ahead Save and Export your final assessment video.

You have planned, shot and edited your masterpiece, and now it's time for the final step, to upload your work to YouTube. Firstly, transfer your assessment video to your computer. Go to YouTube.com to sign up for your free account. Select your video to upload. Name your video, and then upload it to YouTube, and now you are ready to share your assessment video with your teaching section.

So that concludes our series on how to plan, shoot, edit and submit your student assessment video. You should now have everything you need to get started.