Crash Course is a free YouTube Channel that publishes short 10-15 minute episodes on a variety of educational topics including Economics, Philosophy, Politics, Astronomy, Anatomy & Physiology, Intellectual Property, History, Psychology, Literature, Biology, Ecology, and Chemistry. This specific artifact will take the visitor directly to the Psychology course. The Psychology course includes 40 videos on a variety of topics in psychology, providing graphically stimulating, amusing, yet accurate introductions to key psychology subjects. The videos provide a strong overview of the field in broad enough terms to understand, while still covering the different schools of study, major theorists, and their teachings.
Crash Course was started by two teachers with a goal to provide fun and easy-to-understand learning videos for the public. They partner with experts in the aforementioned fields to provide scientifically accurate content. Their goal is to “provide educational content in the hope that it will be useful to people." These videos can truly be used in a variety of settings: instructors could show these videos in a classroom, or assign them to their students, or students can use them to review and study a specific topic. The videos provided are at a level that would be most appropriate for high school or college courses. However, there is also a partner YouTube Channel called Crash Course Kids that provides content more appropriate for elementary and middle school students.
Since the site is a YouTube channel, discussion is readily available, embedded in a comment forum below each video.
Type of Material:
Presentation, learning object repository & social networking tool
Recommended Uses:
• These videos can be used in a variety of ways: instructors could show these videos in a classroom as an introduction or recap of the corresponding lesson, or assign them to their students as homework, or students can use them to review and study a specific topic on their own.
• Taken together, the videos offer many opportunities for creative faculty to engage students in a broad array of activities ranging from in-class or online discussion to individual and group projects.
Technical Requirements:
Two reviewers successfully surfed the videos in Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, Internet Explorer, Safari, and Opera.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
• The overarching goal of this material is to support students in developing a fundamental understanding of various topics in psychology.
• Students will learn about the history of the field of psychology, individual schools of thought, and terms used to describe different facets within the field.
Target Student Population:
The courses provided are at a level that would be most appropriate for high school or undergraduate college courses in psychology.
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Prerequisite knowledge of the topic area is not required.
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
• The videos provide a highly engaging means of introducing the subject of psychology to students. The videos include fun graphics, and the presenter is engaging and would appeal to a young learner. The topics covered in this playlist address a wide variety of introductory topics that are consistent with what one might find in an Introduction to Psychology textbook. All of the videos are scientifically accurate and informed by scholarship.
• The content is comprehensive and covers many major areas in the field of psychology.
Concerns:
None.
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
• The diversity of applications for this material is the most impressive feature.
• Certain videos—such as Episode 12, The Bobo Beatdown—incorporate a brief review of “clickable” learning outcomes at the conclusion of the video. When clicked, the links take the viewer to the place in the video where that particular learning outcome was covered. This is an exceptionally strong learning tool embedded within the videos—a feature most sites with videos do not provide.
• The videos effectively provide a lot of information in a short space of time. The speed of the videos is high; however, the videos can be paused and rewound or restarted at any time. Students seeking a quick review could watch a video from start to finish, and those who want to take notes or need a more in-depth review can start and stop the video as needed.
• The videos in the playlist are ordered, and similar topics can be found consecutively. The videos follow the order of a typical Introduction to Psychology book, starting with the history of the field and concluding with diagnostics.
Concerns:
• There is an excellent introduction video for Crash Course on the Channel homepage, but there is no introduction to the video playlist for each Crash Course subject.The psychology playlist would benefit from a video or paragraph introduction that might include information such as an overview of what is included in the playlist, notes about the last time the content was updated, recommended uses, and recommended age groups or course levels.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
• This YouTube channel is simple to navigate, and it is easy to understand what content is available in various locations.
• The videos are extremely easy to use because they are housed on YouTube. The channel is a public channel that can be accessed on any browser as well as via mobile devices.
• The videos offer free access, are of excellent quality, and incorporate graphics that are both engaging and visually appealing.
Concerns:
None.
Other Issues and Comments:
Overall, Crash Course offers an exceptional and engaging series of videos on the field of psychology.
Creative Commons:
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