Best practice principles for the design of professional development for higher education teachers making video resources

The use of video in higher education curriculum is becoming more predominant, driven by compound factors such as shifts in cohort characteristics, study mode, style of delivery, desire for engaging material and an impetus for institutions to remain competitive. This means that cohorts of diverse learners engage with video content as part of their study experience. The prevalence of video also affords an opportunity to ensure educators who do use video are aware of discourses of representation, knowledge and power present in these forms.It is imperative that educators utilising video are given opportunities to gain insight into the systemic factors that influence their learners’ identity construction, knowledge acquisition and how learners derive meaning from the combination of words, image and sounds used in video.However, there are barriers to educators’ development and use of video, including a lack of self-efficacy in relation to visual communication and video production skills, and a lack of knowledge of the student success factors that must be considered when preparing pedagogical videos. This includes heightened awareness of the complex socio-cultural relationship between students and institutions, and how narratives present in video can include/exclude perspectives, perpetuate limiting beliefs and inadvertently privilege dominant cultural constructs. Without this insight, educators may inadvertently impact how their learners receive the content and participate in higher education.This paper provides insights into the curriculum design of a professional development program on the design and creation of video content for learning and teaching purposes. The program surfaces how visual representation impacts learner attitudes and the importance of framing, representation and narrative construction in learning and teaching resources. The paper will conclude with best practice principles for guiding educators creating and incorporating video media into their pedagogy with respect to student success in higher education