Group Project
Instructions
• This is a group assignment. You will be working with a group of students for the assignment.
Please either organize a group of 4 students yourself, and self-assign yourselves into one of
the numbered groups on Canvas -> People -> Groups, or self-assign yourself to the group
“Please assign me to group”, in which case we will assign you to a random group ourselves.
• Each group will make a short video, and all group members will receive the same grade.
• The file name should follow the convention: Video_Group_XX where XX corresponds to the
group number shown on Canvas that identifies your group (e.g., 1, 2, 3, 4).
• According to the Canvas website, the limit for the file size is 500 megabytes (MB). If your
recorded file is bigger than the specified limit, please use your video editing tool or an online
compressor to reduce the file size.
Deadline: Monday, May 26, 2024 at 9:00
Late submissions are not allowed without prior agreement. There will be no exceptions.
There is no resit option for this assignment.
Warning: The detection of any form of plagiarism in your work means the assignment will be graded
with ZERO points.
Group Project: Educational Videos
For this project your task is to prepare a short video on a topic selected by you which fits well with the
concepts discussed in the classes but has not been explicitly covered during them. You should present
the selected topic in a short video that is at maximum 6 minutes. The audience that you should target
with your video consists of your fellow peers in the class. The objective of the video creation is for
you to understand the assigned topic well enough, so that you are able to communicate it in a clear
and engaging way to your colleagues.
The video is evaluated on the basis of its connection with concepts covered in class, academic rigor,
clarity, quality of communication. The video is not assessed based on its technical merits (i.e., you
will not get extra points because the final product is visually impressive in a way that does not bear on
effective communication).
We are aware that most of you may be inexperienced with video creation and editing, and we do not
expect you to deliver professional clips made with fancy equipment and a whole film crew. We want
you to focus on finding a topic/concept that you find interesting and thinking of how to best illustrate
it to someone who is not yet acquainted with it.
Required elements of the video
• Length: Your video should be maximum 6 minutes long.
• Style: We do not have one preferred style for the video. You may use a narrated slide show, a
recorded lecture, a digital whiteboard, etc. However, we would like you to refrain from using
online animation “builders” such as Powtoon or VideoScribe. From experience, we know that
this kind of software is not favourable for creativity and it makes you focus too much on the
animations and not on creating an engaging and clear message.
• Style: Although you will be working as a group, it is not critical, or a requirement that we
hear each of the members of your team. Your task in this assignment is to go over a relevant
topic, understand it, and as a team produce an instructive video; and in doing that using your
team’s strengths. For example, if one person is a good presenter, it is ok to have all narration
done by a single person.
• Title slide: Your video should begin with a descriptive title, your name(s), the name of the
school, and the year in which it was created.
• Original content: Aim to create your own resources. That means using your own drawings,
pictures, music, animations, filmed scenes, interviews and examples. Where this is not
possible, be sure that you only use material which falls under Creative Commons License
(that you can use and modify without breaking copyright laws, for further information please
check: https://creativecommons.org/share-your-work/licensing-types-examples/ ). You are
allowed to use GenAI for these purposes, but do note that it often does not produce accurate
diagrams of statistical concepts.
• References: All artifacts (images, videos, music, sound effect, data, etc.) used in the video
which you did not create yourself must be cited at the end. You do not need to use a complete
reference; simply include a brief description of the item and a web address where the item
was found (e.g., Picture of xxx, www.website_name.com). Be sure that all are subject to a
Creative Commons License. Include a separate section where you credit the sources of
information you used to research your video. This academic information should be cited using
a complete reference.
• Citations: Please clearly cite all the academic reference according to APA reference style
(e.g., https://apastyle.apa.org/instructional-aids/reference-examples.pdf ). Put both citation
sections (content + research materials) at the end of your video.
• Credits: Acknowledge the people who contributed to the video, including yourselves and
everyone else who may have helped with your production and specify that the video was
made within the context of this Data Modelling & Analytics course (course title, institution,
date).
Language
Everything in the video should be presented in English.
Selecting A Topic
In this assignment, we do not want to restrict you with a set of pre-defined topics. You can select any
topic that is related to the course contents; however we also understand that selecting an appropriate
topic can be a challenging task. To this end, you can get inspired by the core books the course is based
on, which go deeper than the confines of the actual contents of this course. You can use the books
(especially sections that cover additional content) to select or guide you for an appropriate topic
selection. We have attached the reference to these books at the end of this document.
How to make a good instructional video? Suggestions of good practices.
1. Research the topic
• Start with doing introductory research on the topic that you find interesting. If you cannot
come up with an idea, start with returning to the lecture slides, and look for concepts that
interest you. Then you can search for related concepts, interesting application cases or explore
more advanced aspects of the topic which were not covered in class.
2. Prepare a plan
• Prepare an initial draft of the content you want to use in your video. Think about the message
you intend to convey. Divide the content into small sections and think about how much time
you need into each of the sections.
• Give priority to the information that can help you increase your learner’s engagement, so that
you share knowledge in the best and quickest way possible.
• Create a script - A script is an essential tool in video design. It consists of a detailed plan of
what you want to show in the video, how you want to show it and what you want to say when
showing it. Plan what you will say, outline your visual elements, determine the sequence of
material.
3. Give your video a structure
• It is important to carefully think of the order in which you present information, since it needs
to have a logical flow. This provides a hook for your learners as it helps them remember it
better and retains their attention.
• Pauses are important elements of your video since they give learners an opportunity to reflect
on the topic you present. You can make the video more responsive by adding questions for
them to follow while watching the video.
• Employ signalling - the use of on-screen text or symbols to highlight important information.
Signalling may be provided by the appearance of two or three key words, a change in colour
or contrast, or a symbol that draws attention to a region of a screen, etc. Multiple
Representation Principle: It is better to present an explanation in words and pictures than
solely in words.
4. Provide a good quality audio
• Make sure that the narration is clear.
• If you employ music in the background, it should not distract from or obscure narration.
5. Common mistakes:
• Information overload – i.e., trying to squeeze too much content in the short form. The video
and audio should be slow enough so that the viewer is able to comfortably see and hear what
you are presenting.
• Targeting the wrong audience - the video is supposed to be targeted to an audience of your
peers; therefore, it should be neither too technical nor too simplistic. It should help your peers
learn something new. Think of yourself adding a 6 minutes video to Canvas for this course.
• Underestimating the effort required to create a video (even a short one). Start on time!
Finishing the project at last moment before the deadline - video edition software needs to
render a video while saving it, which always takes more time than anticipated. Make sure you
do not need to quickly save a new version 5 minutes before the deadline.
Good luck & looking forward to your videos!
References:
Brame, C. J. (2016). Effective educational videos: Principles and guidelines for maximizing student
learning from video content. CBE-Life Sciences Education, 15(4), es6.
https://doi.org/10.1187/cbe.16-03-0125
Creating effective educational videos. (n.d.).
https://ctl.columbia.edu/resources-and-technology/teaching-with-technology/diy-video/effective-
videos/
Educational video examples. (n.d.).
https://sph.umich.edu/instructional-services/educational-videos.html
Papadopoulou, A. (2021). How to make educational videos.
https://www.learnworlds.com/make-educational-videos/
Core Course Books
An Introduction to Statistical Learning: With Applications in R. Gareth James, Daniela
Witten, Robert Tibshirani, Trevor Hastie. ISBN: 9781461471370. (Free and available online
at https://www.statlearning.com/ ).This text is more advanced and is suitable for students
who wish to explore beyond what is covered in the course, in terms of the technical details
and other extensions. The book also covers more topics outside of the course.
Heiss, F. (2020) Using R for Introductory Econometrics (2nd edition). ISBN:
8798648424364. https://www.urfie.net/downloads/PDF/URfIE_web.pdf . This text covers
the more theoretical aspects of the course, that is relevant for Weeks 1, 2, 5.
