Moscow Institute of Physics and Technology (MIPT) (Course Development)

2023: Development of courses for MIPT: goals and objectives, stages of development, approach to educational content

In order to gain knowledge, ordinary notes, recordings of lectures with extraneous distracting sounds, boring presentations and poorly digitized textbooks are no longer enough. The demand for bright, well-designed educational content is constantly growing. Therefore, in the teamof "Keda Professor," the approach is to carefully work out each detail.

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Educational course "Digital Economy"

Professor's Sneakers The team "" had to create an educational course under the brand MIPT for the now closed (from March 2022) platform. Coursera The purpose of the course is to help students learn key terms, phenomena, trends and development prospects digital economy both globally and in. Russia Self-test questions, additional reading materials and a final test were added. Those who successfully complete the course and pass the test receive an electronic certificate.

Course Development

Scripting

The scenario is built in this way: each video includes an announcement of the topic, key concepts, intermediate conclusions, additional terms and, at the end, a generalization and results.

Historical or reference data has been added to each section of the movie. They do not overload information so as not to distract attention from the main thing, but are decorated brightly and memorably using a video sequence, infographics or illustrations.

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For example, the course discusses the first steam engine, invented in 1778. It is difficult for a modern student to imagine what this device looked like, and we cannot spend a lot of time explaining, since this is not a key element of the course. So we found archival video footage of this first steam engine to show students its appearance.

Developing a Visual Style

The style was supposed to combine brightness and modernity with the inherent rigor of MIPT. We developed an identity covering everything from fonts and icons to the principles of placing elements in the video frame.

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They used conservative colors and a classic base grid as a base, complementing them with minimalistic patterns to add speakers and make the design more lively.

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Casting and filming

It was important to find a charismatic and energetic host who could communicate with the audience in her language, to be young enough to afford appropriate jokes, but at the same time to remain presentable and serious, which fits the theme of the course.

Shooting was carried out simultaneously from three cameras, which made it possible to capture general, medium and close-ups from different angles. This gave us the opportunity at the editing stage not only to choose the best personnel, but also to organically embed additional content.

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Editing Movies and Creating Animations

After filming, post-production began. Each video was supplemented with graphic elements: in total, there are more than 100 animated illustrations and many infographics in the course.

For some slides, we specifically created flat-style images to visually demonstrate how digitalization is changing our lives. In the process of installation, we were also assisted by specialists in sound design, color correction and motion design in order to achieve the highest quality video sequence.

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Creation of a promo page and maintenance

The final stage of all the work done was the promotional site. Everything is collected here: information on the content of lectures, the opportunity to get acquainted with the teachers in more detail, see the trailer of the course. In addition to the video, each topic has 20 test questions, and at the end of the course there is a final test. They also created educational longrids with their own illustrations - for those who prefer a text format or want to quickly refresh the studied material in their memory.

Pedagogical aspect

They followed the rule of "30/30/40" related to perception and memorization, formation of images, retention of attention. This means that:

• 30% of the content is stated by the speaker;
• a further 30% is historical or reference data such as videos or illustrations;
• the remaining 40% of the information is fed through an additional animation that accompanies the speaker in the frame.

This approach helps the listener not to linger in the same picture, avoid overload and boredom, and better keep attention.

Results

The Digital Economy course was posted on the Coursera platform:

• More than 2.5 thousand people studied the course, of which 12.3% completed training (while the average on Coursera is about 6%).
• The course received a score of 4.4, and the teacher - 4.87 points out of 5.
• For some time, he was one of the top 5 most popular courses in the Data Management category in the Russian-language Coursera segment.
• On YouTube, it ranks first at the request of "Digital Economy." The first series of the program received more than 13 thousand views and received positive reviews.

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Work on the course did not end: after Coursera left Russia, they moved it to the SkillBox platform. And training is now available on Telegram. The "Bot-scientist" service allows you to watch videos, read longrides, perform tasks and receive a certificate directly in Telegram in an educational and game format.

Attracting new students to a Chinese language course

This case is about how bright and exciting videos help change the attitude of students to learning Chinese. The project "Animated videos on the Chinese language" was created on the initiative of MIPT. What tasks were:

• identify blockers and determine why students do not want to learn Chinese;
• develop a persuasion strategy based on the advantages of learning Chinese and the opportunities that knowledge of the language provides;
• pack the videos in a fascinating and informative way.

In addition, it was necessary to make sure that as many students as possible learned about the project.

Solving the problem

It is difficult to decide to learn a language if you do not understand what you may need it for. Therefore, it was decided to tell students about China. And not only about his rich culture, but also about the prospects that are available to a young specialist with knowledge of the Chinese language.

They decided to tell about it with the help of colorful animated videos. Many people prefer to watch videos rather than read articles or long posts on social networks, so this format was optimal for the first touch. Learning Chinese is a new opportunity and privilege for students. This thought is broadcast in the videos of the project. There are three videos in total. Each of them talks about the opportunities that the Chinese language provides.

Video about entrepreneurship and the potential of the Chinese economy

The main idea of ​ ​ this video is the importance of the Chinese language for young entrepreneurs. After all, modern China is a huge market for development business and, startups the largest is tradeeconomic a partner, and Russia its importance will only grow.

The figures in the video convincingly demonstrate how many vacancies are available to applicants who speak Chinese.

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Video about the scientific development of China

The second video of the project talks about investments in scientific research, advanced technological developments and opportunities for cooperation that China provides to young scientists.

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Russian-Chinese scientific and technical relations are becoming stronger. Vivid examples and convincing figures in the video show what opportunities open up for specialists who want to conduct scientific activities in China.

Video about the connection between culture and language

Of course, not only financial prospects and research ambitions, but also culture matter. Chinese culture is unique and multifaceted. The third video of the project introduces students to the connection between culture and language - simple, logical and beautiful. This relieves the fear of learning the language with hieroglyphic writing.

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For example, the video tells how the hieroglyph "electricity" is connected to the hieroglyph "brain" - a hieroglyph with a new meaning "computer" is obtained. Examples like these help students develop figurative thinking and even creativity.

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Bright and visual, informative and exciting, the videos help to change the attitude of students to learning Chinese from the first touch. "Animations in Chinese" is just the beginning of the path, but already here students see that this path will be interesting, full of useful and exciting discoveries.

Approach to Educational Content

Nobody likes boring curricula. More gravitate to those educational programs that allow you to quickly gain knowledge and skills: bright, concise and high-quality. Long video formats can only be interesting if they're really thoughtful and engaging.

The Keda Professor team adheres to the principle that there are no trifles in creating the course, and we work out everything: from the idea and speech of the speakers to the details of the website design and the inspiring welcome word. We are developing courses that we ourselves would like to take.

With limited resources, you can develop SCORM courses to reduce costs. For the SCORM course: we design the script, introduce gamification and characters into training, develop graphics, embed practical tasks. The wide possibilities of this format can also increase the speed and quality of training.

Educational content is useful not only for universities, but also for adapting new employees, conducting trainings, training in work skills or personal development. The approach of the Keda Professor team allows you to effectively convey information to any audience - not just tell, but also visually show.