Group Explores Future of Grassroots Video at UW-Madison

February 23, 2009 by David Macasaet

As digital video production has matured, just how does "grassroots video" for instruction function on the University of Wisconsin-Madison campus? A team from the University of Wisconsin's General Library, the School of Medicine and Public Health, DoIT Academic Technology, the School of Education-Instructional Media Development Center, and L&S Learning Support Services, researched the question of grassroots video over the summer of 2008. The group released their findings in a white paper called, "Grassroots Video at UW-Madison."

"Grassroots video implies ease-of-use, but popular sentiment tends to underestimate user knowledge and skill," said David Macasaet, one of the authors of the white paper. "The notion that students already understand the fundamentals of video production and video-sharing is simply not the case on our campus. While the potential instructional value of grassroots video is strong, appropriate support, training, and infrastructure are key factors to making grassroots video for instruction effective."

The VITAL group also found that recent writing about grassroots video makes little mention of the legal issues surrounding user-generated content. Macasaet reported that when considering user-generated video for instruction, the campus has more to consider than the population-at-large. Issues such as how to handle copyright, accessibility (508 compliance), how to address intellectual property concerns from instructors, and what to do about student privacy are all part of the picture.

There are several recommendations outlined in the white paper as well as exemplars of grassroots video produced at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

View the report in full.