There’s a lot of time to be wasted and laughs to be had when viewing YouTube videos — there’s sneezing pandas, deep-voiced keyboard playing man-children and nine-year-olds dominating their Guitar Hero.
But MU students used YouTube to create videos for their class and to promote healthy living. The students were graded on the videos as a part of their graduate-level epidemiology class and covered topics including obesity, diabetes and abusive relationships. Students were graded on content, credibility of their message, creativity, peer review and even the number of views on each video.
Julie Kapp, assistant professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine in the MU School of Medicine, said it’s important to keep up with the changing trends of students and technology.
“I think it’s important to continually update our teaching styles,” Kapp said. “It’s amazing how quickly YouTube videos can reach a global audience. I wanted to use this powerful technology for something educational and to bring credible information to YouTube.”
For some entertainment and information on health behavior, check out some of the students’ work:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l7nC_SyW07s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IXDOPRcVgaA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxp52_JSMTI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUTO4fWukmA
I also recommend viewing sneezing panda and anything with Mario Paint.
