**3.1 Making videos**

For my practical lessons, I have made available to the students supplementary materials on my website that explain or illustrate the operation of each algorithm and data structure. Some of these are YouTube videos, others are animations and visualizations from the website www.algoanim.ide.sk [25], and the most important elements are videos and presentations made by the students or by me.

When preparing the students' digital stories, I required some of the formal features of DST, but not all. For example, I did not ask for the text to be in E/1, but I drew their attention to the brevity and conciseness of the video. Furthermore, I did not accept the use of only still images, I required that all works should use animation. In terms of its form, I preferred the video, but I also accepted the presentation.

#### *Innovative Methods in Computer Science Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109708*

I used the method for five semesters. My goal was for the students to create a video of their own based on the shared resources—either as group work or independent creation. As a support, I provided consultation opportunities for the students, which were used by about a third of the students. The initial enthusiasm was great, several people even came to the consultation, but every semester some of the commitments were not realized. It also happened that they undertook a topic as a group, but in the end, only one student made the promised video. In total, 12 videos (8 of students and 4 of my own) and 4 presentations were completed, which can be available on my website.1

I graded the videos differently each semester. In general, the maximum number of points per video was 20. (That means, the maximum available extra point was obtained with this assignment.) If the students made a video together, they shared the 20 points. One semester, however, I offered only 10 points for making a video, but this proved to be insufficient. No video was made this semester, and the reason is that a demanding video takes a lot of time.

I preferred the group work method for making a video, as group work has many advantages. Initially, I did not even want to accept a video made by individual work, but due to the COVID-19 epidemic, personal classes were replaced by online classes, making collaborative work much more difficult. For the first few experimental semesters, only individual videos were made. Later, when education returned to traditional personal classes, more and more groups—usually consisting of two people—were formed. The videos created in groups were also worth 20 points, which the students divided among themselves. In addition, I asked the groups to keep a "project diary," which included who had completed each subtask. This showed that the students were excellent at the organizational assignments, generally undertaking and solving assignments in equal measure.

I was generally satisfied with the quality of the videos. Most of the videos were made with some kind of video editing software (**Figure 2a**), and the smaller part was a video version of an animated PowerPoint presentation (**Figure 2b**). I gave some aspects related to the content, which the students followed. I found a small mistake in only one video, which was later corrected.

I asked the students to make short videos of a maximum of 5 minutes. They tried to comply with this, only three videos exceeded the 5-minute limit, but they were very close to 10 minutes. Thus, the average time of the video was 4.95 minutes, the standard deviation was 3.22 and the median was 4.04. I think I will have to advertise this even more prominently in the future.

I was also curious about the students' feedbacks, which I investigated using online questionnaires.

**Figure 2.** *Screenshot from a student video.*

<sup>1</sup> https://people.inf.elte.hu/kinga/algoritmusok1/video.htm

**Figure 3.** *Student feedback on the student videos.*

In my first questionnaire, I researched their study habits. This was completed by 128 students. A five-point Likert scale was rated at an average of 4.77 that tutorial videos are available on my website, and students think it's a good idea to make a video for extra points. According to them, video production "involves the student in the learning, they feel it is important to prepare in detail, while making the video they understand perfectly how the algorithm works."

In another questionnaire, I was wondering how students rate their peers' videos. The questionnaire was completed by 22 students, with an average rating of 4.55 for all videos (**Figure 3**) and all but one student (93%) rated it as helpful to their learning.

After making the video, I asked the students about video making. At first, I was curious about their motivation. Many of them emphasized giving help over their peers, as they understood the material and found it easier to learn with the help of video. Some were inspired by the lack of easily understandable Hungarian literature for the course material. But there were those who chose this task to get extra points because they have been making videos for a long time and liked making a video.

Secondly, I was curious about the difference between design and implementation. Most of the students did not have unexpected difficulties or did not spend more time making the video because they felt free to implement it or had already planned the video in advance. However, there was a student who did not plan ahead and took more time to make the video. According to him, he had to start over several times, redoing it, because he came up with a new idea in the process, which would make the assignment more understandable or better illustrated.

Finally, I wondered whether it helped them to learn the course material, which they rated an average of four on a scale of five. They were also asked to write their personal opinions on the assignment, one of which was: "I think it is very useful because the person who does it is more immersed in the subject and someone who might be behind in the subject can understand it more easily than from literature."

This semester, I'm doing more research. It would be nice if a high-quality video could be made to all the material for the two-semester subject, but that would take a lot of time. Therefore, I thought of using the lessons I recorded during online teaching, cutting and possibly re-editing them to create short tutorial videos. These videos will not only help students to learn the material but may also be used by students to create their own videos. I think that by doing this, the time of video making will be reduced and the way it is done will possibly be simplified, which may help me to engage more students, so hopefully, more student videos will be made in a semester.

While cutting my recordings, another idea occurred to me: what if I gave this assignment to the students? Editing one lesson sounds easy, but it needs to be watched several times to do the assignment well. That way, the student who undertakes the assignment is unwittingly learning the material. Of course, the maximum score that can be obtained by doing this is only half of the score that can be obtained by making a real video.

My plan is working, the students are very happy to apply for the task, and I am sure that at least one video will be produced for each lesson of the semester. As a result of the edits, the videos are shorter and of better quality, so I think they are more useful than if I were to share the footage with the students.

I was also curious about the students' feedback, which I researched through an anonymous online questionnaire completed by 22 students. On a five-point Likert scale, the question "How much do you like the idea of make tutorial videos for each lesson by editing last year's recordings?" was rated 4.55 (with a standard deviation of 0.67 with five mode and median) 81.8% of students think that making shorter videos of the recordings, possibly more, is more useful than sharing uncut recordings, and only 18.2% of students chose uncut recordings (**Figure 4**). Students could also comment on my idea, one of them is: "It is easier to process the material in several smaller parts, videos are helpful."

### **3.2 Edutainment apps**

During the two semesters, I created a total of 46 edutainment applications for a total of 34 topics. I used the following four frameworks to create these—usually playful—"apps": LearningApps, Kahoot, Quizlet, and HotPotatoes. These were either assigned as optional homework or were part of the class.

I have used the optional homework apps for several semesters and have modified them several times based on constructive feedback from students. This is one of the reasons why 38 apps were created for the 24 topics. Some of them are presented in Gamification in Higher Education [26], but all of them are available on my website.<sup>2</sup>

These tasks were characterized by high student participation, with a total of more than 4800 views of the apps, which means that on average an app had more than 141 views. (In Crops, the correct solution is less.) Student activity is also evidenced by the result that there was an optional task where 18 out of 20 students dealt with the task, which means 90% participation. Student feedback was surveyed using online anonymous questionnaires. A total of 343 students rated the apps (over five semesters) with an average rating of 4.56 (with a standard deviation of 0.56) and 96.2%

**Figure 4.** *Feedback from students on which type of video is more useful.*

<sup>2</sup> https://people.inf.elte.hu/kinga/algoritmusok2/seged\_kitoltott.htm https://people.inf.elte.hu/kinga/algoritmusok1/seged\_kitöltött.htm

said that the app helped them with their learning. Although there was no obligation to write a review of the apps, there were more than I expected (90). Some of these were "Useful and easy to learn with," "Very good, it made me realize that I had some shortcomings," "It summarizes what you need to know in a concise way, I find it very useful and cool," "It's imaginative and helps a lot to put into practice the knowledge you've acquired," "I found the apps very useful, they added a lot to writing successful tests," "They helped me a lot in understanding algorithms/data structures as I prefer visual learning. It is a playful way to understand the material, reducing the energy involved," "I think these assignments have really, really boosted my performance in the subject. Playful and interactive learning can move university students in the same way. Especially in the midst of such a dry online education, these easier, yet very helpful and enjoyable tasks were refreshing. It was nice to be able to do them until they were 100%, it was also positive feedback and we always had to guide ourselves to the right solutions. The extra credit was also a great motivation, but anyone who did it just for that reason must have learned along the way, wittingly or unwittingly. I think it's a very good idea and I'm grateful that we had the opportunity to do it from this subject."

In the second semester, I started the lessons with Kahoot quizzes. I find it very useful because it is easy to use, it does not take too much time, but the students really like it, it brightens up the course of the lessons, it briefly summarizes the knowledge of the previous lesson, it confronts the students with their shortcomings and after using it, the students pay more attention. In addition, it also sends me feedback on the success of the solutions to each question and the student's performances.

To use a Kahoot quiz in class, it is not enough to have a teacher's computer and a projector or a smart board, each student needs to have a phone or laptop. To start, I launch the app on the teacher's computer from Kahoot.com, which projects a game pin. Students join the game by entering the projected pin and a nickname on Kahoot.it. After that, the game starts. Each question is projected to the audience (**Figure 5a**), and they answer using their phones, where they see only the colors and shapes of the answers (**Figure 5b**). A given amount of time (usually 20 seconds) is allowed for each question. The time can be varied; I increased it to 30 seconds for several questions. There are several types of questions to choose from, the best known being simple quizzes with up to four choices, then true/ false questions, type answer questions, and puzzles. Questions can have multiple correct answers. Students are awarded points for correct answers, which also take into account speed. After each question, it shows the podium positions (1–3) based on the points scored, and we have the opportunity to project the image again and discuss the answer to the question.

In compiling a Kahoot quiz, I considered the following aspects.


*Innovative Methods in Computer Science Education DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.109708*

#### **Figure 5.**

*(a) Kahoot question, (b) Kahoot question on student's phone.*

• One of Kahoot's drawbacks is that it shows the images in a small size. An image is at its largest when it is lying flat and its aspect ratio is closest to 350:220.

I researched the students' feedback using an anonymous questionnaire, which was filled out by 21 students. All of them liked the fact that we repeat Kahoot at the beginning of the lesson, and on a five-point scale, they rated its usefulness with an average of 4.65 (standard deviation of 0.81, a mode and median of 5). Some opinions about it: "It creates a good mood for the entire lesson", "Absolutely good, playful but also useful," "Useful for interactive revision and checking existing knowledge."
