When my classes moved online last year due to the pandemic, I was wracking my brain for ways to keep students engaged over a virtual connection. I thought I’d start with a bang and made a short, loud, attention-grabbing intro for my legal technology course. The result is what you see above. It seemed like a good idea at the time, but sound over zoom was not ideal, the transition between the video and the next PPT slide was clumsy, and a distinct lack of reaction from the students on camera made me realize that I was not meant to be a filmmaker or art director 🙂

I’m not gonna waste the effort though, so I’m going to put it here for posterity and a reminder to myself: it’s not about being loud or flashy, true substance shines more brightly. The virtual break-out rooms, more one-on-one video chats, pre-recorded tutorials, and more guided software exercises were abundantly more helpful.

But it’s still a pretty cool intro, right?