There are a multitude of math instruction videos available to students these days. One of the most popular places to find them is Khan academy but there are many to choose from on YouTube.

I used YouTube and Khan academy videos to put together a video resource guide as a supplement for my pre-algebra and beginning algebra classes organized by section, subsection, and topic. I used Excel to organize the links and converted the document to a .pdf for distribution.

 

The process was quite tedious but well worth it. Students were happy to have the extra resource. The downside is that it is not always easy to find the perfect video. That being said it is nice to have a little variety when it comes to instructional styles.

For instance, Math by Fives features a silly professor. Some students really enjoy his silliness and feel that he engages their interest and some find it annoying.

One of my personal favorites is the MathLabLady who has such a calm and soothing voice.

 

If you choose to use videos to create a resource guide keep in mind that the videos are often moved or removed and the links will no longer work. Check old video links from time to time. If you don’t want to deal with broken links or videos that aren’t quite what you want, you can create your own videos. According to Khan Academy, Salman Khan uses a Bamboo tablet from Wacom and a free software program called SmoothDraw3 to draw his video lectures. For the video capture element he uses Camtasia which is quite expensive ($200). There is a free program called CamStudio that I have played with and it works sufficiently. As long distance learning and online classes are more and more in demand it is important to remain open to exploring technology. Try making some short videos just for fun – you may be required to do it in the near future!