Both models were then edited, with the insertion of standard graphic designs, texts supporting the lecturer’s talk (in this respect, imitating the model of the visual guides and increasing the accessibility of the videos), and fragments of videos linked to the academic or professional trajectory of the lecturer, supplied by the latter. Concerning the two models, the first (the video interview), although it was the initial idea, was seen to be very long in terms of time and consumed many resources, not only in post-production but also on the part of the interviewee, as they had to search for and select resources (which, moreover, were not always of the required technical quality, and it was also necessary to prepare a detailed technical guide with indications for editing…). Therefore, it was decided to produce a model closer to the second. Facing the possibility that not all of the lecturers would have the supporting audio-visual resources available or that this would delay production, it was decided to record supporting shots in situ, in the faculty itself, with the lecturers as their protagonists, “in context”, with which to enrich the videos.

At the same time, besides preparing prototypes for the videos, it was considered essential to establish the procedure for their production, to which end a guide was prepared for the participating lecturers. Besides explaining the process, this guide includes patterns and models to facilitate the preparation of their video interviews and thus speed up the recording and subsequent editing phases.

From that point on, in October 2021, a group of Journalism lecturers were contacted. Although a few (4 people) were given deadlines, they were diversified in terms of their fields of specialisation. They were invited to participate in producing the shortened version of their presentation videos. The recording of these videos and the corresponding extra shots took place in October and November 2021. As noted above, they all followed the second of the initial pilot models (the short version of the presentation videos). However, their duration was somewhat longer than the initial six minutes per video. This process was concluded with their editing between November and December of the same year, supervised by the EIP coordinators and the protagonists, and they were published on the UMA Journalism channel on YouTube.

4.3. System of evaluating results

Four basic indicators were considered when evaluating the project’s scope. The first two concern the results about the participating lecturers (as their participation was voluntary) and the number of videos produced, aiming to cover at least 80% of the compulsory subjects in the case of the video guides and making a pilot of 4-5 lecturers’ presentation videos. In relative terms, the other two indicators refer to the visibility of the online resources (data for viewings on YouTube) and the perception of the project’s impact on the primary target audience.

To cover this latter aspect, once the project had been executed, two online surveys were designed and distributed between January and March 2002, following a pre-test, to Degree Course students and lecturers in the Department of Journalism. Both include items that cover evaluative dimensions of the innovative project that are essentially personal (attitudes, perceptions, involvement, satisfaction, etc.) and also organisational (for example, evaluating the project’s dissemination) (Marcelo, 2022). In designing the survey, we also considered the model used by the University of Malaga, agreed by consensus with the rest of the Andalusian universities and the Directorate for Evaluation and Accreditation – Andalusian Knowledge Agency (DEVA – AAC), to gauge the opinion of the students based on Likert scales. This model was adapted according to the aims of this research.

The survey addressed to the teaching staff first asked questions aimed at assessing the degree of knowledge of the guides, whether they had shared them and whether they considered them useful for their different objectives—the second part aimed to evaluate the formal and content aspects. Finally, a free-format section was included for recommendations and comments. The survey was provided through the distribution list and personal contacts between February and March 2022.

For its part, the questionnaire for the students was delivered on similar dates, with the support of the lecturers who teach different subjects in the Journalism Degree to guarantee the diversity of the sample. Besides being aimed at the most recent class (2018-2022), who were studying their 4th year then, it was sent via the virtual campus to previous courses with access to the guides. In this way, we sought to obtain a stratified sample and, with the survey’s dissemination through the chats of the class groups (using messaging apps like WhatsApp or Telegram), to facilitate a snowball effect. In this case, the questions were designed to evaluate the students’ knowledge of the videos (whether they knew about them or not and how they had accessed them) or their perception of their content, form, and usefulness as a resource for guidance. To complement this, they were also asked to evaluate the potential of the lecturers’ presentation videos according to different criteria. Since the latter is a resource that has only recently been introduced, it was assumed that this group would be even less familiar with them.

5. Results

5.1. Videos produced

It was possible to make 8 video guides in this project, which are now added to the 12 produced in the previous project (2017-2019). The results are available on the YouTube profile created by the Department of Journalism on the 25^th anniversary of its creation at the University of Malaga and on its website. The videos were also made available to the lecturers so they could use them directly. Thus, several distribution channels have been set up. These multimedia products follow the model explained in earlier sections (Figure 1). They follow the same patterns to ensure that they have a dynamic quality and that the informational content predominates. They were produced by technical personnel, both internal and externally contracted, supervised by the teaching staff and the project coordinators.

Figure 1. Collection of video guides of the Department of Journalism UMA on YouTube.

Note: https://d66z.short.gy/HeElcT

Concerning the lecturers’ presentation videos, it was also possible to produce and publish 5 of these on YouTube (see image below); despite the changes in the plan due to the pandemic, these included lecturers with different academic profiles. This made it possible to validate the viability of the standards defined for fulfilling the objectives proposed, irrespective of their field of specialisation, as well as their flexibility so that each lecturer could choose what to emphasise and how to present it. In this respect, they received constant support from the EIP team, which was present at all the recording sessions to guarantee a certain degree of homogeneity.

The identifying features of the model were defined: testimonies based on several critical questions put to the lecturer; the lecturer as narrator in front of the camera but without reading or looking directly at it; rigorous content but with an accessible and somewhat “relaxed” style; dynamic format, with alternating close-up and supporting shots; a minimalist appearance, recorded in the studio with two cameras, using supporting textual captions and where relevant video resources to underscore the main ideas; brief duration; etc.

Figure 2. Distribution list for “PeriodismoUMA: vídeo presentaciones docentes” (UMA Department of Journalism: lecturers’ presentation videos) on YouTube.

Note: https://d66z.short.gy/yEsmUm

Together with the videos, different resources useful to the Department’s lecturers were generated. In addition to the “Guide for the production of visual guides to subjects”, which emerged from the workshop held in October 2019, another titled “Lecturers’ video presentations. Guide for teaching staff participating in the recordings” was elaborated at the end of 2021. These resources, besides systematising and facilitating the lecturers’ participation in EIP, fostered training in digital skills (searching for and selecting information, screenplay writing, communication facing the camera) and were intended to contribute to “exporting” the creation of video guides and lecturers’ video presentations to other Departments.

All content elaborated (guides and video presentations) is available for consultation online, not only by the teaching staff but also by the university community and society in general, under licence from Creative Commons, which encourages its use and reuse.

5.2. Online visibility of the videos

According to the data provided by the YouTube platform, the average time spent watching the video guides to subjects is 1:03 minutes, and for the lecturers’ video presentations, it is 2:02 minutes. These initial data strengthen the importance of concise and brief audio-visual resources. By sex, 70.4% of the viewings were made by women.

Concerning the sources of the traffic generated by these videos, 26.5% proceeds from external sources: websites and applications that link to this content. Of this figure, 29.1% accessed the videos from www.uma.es; that is, videos housed on the departmental website or the virtual campus. The second access source is Twitter, with 15.8%, followed by WhatsApp (10.6%) and Facebook (8.7%). All of this underscores the importance of using the teaching potential of social media.

Surfing via the profile of PeriodismoUMA (Journalism UMA) on YouTube is the source of accessing 26.2% of the videos and distribution lists created on that website, which are, in turn, responsible for 11.5% of the viewings. Direct searches for these resources on YouTube account for 15.4% of access.

The data on consumption, extracted on 28 March 2022, show over 2,800 viewings across all the resources realised in the framework of the EIP. Amongst the video guides to subjects, it is worth highlighting that the upper part of Table 1 is occupied by resources produced in the project's first phase. In turn, these are optional subjects that the students must choose from. The survey analysis conducted with students emphasises that they found the videos helpful. While the five lecturers’ presentation videos accumulated 172 viewings, this lower impact is explained by the fact that they were posted more recently (a mere three months online at the time of collecting the data, March 2022).

5.3. The students’ perception

The survey conducted with the student classes from 2016/2020 to 2021/2025 was obtained in February 2022 via the virtual campus of different subjects. Close to 100 answers (91) were received, most of which were from the two most recent classes (over half, 56%, from 2018/2022 and 22% from 2017/2021).

It could be observed that 65.9% of the students knew about the existence of the video guides. 58.8% stated that they had viewed them through the space assigned to each subject on the virtual campus, while 35.3% accessed them directly through their lecturers, who showed them in the classroom. Their classmates informed the interviewees about them in 10.3% of the cases.

As can be seen in Figure 3, the subject “Media Literacy”, with 34.1%, obtained the highest number of viewings, closely followed by “Political and Economic Journalism” and “Communicative Strategies and Prospective Analysis”, both with 31.9%. The subjects in these three cases are optional. 15.4% of the sample replied that they had not seen any of these productions.

Figure 3. Number of viewings of the different video guides to subjects according to the student survey.

Note: Elaborated by the authors.

For the videos’ usefulness, 63.8% of the students stated that they are helpful or handy for learning about subjects and, in the case of optional ones, for being able to choose amongst them when enrolling.

Concerning the content and design of the videos (Figure 4), it could be seen that 55.5% agreed that their duration was correct. In comparison, 31.8% agreed that the pieces' design was dynamic. 67% partially or decided that the pieces contained the essential information on each subject. 66.4% considered that the images were representative and that the content enabled them to form a clear idea of the syllabus and classroom dynamics of the subjects. 47.3% partially or agreed that the form of evaluation was clearly explained.

Figure 4. Evaluation of Contents. Survey of Students.

Note: Elaborated by the authors.

In the final place, they evaluated the potential of the video presentation to bring the teaching staff closer to students, selecting optional subjects and showcasing the importance of the Department’s human capital (Figure 5).

Figure 5. Utility of the videos. Survey of students.

Note: Elaborated by the authors.

5.4. The experience of the teaching staff

The virtual survey in the Department of Journalism was conducted between February and March 2022, when it was made up of 40 members, divided between Teaching and Research Personnel and Trainee Research Personnel. From this figure, 16 replies were received, which is considered significant as they proceeded from different academic and professional specialisation areas.

The results showed that 68.8% used these resources in class, 31.3% said they employed them regularly and 37.5% punctually or sporadically. We asked those who had used the video guides which channel they had hired to spread them amongst the students. A large part (50%) used them at the initial meeting organised by the degree coordinators with third- and fourth-year students to present the optional subjects before enrolling. The other most frequent options are uploading them to the spaces of their subjects on the virtual campus and showing them in class at the start of the semester, both with 28%.

The usefulness of these resources to learn about subjects and to enable students to choose amongst them when enrolling for optional subjects was underscored by the maximum scores on the scale of 93.8% of the replies. The lecturers endorsed the usefulness of these videos but circumscribed this to the teaching field. Only 18.8% said they have employed them for research or informative purposes at congresses, as against 75% who have used them in class.

Asked about the effort required in making these videos, we found a total division between those who considered that they had involved very little or too much work, as the replies were shared uniformly on the scale of options.

Figure 6 provides detailed answers to an item consisting of several indicators. The aim was to evaluate the content and design of the videos. Amongst the formal aspects, duration and dynamism are valued optimally, while there is room to improve the representativeness of the images. Concerning content, they are considered to contain and highlight what is essential to each subject and – on these points, there is less but still considerable agreement – that they make it possible to form an idea of the classroom dynamics and the form of evaluation.

Figure 6. Evaluation of the video quality according to the student survey.

Note: Elaborated by the authors.

The survey included an open question to register qualitative values as well. Amongst the answers given, it was possible to observe an expression of thanks for coordinating the innovative educational project and the supervision of the videos. Amongst the recommendations, there were proposals to include the opinion of students who have completed the course and to try and commit the teaching staff to use the video guides and thus increase their dissemination not only amongst the target audience but also amongst the latter’s families. Regarding the formal aspects, there were suggestions to accelerate the rhythm and use keywords in the narratives to make them more attractive to the younger public.

Concerning the lecturers’ evaluation of the video presentations (the second part of the questionnaire), it can be seen in Figure 7 that the majority opinion was in total agreement concerning the usefulness of these videos in encouraging collaboration between the teaching staff and taking the latter closer to the student community. There was partial agreement that they could help disseminate the lecturers’ profiles among students.

Figure 7. Results about the utility of the videos were obtained from a survey of lecturers.

Note: Elaborated by the authors.

Finally, when asked whether they would like us to make lecturers’ presentation videos for them in future project editions, 43.8% of the teaching staff answered in the affirmative.

6. Conclusions

The primary purpose of writing this article is to spread and analyse innovative teaching strategies in the university area involving ICT. Related to this, one of the general aims is to reflect on the need to introduce social media and multimedia content as educational resources linked to Communications Studies or the Journalism Degree, especially in light of the situation generated by the pandemic. Based on our experience, the balance we draw is a positive one. Pérez Tornero and Varis (2012) argue that in the setting of the society of “information overload”, there has been a transformation of the profile of the student body, which must be considered for the task of teaching, and which has played a defining role in the latter’s viralisation. This generation needs to have the option of receiving and sending multimedia messages and communicating in this complete and continuous way. We believe that our project is directly rooted in this conception of the potential of videos in education.

Similarly, to facilitate replication, we aimed to provide a complete description of the work process, from the initial conception to the evaluation of results. In our opinion, this initiative, as yet unfinished, evinces the need to avail oneself of long-term institutional support when undertaking ambitious projects such as this. The implantation of any innovation process requires, amongst other factors, the support of the bodies that organise and design the educational systems, as well as a continuous effort on the part of the teaching staff (Marcelo, 2016). This author holds that material and organisational conditions must be created for this to happen. Still, the initiative must always proceed from the teaching staff, who must be motivated to innovate. Thus, it is essential to have available academic infrastructure and budgetary resources that enable the purchase of material and the hiring of technical personnel, in this case, to finalise the editing and voice-over processes professionally. In addition, we raised the need to evaluate the innovative project regarding both the process and the results (Marcelo, 2016). Based on the difficulties and results of earlier phases, continuous learning and the final evaluation were basic premises (Teruel-Rodríguez & Sedano, 2020).

The goals sought in the innovative project analysed here have been met, especially the idea of providing the students with prior knowledge about subjects and creating realistic expectations about their content. The video guides have received over 2,600 viewings registered on YouTube since these initiatives began (over 2,800 with the lecturers’ presentations). 65.9% of the Journalism students say that they have watched them. Concerning how they were perceived, a similar percentage of students consider that they have been helpful or instrumental in gaining prior knowledge about the subjects they would study. For their part, the Department’s teaching staff were even more satisfied with the result of the videos, and practically all of them (93.8%) awarded maximum scores on the scale considering their usefulness for introducing the subjects they teach.

The unexpected circumstances brought on by the pandemic have undoubtedly conditioned the results, limiting production from the quantitative point of view, especially for the lecturers’ video presentations. Despite that, the experience of the group that recorded them, which defined them as the teaching staff’s “hidden curriculum”, also endorsed the results obtained in the surveys of lecturers and students. In short, we can say that these presentations, like the video guides, also fulfil our vision: humanising and personalising teaching and bringing lecturers closer to students in the Department of Journalism at the UMA.

Concerning their limitations, it should be mentioned that the prior training given to the teaching staff helped develop this initiative, which could pose a difficulty in other fields. Audio-visual narration is a discipline in which training is required, so it is worth recommending that professional advice be sought when replicating this proposal. Another limitation that should be noted concerns the project’s continuity or capacity for adaptation: updating the video resources to respond to the unique needs of the student body or to reflect possible changes in the teaching program proves difficult. Most subjects that form part of this project have accumulated a long teaching trajectory. Still, if there should be changes in the study plan – something necessary to guarantee the dynamism of university teaching – it is essential to create protocols for updating the multimedia material produced.

Finally, the experience has evinced the university’s enormous capacity for adaptation in response to challenges of educational innovation and other aspects of teaching and innovation. Similarly, we consider that a multimedia production has been achieved that showcases the human capital of the Department and the University, both teaching and technical. Coherent results have been obtained regarding quality audio-visual products concerning the teaching spirit and the content taught in Journalism in Communications Sciences (Pérez Tornero & Tejedor Calvo, 2016). Moreover, this has been an enormous learning experience involving optimised and systematised processes, and it has been thoroughly documented, which favours its future replication by other teams both within and beyond the Department and the University.

Authors’ contribution

Laura Teruel-Rodríguez: Conceptualisation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Fund acquisition, Research, Methodology, Supervision, Visualization, Original draft, Drafting - review and editing.

María Sánchez-González: Conceptualisation, Data curation, Formal analysis, Fund acquisition, Research, Methodology, Visualization, Original draft, Drafting - review and editing.

Daniel López-Álvarez: Data curation, Methodology, Visualization, Original draft.

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*Autor de correspondencia / Corresponding author

¹ The documentation of the University of Malaga’s call for innovative educational projects 2019-2021 can be consulted at: https://d66z.short.gy/HkvwQs

² In the specific university field, a study by the Anglo-Saxon academic portal Zinch in 2012 showed that two-thirds of teenagers used social networks to compare opinions about university centres before enrolling. In particular, 42% found YouTube credible when selecting a university. See https://d66z.short.gy/MXwRMn (accessed 9 May 2019).

³ The coordinators were Laura Teruel, a tenured professor who also co-directed the previous educational innovation projects, and María Sánchez, a doctoral associate professor with extensive experience, also linked to her professional activity at the International University of Andalusia in academic innovation and networked teaching-learning.