Video Filters

Getting close to the "minimal viable product" required for the online course:

• Topics, research methods and keywords imported with videos and listed with video info.
• Routes for topic and method filters, also video by id.
• Mobile menu and improved usability on mobile.
• Bug and layout fixes to commenting.
• Autoplay toggle; disabled by default on mobile, preference saved in local storage.
• Improved asynchronous handling for routes requiring authentication.
• New authentication methods (Facebook, Twitter, Github).
• Privacy policy.

Mobile	w/ Navigation

Desktop

Tablet

Expert Reviews

This major update was motivated by the need to collect observations from experts about the videos for the course and so set the groundwork for many of the collaborative features like user authentication, roles and content management.

Using 🔥Firebase authentication with Google accounts and other methods to follow, the most important of which will be the single sign-on (SSO) from the University of Helsinki.

The new content-centric approach is continued in terms of layout and comments for each video are visible under the text after logging in.

For the purposes of collecting expert reviews, there are four types of message can be left: comment, theory, reference or course material.

These are grouped together under the same user, the last of whom to comment will show first. Comments can be edited and deleted.

Admin tools are also available to view all comments in one place and to import videos via excel, thanks to this great library: read-excel-file 📈🙏

Admittedly there is still some work to be done with the layouts and pagination!

Stay tuned for updates to video filtering and content presentation. 👀 This has become much more than just a media map™! 🎥 🗺

First Workshop & Interviews

Having received feedback from the last version that the media map is good for viewing the 360° videos, but may not support the text content needed for an online course or specifically massive open online course (MOOC), this version features a content panel the contents of which are linked to the video metadata. This design direction will be continued and content reorganized to the effect that content modules based on group-work themes and field methods will be the entry point and videos will be attached to these.

The first interviews for field course participants were held October 28th, 2019 with a pair of students from Laos and Myanmar on exchange in Helsinki this autumn. The goal is to understand their perspective towards the role of media on the field course. Ethical considerations regarding the documentation of research subjects or technical challenges producing video reports, for example. I had them evaluate three media-centric learning platforms with differing levels of immersiveness: 1) the media map, 2) mobile companion app (Unity) and 3) the "Mrs. Tudio" VR learning environment of the University of Helsinki's Mixed Reality Hub. Feedback was collected regarding their experience and opinion as to whether the tools would be useful at various stages of the field course: preparation, participation and recollection.

General response to this and in fact all of the prototypes was positive though it was noted that there is a lot of development work to do. In some cases the placeholder content led to misunderstanding and subtitles were mentioned as important by both interview participants. Interestingly, to view the 360° videos without subtitles is closer to the authentic experience, since we didn't have those in the field and had to pay close attention to the local interpreters!

Research Plan Presentation, Master's Seminar

This version of the media map concept was included with my research plan presentation April 15th, 2019.

It includes a tasks panel that features videos grouped by the group-work themes of the course and a filters panel with check boxes to filter by media type and author.

It also includes updates to the title bar to include a menu icon and login related information as well as new services to support these.

Media Map - Initial Concept

This first version of the media map uses the full window divided into map, embedded YouTube video player and lists of videos and tasks under tabs in the same section.

The layout is so-called responsive and on mobile the map is used as the main view and videos are opened in a modal on top.

This version was used to demo some of the 360° videos during the field course as they were captured and when presenting the research plan.