#on the many other uses of the creative cloud it's harder to avoid adobe

[yume-fanfare]

"why don't artists finally start boycotting adobe" YOU THINK I'D BE USING THIS STUFF IF I ACTUALLY HAD A CHANCE NOT TO???

[cicadacreativemag]

Proctoring software is a nightmare for students. It doesn’t have to be this way.

Jay Serrano, Editorial Director

As you all know: COVID. In response to the lack of in-person interaction, many colleges and universities have begun to use proprietary software to ensure students do not cheat during exams, most often ProctorU, Proctorio, and ExamSoft. I take 3 issues with this development:

1.) This is spyware.

When you require students to install software that quite literally watches them, that is spyware.

“Spyware describes software with malicious behavior that aims to gather information about a person or organization and send such information to another entity in a way that harms the user; for example by violating their privacy or endangering their device's security.” (Wikipedia)

Modern tech’s propensity for obsessive surveillance has become increasingly difficult to combat and virtually impossible to avoid. However, one would hope higher institutions would advocate for things like data privacy and personal agency. Instead, the director of academic testing services at Utah State University lightheartedly described Proctorio as “sort of like spyware that we just legitimize.” (Washington Post) The University of Arizona’s assistant director of technology  insisted students don’t mind because “they know this is an expectation because their professors put it out there.” Perhaps unsurprisingly, the student body says otherwise. (The Verge)  Additionally, the chief executive of Proctorio reflected on the situation with a dystopian, “we’re the police.” (Washington Post)

I could spiral into a separate tangent about how the US obsession with policing and instinct to punish accelerates the meritocratic rot of late stage capitalism under collaborative neoliberal and fascist rule, but suffice to say that no academic software should ever be comparing itself to law enforcement. That’s how dystopian horror movies start. Putting aside this horrendously inappropriate take, violating student privacy is a pattern—schools force us to engage with abusive proprietary software every day. Whether it’s opting us into a relationship with Google via school Gmail accounts, forcing students to have accounts with Adobe Creative Cloud as a requisite for even being able to engage with a course, or holding office hours via Microsoft Teams, there is an insidious drip of our data that is all being funneled through people who want to profit from it. All of these companies have been revealed to be astonishingly abusive with data. Google alone would take an entire new post to cover (4 lawsuits and counting).

I don’t expect universities to be a beacon of free and open-source software, especially given how frankly inconvenient most FOSS is. But I also don’t expect them to gleefully make it worse. Proctor software requires a webcam to view (and, usually, tour) a student’s living space and often uses biometrics to track their physical motion; it often features facial recognition and eye tracking. It also records the event and human proctors may be able to remotely control the student’s machine. (Washington Post) It seems almost absurd to have to explain the Orwellian nature of this type of surveillance, but in case this wasn’t clear: allowing for-profit companies to record and monitor students in their private living spaces because they might look up a Calculus formula is absolutely unhinged.

2.) It isn’t an effective measure for cheating and does not account for students with disabilities or, really, the majority of people.

One of the most infamous features of this type of software is that it tracks eye movement and physical motion. These are, perhaps, pretty easy behaviors to latch onto as signs of academic dishonesty. But, as is often the case, the easiest path is also the laziest and least thoughtful. The assumption that darting eyes and excessive motion are indicators of dishonesty is a lazy one that perpetuates ableist beliefs and assumptions.  Students with ADHD may have a difficult time sitting still or staring directly at the monitor. Students with anxiety may need periods of time to readjust, perhaps closing their eyes to re-center. A student on the autism spectrum may need to stim during an exam. Students with chronic pain and/or fatigue may need to take breaks to stretch or struggle with uncomfortable seating (hi, that’s me.) As one student reported, she struggles with tics, particularly in stressful situations (such as exams), which puts her in a situation where she is being recorded in a vulnerable moment as she struggles with her disability, which she describes as embarrassing.

Even neurotypical students often fidget (clicking a pen, shaking a leg, etc.) It’s a very normal response to stress and hyper-concentration. Several peer-reviewed studies indicate that motion can be an effective tool to aid memory retrieval and clearer cognition. There is no reason to flag this as a suspicious or negative behavior, either in person or virtually. The only reason to discourage this behavior is for their benefit--it is much easier to identify any behavior other than the strictly prescribed one than it is to actually prioritize all students’ learning. Conventional academic settings are notoriously unfriendly to neurodivergent students and are often directly detrimental to the professed goals of teaching and learning. This is very much an institutional problem. It is just even more glaring and naked when distilled in this way--when given the choice between letting students learn comfortably (requiring some recalibration of course material) and forcing disabled students to be recorded by a software that is trained to view them as inherently suspicious, universities chose the latter.

To refocus and summarize: This software strips students of effective coping tools to take a test and hinders their academic performance.

So far, we’ve identified two ways this software works to the detriment of students and have identified zero ways it works to our benefit. At this point, we must ask: “Who does this serve?”

3.) This is a byproduct of institutional laziness that does not value its undergraduate students.

We have access to all the information we could ever need to perform our tasks competently, rendering many old testing styles archaic and impractical. Of course, we should have some working knowledge, but most of us will not be in situations where we have 2 minutes to recall the types of fault lines of the North American plate.

It demonstrates a broader issue: universities take their undergraduate students for granted; they fleece us for money we don’t have under the pretense that good education costs good money, then refuse to intervene when they do not deliver on that promise. We’re forced to spend inordinate amounts of money on textbooks—an 88% increase between 2006 and 2016 (Vox)—and additional equipment like clickers (which are usually just used to take attendance). We have little recourse when our professors (especially tenured professors) implement abusive practices. But we make these institutions run. Without undergraduate students, every single one of these universities would go under. The institutional arrogance and entitlement seems to grow every day, becoming harder and harder to ignore. But we--and more importantly, they--know college is the single most important tool for upward class mobility. As the casualties of late stage capitalism’s death rattle, we have no choice. It’s why they do it--they know they’ll get away with it. They know we have nowhere else to go.

In this specific context, I understand the burden of reconfiguring a course is not an easy one to shoulder and I do not expect professors to suddenly have all the answers. However, by introducing this software, the professor shifts this burden to this student--again. It is not our burden to bear--again. We’re struggling as well—there is no need to make it worse.

Where do we go from here?

Some of my fellow Cicadas pointed out I left this on a fairly depressing note. Although I am determinedly cynical, I don’t think there’s any harm in sharing some ideas.

Proctoring software is generally used for summative assessments, which evaluates student learning at a given benchmark, like a midterm or a final exam. These are high stakes, which means there is a high incentive to cheat, hence the proctors. Formative assessments are lower stakes, things like a quick summary of a lecture or a mini-quiz. Formative assessments aid learning and summative assessments measure learning. Conventional wisdom says both are necessary. A trickle of research has indicated that this may not be the case and this teacher makes a very compelling case as for why summative assessments might not even be necessary anymore.

That in mind, the most logical way to resolve this proctoring issue would be to eliminate time-based, closed note summative tests. There are many ways to achieve this

Solution #1: More (formative) testing.

I think almost everyone can identify with the “cramming for a test” experience. You sit down at 11:00 PM to engage with the material for the first time before your 8:00 AM exam. If you’re like me, maybe you’re only just now reading the textbook (oops). You open Quizlet and stare at the screen till your eyes hurt. Is it too late to email the professor a clarification question? You sleep for 3 hours, remorsefully wobbling your way through the test as you desperately chug the dregs of your coffee. You leave the room and feel overwhelming relief. You pass the test and learn almost nothing.

Henry L. Roediger III, a famous cognitive psychologist known for his research on memory, asserts the following: fast learning leads to fast forgetting. Cramming is popular because it works. At least, long enough to get through the test. His study reveals that self-testing is an incredibly effective tool for learning, but that it is not leveraged in a productive way. He elaborates on a concept known as the “testing effect” and studies better testing practices, all of which you can find here.

Basically, he asserts that one day of intense formative assessments was so effective for learning that it enabled the student to survive a summative assessment. In other words, many times, a cramming situation occurs because the formative assessments either did not happen or they were not effective,

How to implement/Examples:

Quizzes can be embedded into lecture videos using Canvas. Every lecture could be split into multiple videos, each one with graded, embedded quizzes.

This could be a weekly quiz that goes over lecture material. Maybe this quiz has 2-3 attempts and records the highest score.

Solution #2: No memory-based testing.

If summative exams are really necessary, there are other ways to measure mastery of the material. One could argue that assessments such as recitals and other performances require a component of memory, but generally, performance-based summative assessments are an accumulation of all you’ve learned and retain the pressure of a traditional exam without requiring a proctor.

Have you ever taken notes so desperately you didn’t actually absorb what was said? Have you ever just listened to a lecture and been surprised at how much you absorbed? Our fear of not remembering something we’ll need on an exam can be extremely distracting. However, if you can focus on the lecture completely without being distracted, you can have a more meaningful recollection of the material. Maybe you don’t remember Crime and Punishment was published in 1866, but you do remember that it was published in a serialization for 12 months in the 1800s.

How to implement/Examples:

Essays take the place of traditional exams. Instead of a time-based hunt through the treasure trove of young adult memory, a student can take their time to sort through the information they’ve been presented and create a unique response. This does, of course, have its own host of challenges and should be treated carefully, but essays could just as easily measure mastery.

Perhaps a class could be conducted almost entirely through discussions and direct engagement. After every single lecture, you post a summary of what you learned with 3 questions. This is a type of formative testing that could replace mini-quizzes and other memory based assessments.

[colbertnegotiatedrugby]

Video Editing Techniques

Video Editing Techniques

Software

Picking the right software is a personal preference choice, however depending on your editing style one particular software might work better than others. The top four at the moment are Premier Pro, Avid, Final Cut Pro and DaVinci Resolve, but others include Lightworks, Sony Vegas and Autodesk Smoke.

Premier pro is known for its consistent updates, multi-cam editing, a customizable interface and is helpful when linking with other Adobe software. Its probably the most popular software for video editors to work on. The best thing about Premier Pro is being able to swap between different Adobe programs like After Effects, Audition, SpeedGrade and Media Encoder. Being able to send timelines between programs is really handy. The only downside is that you have to be subscribed to Creative Cloud which is £50 a month, luckily for us we have free up to date access to all of Adobe's software.

Avid costs £39 a month. Its really good for working on large projects, has server rendering compatibility and a huge feature set, but it can be rather clunky and harder to learn than other software's out there. It is favoured by Hollywood productions and normally used to edit feature length projects due to its non-destructive editing (NLE). Avid is designed to edit using just keyboard shortcuts alone which saves a lot of time in post production.

Final Cut Pro is the most expensive software out there for video editing costing £299. Its fast, has multi-cam support, compound clips and a sleek simple interface. The only downside is that it is Mac only; luckily for us we both have Macs. FCPX is a non-linear editing system so it performs non-destructive editing on your footage which is helpful, as well as background rendering and multi-cam editing. For the price though, it is very similar to Premier Pro and Avid.

DaVinci Resolve has great colour features, a sleek design, node-based effects and most importantly is free. Its the lesser known of the four as only recently has it become more than just colour correction software and doesn't have a lot of tutorials for editing. It is being constantly updated by Blackmagic and could become more used than other editing software out there soon.

Learn the Shortcuts

Learning your shortcuts is the best way to streamline your editing process. Once you figure out that the “L” button speeds up your playback, you’ll never want to sit through an interview in real time ever again.

Add Music and SFX

If learning shortcuts is the easiest way to speed up your editing process, then the addition of music and sound effects to your project is the easiest way to add depth and layers to your project. With music, make sure you choose something that fits with your visuals. A metal song doesn’t really work with a glorious shot of a field of tulips (unless they’re like, totally metal tulips), and a slow motion shot of a car-chase explosion doesn’t really warrant an upbeat disco track (although I would love to see it). Make sure to cut to the beat of the song, because it matters. A well-timed cut to the beat can be iconic, or it can be completely forgettable, if it’s done right or wrong.

For sound effects, subtle crowd noises, background sound effects, and other audio cues help the audience feel like they’re really experiencing what they’re seeing on the screen. If you’ve ever seen any behind-the-scenes videos of productions, you’ll notice that there’s rarely music or sound effects being played in real time; it’s all added in post.

For post-production, you should also always properly mix the music and sound effects with your footage audio to make it sound as natural as possible. As something of a side note, all of Pond5’s music and sound effect are available within the Adobe Premiere interface with our free Adobe Add-on, so you can plug temporary tracks into your project directly and see how they fit before you decide to purchase.

Ramp It Up… Or Down

Speed ramping is used for action scenes where something needs to be emphasized in either slow or fast motion, but starts in real time (see: 300, Inception, Transformers, Saving Private Ryan). It can also be used to finesse your clips so that they fit together better within your sequence. If you’ve got a three-second hole in your sequence, but your clip is currently 3.5 seconds, experiment with ramping up the speed to the right duration to make it fit. Conversely, you can slow it down if the gap is longer than your clip. Just make sure it fits and looks realistic!

When in Doubt, Cover It Up

If you’re editing an interview, or if your subject is telling a story and it seems to drag, the best thing to do is to add some b-roll or a+b roll to keep it interesting. Cut back to the person who’s talking if they’re saying something powerful or important, but don’t linger too long before cutting away just to break it up. If you’ve shot a lot of interviews, you’ll know that some subjects say “um,” “uh,” and “you know” a lot, and may ramble at times. You can cover up all these cuts while keeping the story moving. It also doesn’t hurt to go away to some live audio (a+b) of them to re-set, transition, or introduce the audience to another setting.

Space It Out, for Dramatic Effect

By adding footage to either cover up cuts, make your video flow more authentically, or transition to another location or idea, you’re making for a better piece — but these may not add any drama or tension. You can make your subject’s impactful statements stand out more if you give them some breathing room and let the viewer reflect on what they’ve just seen and heard. Keep the visuals going, but stop the a-roll and let the music and/or visuals aid the pause by increasing the volume or putting in the perfect visual cap on the soundbite. This video is a great example of letting the statements breathe while showing the wonderful visuals to enhance the story.

Stabilize It

In addition to poor-quality audio, having shaky footage can be a death sentence for your project. The good news is, there are great plug-ins and tools that will help you stabilize your footage that are out there, and even built-in to your editing software. Become very well-acquainted with them, because this can be a game-changer. Warp Stabilizer in Adobe Premiere/After Effects and SmoothCam in Final Cut X are the big ones, but there’s a powerful third-party plugin called ReelSteady that works really well in After Effects, from my experience. You can find apps that stabilize your phone video, as well, such as the well-reviewed Emulsio.

Re-Frame, If You Can

These days, cameras are shooting higher and higher resolutions, which has created the ability for editors to re-frame and push/pull the footage to interesting effects. Since 1080p is still the standard delivery resolution across many jobs, you have a lot of space to explore with 2K-and-above resolutions. Try adding a subtle push-in during a tense scene, or position your subject in the center of the frame if their eye-line was off. You can possibly even get two shots out of one clip if you’re shooting ultra hi-res and downscaling it.

The MAJOR caveat to this is to not go overboard, and try to avoid scaling up beyond 110% — especially if your camera isn’t that great. Pixelated footage is very noticeable, and a re-positioned clip doesn’t work if the actors or subject look out of place.

Colour Grading & Correction

The terms “color correction” and “color grading” are often used interchangeably, but refer to different processes of editing color in video. Color correction is usually done first. This is because raw footage tends to be over-saturated and the colors need to be balanced out. The process of color correcting does just that, by making sure footage looks exactly the way that the human eye sees things. If the white and black levels match what the human eye sees as white and black, then the other colors should be balanced as a result.

Color grading is the next step, where you create the actual aesthetic of your video. But this is an entirely optional process, especially if the film is meant to be a realistic as possible. However, the right color grading does help convey a visual tone or mood to heighten the narrative. For example, you may use darker tones to elevate the storytelling in a horror film.