Instructional Video by Emerson Faculty

Daniel Kempler, Ph.D.
Chair and Professor

Alex Burnham
Teaching Assistant

Communication Sciences & Disorders

Professor Dan Kempler digitized pre-recorded video on VHS tapes with the assistance of his teaching assistant, Alex Burnham, for future classroom use in course CD677 Voice Disorders.

instructional goals
One of the course goals is the examination and diagnosis of voice disorders. In order to provide students with authentic examples, Professor Kempler uses video in class to demonstrate patients' voice disorders. While presenting the video, precise control over the play and replay process facilitates student recognition of the voice disorders. The types of disorders include language, motor disorder, swallowing, speech, language pathology, dementia, and Parkinson's.

student learning process
In order to learn to identify the voice disorders, students view cases and samples of active vocal cords. The videos help demonstrate as many cases as possible and, most importantly, allow students to view the vocal cords while the patient is speaking. Students specifically focus on the shape, vibrations and particular characteristics of the vocal cords.

It is critical for the students to view the moving images several times for close examination. The vocal cords move between one and two hundred cycles per second, so multiple viewings are necessary in order to recognize distinct aspects of the vocal cords' shape. Further, students need to listen for vibrations and patterns in the voice, which makes the audio component just as crucial as the video.

digital production process
Dr. Kempler initiated the project by consulting with Bryon Turcotte, Digital Production Support Specialist, to discuss the basics of digital video. Bryon advised Dr. Kempler of the best methods and tools to produce his project efficiently. The project then proceeded with Teaching Assistant Alex Burnham. Alex was new to digitizing and editing, so Bryon offered an orientation to Final Cut Pro software. Alex then converted the video from VHS format to digital, saved the conversions as digital video files and finally manipulated the files for the finished product. Alex spent most of his time examining each piece of footage and editing its attributes for a clear presentation ready for viewing in multiple ways.

In this case, the primary advantages for using digital video is for the higher quality and ease of control. Another critical advantage is storage. Professor Kempler has numerous video tapes that he would like to capture in digital format for both quality and storage purposes. Another benefit is the flexibility to view and edit the video through a computer, which can be done in the office, classroom or wherever a computer is accessible. Now that Dr. Kempler has digitized an example of one patient, he plans to digitize his entire collection as well as produce future recordings with a digital camera.