At a small awards ceremony in the BYU-Hawaii Macintosh Computer Lab on March 19, three students won prizes in the first annual brainhoney.com online lesson competition.
Aaron Doxey, a senior from Provo, Utah, majoring in Information Systems with a minor in Instructional Design and Development (IDD), won the competition and received a scholarship worth $1,000 from Agilix, Inc., the sponsor of both the brainhoney.com site and the competition. Doxey said his instructional video, “Résumé Building,” on how to make an effective résumé, is actually one of four parts to a project he is putting together for Career Services.
The two runners-up were Linnea Hedemark, an undeclared freshman from Sweden, for her video called “Cup Game,” and Jin Joo Park, a sophomore from Korea majoring in IDD and TESOL for her video, “Riddle.” They each won external hard drives.
Before the winners were announced, Dr. Peter Chan, Associate Professor in the School of Education, showed the contestants’ videos while Jim Ericson, Vice President for Marketing of Agilix, Inc., was on speakerphone.
According to Dr. Chan, the brainhoney.com website is “the YouTube version of eLearning.” He said Agilix, Inc. “created an interface where anyone can create simple lessons to share with others. The company created some simple programs to help with instructional lessons. Brain Honey is used to create ‘shorts,’ or small pieces of instructional content.”
Dr. Chan added that the competition also allowed the contestants to learn how to use the program as well as for Agilix, Inc. to beta-test their program using real students.
Students such as Doxey and Hedemark seemed to enjoy the opportunity to work with brainhoney.com and Agilix, Inc. Doxey said he has had experience in the past editing videos of BYU-Hawaii alumni and the amazing things they are doing, but the specific idea for his “Résumé Builder” tutorial came as a request from Career Services. “They wanted something to teach students how to prepare a résumé, a way so that the students could learn on their own. They came to me and asked if I would do something to help them out.”
As for Hedemark, her idea to make a video teaching others how to play her cup game was influenced by her childhood. “Me and my friends used to play that game, and we played it the day before we got the assignment.” She explained that teaching people to play the game via a video was not ideal because “it’s hard to explain if you aren’t there in person to show them.” She added that she wasn’t confident her instructions were clear enough for people to understand, despite trying to make them really clear.
Dr. Chan was the man on campus responsible for working with the students involved in the competition. Although he is a professor with the School of Education, he said his major role is as a coordinator of the Instructional Design and Development minor program, and also to work with faculty to increase their involvement with the Internet as a teaching tool.
“I have experience with many of these institutions and companies that are involved with eLearning. When I learned about the program they had, Brain Honey, I thought it would be fun to become involved. While [Agilix, Inc. is] providing our students with a great experience, our students contribute to their online community with cultural identities.” He also shared that students other than the finalists made videos about cultural activities such as how to make pani popo (Samoan sweet rolls), how to do the Maori haka and how to make Asian food.
According to Dr. Chan, web sites and interface programs such as brainhoney.com are the future of eLearning. “Right now if you look at Wikipedia, it is powerful and widely used, and very informative. Then you have Youtube, which hosts videos that are used for entertainment. Coming from the instructional point of view, there is a need and a niche to combine the two and make videos that are not just entertaining, but instructional.” Chan said that, “You can find all kinds of instruction on brainhoney.com, including how to make a solar panel, and how to play certain sports.”
The videos submitted by BYU-Hawaii students as well as many others can be found online at www.brainhoney.com .
— Photo by Lianna Quillen (left to right: Dr. Peter Chan, Aaron Doxey, Elder David Merrill