Abstract:

A microlecture is a short video presentation, usually produced by the instructor, that elaborates on a single key topic, whether a concept or skill. Microlectures can be used with any pedagogical approach to free some portion of classroom time for other activities with which they are expected to work together to create a meaningful learning experience for students. Research on the educational benefits of microlectures suggests that this kind of instructional video features constructivist approaches that encourage students to confront misconceptions, to connect new information to existing knowledge and experiences, and to reconstruct their mental models. Among the techniques for developing a microlecture, the writing out of a script helps to ensure that the instructor’s message is clear and simple. For a tightly defined topic, this is not a challenging task. The same cannot be said of some controversial issues, such as the concept of endemicity. After more than two years of a relentless pandemic, experts seem to agree that it is unrealistic to expect that the coronavirus will be eradicated from the world once and for all. With the availability of vaccines for Covid-19 and the new treatment options, the hope is that the coronavirus may soon transition from a chaotic and unpredictable pandemic to a more manageable endemic state. However, the patterns of evolution are hard to foresee, making it difficult for communicators to anticipate “better world” scenarios. Endemicity turns out to be a very nonspecific notion, even for experts. It conveys a variety of beliefs, including the widespread misconception that viruses evolve over time to become more benign. This fact poses a challenge for instructors in their attempt to draft a straight script for a microlecture about endemicity. How to tell a brief story about a controversial issue so that the microlecture provides a self-help resource for students? In this paper, we propose that the above challenge can be overcome by modelling a microlecture in terms of the core elements of a literary short-story: theme, characters, plot, settings, and a potential inversion. Our proposal presupposes (a) that short-stories are, par excellence, stories that blend the factual and the unreal in order to create story reversal; and (b) that the compressed effect of brevity facilitates a faster understanding of the whole story. Our arguments are illustrated by an analysis of an animated microlecture intended to encourage students to overcome some prevalent misconceptions about endemicity.

Keywords:

Microlectures, short-story approach, SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, transitions from pandemic to endemic states, endemicity.