Exploring the long history of Biopower on campus at University of Melbourne

Watch the video we made for James Bradley to use in his teaching of 'Biopower: History, Politics & Evolution.' Content Warning: this video explores the disturbing biopolitical history of genetics and contains discussions and images of extreme historical discrimination.

What we made, and who we collaborated with.

Subject expert: Dr James Bradley, Senior Lecturer, Historical and Philosophical Studies in the Faculty of Arts.

Video and Media collaborated with Dr Bradley to develop eight documentary-style video resources for the online component of his subject.

Thinking about your media early creates space for great ideas

Dr James Bradley engaged with Video and Media when he was building the course content for a new subject, 'Biopower: History, Politics & Evolution' in 2022. In many ways, coming to us early enabled him to be flexible with the form his teaching and learning media resources would take.

In the discovery phase, we created the space for Dr Bradley to think about why he wanted videos for his course and carefully consider the strengths of a variety of genres. This process led to the development of a short documentary series rather than simply recording straight lectures.

Shorter videos stand out on the LMS, but they also allow for the incorporation of elements such as music, animation and object-based learning in a smaller budget. With a variety of rich visual material to support his content, Dr Bradley was able to focus on his engaging delivery.

Behind the scenes in an old lecture theatre, the producer takes a selfie with another crew member and the presenter.
Three people stand in the archives, filming a document.

Enhancing teaching with rich media

Interwoven with scripted insights from Dr Bradley, the students are also privy to snippets of organic conversation between subject matter experts and introduced to significant sites, objects and documents from local University collections.

Walking between the Peter Hall Building and the Library archives would typically take the good part of a class. In these short videos, students are taken through multiple locations, artifacts and opinions in a matter of minutes.

With the magic of scripting and video production, we were able to eliminate this travel time entirely and jump straight from one piece of content to another, without sacrificing the richness that a variety of environments and perspectives provide.

"The feedback I got was very positive. Most students mentioned that the videos were of a quality not seen in their other online learning materials. I did say I was lucky to have such a good production team, which is very true.  I'm extremely happy with them and I think it demonstrates what can be done with the right vision and technical support."

  • Dr James Bradley, Lecturer in the History of Medicine and Life Sciences, School of Historical and Philosophical Studies.

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