Interactive Lego films for Learning

In lockdown with young children, I explored the reaches of an interactive software for supporting student engagement with online learning by combining it with fun short films involving Lego. As a film maker and clinical educator, I created short [1-4 minute] films about fictitious characters and medical and health sciences educational material using Lego. Scenes were set up and recorded on a mobile phone and later edited using both Microsoft
PowerPoint and Adobe Premiere Pro software. Characters – including Batman – played out situations that I would usually film with real people in simulation and/or role play. Lego provided an important element of play into the learning material. Although many of our learners are highly skilled clinicians they are also people who share common experiences and meanings associated with Lego play. For many, Lego conjures up nostalgia of childhood play and associations with creativity, curiosity, as well as with iconic characters such as Cat Woman, Darth Vader, and Spaceman. I leveraged these commonly held experiences and meanings to engage learners. I didn't try to make something that looked slick in the animated sense, but instead for something that more closely resembled actual play with Lego. My hand can be seen moving characters in the films. This element of authentic play was important to student wellbeing and positive interactive learning in response to the backdrop of global stress and anxiety emergent from Covid-19. As evidenced in the research on the effectiveness of question-embedded videos (Vural 2003), I used H5P software (an interactive engagement learning plug-in) (HTML5 Package, MIT, MA, USA) to add interactive components to films. In this presentation I'll show a film and share information about how to do it. I'll present on student responses
to the interactive Lego films.