The Philosophers' Cocoon

In the comments section of our newest "how can we help you?" thread, Jeremy writes:

Something I've been wondering about: Do you think there is any benefit to taking videos of, e.g., lectures, talks/presentations, etc. and sharing them in one's portfolio in the relevant place? The advantage, I would think, is that it serves as further evidence of the kinds of claims one is making about teaching/research skills.

My guess is that 99% of committees will ignore them, but that it couldn't hurt to put them out there. I'm reasonably confident about the former, but less so about the latter.

In response, another reader wrote:

[T]he catch is you have no right to video record your students. You would need them to sign release forms, and to be given the option to leave the lecture that day. Certainly this is the case in America.

Fair enough – but suppose you were to get permission. Is there any chance of it benefiting a candidate by having a link to a teaching video in their portfolio? And it is true that "it couldn't hurt to put them out there"? 

My initial reaction to the reader's query is that a teaching video could help, but it could also hurt. As a search committee member, if I were to receive a teaching portfolio with a link to a video, I would probably watch it (assuming I am otherwise interested in the candidate given the rest of their dossier). So, I'm not at all sure that '99%' of committees wouldn't watch such a video. If they are interested in the candidate, they very well might!

Might such a video benefit a candidate? Well, if the video was spectacular–demonstrating to me that the person is a great teacher–who knows? It might excite me about the candidate! On the other hand, having been to many in-person teaching demos (during on-campus interviews), my sense is that this is one of those areas that search committee members can "nit-pick" a lot. Indeed, my own experience is that teaching demos are often very polarizing–that search committee members often have wildly different reactions to a single demo, with some loving the candidate's performance and others arriving at very negative judgments. I think this can happen for a few reasons. First, search committee members can have very strong views about pedagogy–about what they think excellent teaching is all about–and upon seeing a candidate in action, they may feel that the candidate doesn't fit the mold of what they are looking for. Second, my sense is that search committee members can be "looking for things to find wrong."

For these reasons, I think including teaching video may be a "high-risk/high-reward" proposition. On the one hand, it's high risk because you never know how people will respond to it. They may respond negatively. So, it may be safer to go the traditional route: to not have a video, leaving one's actual teaching performance more of a mystery–something for search committee members to infer from your teaching statement, syllabi, student evals, etc. On the other hand, suppose you are a candidate who isn't getting many interviews, and who might benefit from a video. In this case, I could well imagine a teaching video might be a risk worth giving a shot!

Who knows? My general experience in this profession so far (at least in my case) is that although many people will discourage you from taking risks, taking some risks that discourage you from can turn out well. For instance, as I've mentioned before, I don't think anyone in my grad program would have thought blogging is a good idea…but it turned out okay. My general thought is: be aware of the potential risks–but if you don't have much to lose (e.g. if you're already not doing well on the market as it is), risks like these can have unexpected benefits, and at any rate just might be worth giving a shot.

But these are just my thoughts. What are yours?