T&L Exchange

Dr Rhianedd Smith – University Museums & Special Collections Services

Overview

This project looked at creating extension videos to help people to access behind-the-scenes and professional skills from museums and heritage sites which could not be delivered in class. It also allowed revision for skills which might be lost due to issues around memory in sometimes overwhelming live workshops.

Objectives

• Use personal capture to enhance a more general strategy of digital scaffolding for students working with collections.
• Teach students behind-the-scenes skills e.g. using a catalogue or packing museum objects.
• Allow access to expertise which might not be possible in a classroom setting through recorded interviews with staff.
• Creating a format that will help students with additional needs to revise skills which may require repeat instructions or access outside of an overwhelming live action workshop.

Context

We have an increase in staff wanting to use collections and field visits for teaching which meant a greater cohort of novice staff and students to support through basic skills training. We only have a small team of professional staff and when they were used in class, it was often to deliver standard information, not making the best use of their expertise and knowledge of the collections. It also meant that time with collections was being wasted for students and academic staff.

For certain practical workshops, it was very hard for students to catch up via lecture notes. We realised that certain skills were actually more appropriate for one-to-one training which we could not support face-to-face e.g. taking somebody through catalogue searching. Through talking with the RUSU Disability Rep and the Disability Office, we also realised that practical workshops can be stressful, tiring and overwhelming for some disabled students, students with mental health issues, or students with chronic illness. While we still focus on hands-on teaching, we realise some students might be doubly disadvantaged around core skills by being more likely to miss classes due to illness or anxiety about the format and then having no way to catch up.

Implementation

We have a small cohort so we have been able to discuss with them over several years what kinds of scaffolding might be needed. This year, we did some evaluation of our modules funded by T&L Dean Elizabeth McCrum which revealed, for example, that students felt they needed more museum-specific guidance around project planning and team work. We also had ongoing meetings with the RUSU Disability Rep (Blythe Varney) who was working on a project to create volunteering resources for students with disabilities.

Adam Lines, Nicola Pickering and I have worked together on this. We created a Trello board to suggest possible videos which might be created and have been interviewing staff.

We have tended to make the videos unscripted but with multiple tries at some of the commentary. Using PowerPoint slides helps and Rhi and Adam have used them in a similar way to how they are used in lectures where the slides are prompts.

Depending on the topic, we’ve used a mix of narrated PowerPoint, screen capture with a talking head, straight video uploaded, and we’re looking at pure audio with images for some of the staff interviews. We’ve made some of the videos through uploading via material recorded on an SLR camera, or using an app on an iPhone.

We had to edit the videos. With the PowerPoint ones, it was much easier (just trimming the beginning and end and editing the intro panels). For more complex videos, we utilised Final CutPro which we have as a result of #DigiRDG.

Two students made some scripted film via SLR  (funded by the Diversity and Inclusion fund) and we’re also hoping to use this. Given the reliance on the desktop or laptop, we’re thinking any future student input is probably going to be captured using the iPhone Mediasite app. Students also contributed photographs for the field-site visit and appeared in the film.

Impact

Adam has actually made some of the videos publicly available as he realised that they would be useful for all visitors, not just students. We’ll be embedding these in a new Museums & Collections Portal launching in December. Rhi is fairly digitally literate but has not used video before. A lot of her scaffolding content on Blackboard was text-based and this definitely changed the way that she thought about scaffolding options. At the time of writing, we haven’t had the chance to fully evaluate the student response to the new video content yet but will be working with key stakeholders over the next year as part of a wider TLDF project about skills provision. We’re running some of our videos with a new first year cohort in mind (e.g. the guides to the museums) so we should be getting feedback on them in the next couple of months. We’ll be asking questions in class and using Mediasite and Blackboard analytics to gather data on use. We’ll also be asking students for requests for videos.

Reflections

Our videos were sometimes quite ambitious and thus we sometimes took more time to organise with other staff. We found that other staff were also concerned about being on camera and had to be properly prepped. This has meant that we haven’t fully explored the options for making the kind of ‘quick fix’ videos which personal capture lends itself well to. Our ambition also meant that we sometimes had to bring in other technologies and software to produce the screen-casts but use Mediasite to embed them within Blackboard. For example, the fieldwork video at a National Trust site required use of a phone (still using the Mediasite app). Adam had had training in video creation as part of #DigiRDG so he used a camera and more sophisticated editing software for some of the behind-the-scenes videos which required high quality footage and mobility (not always possible with a screen camera).

We haven’t had the chance to fully evaluate our use of personal capture yet as we had to use the summer to create a lot of the content. This should be something we take into consideration in the future when creating updates each year.

Follow up

We have been looking at digital and in-class scaffolding more generally so Mediasite became an important part of that toolkit when thinking this through. We have received TLDF funding to explore skills training through working with collections and will be creating something like UCL’s ABC workshop (but with collections as the focus). We’d like to include information on personal capture as one of the ways of supporting learning when developing a collections module. The pilot project definitely allowed us to think about exactly what personal capture might be good for in this context and we can use this knowledge to train other academics and professionals

Adam is giving a paper at Research Libraries UK RLUK Special Collections Leadership Network about our wider teaching and learning offer including our use. Our colleagues Guy Baxter and Kate Arnold-Forster are also giving a paper on our digital strategy at DCDC (P8 https://dcdcconference.com/dcdc19-papers/) which will include a short discussion of how we work with teaching and research.

Gita Persand – Henley Business School

Overview

The main motivation for me to use personal capture was to create short videos (lasting six to seven minutes), explaining various financial concepts in Excel. I teach Financial Modelling (a practical hands-on module, taught in a computer lab) to Part 2 students, for which I created the videos using the Mediasite software. I then uploaded them to Blackboard (via a video library) for this module. I was consulting with colleagues working with me on using personal capture along with students while undertaking this task, and received strong constructive feedback from students regarding their increased understanding and the usefulness of the videos as revision materials. Responses to the survey I sent out were also highly positive with students strongly agreeing with the positive aspects of this project. 

Objectives

My objectives during the personal capture pilot project were:  

• To enable students to go back to the videos as often as they want. There are lots of small steps involved in Excel, in the process to answering a numerical question – so students can catch-up on concepts they missed or did not understand the first-time round.
• To allow students to watch the videos as a revision guide/tool. 
• To facilitate group projects – these videos can be accessed and watched by all members of the group, hence avoiding any misunderstanding of the process. 
• To support students who wanted to get ahead of the lectures by giving them the opportunity to look at the videos beforehand. 
• To encourage students to self-study and hence, become more independent learners. 

Context

Financial Modelling is an applied module, involving the use of Excel for its implementation. There are many steps involved in the computation of a financial model, hence personal capture is very helpful as it allows the students to get greater control of their learning e.g. pausing the videos and re-watching relevant parts.

Part 2 students made a request at our SSLC meeting (in December 2018) to have recordings for my module (IC206 Financial Modelling) – for reasons such as accessing the Excel explanations when attempting tutorials questions and for revising. However, there is currently no such facility in our Dealing Room where I teach this module. At the same time, staff were being invited to apply for this Personal Capture Pilot scheme which I thought would be brilliant for my module. 

During the lectures, I had to go and see/help students individually at their computers when they were stuck on certain features – which would sometimes mean that I might not finish the lecture on time. Hopefully, with the availability of these videos beforehand, this problem might not occur.  

Implementation

Following a bumpy start getting set up, I found the process of recording very straight forward. I followed TEL’s step-by-step guidance on Blackboard about how to do the recordings (on My Mediasite) and transferring the videos into the Video Library where students can access them. 

There were no students involved in the actual making of those videos but having spoken to them (in person) about this project, my opinion was that they would absolutely love this concept. From the student survey I sent out, one of the respondents claimed that he/she is jealous of the future cohort having access to these video resources!  

Impact

Though the response rate to the student evaluation survey was not very high, given the time of year they received it, everybody who filled in the survey had only positive comments.

The results from the survey were extremely positive, with students strongly agreeing as a result of having access to the screen-cast videos with (1) improved revision notes, (2) increased understanding of the materials, (3) engaging videos and lessons, (4) appropriate communications, (5) greater control of learning, (6) useful tool for catching-up, (7) complementing lecture notes and (8) discussions with peers as a result, among others. Students also mentioned that they are highly likely to watch those videos again. I also got a comment that this will not stop them coming to see me on an individual basis – which is good because the videos are not a substitute for this.

Based on the above initial comments, I would say that my objectives were met. As the response rate to my survey was not high, I did not receive any unexpected outcomes. I would expect more and positive feedback when I repeat this work with students next year.

I have been working with a small number of HBS colleague as co-partners on the project to help support them to use Mediasite for personal capture. Many colleagues in the Henley Business School are aware of the pilot project and interested by the potential in using screen-cast videos, contact hours with students might be reduced prior to tests, coursework deadlines and exams as students can refer to video support materials. Based on my conversations, many are keen to adopt personal capture once it is made available to all staff.

Reflections

The first challenge was to install the Mediasite software on my personal computer. I found it hard to set-up and I had to get the IT team involved – this was not very straightforward. However, once the software was installed and running, the whole process of creating videos and making them available on Blackboard was plain-sailing. Lots of detailed guidance was given by the TEL team on Blackboard.

The personal capture pilot project started in December 2018/January 2019 and I created these videos for a Part 2 module which takes place in the autumn term. This meant that I could not get a response from the initially targeted cohort. Ideally, I should have done this project for a module which I teach over the spring term – in this way I would have received contemporaneous feedback from the required audience.

The main challenge for using personal capture is to engage students, to ensure that students take the opportunities to watch the videos and gain knowledge from the process. I should have a good idea about this next year as an early adopter of the technology.

Follow up

I did not send the evaluation survey to the current students who were studying for the module (for whom the videos were made) this academic year. Hence, I would like to introduce this Personal Capture project to the Part 2 students during the autumn term of the 2019-2020 academic year and ask for them to complete a survey. One strategy for its evolution might be that the students would watch the basic Excel videos before the lectures – freeing some time at the end for attempting some of the tutorial questions.

Elisabeth Koenigshofer – School of Literature & Languages

Overview

As part of the Personal Capture Pilot Project, I had many ideas to create videos for my students to enhance their learning. Eventually, I created one video that students could refer to if they needed support when adding a post to a blog on Blackboard, which was one of their tasks in their first year German language course. 

Objectives

• Help students understand class content more easily 
• Provide reference material for students 
• Help absent students to catch up with class content 
• Provide a different format for content than usual, engaging a wider variety of learner types 
• Use an audio-visual format to provide a multi-sensual learning experience (visual, aural, written text) 

Context

I thought that screen-casts would be a great idea to add another format to my teaching portfolio when teaching German language courses. I had the idea that students at all levels, but especially on lower levels (language levels A2-B1), would like to engage with videos and that this format would make it easier for students to understand and revise class content. Also, the combination of different aspects should help students; the added aural component helps students to familiarise themselves with spoken German which is part of their learning process. They can pause and replay and see how much they understand. 

Implementation

I recorded my video without student involvement because I wanted it to be a reference for students before they set out to create their blog posts. Before producing this video, I tried to create some trial videos to make sure that I was comfortable with the situation and that I had prepared what I was going to say to help stay clear and focused.  

We had a workshop at MERL about the museum and the tourists that are attracted to visit it. I put the blog support video online simultaneously to ensure that students who couldn’t attend the workshop would know what to do and that those who were at the MERL would be able to go back to the information, in case there were questions on how to complete the task.  

In the video, I went through the step-by-step process of creating a blog post in Blackboard. This way, it was very clear how the task should be completed and which options were available to the students (e.g. add a picture/audio file or a link). 

Impact

The video was made available to 27 students who were part of the course. Out of these 27, 7 viewed the video anonymously. The longest view time covered the video’s full view time while the shortest lasted for less than half a minute. The viewers were anonymous because I embedded the video into Blackboard and thus the viewer data was not retrieved. This might mean that 7 students watched parts of the video and it helped them with their tasks. Most students completed the task successfully but I cannot tell for sure whether or not that was due to the video as there was no feedback other than the statistics. I think that there might have been a chance to increase views of the video if I had pointed students more often in the direction of it. I made students aware of the video in class and I think that it would have increased views if I had also made one or several Blackboard announcements. 

Reflections

I really enjoyed creating my video and I think the format has a lot of potential. However, I think I would want to invest more time in creating a screen cast videos which I did not have this year due to circumstances. In general, I think the biggest challenges are to plan a video effectively and to record it in one go without too many glitches. The Mediasite tool is easy to use for recording and is capable of some editing, but in order to create a smooth video, I think that it is helpful to have it mapped it out properly beforehand and to dedicate more time to the video creation.  

Follow up

In the future, I will use the video format for preparatory tasks and prepare questions to accompany the videos so that students can engage better with them. Currently, I am preparing audio-only material for students that comes with specific listening tasks which are then part of the personal capture and should help students to improve their listening skills. 

Jo Stringer – Henley Business School (Real Estate & Planning)

Overview

I created catch-up screen-casts for the first two live sessions of my postgraduate Law module. These enabled students to catch-up live sessions missed.  The screen-casts were accessed by 25% of the students and the feedback was very positive. Key finding: the students want more recorded versions of live sessions. They seem satisfied with simple, basic screen-casts plus audio.

Objectives

• Create screen-casts of early module material;
• Aim to create screen-casts that:
  • are concise and engaging;
  • enable the students to catch-up flexibly but efficiently;
  • do not just repeat the live lecture.  Create a different resource which takes advantage of the online environment.

Context

I teach on the REMF54 module: Property Law with 48 students. Attendance is problematic in the initial weeks of the module.  Students are invited to Employer Assessment Centres which clash with live sessions. Since important foundation concepts are covered in the early sessions, I wanted to create an engaging and effective resource to encourage the students to take responsibility for catching-up, in addition to the “static” materials already provided (lecture slides, workshop materials, supplementary course text reading etc.).  I also wanted the students to catch-up in “course-time”, rather than leaving it until the end of the module: screen-casts could be a less intimidating/more manageable route into achieving this.

Implementation

I began by editing the live session slides with the intention of creating bite-sized screen-casts.  This proved tricky since the material is complex and hard to prioritise. Ultimately, I decided to create 3 approx. 15 min. screen-casts, dealing with the learning outcomes independently, for each of 2 live sessions. I wrote a script to ensure I retained focus and clarity.

I introduced recap quizzes to keep learning active.  Whilst recording, I encouraged the students to pause the recording to write down answers to the quizzes.  I revealed the answers at the end of each recording.

No students were involved in the recordings but, as I created the screen-casts after the live delivery, I ensured I dealt with questions and areas of difficulty that arose from class.

I recorded the screen-casts using the slideshow plus audio option and made use of simple edit functions where necessary, mainly cutting and fading in/out before uploading to Blackboard.

Impact

The screen-casts were used by 25% of the cohort. Most of the students accessed the screen-casts for Sessions 1 and 2 at the same time, two weeks after Session 1 was delivered live.  This was unexpected as I had anticipated the students would have left catching-up until immediately prior to the assessment.  The Session 2 screen-casts attracted fewer views than Session 1 and there were drop-off points in the final two Session 2 screen-casts at the mid-point which are not evident for Session 1 (see screenshots below).  This may indicate “screen-cast fatigue” which could increase if more were produced.

Student views for the session 1 part 1 screen-cast

Student views for the session 2 part 3 screen-cast

Students’ feedback from evaluation survey – Statements about the screen-casts attracting strong agreement:

• allowed students to catch up: 85%;
• increased knowledge and understanding: 92%;
• control of own learning: 100%.

Reflections

The feedback indicates that the screen-casts were valued and considered effective.  The screen-casts were, in my view, quite rough and ready: it was a challenge to create an engaging product in the time available.  I could have made greater use of the online environment by, for example, thinking more explicitly about how I was explaining things to a listener and developing the slides to make them more visual.  In any event, this does not appear to have filtered through into the feedback with 76% of students agreeing or strongly agreeing that the screen-casts were engaging.

Follow up

I have made a screen-cast on a particularly complex topic as an exam resource for my undergraduate module.  The question on this topic was the second most popular choice in the exam and the average mark was the second highest rising from 50% last year to 55% this year.  I have also used personal capture to record a Powtoon video I created.