These notes are from a very useful webinar I attended last month from ViTAL, which addressed the legal issues around recording lectures. It covered dealing with ad-hoc recordings, permissions, using forms, guest speakers, performance rights, copyright, recording of and by students.
ViTAL webinar with Adam Warren, University of Southampton
Adam started the session by outlining the many situations when the filming of a lecture may arise:
Ad-hoc recordings
Such as a guest lecturer turning up and being asked to be filmed. However, unlike years ago, now it’s likely that the film will be digitalised and end up on the University’s VLE or a website.
This creates a whole host of problems – for example, if there is any third party material contained in the lecture, if the recording might be sent out beyond the institution and the speaker’s intellectual property rights.
Adam also discussed performance rights, which are different to copyright. Presenters have rights over their performance so they need to grant you their performance rights – if there’s no paper record of this how can you prove they were waived? If you don’t get written consent, the speaker could possible withdraw permission after the event or even sue. Therefore it’s important to be aware what kind of permission has been agreed, where has it agreed to be used and who can access it?
Copyright issues: Another important consideration is who owns the recording? Does it contain University or third party based material? Could the University be in trouble if any of the material is made publically available?
Unfortunate utterances: Is there any sensitive/confidential / commercial material included in the lecture? There is also a chance that the lecture could include wrong information, slander, inapproriate language or comments, student information that could be confidential or sensitive.
Scheduled recordings of lectures/events
A lot of software exists now for recording lectures and events within Universities, for example:
- Ech0 360: Managed sessions in usually only a few well equipped rooms.
- Panopto: Tutor control of recording the session through software.
- Camtasia/captivate: Tutors narrating resources and uploading these videos to the VLE.
- MBS also use the archiving tool in Wimba Classroom to record lectures.
It was also noted that students make their own recordings in lectures.
Permission to record
It’s important to have a permission form to sign – this needs to be simple but include all the relevant legal information. Therefore you have to know: What is the process? Who keeps the form? A robust system is needed. When dealing with guest lecturers, they need to be sent the form in advance and not surprised on the day. The form should specify what the recording is going to be used for – for example, marketing, on more than one course, for performance review purposes.
Controlling access
Will the recording only be made available within a private VLE? Who will it be visible to? Will it be private or public? Does the University sign up to iTunes U?
Consideration must also be given to student rights – do you have permission to film them asking questions / giving their opinions? If you are going to be recording lectures regularly you should provide them with a form to sign at the beginning of each module. Signing this before each lecture would take too much time. These terms could become part of the standard student agreement – and even for tutors terms and conditions. You should also know who keeps the records of these forms.
It’s important to make it clear that the lecture is being recorded – for example a sign on the door or information on the first lecture slide.
During the webinar there was a discussion around accessibility and lecture recordings and whether a transcript is needed. Some participants made the argument that a lecture wouldn’t normally come with a transcript so they wouldn’t provide one for recordings.
Synote was mentioned as a way to link to an mp3/4 file, which you can synchronise with a transcript. Twitter was also highlighted as a way to mark recordings.
Best practice advice
Feedback
A participant from Aberystwyth University said that their students were very keen to have lectures filmed and pressure to film is coming from them, especially if their peers are having lectures filmed in other courses. Lecturers fear that students won’t turn up if their lectures are being filmed – but actually lecture capture has increased retention. Through recordings, students are able to keep up with lectures if anything happens to prevent them coming to a lecture. A study around these issues is available here: http://www.cpd.mq.edu.au/teaching/wblt/overview.htm
Recording a lecture can help when: students are embarrassed to ask questions in a lecture; students want to listen to something again; International students who might have concerns over language; students who have Dyslexia or other learning difficulties for additional support.
The recording of this webinar is available from: http://tinyurl.com/6k2chcp
Posted in elearning June 10, 2011
Notes from an ALT webinar 6 December 2010
Gilly Salmon
Gilly Salmon argued that we need to find ways to break through barriers rather than just complain about them. We adapt tools that weren’t originally created for learning technologies (eg. web 2.0, mobile devices) which means you have to think more creatively in order to adapt these tools.
We have more than enough technology now – we need to be looking towards trends for the future to do something more productive with the technology we have.
What insight do you have to work with foresight? Don’t be put off by barriers – you can adapt them and build around them.
Policy
- More diverse students entering/re-entering further and higher education.
- Use of technology not just to enhance HE but to shape the form and function.
- Crossing of international borders – exporting of UK HE to other parts of the world.
- Social media – often seen as a solution to a problem that is poorly defined at policy level.
- New forms of ‘un bounded’ teaching. Students want to contribute. This is dominated by economics, in the sense of what’s worth doing?
This won’t be the same next year – there will be constant movement.
There’s continually a belief that face to face teaching is still wanted.
Constraints of funding will continue.
There is an emphasis on learning experiences, the pursuit of excellence in teaching and learning and the idea that we may be competing with each other – all of these will continue.
Policy documents say we need to create space for progress and development. We won’t achieve it with what we’ve already done, we need to be innovative, we need to change the structure of our programmes and not just the pedagogy. We need to renegotiate the role of learners and teachers, need to improve our strategies of learning and teaching, and we need to transform assessment and feedback.
Critical challenges include:
- Digital divide – we need to understand what access means in its wider sense.
- Technology for form and function.
- Staffing – recognition that the role and what staff actually do directly impacts on students’ learning experiences. This is more than staff development.
- Constraints of funding and the demand of delivering more for less.
Strategic thinking and planning for the future is critical, although not widely done.
- Visibility: like the Facebook concept, instead of social visibility, achievement visibility to peers and current/future employers that is beyond a portfolio.
- Openness: more than OERs – if things are open they can be personalised and customised and enable the creation of learners’ own pathways. This will allow learners to be able to ask more and prepare better and create a higher level of motivation.
- Virtualisation – Using ‘Many media’, visual, tactile, remote, audio.
We need to explore and understand these concepts, the integration of media and using media in new ways.
Purposefulness – the relevant impact of their learning: “Tell me what I’ve learnt and what I can do with it.”
Weaving together of contributions, a key human intervention – we need to do more weaving.
Expression – idea of being able to research and then express it or create and contribute, depending on topic. We need to do more of this.
There is a new definition of quality, a fitness for purpose for the future that is based on visibility, openness, virtualisation etc.
Clive Shepherd – Learning in the workplace 2020
Clive began his presentation by asking how far have we come from the year 2000? How has the world changed as the result of new technologies? This could include things like Googlemaps, the dotcom boom and bust, mobile access.
He went on to ask what major changes have occurred in the world over and above the technological? This could include the war on terror, rise of China, green awareness, credit crunch.
So what changes had there been in workplace learning? Just in time learning, webinars, focus on compliance training, students as consumers, learners more self directed.
Clive argued that less courses are needed in corporate learning and that there should be more resources (not just web resources but connectivism, trusted materials, so you can get what you need when you need it). Courses are not about providing lots of information, but inspiring people to care about the subject (eg. important for something like compliance training). If you take a learner to a situation where they can feel confident in going on and learning on their own without the support of a tutor.
There is a need to separate methods and media – there is so much learning in the workplace that is not properly anaylsed. To determine the solution, issues of technology need to be put aside to firstly find the right social context. The right strategies include choosing the pedagogy before you think about media.
Whatever we want to do culture often slows this down, as Peter Drucker said: “Culture eats strategy for breakfast”.
How could learning technology have developed by 2020? There may be more of a move to mobile, applications over browsers, not labeled technology but just taken for granted, more use of the cloud, emersive 3d, and academics will have experienced being taught using learning technologies.
How could the world as a whole changed by 2020? Will there be less barriers to eLearning? Will we have seen the back of poor IT literacy/technophobia, over complex hardware and software, less worries over bandwidth?
Learning and development in the workplace can take one of two routes – formal training or learning architects. Architects need to be aware of how people learn at work – non formal ways, coaching, conferences, podcasts, videos, communities of practice. Need to bear in mind people learning on demand and the purely experiential – having a rich environment in order to reflect on. Architects should be able to create these environments.
Posted in elearning Tagged: ALT, webinar December 7, 2010
On Friday 1 October I attended ULCC’s Future of Technology in Education (FOTE) conference in London. It was a really interesting and worthwhile day with some great speakers:
Future Vision – Ray Fleming, Microsoft
Ray Fleming showed a video from Microsoft’s research and development team that offered a view of what the technology, lifestyle and workplace might look like in 2020. Although the video portrayed a sparsely populated world, the idea it was built around was that people will be connected to each other all the time. This included the capability of real time language translation, digital wallets and increased use of pico projectors.
Ray talked about bringing learners together over physical spaces and using technology to change the traditional format of business meetings – both of which are happening now and have been for some time.
Jeremy’s presentation on the Mobile University questioned while the Mobile University was something we all love to talk about, is it something we’re actually doing? Five years ago Duke University issued iPods to all first year students as part of an initiative to encourage the creative use of technology in education – read the evaluation report of this project.
The ACU Connected project was also presented as a good example of embedding mobile devices into teaching and not just using the devices for the sake of it, which is what often happens.
Jeremy claims that the emergence of the iPhone in 2007 was a turning point in mobile technology, however he questioned whether mobile learning was generally being used for information and not education as pedagogy is not being widely used. This needs to be embedded in the curriculum.
In an era of financial constraint Universities need to think carefully about technology choices before making commitments. Otherwise future generations of students won’t see anything different to what is available at the moment.
Huge claimed that the affect of the Apple App store is that apps for smartphones have become consumer led. The key consumer enablers are a greater choice of devices, customisable features and more apps available. The key technology enablers are the good wifi coverage, powerful devices and web services supported. Huge talked about oMbiel’s CampusM software to provide services and news for students. There was concern from the audience that following government cuts, costs will be shifted on to students.
Watch recordings of all morning sessions
Unlocking Learning: Computer Games in Education – Ollie Bray
Ollie gave a fantastic presentation on how computer games can be used effectively in education. Ollie spoke about what games have to offer, which include: challenge, progression and reward; personalised, real time collaboration; competitive but not threatening; cultural relevance to young people. This fits in with the idea of learning = good pedagogy + interesting/engaging activities. Games were presented as contextual hubs which can be used to create a powerful learning environment.
Ollie also spoke about the available software to create gaming content such as Kodo (for the Xbox), Little Big Planet and the unreal development kit.
James talked about how AR was being used in education in LearnAR for GCSE students and how it lends itself very well to physical science and biology subjects. AR has not yet been used widely in HE, but has been used for work training at Volkswagen and in surgery for brain and throat operations. AR creates a real life experience and allows for live role playing.
Pattie Maes and Pranav Mistry demo SixthSense on TED.
When we ask “what can this technology do for me?”, should we also ask, “and what do I have to lose?”
Watch recordings from the second part of the day
iTunes U/Podcasting (Panel session)
The panel, which consisted of James Clay (Gloucester College), Sally Hanford (University of Nottingham) Liam Hayter (Ravensbourne) Sarah Sherman (Bloomsbury) and was chaired by Dr Bill Ashraf (University of Sussex), discussed the pros and cons of signing up to iTunes U and some of their experiences so far.
Matt’s fantastic presentation (which he also managed to make interactive) focused on why there is a lack of uptake of educational technology from teaching staff when the technical staff and resources are usually available. Matt asked whether too much time is spent on innovators and not the mainstream. Little research has been carried out on teacher’s attitudes to teaching with technology.
Joe talked about the difficulty of continuing professional development in the context of language teachers and the possibilities offered by social networking, particularly Twitter.
Philip spoke how the development of Moodle in Lewisham College was helping students to manage their own learning. He concluded that organisations needed to be transformed to facilitate technology in learning by:
- Focusing on the solutions, not the technology.
- Being learner-centric, not developer-centric.
- Embedding it throughout the organisation.
Miles spoke about the cathedral and bazaar simile that Eric S. Raymond used to differentiate the different approaches taken to open software development, which could also be used to describe different institutions approaches to eLearning.
View videos from the afternoon sessions
Posted in elearning November 12, 2010
This session concentrated on migrating content from a Blackboard Vista course into a Blackboard 9.1 course and looked at the Blackboard Exemplary Course Evaluation Rubric (other rubrics discussed include: California State University Chico, Sloan-C and Michigan State) . The ADDIE Instructional Design Model was discussed at the start of the session as a model for designing exemplary courses. One important point raised in all rubrics discussed was the need for a clear communications policy for students.
Course Navigation
As in the Blackboard Essentials training, the importance of the course menu in Bb9.1 was highlighted. The menu can be customised and organised in a number of ways including by default, by subject, by time and can be split using dividers.
The green notification star that appears in the Bb Vista menu is not used in Bb9.1.
Learning modules in Bb9.1 have a different look to learning modules in Vista and offer less hierarchy navigation. I found the Wimba Create documents that I had imported from Bb Vista worked and looked a lot nicer than Bb9.1 learning modules, which is something I’ll keep in mind when creating content for the new Blackboard courses in September. Learning modules also don’t have a HTML editor for editing uploaded HTML pages, unlike Vista.
Communication and Collaboration
Calendar tool: Very basic compared to the Bb Vista calendar.
Chat tool: This is also a lot more basic than the Bb Vista chat tool (which is saying something!). It is not possible to see who’s online to send someone a message, so this would only really work with pre-made appointments.
Discussions: The question of how to keep online discussions going was discussed, with the suggestion of: question, condition, response.
Both students and instructors can subscribe to the forum and receive an email notification when a new post has been made.
File manager: Unlike in Vista, files can be moved around in the file manager without breaking the links to content in the course.
The 360 degree view of each file will provide all the information needed to set up a webdav connection for adding content. Zipped Dreamweaver files can be uploaded through the package option in Bb9.1 and all the structures will be kept.
The versioning tool will always link to the latest version of that particular file, but it’s possible to see and revert back to older versions.
IMPORTANT: Never press the ‘bulk delete’ button in Bb9.1 as this will delete all user generated content.
Links within a course will still work when a course is migrated from Vista to Bb9.1.
Glossary tool: A flat tool that doesn’t accept links or images.
Adaptive release: Unlike in Vista, the Adaptive Release tool in Bb9.1 does not have a separate page to manage all releases. This can only be done from individual files.
Group manager: Groups will be migrated from a Vista course, but without the students.
Course Assessment
It is important to note that there are two hide options in the Grade Centre – one for the instructor who is editing the page and one for the students who are viewing it. To check how the Grade Centre is presented to students, go to the Grade Centre > Manage > Column Organization.
If any columns are linked to tests in the Grade Centre it is not possible to delete them.
To view their feedback students must click on their grade and confusingly not the ‘details’ button!
Grades are automatically released in the Grade Centre as soon as they are entered by the marker. A link to ‘My Grades’ for the students can be added to the course menu (through a tool link). This is where the students will be able to check whether their assignment submission has been successful (like their Assignment tool in Vista). If it has not been successful there will be an exclamation mark next to their assignment in the My Grades tab.
Self and peer assessments can be created through the ‘create assessment’ option.
Tests and quizzes can be added to any area in Bb9.1. What was called the question data base in Vista is now a ‘pool’ in Bb9.1. Questions can be linked to or copied from different quizzes within Blackboard. The ‘random block test’ will randomly choose questions from pools (but it’s not possible to create random tests from other tests). It is possible to export a test as a zip file and import it in to Respondus (but be careful not to unzip it and edit it manually before importing in to Respondus). Thames Valley University has written some excellent guidelines on creating questions offline for Blackboard in Excel (but feedback can’t be included in the Excel file).
Posted in Blackboard July 12, 2010
The University of Manchester are currently in the process of planning the move from Blackboard Vista to Blackboard 9.1. It’s a massive project taking place over the next two years and while there are a lot of benefits using the new system, it is going to take a while for staff and students to adjust. It also poses a big challenge to University eLearning staff on how best to support the move to Blackboard 9.1.
Content Management
The content management system will make it easier to work efficiently with files – documents only have to be uploaded once and can then be used across a number of courses.
Course files can be managed from the Control Panel under File Management. There seems to be a lot more options available than Vista including the ability to lock files, enable versioning and tracking which user has edited a file and when. By default students won’t have access to this file manager.
Files can be uploaded via WebDav by going to the File Manager > Set up Web Folder > this will provide a web address for the course. When a package is uploaded it is automatically extracted. A “360 view” of a file will give you all the information on that particular file.
Supported browsers
Certified browsers to use with Bb 9.1 include Internet Explorer 8 and 7 (not 6) and Firefox 3.6. Further information is available from the Blackboard website. Although Chrome is not yet certified, the trainer said that he had been using it with Bb9.1 without any problems. Check for updates from the Blackboard Maintenance Centre. As stated on the website the only supported JRE is Java 6 update 13 – Sun Java Runtime Environnment 5 is not supported.
Unlike Vista, it is possible to have multiple tabs open in Blackboard, although to use different login details you need to use different browsers.
Accessibility
Instead of using the drag and drop tool, under ‘Personalise page’ there is the option to use the keyboard. Also using the options in a browser you can ignore colours and fonts (Options tool > Accessibility).
YouTube videos from the mashup tool include separate Blackboard player controls.
The Grade Centre has two views – interactive and screen reader views.
Navigation
Only instructors can see the Control Panel, not students. The menu in Bb 9.1 is a very pivotal element, which allows you to link directly to tools, content and external links. You can also add dividers and subheaders to organise the menu.
Depending on the format of your course, there are a number of approaches you can take in terms of structure including chronological, subject area, type of content.
Customisation
The homepage can be slightly customised by selecting the control panel > customization > style. This offers options such as having links as buttons and having icons and/or text.
The menu can be viewed as a list or folders – folders will show a more detailed view, but a list is a simple, cleaner look.
A banner image can be added to the starting page.
Tools
- Announcements: A big advantage is the email alert option when creating announcements. Bb9.1 uses whatever external email address a student has registered in Campus Solutions.
- Adaptive release: can be created to date, grade, membership and review status criteria.
- Learning modules: Can be imported straight from Vista. Folders can be included for visual hierarchy, but unlike in Vista there is no indent/outdent tool to organise files. Annoyingly if any tools (such as a discussion forum) are added to a learning module, when selected the user will be taken out of the learning module. For example if an assignment tool is selected, the user will be taken to the Assignments tool area in a new tab or window. The user will then need to navigate back to the learning module and find their place again.
Assessment
Assessments can be imported from Vista. Graders can bulk download all assignment submissions and the Grade Centre can show the average and median of class mark.
The assignment attachment and submission process is very smiliar to that of Vista, except the option to replace a file that they might have submitted by accident. They are allowed one attempt or unlimited attempts where they can upload a number of submissions. Unlike Vista where Instructors can submit assignments from the student view, this is not possible on Bb9.1 which makes it difficult to get a true understanding of how the process works for students. The Grade Centre for Instructors is accessible from the Control Panel.
Like Vista, assignments can be created from the Assignments tool and linked to on different pages. Unlike Vista however, anonymous grading is available.
Tests, surveys and polls can be created and deployed (two different activities). Questions can be uploaded in an Excel sheet and questions can be dragged and dropped. Questions can be randomised from deployment. As with other content and tool links, tests are by default not available when created unless the option to make them available is selected.
In a quiz there is the option of grading questions, separate to automatically marked questions.
Apparently when a timer is set for a test it will not end the test at the end of the time, the user is able to carry on and will be recorded as late in the Grade Centre.
Students can access their grades (and also check their submission has been successful) from a “My Grades” tool link in the course menu. If a grade is underlined students can click on it for more information, including feedback (not the ‘details’ tab which could cause some confusion!).
It is important to organise the Grade Centre and remove irrelevant information, as this will help students navigate around it (Grade Centre > Manage > Column Organization). Grades and feedback can be emailed to students externally using the email tool within Bb9.1. Most columns are automatically created and you can also manually add columns (eg. for classroom based assignments). You can hover across the column titles for further information and like with Vista you can click on column headings to sort information. The icon legend at the bottom of the columns explains the different symbols used.
By clicking on the action menu on each column you can find out column statistics and attempt statistics. It is also possible to view user statistics from the name column list. Remember that hiding a column only hides it for you – not the student! To hide it from students select the ‘show/hide to students’ option from the action menu.
The first few columns of the Grade Centre are classed as a ‘frozen area’ which is really useful when scrolling across the columns – you don’t lose track of which student you are marking. Column names can be edited from the ‘Edit column information’ in the action menu and it is possible to set rules to colour code grades. Unlike the other drag and drop dacilities, in the Grade Centre the submit button needs to be selected after dragging and dropping an item.
It is possible to do anonymous marking in Bb9.1 – this is something that has to be selected, however it seems that it is not possible to anonymise the class list in the Grade Centre.
Once an assignment is marked, that mark is automatically available to the student. Feedback attachments can be changed, even after they have been saved and viewed by the student.
The Instructor notes are only available to view by Instructors. All details of editing on grades are recoirded in the Grade History. All papers can be downloaded by going to column action menu > assignment file download > download as a zip. The assignments are automatically downloaded with student usernames as the file titles. Grades can also be exported as an Excel file from the ‘work offline’ option. Excel sheets can also be uploaded to the Grade Centre and it is possible to preview the information before finally uploading it. All changes in the Grade Centre are recorded in the history, which can also be downloaded as an Excel sheet.
For large student cohorts a useful option in the Grade Centre might be the ‘Smart view’ (Manage > smartview > create smart view). This allows you to build a query on what you want to see. Once created, this smart view can also be marked as a favourite and set as an option from the menu, under the Grade Centre. Smart Views can be edited by going to Smart Views and selecting the action menu.
External grades can be shown on the ‘module page’ by adding ‘Grades’ as a module.
Communication
The email tool in Bb9.1 enables communication to an external email address (whichever the student is registered to in Campus Solutions). Blackboard won’t keep a copy of email sent, but a copy will be emailed to the sender. The subject heading of emails helpfully includes the course ID. It is possible to add email as a tool in the course menu, but make sure you configure it for student use, which you can do in ‘Tool availability’ (under Customization).
There is also a message tool available, which is similar to the mail tool in Vista. This tool only communicates within Vista and never to external email addresses.
There are tools to capture student reflection, including discussion boards, blogs, journals and wikis. It is possible to subscribe to discussions and users will receive an email when a discussion board is updated. Posts can be moderated (even if a forum has already started) within Blackboard – external moderation (ie. by email) is not possible. Posts can also be graded and a column will automatically be added to the Grade Centre.
By default the journal tool is private – so if the option to ‘permit course users to view journal’ is selected all users can then view all journals!
Blogs are public and be can created for an individual or a group or a whole course.
Changes made to a wiki in Blakboard can be viewed through the History tab and it is also possible to compare the differences between two entries (from the action menu on the wiki homepage > history > compare versions).
Differences
There are a number of differences to Vista that will impact on how MBS has been using certain Blackboard tools so far, including:
- There is no tracking tool on Bb9.1: Although certain files have the option to be tracked the information provided is a lot less detailed than the tracking tool on Vista: For example it won’t record specific timing of access.
- Assignment tool: The option for replacing an assignment is not available, although the student can submit numerous times if this option is selected.
- Viewing the Grade Centre: It’s not possible to see and use a student view of the Grade Centre.
- Tests: The timer won’t end the test, the user will be able to continue after the timer has expired and will be recorded late in the Grade Centre.
Further support is available from the Blackboard On Demand Learning Center.
Posted in Blackboard July 5, 2010
Today I attended a Blackboard webinar entitled ‘Life in Blackboard Learn, Release 9.1 for CE/Vista clients’ with Stephen Clarke and below are my notes from the session:
- ‘Project NG’ (Next Generation) – bringing all their platforms (including CE4 and 8, Vista 8, Classic 8 and Angel 8) in to one.
- Blackboard are going to create ‘conversion guides’ to help with converting content.
- Demonstrated a course in Vista 8 and Blackboard 9, which had just been imported with no other changes. This was done by going to ‘Manage course’, downloading the course from the ‘Backup’ tool and then ‘importing’ this as a package in Blackboard 9.
- It is possible to do a batch backup and batch import but it’s important to have a review process for this before releasing the course to students (to check for accuracy).
- Learning modules have pretty much the same layout.
- There is only one icon set, but it is possible to bring cutomised icons in by: going to ‘edit learning content’; if customised icons have been bought across in the course import you can add the icon as an image from the file manager in the HTML creator. The customised icon will then appear in the description and the existing default icon can then be removed.
- Active collaboration – includes integrated communication tools and a new wiki tool.
- More personalisation with the Blackboard dashboard, which provides notifications on recent activity, new content, reminders etc.
- Blackboard Connect solution for mobile use is soon to be available - this provides a mass notification system including text, SMS and voice messages. There is also a mobile learn package (currently only available in North America but due to be launched in the UK later this year). It is also possible to write your own mobile applications.
- ‘Achieving more with less’ – It was claimed that the Blackboard course file area helps deliver this. The File Manager has thumbnails that makes it easier to search and there is also the option to upload and download multiple files and it allows the sharing of content. Sharing reusable questions is also possible in the assessment manager through the question bank and it is possible to add metadata on questions.
- Among Blackboard 9 partners are Facebook, Bing, Echo 360 and Wimba.
- Expanding the web services tool and integrations to other platforms (eg. commercial tools, portals, open source tools, home grown tools) allow pedagogic innovations but still with a reliable platform.
- The Blackboard wiki can be used to do online grading and feedback. It is possible to link to an existing wiki or create a new one and a column will automatically be created in the gradebook. There is an option to track the number of views and an option for participation and marking – providing a summary of what the student has done.
- There is a dedication upgrade site: www.blackboard.com/upgradecentre
- There is limited capability for working offline, including webdav and backpack, but not full capability.
- There are approximately 100 known clients using BB9.1 (upgrading or in production) worldwide. From searching on the Internet, some of these include:
Freed-Hardeman University (who have a great blog on their progress of upgrading)
The University of Texas at Austin
University of Southern California (some links require University login details)
Marshall University (includes a very useful comparison chart)
Durham University
American University
Suffolk New College
Posted in Blackboard Tagged: Bb9 June 18, 2010
This webinar ran on 14 May and addressed the issue of using virtual technology to save Universities money when organising conferences – a topical issue, particularly in light of the recent government funding cuts.
Troy University – Gayle Nelson, Director of Instructional Design
Troy University holds an annual Faculty development three day colloquium (which includes training and input from faculty in hour long sessions) from all over the globe, which has made it difficult to pull people in due to distance.
Lack of funding in 2009 led to an eColloquium using Wimba Classroom, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise: 2007 expenses were $36,300, 2009 cost $0. Training and prizes (including ipods, lcd tvs, laptops contributed by 8-9 sponsors) provided an incentive to attend. 150-200 registered in 2007, 506 registered in 2009. It also meant that a higher number of attendees could attend each session (2007 25-50, 2009 130). Prizes went only to people who were present in sessions. Prizes were announced in advance of the sessions and were very popular and every atendee got mailed a gift bag.
Keynote speakers were able to present from their offices, which saved thousands! The eColloquium was dubbed ‘join us in your jammies’ to emphasise the flexibility and ease of joining the colloquium.
All live sessions were archived. A Classroom space was set up as a ‘lounge’ to replace the face-to-face coffee breaks, although not too many staff entered, which could have been due to a lack of promotion. Next year they intend to invite the Dean in to these lounge areas for an hour to encourage staff to enter.
Organising the colloquium involved creating and distributing a registration form, agenda, session links and sponsor links. The event included an eCampus spirit award and the best ecourse – this created a way for instructors to nominate themselves or others and be rewarded.
Issues
There was an issue with band width to support pushing out feed, however on the whole there were few technical issues. The most common was audio which was overcome by participants calling in or by logging out then logging in again.
Anyone experiencing problems was supported one on one. Training sessions on using Wimba Classroom was provided the weekend before the colloquium started eg. for doing audio checks, using the chat area, testing users computers. The main aim was to get staff used to using the Wimba tools before the eColloquium.
Ultimately Gayle said that Wimba provided communcation and connection.
Posted in elearning Tagged: elearning, wimba May 27, 2010
On Monday 19 April I attended the ALT webinar ‘A Fresh Look at Instructional Design’ – below are the notes I made from the session.
Facilitator: Clive Shepard
Presenter: Cathy Moore
Presenter: Patrick Dunn
Cathy stressed how important it was to start with the right solution to a problem, rather than trying to put “lipstick on a pig” – choosing the wrong solution then trying to improve it.
Action mapping was discussed: starting with a measurable goal, then idenitfy what it is that people need to do in the real world to achieve that goal. Then look at why aren’t they doing it. What are their incentives? What tools are available? How does their management affect this? Identify what people need to do and the behaviours, identify realistic activity for that behaviour and identify what the bare minimum of information is for that activity.
Try to limit the amount of information included in online materials. This involves going from a traditional approach to having materials as a series of activities. The job is not to design information, it is more to design an experience.
Always ask why the information is improtant and find out what they are trying to achieve.
Patrick started by explaining that instructional design contains options, constraints and learning challenges. Constraints used to be few and well known, hnowever now we have many options – many constraints, cultures and challenges are increasingly more complex.
This is a confluence of three things: gaming, social learning, rapidisation. In the digital domain everything is getting easier, cheaper, quicker. Therefore we’re now dealing with a very different learning environment.
Try to think experience not content! No one learns from content, they learn from experiences.
Look at what the problem is and then how people need to change in order to solve that problem. You need to look at the experiences in the real world that are affecting people, the tone of that experience, how people succeed and fail in that experience.
The Subway analogy – workers have a strict role (like elearning) BUT multi roles are better – which is supported by rapidisation. As things are easier and quicker you don’t need a strict focus, so people overlap in the design process. Shallow generalism is one of the key skill challenges in our industry.
We need to use learners more and we need the right kind of contact with learners. They are being trained to create digital content. Learners are capable of contributing ideas, design content – they are digitally aware and bright so let’s use them!
Prototype and iterate – people start with spec and then halfway through they make a bit of the product and put it in front of learners and sponsors. In a lot of other industries they start with a prototype, which they use as a form of discussion piece. It puts real solutions in the hands of people who need these solutions. Therefore at the heart of this process is the notion of continuos improvement.
Patrick stated that you can’t know something unless you do something with it. When creating a piece of content you need to think what people are going to do with it.
Activity centred design: Activities should be designed to get harder so that people can skip or repeat. It shouldn’t be a one size fits all, it should be a more flexible approach.
One of the biggest challenges is to prove value – discussions tend to focus on cost rather than on benefit. Persuade using hard data if possible and try and think in terms of business strategy and marketing techniques.
Patrick advised how important it was to look at the research around gaming design, which provides a long term design lesson. The fragmentation of skills around lots of different roles is interesting and marketing people are brilliant at this sort of thing – persuasion.
Expectations and deadlines: there’s only so much you can do at a project level – this is something you need to propagate throughout the organisation. Ask questions while you work and include evaluations. Bear in mind that in contrast to other design disciplines, the person who briefs you with the work may not necessarily have high learning design skills themselves and will jump to a solution.
Instructional Designers need a better understanding of how the business works and of the business strategy.
Authoring tools
Activity led learning that appeals to people is not necessarily created in a 3D world with audio and everything else, it can be a multichoice question. It’s the thinking that goes in to it that’s important and remember that lower tech is generally easier to repurpose.
Rapidised tools enable you to knock out scenario based solutions extremly quickly. If you can think through the activities quickly, there’s nothing fundamentally different about producing activity-based to information learning.
When asked about pedagogy Cathy said she uses constructivism “light”. Ten Steps to Complex Learning by Jeroen J.G. van Merrienboer, Paul A. Kirschner – agrees that adults learn well by activities that replicate the real world, which include just enough information, that progress to harder activities and that withdraw help gradually. Fade out support until the learner is doing it on their own.
Patrick advised that when the learning experience is powerful enough and if you’re testing people throughout, increasing knowledge throughout, you don’t need as quiz at the end of it. Take examples of learning experiences with no quizzes and it’s clear that the learner is being tested – flow charts, storyboards etc can be used as evidence. Maybe sometimes we don’t call the clients bluff often enough or give them an example of something else. Indeed, the clients may know have experience and/or knowledge to understand there are other ways of doing it.
Evaluation: How best to do it?
Patrick stated that it’s often difficult to show what we’re worth, therefore it’s important to evaluate when we can.
Cathy agreed that this is a vast problem in our field and spoke of the problem of showing how we add value to our organisation. When you set goals for materials make sure each goal can be measured and if you can see any difference. This requires being close to the business strategy and being aware of things that have changed in the real world.
Weblinks
Upside Learning Blog
Caspian Learning
Thinking Worlds
Ten Rules to Create Engaging eLearning
Free as in Freedom: elearning
Will at Work Learning
Big Dog, Little Dog: Thought on Instructional Design and Performance
Posted in elearning Tagged: ALT, Design, elearning May 26, 2010
On Friday 14 May I attended the first Wimba International Day at Coventry University TechnoCentre. I was keen to attend as Manchester purchased the Wimba Collaborative Suite about a year ago now and we have been promoting and using it widely in the Business School. I have also just started supporting a project that specifically aims to use the Wimba Suite for video conferencing between Enterprise students and professional mentors. Below are the notes I took on the day:
1. The Student Lifecycle: Thomas Jepsen (Vice President, Wimba International)
How Wimba could be used throughout the student lifecycle was discussed, including:
- Pre-entry: Using Classroom to provide an introduction for the University and the course; virtual open days (for example University of Derby virtual open days)
- In session: Learning and Teaching; c;assroom enhancement (recording lectures, visiting lecturers); support and services (Pronto office hours); work-based learning (enterprise).
- Post: Alumni; CPD; staff communication and collaboration.
2. Collaboration in Action at UWE: Manuel Frutos-Perez (Deputy Manager, eLearning Unit)
- Background introduction on the digital revolution and “byte-sized living” – how we create our own information channels and networks.
- Asked if Universities are ready for young learners – how are they going to engage them? Particularly in the current climate. They need to be provided with relevant experiences.
- Outlined collaborations using Simita (where groups have their own virtual offices using Wimba Voice email in Blackboard) and Second Life (used for Health and Safety scenarios).
3. Worcester, Warwick and Wimba – connecting learners: Teresa Mackinnon, University of Warwick
- Teresa outlined how the Wimba Voice Board and podcaster were used in language teaching, particularly in business language.
- Students can use screen names in the Voice Board to remain anonymous.
- Students can meet up in the Voice Board, which can be archived (providing an alternative to video conferencing).
- Results have included the creation of a community of practice, increased interaction and engagement.
- Wimba Classroom is also used to create training materials.
4. Enhancing student feedback with Wimba: Alex Spiers, Liverpool John-Moores University
- Alex presented results from the ExAEF project (Exploring the efficacy of audio email feedback in information management assessment), originally based on the findings from the Sounds Good project
5. Exploring learner and tutor experiences of online synchronous learning environments for institutional implementation: Susi Peacock, Queen Margaret University
- Classroom is used for interviewing students before they arrive.
- Classroom is also used by students to film their dance and drama activities.
6. Reaching over walls: connecting to the outside world within Wimba: Paul Lowe, University of the Arts
- Paul spoke about Open-i, a global online community of practice for the professional photojournalism industry.
- Speaking about communities of practice, Paul referenced Cultivating Communities of Practice by Etienne Wenger and also Digital Habitats
- Classroom is used to connect students with industry professionalsand the eBoard proves useful for annotating photographs.
- mp4 archives of these sessions are then posted on Vimeo.
7. Beyond the Horizon: Jim Thibeau (Senior Vice President, Global Services), Annie Chechitelli (Vice President, Product)
- Promotion of using existing equipment with Wimba products.
- Increased security, including encryted authencitication for live sessions as well as archives.
- Plans to integrate the Wimba products in to ‘LiveX’, which seems to provide a clearer interface for users.
Posted in elearning May 18, 2010
ALT Webinar: Video on a shoestring, 15 October 09
Archive available in the ALT Open Access Repository
Presenters
Rob Hubbard
www.learningagesolutions, www.ministryofid.org
James Clay
http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2009/06/26/using-the-psp/
http://qik.com/jamesclay
http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/mimas-mobile-learning-presentation/
http://elearningstuff.wordpress.com/2009/09/01/mobile-learning-thoughts/
Notes
Example videos:
Rob Hubbard filmed these on a MacBook Pro camera with a desk lamp and used Photobooth and Garage Band – it was all done in three hours.
Equipment
Used external microphone and sync both together – audio is a common problem.
Mp3 recorder can record audio separately
A blue tooth microphone is useful for speakers who want to walk around a room eg. in lectures.
Cameras: sanyo xacti ca9, which costs around £220, is a good all round camera – robust, waterproof, MP4 format. The downside is that it’s automatic. Therefore, can be useful in learning activities.
Sony HDR XR520, costs around £750 – Can take 4 days of video and has an extended battery.
iPhone G3S allows automatic upload to YouTube
Nokia N95 allows live broadcasts – can set video on camera and auto stream to web and can upload on web too.
Tricaster (£15000 + cameras!) allows live streaming – connect the device you want and it will be recorded as a digital file.
A green screen allows you to add a background in afterwards: www.reflecmedia.com
LiteRing (available from reflecmedia)
Software
iMovie for editing, which can export to a wide range of formats.
Also Soundforge and Goldwave
Adobe Premiere is useful if you haven’t got a Mac with iMovie and also windows movie maker.
On Screenr you can create instant screen casts for Twitter www.screenr.com. It si also possible to save as an mp4 and add easily into iMovie.
Jing and screentoaster are free screencasting software.
Media Convert converts most audio formats to or from mp3.
YouTube converts just about any format to Flash – but it doesn’t like you uploading Flash format videos.
Zamzar is another free encoder.
Tips
Keep camera rolling, have a shot list, tilting and transitions add gloss, music transforms the piece but shouldn’t be intrusive.
Always film to the highest quality as this provides more options later.
Match your exported file format to your audience.
Avoid zooming when recording and the pointless slow pan.
Don’t encourage people to act up for the camera – natural is best!
Use a tripod, make sure you have adequate lighting (outside is always best).
Placing of the camera is important – don’t point the camera at a window.
Avoid transitions and special effects (unless intentional). Be consistent.
A key thing to remember with video is that it’s not the equipment that’s most important - it’s the actual filming.
To avoid the problem of lecturers walking in front of the whiteboard markers can be put down.
It’s important to consider the accessibility of videos and include options such as subtitles and transcripts.
The Guardian guide to making video
BBC Good Shooting Guide – The Basics
Further guides also available from Films for Learning
JISC Digital Media contains introductory guides aimed at education users.
Rob Hubbard recommended the book “Get Started in Short Filmmaking” by Chris Patmore
Remember to get filming permissions by asking participants to sign a rights release form and then store with video.
When using video in presentations it tends to work better with Keynote (on a Mac) and not PowerPoint.
Always check rights before uploading to a third party site.
Video sharing/ Distribution
Vimeo is good quality and has no adverts (unlike YouTube) and has a password protected option
Also Jamendo, iStockphoto and Sounddogs are useful for free music, sound effects and music available under Creative Commons.
Advance search for images on Flickr (James Clay)
James Clay recommended incompetech as a great source of royalty free movie style music.
On YouTube it is easy to share and embed videos, but quality can be an issue.
Blip.tv: RSS feed of videos, which can be distributed to other sites.
On WordPress and Videopress the quality of video is maintained.
Pixorial enables you to edit your own videos online.
The Mobile Learning Network (MoLeNET) is a unique collaborative approach to encouraging, supporting, expanding and promoting mobile learning.
James Clay uses Ustream for streaming video from the computer to the web.
File types
Mpeg4 is good compressor for video.
AVCHD – 720P, MPEG4 for exports (depending on your audience), WMV
Advantages of using video media in learning
To share knowledge, show demonstrations, practical, assessment, role play, case studies.
When videos are made available on the VLE students can review it again and again.
Posted in Uncategorized May 18, 2010
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