What happened at JISC RSC Eastern's e-assessment showcase?

I attended (and presented) at the JISC RSC Eastern e-assessment showcase on Friday 30th April, at Hertford Regional College.

My session was entitled "Enhancing the e-assessment process in a mobile world: Some developments from University Campus Suffolk", where I talked through a number of pilot studies from the iPad in the hands of the lecturer project, and the proof of concept from the QR Code Formative Quiz Engine. The session seemed to go down well, and there has already been follow up in terms of other people exploring the technologies discussed in their teaching. The slides are available from: http://bit.ly/H8nImQ

The main point I took from the day was informed by a really interesting presentation from CCN. They used a learning styles (VARK) approach to evidence the majority of students on the course had a preference for visual and audio learning styles, and the least common was reading. The lecture rolled in the concept of e-feedback being ineffective because it was in written format, as students didn't engage with what he wrote. This upset him as we was spending 15-20 minutes annotating each script. Therefore, he changed approach, and started using video feedback (including a talking head, displaying the script he was annotating, and the marking criteria which he cross referenced when marking). The outcome was the students level of engagement with the feedback increased and he felt the feedback process had a higher impact.

He did admit it took time, and he'd yet found economies of scale. This made me think, what would we need to do to ensure this worked in a scaleable, low level way at UCS?

1. a room to create the video feedback (we have one coming)


2. software to create the video feedback (got ... debut with a visualiser - this will not include a talking head. However, we might be able to use Camtasia)


3. hardware (might need a tablet input device)


4. a video (streaming) distribution system (we haven't got one)


5. staff development (provided by the Elevate Team)

So, where next for you? Why not get your students to complete a VARK questionnaire, or contact the Elevate Team to discuss the role of multimedia based feedback.