The current Multimedia Service from Elevate Team: Part of Multimedia Review

What service do we offer to academic teams at UCS (Ipswich)?

The first question is to answer, how does our service complement IT Services?
IT Services are responsible for the AV in teaching rooms, and the installation of software on desktops. The Elevate Team take ownership over creation of multimedia teaching and learning objects, and staff and student training on specific software;

• Screencastify
• YouTube
• Audacity
• Tablet (ExplainEverything & HD Record)

The Elevate Team provide the following services to staff at UCS for the creation of Teaching, Learning and Assessment materials.

1. Loan Elevate Team Equipment (camera, mics, tripod), for staff to capture material. Use Elevate YouTube channel. We offer minimal editing (background noise, volume and top & tail) and provide links to unlisted videos,
2. Require The Elevate Team to capture, edit and upload multimedia (this covers Video and Audio)
3. Use Elevate Team offices and equipment for screencasting. Use Elevate YouTube channel.
4. Google Hangouts (web conferencing). Use the Elevate Account, and Elevate personnel to manage the event and provide training. Output into Elevate YouTube Channel
5. Advice around the use and capture of multimedia for Teaching, Learning and Assessment. This will include, top tips, copyright of 3rd party material, OERs, and Consent
6. Bespoke multimedia intensive,augmented / location aware learning objects

What Hardware & Software do the Elevate Team use and/or support?

Capture Process

• Hardware
1. Camera
2. Mics (Desk & Clip)
3. iPads
4. FlipCams
5. Dictaphone
6. Pop Shield
7. Tripods
• Software
1. Screencastify
2. Audacity
3. Inbuilt tools on iPads
4. Record HD (audio) on iPads
5. Explain Everything on iPads

Editing Process

• Software
1. iMovie
2. YouTube
3. Audacity
4. GarageBand
5. Aurasma

Distribution Process

• Software
1. YouTube
2. SoundCloud

Archive Process

• Software
1. YouTube
2. SoundCloud

Deletion Process

With respect to student presentations, once the material has been uploaded during the Distribution stage, all materials will be deleted from Elevate Team hardware. For other materials (uses) we will discuss the archive and deletion of the raw files on case by case basis.

There is no deletion policy for material held / uploaded to YouTube. The material will remain until the Elevate Team informed by YouTube / Google around space requirements. If this occurs, the oldest material will be deleted first, although we will endeavour to keep material within the last three academic years.

What training provision (direct and indirect) do we provide?

An objective of the Elevate Team is to build capacity within staff and students at UCS to take advantage of the opportunities offered through multimedia within their teaching, learning and assessment models. Our current provision is based around;

Online (self paced) - Getting Started Resources, and Guides
Face to Face - Bespoke session for course teams

It is suggested this area needs to be re-designed. In particular, the need for a coherent online and face to face programme. Including;

• development of a specialist half-day multimedia workshop
• creation of Getting Started resources for Screencastify, and Audacity
• authoring of a guide which explores the effective use of multimedia in Teaching and Assessment

Broad Recommendations (these are all owned by the Elevate Team)

1. Review and publish an archive and deletion policy for local and cloud materials.
2. Identify any risks in terms of data protection of multimedia material.
3. Extend our current staff and student development programme for multimedia to ensure it is more effective, and covers the core software.
4. Identify skill and knowledge gaps within the Elevate Team, and identify how these are going to be addressed.
5. Audit hardware to identify gaps in our provision to meet future demands.

Multimedia Management Service (Elevate Team): 2015

The Elevate Team allow staff to upload videos to the Elevate Team YouTube channel, for use in teaching, learning and assessment. On occasions the Elevate Team will be involved in the capture and edit of the videos, or we'll simple enable the distribution. This service has been growing over time, and provides an alternative to course teams needing to support their own approach.

The following outlines the use of this service in 2015.

Total number of videos uploaded: 443

• Student Presentations: 242 (55%)
• Student Viva's: 3 (1%)
• Student Role Plays: 94 (21%)
• Recordings of online events (Hangouts): 5 (1%)
• Screencasts (talk over powerpoints & how to videos): 23 (5%)
• Staff focussed Learning Objects: 47 (11%)
• Marketing (external audience): 12 (3%)
• Other: 17 (3%)

The Elevate Team are starting a review of how people are using Multimedia in their teaching and learning models to ensure the service we provide is fit for staff needs. For more information, see;

• http://ucselevate.blogspot.co.uk/2015/03/how-is-multimedia-video-being-used-in.html

With thanks - Image - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Nuvola_apps_multimedia.svg

How is multimedia (video) being used in teaching and learning at UCS? Will the current approach for managing multimedia meet future needs?

The following post outlines a small scale research (thought leadership) piece of work the Elevate Team will be undertaking in over the next few months. If you have any questions, or would like to contribute your story, please contact elevate@ucs.ac.uk.

What we are doing?

The broad aims of this research project are to undertake a preliminary exploration into how multimedia (video) is currently being used at UCS within teaching, learning and assessment, and draw out some likely future requirements from lecturers. This research project is to act as a landscape study, to identify where we are now, where might we might need to be in the future with respect to multimedia.

The study will review the current Elevate Team model for multimedia creation, storage, distribution and archive of multimedia, with the aim of suggesting future enhancements within the service. This will include exploring alternative service provisions.

The output of each phase will be a short report made available through the Elevate Team Blog, and the final report (combination of all outputs and recommendations) will be reported back to the UCS’s LTAG and IT Services Strategy Group for information.

What is the timeframe?
The proposed timeframe is March-June 2015, with three key phases;

1. Review of the Elevate Team Multimedia Support Model: March 2015
2. User Stories (Lecturer’s Tales): April 2015
3. Alternative Institutional Support Models: June 2015

Methodology: Lecturer Stories
Undertake a number (target 20) 1-2-1 semi structured interviews. These aim to answer two question.
Answer two questions:

1. How are your currently using multimedia (video) in your teaching, learning and assessment?
2. How would you like to use multimedia (video) in the future?

With thanks - Image - http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/66/Nuvola_apps_multimedia.svg