Recording student presentations: Do you need to do this?

Over the last few weeks the Elevate Team have been involved in recording a number of student presentations for staff at UCS Ipswich. These have been for various reasons, for instance, enabling access for External Examiners or Second markers, or provide formative feedback on presentational technique. Our approach depends on need, however, we tend to screencast the student work. For instance, we provide a lapel mic and use Debut software to make a video of the screen and sync'd voice. The recording is then made available to staff to share with external examiners, their students etc., The important point for staff is, if this is for a summative assessment, we (Elevate) will capture this for you.

If the assessment (summative or formative) involves assessing the presentational style, we us a camera on a tripod to capture the actual presenter.

The workflow is available from: https://docs.google.com/drawings/d/1S4yWxM_kiTY5yH-C9Ra0pKKZeQM2Pm5CDEYpgts1n6Y/edit

If you are interested in taking advantage of this service, please contact us via elevate@ucs.ac.uk

 

Video conferencing from the iPad using GoTo Meeting

As part of a trial for an invited speaker into a lecture at UCS the Elevate Team explored the use of an iPad 3 using the GoTo Meeting application. The link below walks through the version which uses audio only. However, the latest version includes video conferencing using the camera. Initial thoughts findings were very impressive in terms of the speed of the connection and the quality of the audio and video. The web cam worked well, the audio was good as was the text chat area.

This type of technology offers great potential in teaching and learning. A recent JISC Good Practice Guide (http://www.jisc.ac.uk/elluminateguidance) identified the benefits as including;

• It can be used to support a wide range of teaching/learning methods and styles, potentially in highly engaging and collaborative forms


• It allows external participants to cost-effectively participate live in sessions e.g. external experts, external examiners, mentors, supervisors, assessors and interviewees

The benefit of using the iPad is the ease of use. Within the current version, there are some feature limitations, for instance, you can start (host) a meeting from the iPad, you need to set up the meeting on a computer, also, you can't share you desktop (present from the iPad using keynote) or interact with the hosts computer when they share the mouse. Still, for a first go, very impressive.

The following video by GoTo Meeting gives you a sense of how it displays, and the interactivity on the iPad. Note it does not include the video component. See >>>

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8pzgUDoK7o[/youtube]

 

Smarter Lectures – making learning happen in large-group settings

Did you know ... about the forth coming workshop >>> Wednesday 2 May 2102, 9:30-12:30, W413 UCS Waterfront Building

It is well established that just sitting in traditional lectures is not the best way for students to achieve high learning payoff. This workshop will explore how we can refresh the teaching approaches we use in large-group contexts, to maximise students’ learning then and there, rather than merely hope that they will go away and learn later from our handouts and their notes.

We will look creatively at what we can get students to do even in crowded lecture theatres or large classrooms, to keep them learning actively. We will also look at how to address the physical constraints of the learning environment in lecture theatres or large classrooms, and how we can get students to work participatively even in large groups. We will analyse some of the most prevalent problems we have when working with large groups, and seek creative solutions to the most common of these problems.

For more information, contact Rik Bond, in HR (Corporate Development)

Blackboard upgrade and migration project: announcement 2

I’d just like to update you on progress with the Blackboard Upgrade and Migration Project. In the last few weeks we’ve achieved a number of milestones. These include;

1. IT Services working with The Elevate Team at UCS and Blackboard to enable authenticated sign-on using UCS username and password.


2. Successful tests of uploading course, individual and enrollment data into Blackboard (module IDs and student enrollments based on UCS data)


3. Test migrations of course content to identify migration routes (how to get course content into the system)

We have also started to update various staff groups, course teams and committees about the project, the timelines and milestones.

The three key areas we are working at the moment are liaising with Blackboard to test the most effective way of migrating courses to the new system, consulting with Academic Services to finalise a date for migration which has the least impact on exam boards, re-submissions etc., and working with IT Services to automate the course and enrollment data.

So what do you, the individual staff member, need to do? The answer is to make sure your course is up to date.

We’ll be announcing a number of mechanisms to start exploring the new software at the start of May. However, if you have any questions, please email the Elevate Team (elevate@ucs.ac.uk)

All seems fine with My UCS ...

It appears the initial problems with MyUCS have been solved :-) Therefore, access to the Blackboard VLE will be fine.

Intermittent Access to My UCS - will effect your access to Blackboard VLE

Just to keep you informed, we have been told that My UCS is encountering intermittent access problems. This means your access to the LearnUCS (Wolsey VLE) will be impacted as you need to log in via MyUCS. We have been informed by the IT Helpdesk who manage MyUCS they are looking into the problem. We'll update when they tell us more - further update planned at 12.00.

Assessment Marking and Feedback using iPad, iAnnotate, and Dropbox

An addition to the more substantial report already posted (bit.ly/HNZH0i) about marking student work using the iPad, iAnnotate and Dropbox combo'...

Having now marked different assessments using these tools, I have to say I'm 100% supportive of developing the use of this method of assessment. Yes there are going to be a few teething problems, but on the whole I think it's a huge step forward in modernising the way we assess student work.

In terms of the teething issues, the first version of iAnnotate we used wasn't quite so easy to use as the latest version. And, there were a few issues surrounding batch file conversion into PDF documents (missing images/figures after conversion). But, this latter issue can be solved (relatively easily I believe) moving forward.

From a markers' point of view, I found the use of technology made the process of marking more enjoyable! The ability to neatly make use of different annotation tools gave great flexibility in how you present information back to the student. I think everyone wins really. The students don't need to get to the Assessment Office in person, the Assessment Office staff don't need to worry about collecting the work (and storing it), and teaching staff don't have to worry about huge piles of paperwork either. Just think of the amount of work, paper and space that it takes to get the paper copy to the marker, from the point when a student finally finishes a piece of coursework and hits save on a computer. Why not use that electronic document as it is? It's a bit like sending a telegram in the early 20th century isn't it - or at least I presume it is :-).

FYI - we've had different formats of documents submitted during this trial; it's definitely not limited to Word processed documents.

A huge thanks to the Elevate team and our course administration team in helping us start this process!