Judging the Relevance and worth of ideas part 2.pptx
Eoin Mc Donnell
1. Podcast Everything and Assault the
Classroom
Eoin McDonnell
Ask me questions on Twitter: @EoinMcDnnll using #ITTC
2. What will I be talking about?
a) What is the system we use at QMUL?
b) The project – good and bad
c) An emerging key fear for staff and students
d) A small scale blended learning project that led to…
e) A (nascent) institutional approach
2
4. Arthur C. Clarke
“Any teacher who can
be replaced by a
computer...should be”
4
5. Larry Summers – President of Harvard
“It’s slightly absurd that in
the English-speaking
world on 15,000 separate
occasions each year a
lecture is given parroting
the basics of
capitalism…
Surely watching a video
of the expert on the
topic would be better?”
5
6. Challenges to HE
An environment characterised by increasing student
numbers and limited teaching space has led to:
A move toward rote learning and away from critical thought
Contact time between lecturers and learners becoming less
interactive
A reliance on digital resources to meet that scale
A temptation to adopt a „one size fits‟ all approach to
education
6
8. Q-Review - What is it?
Echo360 is a „lecture capture‟ system branded locally as
“Q-Review”
With no extra work for the lecturer it automatically
records, processes and distributes those recordings
It can be automated to record a complete schedule a
year in advance
A standard install in new building projects and is
expanding into every large teaching space
It is intended to meet massive student numbers
8
14. Project at QMUL
Still small scale:
About 20 L/T‟s fitted out
About 3,000 views a week
About 40 recordings a week
Now being integrated into a larger programme:
Three dedicated service posts
Integration into the VLE, exams systems, etc.
48 installations across four campuses
14
15. Student opinion
Survey - 614 responses from students.
“Thestudent summarised the benefits
One recorded lectures
as:
have been invaluable
to my current high
“(a) Can go back and listen to them
grades”
again if you don’t understand a
point, (b) can listen to them in your
own time. (c) can make more
thorough notes by pausing and
playing them, (d) can catch up on
any missed lectures, (e) helps to
refresh memory during exam time”
15
16. Some Staff Comments
Of staff who used Q-Review,
100% said that they would
recommend Q-Review to others
“Any form of multi-media that
facilitates the passing of
information from teacher to
student is a valuable tool both in
learning and teaching.”
“I was nervous about doing it at first… I
was worried about mistakes that I may
make. But so far, so good! Students
thanks me for participating”
16
17. … staff
Interference Budget absenteeism
with recording from recorded
devices… lectures…
Quote - “The deeply entrenched
naked hostility of academics to
this project”
… microphones … and so on...
disabled in
rooms…
17
18. So… I expected the project to…
Non-
adopters
Pilot successful
Majority and majority are
using it
Early
Majority
Early
Adopters
Innovators begin
Innovators
routine recordings
18
20. Exposure
Lecture capture is a technology that exposes areas
of debate that have been neglected for too long…
• Exposes teaching staff fearful of performance
management
• Opens up fears of privatization
• Opens up debates over copyright and academic
freedom
• … and it does this at a time of biting cuts and
redundancies in the public sector
20
21. It exposes anxieties…What is a lecture? What
is it for?
That anxiety manifests itself as specific concerns:
1. I will be recorded without my permission
2. My recordings will be used for performance
management
3. Students won‟t come to class
4. I don‟t have time to learn how to record
5. I won‟t be able to edit the recording
6. The recording will replace the lecturer
7. I will lose face-to-face time with students
8. Recording lectures is for distance learning institutions
21
22. It exposes anxieties…What is a lecture? What
is it for?
That anxiety manifests itself as specific concerns:
1. I will be recorded without my permission - policy
2. My recordings will be used for performance
management – policy
3. Students won‟t come to class
4. I don‟t have time to learn how to record
5. I won‟t be able to edit the recording
6. The recording will replace the lecturer
7. I will lose face-to-face time with students
8. Recording lectures is for distance learning institutions
22
23. It exposes anxieties…What is a lecture? What
is it for?
That anxiety manifests itself as specific concerns:
1. I will be recorded without my permission - policy
2. My recordings will be used for performance
management – policy
3. Students won‟t come to class – yes, they will
4. I don‟t have time to learn how to record – automatic
5. I won‟t be able to edit the recording – yes, you can
6. The recording will replace the lecturer
7. I will lose face-to-face time with students
8. Recording lectures is for distance learning institutions
23
24. It exposes anxieties…What is a lecture? What
is it for?
That anxiety manifests itself as specific concerns:
1. I will be recorded without my permission - policy
2. My recordings will be used for performance
management – policy
3. Students won‟t come to class – yes, they will
4. I don‟t have time to learn how to record – automatic
5. I won‟t be able to edit the recording – yes, you can
6. The recording will replace the lecturer
7. I will lose face-to-face time with students
8. Recording lectures is for distance learning institutions
24
26. “I ONLY want to
teach face to
face - I want THEIR
interaction as it
helps me to
teach”
26
27. Students back this up…
“Recordings should be a
“It is much more back up like a cd. it is
motivating and inspiring to like music, it is better live
see the actual EXPERT but after the concert
talking in real life about replaying a cd helps
their subject <rather than refresh the memories”
just see videos>!”
“Don't just record the
“The viewpoint of a tutor
year's lectures and then
or lecturer is essentially put them up online, for
what a university student God's sake - this isn't the
pays for” bloody OU you know!”
"...It helped us to check whether we've done
it right... But I also would have liked it if there
was an actual revision class, where we can
ask questions”
27
28. Arthur C. Clarke
“Any teacher who can be replaced by a
computer...should be”
OR… we need to let teachers do what only they can do by
letting computers do all that they can do.
”… But I also would have liked it if
there was an actual revision class,
where we can ask questions”
28
29. Larry Summers
“Surely watching a video of the expert on the topic
would be better?”
No, because our students want our lecturers.
“It is much more
motivating and inspiring to
see the actual EXPERT “The viewpoint of a tutor
or lecturer is essentially
talking in real life about what a university student
their subject <rather than pays for”
just see videos>!”
29
30. We need to build something that…
… meets massive numbers,
And also maintains teaching quality through interaction
at scale
… and keeps the ethos and „flavour‟ of our institution
intact.
30
32. Enterprise-level learning („post stuff‟)
We have enterprise-level
integrated systems…. But what
about the massive learning
that takes place inside these
systems?
32
33. Blended Learning in Genetics
An example with Dr. Brendan Curran with a class of 150
Day Event
Monday Recordings are made in advance
Tuesday to The recording is released to students inside the VLE
Friday An online quiz is also released to students
Upon passing (85% or higher) the student gains access to
two discussion fora:
1. A group forum groups selects one question they cannot
answer
2. A main forum, open to the entire class, where each group
posts one question
Friday The video, quiz and discussion forums are automatically hidden
from students at noon on Friday.
Monday The face-to-face lecture time is used to answer the questions
33
34. What happened? - students
Students read their text books more
Students collaborated more
They argued for the method stating that “the
idea is that we think for ourselves”
They felt it should be used in other modules
where facts were not immutable
34
35. What happened? - lecturer
"The most exciting lecture I have
ever had"
"Deeper questions that I've ever
had before”
35
36. Landmark
Optional lecture
modules
Rolling blended
learning
1. Discussion
forums,
2. Formative Landmark
online tests, lecture
3. Materials
repository,
4. etc. Rolling blended
learning
Landmark
lecture
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39. Conclusion
Challenge:
We have to face a reality of increasing student numbers
matched to dwindling finances and a wealth of free high quality
materials available to anyone with an internet connection.
They will ask „what is a university for‟? And we need a better
answer than a piece of paper.
Solution
We have to overcome the idea that questioning methods is a
centralist dogma and teaching methodologies are vital and
sacrosanct.
We have to build new teaching models that accept the
massificaiton of education and focus on interaction with subject
experts.
39
40. Questions?
I hope this has given some food for thought. I hope you
enjoy today and I‟m open to any questions you may
have.
Email me to ask questions (or slate the whole idea) at
eoin.eoin@gmail.com
@EoinMcDnnll using #ITTC
40
41. All images licensed under Creative Commons
Nuts and bolts image -
http://openclipart.org/detail/78445/nuts-and-bolts-by-
mazeo
Lecture hall –
http://www.flickr.com/photos/andriux_uk_events/473026
5732/
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43. Reporting
•Business Intelligence
•Echo Engage ?
•Custom Reporting tools
View and Publish
•SharePoint
Repository of
Learning Materials ?
•Mobile Devices
EchoPlayer
•Moodle /
EchoEngage ?
•RSS
•Portal
•Echo360 Direct
Access ?
•iTunes U
Database •College Websites
43
44. Will students still take notes?
“They allow a review of the
lecture in full, freeing me to
fully concentrate on and
consider what is being said,
rather than scrabbling to take
notes!!!”
“The more notes I
take, the more I
“Taking notes helps learn”
me concentrate”
44
46. Attendance
•Attendance
“Recordings are helpful
when you‟re absent –
recordings aren‟t the
cause for absence”
It will not effect my
attendance “because if I
haven't gone to the
lecture, chances are I
won't bother to watch the
“I would be annoyed if recording either”
tutor's thought they could
have less face time
because of recordings”
46
47. Joy Hinson on Attendance
One academic, who routinely
films and uploads her lectures,
Professor Joy Hinson,
commented that it has made
"not a scrap of difference" to
attendance, and that her
students use recordings both to
revise and fill in any missed
concepts, not to skip class. The
same academic also reported
overwhelmingly positive and
encouraging feedback on the
recordings from students; “they
really want this,” she said, “and
appreciate it.”
47
48. Attendance
The evidence (both anecdotal and
quantitative) indicates that this will not happen.
94% of students at LSE (where lectures are
routinely recorded) stated that the availability
of recorded lectures had not changed their
lecture attendance.
82.2% of student survey respondents indicated
that their attendance would remain the same.
48
49. Institutional concerns
I will be recorded without my permission
My recordings will be used for performance
management
I won‟t be able to remove the recording if I don‟t like it
I won‟t be allowed to edit the recording
Recordings don‟t help student learning
49
50. First Principles of Policy
1. Q-Review is opt-in service for staff to use when they want to
record their own lectures for educational purposes
2. Recordings will be accessible for no more than twelve months
unless through prior agreement between the presenter and
the DELU
3. It aims to encourage innovative teaching methods
4. It aims to encourage excellence in learning and teaching in
line with the College mission and is not a tool to monitor staff
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51. Delivery Style
83.4% would choose a recording without edits
made available rapidly over a more polished
“Straight away unless major
production. needed to be made, like a
changes
mistake in speech or query not
answered during lecture. ”
51
53. GENERATING THE QUESTIONS REQUIRED TO RE-
ANIMATE OUR STUDENTS‟ MINDS.
WE NEED TO USE QUESTIONS
(TO INITIATE DIALOGUES WITH AND BETWEEN STUDENTS.)
WE NEED STUDENTS TO USE QUESTIONS
(TO INITIATE DIALOGUES WITH OTHER STUDENTS AND
WITH US.)
53
54. HOW SHOULD WE BE „NOURISHING‟
OUR STUDENTS‟ MINDS?
BY TEACHING FAR FEWER FACTS.
BY ASKING LOTS MORE QUESTIONS.
BY GETTING STUDENTS TO ASK QUESTIONS.
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55. Students at QMUL say...
96% of us think recording
lectures is a good idea
Students at
QMUL said....
47% of us came to QM with
45% of us have the expectations that online
previously accessed video and podcasts would
online recorded seminars form a part of our studies
or lectures as part of
your studies in another
institution
“It’s 2010… Come 73% of us have, during our
time at QM, accessed online
join the rest of the videos and podcasts from
world in the 21st another institution to help in
our studies
century”
55
