Slides from a presentation at the Horizons in STEM Higher Education conference (University of Leicester, June 2016). Having briefly discussed the general merits of using broadcast media in education. I introduced Biology on the Box a resource we have been developing to share good practice in the use of TV and radio in Biology teaching.

1. As Seen OnTV: Using broadcast
media in bioscience teaching
Horizons in STEM Higher Education (June 2016)
Chris Willmott
Dept of Molecular
and Cell Biology
cjrw2@le.ac.uk

2. Broadcast Media: Why?
• TV clips can be used in class in variety of ways
- to help scene-setting
- to convey factual information
- as discussion starters
• Contribute to “flipped teaching”
e.g. require students to have watched footage
before F2F session
• Assessed activity
e.g. evaluating documentaries

3. Broadcast Media: Why?
• TV clips can be used in class in variety of ways
- to help scene-setting
- to convey factual information
- as discussion starters
• Contribute to “flipped teaching”
e.g. require students to have watched footage
before F2F session
• Assessed activity
e.g. evaluating documentaries

4. Broadcast Media: Limitations?
• How do I know what material useful for teaching?
• How do I get hold of that material?
• Are there any recommendations about how best to
use that material?

5. Biology on the Box
• Recommendations for TV (and radio) content that
can be used for enriching bioscience teaching
• Primarily designed for use in conjunction with “Box
of Broadcasts” – subscription service
• Programme tips equally valid without BoB, just
harder to get hold of
• A collaborative project
- students as producers
- different institutions

7. What is BoB?
• Box of Broadcasts
• Giant TiVo box for education
“An online, off-air TV and radio archive
& recording service from BUFVC”
• ~ 2 million TV & radio programmes
• > 60 TV & radio channels (30 day buffer)
• All BBC content since 2007
• All staff & students (inc. 5 orders-per-day)
• Clips & playlists
• UK only (issues re Distance Learning)
• Subscription

9. BoB
• Fantastic tool, not perfect
• Key weakness = discovery/rediscovery
• Additional resource for sharing best practice
- more metadata & keywords
- scope to describe usage of resource
• Hence launched Biology on the Box

10. Biology on the Box
• Biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
• Started September 2014
• Post of various styles

11. Various styles
Awareness of
digital availability…

12. Various styles
Awareness of
digital availability…
… plus notes

13. Various styles
Clip within programme…

14. Various styles
Clip within programme…
… plus structured
activities

15. Various styles
News story

16. Various styles
News story
News overview

17. Various styles
Radio

18. Various styles
Radio
Re-posting

19. Posts by Students AudioVisuals In
the Disciplines
(AVID)

20. Posts by Interns
Graduate
Gateway

21. Posts by Colleagues

22. Biology on the Box
• Biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
• Started September 2014
• Post of various styles
• Posts by students & grad interns
• Posts from other academics
• Posts by you?
• Something similar in your discipline?

23. Important note
• New Box of Broadcasts launches in Aug 2016

24. Acknowledgements
• University of Leicester Teaching Enhancement Fund
• University of Leicester Graduate Gateway Fund
• Thanks to authors

25. Any Questions?
E-mail: cjrw2@le.ac.uk
Twitter: cjrw
Slideshare: cjrw2
Delicious: chriswillmott
Blogs: www.bioethicsbytes.wordpress.com
www.biologyonthebox.wordpress.com
www.biosciencecareers.wordpress.com
www.lefthandedbiochemist.wordpress.com