4. A mixed method approach was used to focus the evaluation , so an online and a paper survey as well as semi-structured interviews to connect the themes.
5. It mostly does what I want in an obvious way Very practical I find them extremely useful , convenient and helpful Compact and everything you need is easily accessible Brilliant when works but not well maintained Pod satisfaction Question: Were you happy with your experience of using the Pod today?
6. Three main causes of frustration Speed/Response time Maintenance Hardware/Peripherals
7. Speed/Response time Far too slow , from switch on to ready to teach was more than 10 minutes. It took about 15 min to get started. Enhances teaching. However computer and internet access painfully slow.
8. Adobe flash not latest upgrade/version and so YouTube not able to be used. unable to access and show the students some clips from their NMCs DVD on safeguarding. The Pod did not have the right software/upgrade. Projector aid not working unplugged at ceiling. Maintenance
9. Hardware Visualiser not working properly couldn’t switch off lamp from control box. ..not maintained properly. Go into a classroom and the Visualiser doesn’t work, go into another classroom and the DVD recorder doesn’t play. I mean you must have a long list of the problems; It’s the uncertainty. I mean if it was continually unreliable that’s one thing, but sometimes it works and sometimes it doesn’t and each room is different
10. Pod Utilisation Question: Which key aspects of the Teaching Pod do you believe are essential in enabling you to deliver your teaching material effectively?
11. AV Support It can take a while for IT staff to get to the classroom.. .. and the AV guy came very quickly. And he was nice.. the actual people who do the AV are very committed .
12. Pod Understanding & Awareness Sometimes I am not aware that computer is on and I then turn it off by mistake and then waste time waiting to turn it back on again. Used just visualiser for mostly interactive session, would have liked to use whiteboard as used to but don’t know how. Well I would quite like to be able to use the clickers. it is only because I haven’t had time to...
13. Pods or no Pods Question: The University is thinking of equipping rooms that currently don't have any Teaching Pods. Would you like these rooms to be equipped with Pods or something different? A Pod is essential. A working Pod is wonderful . We rely on the Pod for almost all teaching. We therefore cannot use any room that does not have a Pod. It's such an effective set up that it makes sense to have it in all rooms The Pods have certainly improved the teaching experience for me and having lectured at another university recently I realised how much I use all the different facilities. The current portable media displays(PMD) are in my experience 100% unreliable ..
14. Pod is a necessary tool to enhance teaching and learning practices Issues : Speed/Response time, Maintenance & Hardware/Peripherals. Yes please to more Pods Necessities : The ability to project , internet access and PowerPoint Conclusion
15. To look into why the Pods are so slow to boot up – is this due to old equipment or configuration problems. Put in place awareness / refresh program to make sure that staff are aware of the capabilities of the Pod. Put in place a strategy to ensure all Pods remain up to date with software versions and working hardware. Recommendations
Good afternoon everybody. Hope you’re sitting comfortably! I am here to present the pod evaluation findings and will invite q’s at the end The Pod evaluation is building on previous work which has identified how the Pods are currently being used at City The evalitaion is connected to the SLE roadmap & will be used to help inform the design of learning environment at City in the future. 1853
You know this already but just a reminder! The Classroom Experience Initiative (CEI) authorised by ExCo in November 2006, saw the investment of £1.4M for 85 new pods in teaching rooms across Northampton Square. A key priority for us will be to lead on a business case to acquire additional Pods across Northampton Square to ensure a consistent teaching and learning experience for all staff and students.
The survey included 10 questions in total. Both surveys incorporated open and closed questions and ran between 22 Feb – 30 March 2011. Further interviews were also conducted with respondents to elaborate on some of the key themes arising from the data in the online survey, using a random sample. Online Survey using survey monkey - 120 responses ( see Appendix One) Paper Survey placed using Pod boxes within all rooms that have a teaching Pod – 119 responses ( see Appendix One) Individual semi-structured interviews x6 ( see Appendix Two)
As can be seen from the above pie chart, 65% surveyed suggested that they were happy with the use of the pods. This is good news! The comments further indicate the need for staff to have consistency across the different sites, convenience and ease of use.
You wont be surprised at this one! 31 respondents surveyed returned a negative response referring to the slowness of the system itself especially in the initial boot up stage with several people quoting times in excess of 10 minutes to boot up.
71 respondents referred to software not being updated to the latest version causing the user to be prompted to update constantly or visuals not displaying correctly. This caused disruption to the teaching in rooms.
There were a number of occasions (11 responses) where peripherals such as pens were missing and instances of hardware e.g. DVD player not functioning.
We identified 16 key areas of use for the Pods and whilst areas such as PC, Visualiser, PowerPoint/ Word and the Internet were used frequently, other areas were used significantly less and in some instances not at all. This question perhaps more than any other provides us with a real illustration of just what is required and is deemed as vital by the end users to ensure the success and uptake of Pods in teaching. This data aligns closely with what staff use on a regular basis. The overwhelming areas identified were: Projection (35 Respondents) Online access (54 Respondents) PowerPoint (18 Respondents)
The AV Support is a key aspect of the Pod service offering. Users place a value against the speed of response time and competency of the AV support staff. Added to this the fact that the support technicians were rated by 90% of those surveyed as being either 'Helpful' or 'Very Helpful' it paints a very positive picture of the AV Support function and the way in which it is perceived by the end users.
A small number of respondents (5%) in the online survey indicated that there are issues in terms of not knowing what the Pod can do. Here a lack of awareness and understanding on what the Pod can do seems to be picked up here. (See Appendix 6) At interview, a mixed response was received to this question but could be summarised to indicate that whilst respondents were keen to develop their pod awareness, the level of awareness and training requested varied greatly from those that wanted as and when to those that were interested in accessing further support.
94% of those surveyed indicated they would like the rooms which currently do not have Pods to be equipped with Pods. From the interviews, it is also clear that staff view the Pods as a fundamental aspect of teaching and learning. This summarises a number of views that whilst the Pod is highly valued, a lack of knowledge or fully functioning equipment is affecting people's views of the effectiveness of Pods. (See Appendix 7) This year has seen an improvement in AV facilities among the seminar rooms in the Northampton Square campus and it has been previously identified that only twelve teaching rooms in the Northampton Square campus do not have an AV Pod. Instead they possess a Portable Media Device (PMD) which consists of a PC and plasma screen that can be networked where there is an active network point. Timetabling and AV Support have reported that the PMD has not worked and the equipment has been known to go missing, not maintained and supported and staff tend to move their time slots rather than use the equipment. This suggests that we do need a robust plan in place to help with the problems associated in rooms without Pods (See Appendix 9).
To conclude we aimed to establish staff usage on Pods. Overall, the respondents indicated that the Teaching Pod is a pre-requisite to their teaching and were generally happy. This we believe suggests that the Pod is a necessary tool to enhance teaching and learning practices. However as previously mentioned, over a third of those surveyed were unhappy. The areas identified as problematic are impinging upon the staff and student experience in using the Pods. These are the Speed/Response time, Maintenance & Hardware/Peripherals. The survey was also able to conclude that there are three areas that are deemed as vital by the end users to ensure the success and uptake of Pods in teaching. These are the ability to project, internet access and PowerPoint. These areas feature highly in the Pod Utilisation data and in users’ feedback as areas which frequently required AV Support due to poorly maintained equipment or insufficient knowledge. Given that these areas are deemed to be essential to enable teaching material to be delivered effectively, it would seem logical to ensure that these areas of Pod above all others are functioning as well as possible. AV Support which is a key aspect of the Pod service offering has been rated as high. The majority of users have had cause at some point to contact AV support at least once per week and the speed of the support has been rated highly which paints a very positive picture of the AV Support function and the way in which it is perceived by the end users. Currently the University does not have a dedicated AV support team to look after the Pods. Consequently the Response Centre, who is already overstretched, has to react to the problems as they are reported. Problems are dealt with reactively as opposed to proactively.
