Welcome to our fifth and final episode of RSC-MP3 for this academic year, the monthly audio podcast highlighting some higher education focused e-learning news, interviews and resources brought to you by Kevin Brace (RSC West Midlands) and Martin Hawksey (RSC Scotland North and East). We redeem ourselves with this last session by paring down our conversation to a slimmer 27 minute edition. As ever we have summarised links to the various topics we discuss and indicate the timestamps so you can jump straight to our insightful repertoire. You can listen to this podcast on your computer, or when “on the move” by adding it to your ipod playlist.
This month Martin interviewed Tomaz Lasic from Belmont City College in Perth, Western Australia. Tomaz is a teacher/ICT integrator at Belmont and discusses his experiences of using Moodle into high school education. In particular Tomaz highlights the importance of involving his students in his journey to find the right blend in technology. Click here for the interview with Tomaz Lasic in full.
Hope you all have enjoyed this podcast series which will resume at the beginning of the next academic year!
HE Update Download Link
Duration: 27 minutes
Size: 25 MB
This month I interviewed Tomaz Lasic, from Belmont City College in Perth, Western Australia. I first found out about Tomaz’s work last September when I was shown a series of demonstration videos (2 Minute Moodles) used to promote Moodle at Belmont (if you haven’t seen these before you should definitely check them out). In this interview we discuss how Tomaz has gone about integrating Moodle in his own class, which has been used as a model for wider adoption across the College. We also touch upon some wider issues of student digital literacy, online security and personalisation of learning. [During the interview I refer to one of Tomaz’s recent blog posts ‘Best when human’]
00:15 Tomaz outlines his role at Belmont City College - teacher, moodle admin, ict mentor 01:12 Tomaz explains how he has got staff to engage with moodle - using earlier adopters 01:52 Moodle part of a grander scheme to increase use of technology within the college 03:01 Tomaz used a pilot using feedback from his students to find a grounding 03:39 To use moodle really well you only need to understand 5% 04:12 Students didn’t help with the techical side. One of the most useful pieces of feedback from the students was to use moodle appropriately finding the right blend 06:00 Can’t assume students have the digital literacy - they have the breadth of technical skills but not the depth of knowledge 06:35 It’s the job of the teacher to turn the lifeless digital information into knowledge 06:57 Moodle was the spur and is allowing Tomaz to integrate more ‘web 2.0′ 08:01 Types of moodle use. 4/5 teachers are using very well. Tomaz recognises it is a gradual process. He is keen that his colleagues are the one who explain the potential benefits of using tools like moodle 10:51 Tomaz finds students are very good at exploring how to use technology but are more naive when it comes to online security, digital footprint 12:55 Integrating these issues into teaching 14:46 The issues of a very well defined curriculum and personalisation 17:21 Expectation of students in what they want to study and learn - still a tough nut to crack 19:27 We don’t know the destination of where we are going with technology but we have a direction
As I’ve recently revisited on generating audio feedback it seemed timely, particularly with a request from UHI coming into my inbox, to also have another look at video feedback. Russell Stannard recently won a Times Higher Education Award partly for his work in this particular area. In Russell’s work he uses screen capture software to record feedback on electronic submissions of student work. More information on this technique is available in a case study Russell prepared for the Higher Education Academy English Subject Centre on Using Screen Capture Software in Student Feedback. An example of using this technique is also available - click here for a short example of video feedback.
In my original post I highlighted Using Tokbox for Live and Recorded Video Feedback as a possible solution to distribute video feedback. At the time I felt there were two niggling issues with using Tokbox. First there was the requirement to install the ManyCams software to allow you to display your desktop and secondly Tokbox was very slow in uploading video you had recorded. For live video feedback Tokbox might still be worth considering, but shortly after publishing the post I discovered ScreenToaster.
ScreenToaster allows you to record your desktop without installing any software. It’s very easy to setup and the videos you create can be immediately uploaded allowing you to decides how you want to distribute and share them. The following video shows you how easy it is to setup and highlights some of the useful features. Even if you are not interested in delivering video feedback to students this is still a great site to record other material like demonstrations of software.
Solvr: Group Problem Solving App - May 20, 2009 - “Solvr is an interesting group problem solving tool which lets you collaboratively discuss problems and ideas over the net. The application provides platform where you can enter thoughts or problems and then invite others to add ideas on how to solve them”
I captured this clip of students from the University of Chester and Sheffield Hallam talking about their experiences of receiving audio feedback at the last Podcasting for Pedagogic Purposes SIG at Glasgow Caledonian University. This event was very fortuitous as at the time I was helping source material for a Queen Margaret University (QMU) staff workshop on this very topic. If you are still unclear as to what audio feedback is here is a nice description from Andrew Middleton:
Audio feedback can be defined as formative messages, recorded and distributed as digital audio to individual students or student groups in response to both ongoing and submitted work, allowing each student to develop their knowledge and the way they learn. (Middleton, A. 2008)
Why do I think audio feedback is worth exploring? It is clear from the National Student Survey (NSS) that feedback is a particular area if dissatisfaction. There is a growing pool of evidence that students perceive audio feedback as a positive to their learning experience (although I’m not aware of research on actual learning gains).
Existing practitioners/projects
In my research for the QMU workshop I came across a number of projects and practitioners exploring this area, which I believe are worth sharing in this post:
[If I’ve missed anyone off please use the comments to highlight them and their work]
In researching audio feedback it was clear while there were distinct benefits but there were some reoccurring themes in terms of limitations. First is scalability. It’s all well and good providing individual feedback to up to 50 students but with figures beyond this it just becomes to onerous.
Audio feedback models
A solution to this problem is to explore other audio feedback models. Andrew Middleton at Sheffield Hallam University has identified a number of alternative models which include:
Personal tutor monologue – tutor feedback to individual student
Personal feedback conversations – recording tutor/student meetings
Broadcast feedback – generic feedback to the class
A finding from the Sounds Good 2 project is that providing individual student feedback is unlikely to save any staff time (there is a messy debate about whether high quality feedback offers long term gains in terms of how much additional feedback is required further down the line). Sounds Good have however circumstances where time can be saved (taken from the Sounds Good Final Report):
The assessor is comfortable with the technology.
The assessor writes or types slowly but records their speech quickly.
A substantial amount of feedback is given.
A quick and easy method of delivering the audio file to the student is available.
Technology
In terms of the technology there are a number of solutions which various projects propose. These include:
using a digital voice recorder which saves the files directly into MP3 format
using you Mac/PC using free audio recording software like Audacity (a portable version of Audacity on EduApps) or Wavosaur (this also can be used without installing any software)
using a mobile phone – if this feature is available
So what advice would I give to anyone thinking about using audio feedback? There are some very good recommendations from the Sounds Good project (final report) which are worth highlighting grouped under 4 themes: saving time; technical matters; administration; and structure:
Saving time
Don’t expect immediate savings in time, if any. Think of the long term returns for you and your students (there is anecdotal evidence that audio feedback reduces the need for follow up face-to-face sessions)
except minor mistakes. You are not looking to produce broadcast quality audio
Technical matters
optimise your files to minimise download size. Recommended mp3, mono and if possible reduce the bitrate to 32-40kbit/s
check files can be played on campus computers
make sure the audio is loud enough
have clear guidance on how to play files (I wouldn’t bother with guidance on playing files on portable media devices as the majority of students appear to prefer the convenience of playing them from a desktop computer)
have a backup of files in a secure location
if using shared devices or computers make sure files are deleted once backed up
Administration
if audio feedback is particularly being used as part of summative assessment make sure you have a conversation with quality assurance
make sure audio files are securely stored and distributed
Structure
try to personalise the feedback by introducing yourself, the assignment you are giving feedback on and refer to the student my name
keep focused – a 2 minute piece of feedback can be as, if not more, beneficial than a 10 minute ramble (the clip at the beginning of this post is just over a minute and conveys a lot of information)
I would recommend using audio feedback as supplemental to written feedback.
In terms of a procedure for creating audio feedback Bob Rotheram from the Sounds Good project recommends this procedure and general structure:
Feedback Procedure
Have the assignment details and assessment criteria with me.
Read the assignment, making written comments on it as I go along. If it’s on paper, I jot things in the margin. If it’s in an electronic format (e.g. Word), I use the ‘Track changes’ facility to annotate the document.
Read it again, more quickly this time, perhaps making a few more comments along the way.
Jot down (on scrap paper) the main summary points I wish to make.
Start the MP3 recorder.
Don’t bother to erase and re-record ‘misspeaks’; just correct them immediately, as in conversation.
General structure
Introduce yourself to the student in a friendly manner.
Say which assignment you’re giving feedback on. Outline the main elements of the comments which you’ll be giving (see below).
Work steadily through the assignment, amplifying and explaining notes you’ve put in the margins and, especially at the end, making more general points.
Refer to the assessment criteria.
Explain your thought processes as you move towards allocating a mark.
Offer a few, reasonably attainable, suggestions for improvement, even if the work is excellent.
Invite comments back from the student, including on the method of giving feedback.
Welcome to the RSC Scotland N&E 'MASHe' blog. The blog is designed to highlight news, events and resources related to higher education (including HE in FE). Please feel free to leave a comment.
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Welcome to our fifth and final episode of RSC-MP3 for this academic year, the monthly audio podcast highlighting some higher education focused e-learning news, interviews and resources brought to you by Kevin Brace (RSC West Midlands) and Martin Hawksey (RSC Scotland North and East). We redeem ourselves with this last session by paring down our conversation to a slimmer 27 minute edition. As ever we have summarised links to the various topics we discuss and indicate the timestamps so you can jump straight to our insightful repertoire. You can listen to this podcast on your computer, or when “on the move” by adding it to your ipod playlist.
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