Lecture capture and active learning

Rising to meet the needs of the changing Australian university classroom and our students

Presenters

Professor Carol A. Miles Tammy Robinson

University of Newcastle, Australia University of Newcastle, Australia

carol.miles@newcastle.edu.au tammy.robinson@newcastle.edu.au

Jocasta Williams

Echo360

jwilliams@echo360.com

University of Newcastle, Australia 38,000 Students across 4 campuses and online

• Major capital project in 2013 saw all 133 classrooms and lecture theatres of 35 seats and over equipped with lecture capture technology.

• Recorded lectures are made available through the UoNline Virtual Learning Environment (via Blackboard Learn).

• Currently, have 156 active personal capture users (using their own computers to capture content for their students) Over 10,000 lectures captured in 2013 and approximately 14,000 lectures captured in 2014.

University of Newcastle Usage and Survey Response in the Survey Period

During the 15 day survey period at UoN:

• 1162 lectures were captured (1368 hours of content recorded)

• 17,353 unique student users accessing the system (approximately half of all UoN students)

• 33,364 total views.

• A total of 458 UoN students completed the survey. (This is acknowledged as a very low response rate (< 1%), but findings were directly in line with the overall student responses nationally, so seem to indicate that findings of the national study can be generalized to the UoN student population).

Demographic results from student responses in Echo360 national survey

Student Work Patterns

If you are employed, how many hours per week do you work?

Answer OptionsResponse Percent

Response Count

Not employed 34.80% 14461-5 hours 8.90% 3686-10 hours 13.40% 55611-20 hours 20.20% 83821-35 hours 9.90% 411Full time 12.80% 533answered question 4152skipped question 16

Why do students want lecture capture?

the ability to set the pace of their own learning

the convenience of viewing lectures on their own schedule

the ability to review difficult concepts multiple times and pause and rewind as necessary

the ability to manage distractions and view lectures as suited their life circumstances

Why do you use classroom-based recordings? Tick all boxes that apply.

Answer OptionsResponse Percent

Response Count

Helps me stay in a class I would otherwise have dropped 21.7% 684Helps me balance my schedule/responsbilities 71.2% 2249

Reviewing classroom-based recordings as a substitute for attending class 48.5% 1530I rely on classroom based recordings because English is not my first language 6.8% 216Help me better understand instructors with strong accents 29.1% 918Help me use my time more efficiently 57.1% 1802To learn at my own pace 62.6% 1976To revisit and clarify complicated or confusing topics 74.5% 2351To help prepare for exams 63.9% 2018I believe classroom-based recordings help me to achieve higher grades 48.9% 1545Classroom-based recordings improve my overall learning experience 11.3% 358answered question 3157skipped question 1011

Why do students want lecture capture?

Sources of Student Dissatisfaction

Students were frustrated that they were unable to hear student comments and questions that comprised part of the lecture. S

Students also indicated dissatisfaction that they were unable to see the lecturers’ expressions and actions (unable to see writing on a white-board or pointing to things off screen). This was particularly noted when lecturers used any form of non-digital presentation tool.

Incomplete capture was a source of frustration for students, arising from circumstances where the beginning and/or end of the lecture were cut off on the recording

Sources of Student Dissatisfaction

Some students indicated that distractions when viewing lectures would require them to rewind and re-view several times, making it more time-efficient to attend the actual lecture.

Comments were also made regarding the poor audio or video quality of some lectures, indicating that students are becoming discerning consumers of the technology.

Several students also commented that a disadvantage of viewing lectures at home is the inability to ask questions as you think of them.

n

Sources of Student DissatisfactionSources of Student Dissatisfaction

All of these disadvantages arise from students using lecture capture as a sole means of ‘attending’ a lecture.

Attendance at the face-to-face class would mitigate all of these issues, and students utilizing the technology strictly as a review tool, or one used sparingly for those circumstances when classroom attendance is truly not possible, would not experience these problems to such a great extent.

At the University of Newcastle, captured lectures are intended strictly as an addition study/review tool, and are not presented as an alternative means of study, or a legitimate/sole means of online learning.

12

University Teachers’ Acceptance of Lecture Capture

Many university teachers have embraced the technology for a decade now, and have voluntarily and even enthusiastically provided captured recordings of their lectures.

Many of these are actively seeking technological enhancements that will make the lecture viewing experience more interactive for students and see the technology as an integral part of their teaching.

University Teachers’ Acceptance of Lecture Capture

Many others react with suspicion, caution, and even consternation when confronted with the concept that by policy, all of their lectures will be recorded and made available to their students.

A primary objection raised by many university teachers is the impact of offering captured lectures on student attendance.

The Attendance Issue (always the elephant in the room)

Many others react with suspicion, caution, and even consternation when confronted with the concept that by policy, all of their lectures will be recorded and made available to their students.

A primary objection raised by many university teachers is the impact of offering captured lectures on student attendance.

The Attendance Issue

Von Konsky, et. al (2009) refuted this concern, reporting similar attendance patterns for students whether or not captured lectures were available for them to view.

In this survey, 48% of students admitted to using captured lectures to replace class attendance.

The Attendance Issue

An argument can be made by those who are skeptical, however, that this is almost half of their students admitting to reducing class attendance if the technology is available.

Holbrook and Dupont (2009) reported that available captured lectures are more likely to cause early-year students to miss class than those in upper years. This may be related to a maturity of study and learning strategies, but also reflects the more personal nature of smaller upper-year classes, adding more value to face-to-face attendance.

This certainly places a greater onus on the university teacher to present a lecture experience that is compelling enough to make students see the benefits of attending.

Some evidence that students with disabilities rely more heavily on lecture capture to mediate their inability to attend classes.

The argument AGAINST lecture capture based on students’ poor attendance has been over for a number of years. We must move on.

Some survey data also indicated that students with disabilities are more inclined to benefit from captured lectures than other

students for a variety of reasons.

Why LectureTools?

Offered a trial - and we hoped it might….

– Address technological needs for ‘flipped classroom’ approaches– Increase the use of technology in face-to-face courses. – Provide a technological and pedagogical bridge between existing systems

within the current VLE and our physical teaching spaces.And no IT involvement:– No requirement to ‘go to market’ for an alternative as it integrated directly with

both Blackboard Learn and (soon) Echo360.• Building block connects users & Grade Centre

Was it popular?

• Advertised the vendor benefits including:– Presentation Tool– Student Inquiry Tool– Student Response System– Student IPad App– Assess Student Performance

(not a lot of take-up for these reasons)

• Changed our advertising strategy:‘Looking for a way to enable student responses and note taking in class?’= increased interest/usage

And next – the Active Learning Platform…

• Target existing LectureTools users and ask them to trial in T3 2015.

• Trial to use student engagement feature only (similar to LectureTools)

• Will they use it? The challenges…– Totally different environment (change management)– Scaled down license – not a scaled down environment– No mobile app yet (popular with LectureTools)

www.echo360.com

ECHO360’S ACTIVE LEARNING PLATFORM

www.echo360.com

Echo360’S Active Learning Platform

Instructional Content

Management

Learner Analytics and Dashboards

Capture and Remote Learning

Student Engagement

www.echo360.com

Persistent Learning

Easy Adoption

Before During After

No instructor change required

Flexibility of teaching styles

Intuitive for learners

SaaSEfficiencies

Reliable Scalable Economical Redundant Seamless

upgrades

ActionableData

Study practices

Note taking Highlighting Collaboration Testing

Strategic Goals

www.echo360.com

Record or stream the teaching experience so students can learn anytime, anywhere• Record classes and events for students to view

on-demand• Capture anywhere with a PC or Mac• Start recordings with a single click or automate

based on class schedule• Achieve unrivaled performance and reliability

using optional capture appliance• Live stream classes or events around the world

Capture and remote learning

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Engage students inside and outside the class with personalised & social learning• Embed student response activities directly into

presentations and videos• Students can take notes and annotate learning

materials live in class or during review• Receive real-time feedback when students are

confused• Discuss and debate ideas linked contextually

to course materials• Automatically generate personalised study

guides combining all notes, questions and discussions

Student Engagement

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Easily manage and share all of your educational materials from one place• Automatic publishing and tagging of captured

media• Drag & drop upload • Seamless capture, storage, & delivery allows

for rich learning analytics• Edit recordings online via web browser• Search across all stored media using words,

tags, and metadata• Use and re-use content with flexible options

for publishing to courses or sharing with individuals

Instructional Content Management

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Explore actionable information on academic performance with clear, concise dashboards• Measure student engagement and how

it relates to performance• Identify at-risk students through

customisable metrics for early intervention

• See which teaching materials and techniques are effective and which are confusing

• Track academic performance across courses, departments, and entire institutions

Analytics and Dashboards

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Instructors• Increase communication

& collaboration• Enhance your current

teaching style• Identify at-risk students

before they fail

Students• Use your own device to

engage with others• Personalise your notes,

questions, and study guides

• Access instructional media anytime, anywhere

Administrators• Measure and proactively

improve learning outcomes • Deliver superior education

at lower cost• Increase student satisfaction

Active Learning Platform Benefits for Stakeholders

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DEMONSTRATION