PBS Learning News
Where can I find information about eLearning?
Achieving the right blend!
Issue 2 – Spring 2008
8
Sources of eLearning Information
The eLearning Centre Spring Workshop Programme
12 Mar
Adding Content to Victory
Richmond Building 1.05
12 Mar
Identifying eLearning Opportunities
Milldam LE 1.02
19 Mar
Communication Tools in Victory
Richmond Building 1.05
26 Mar
Assessment Tools in Victory
Milldam LE 1.02
2 April
Introduction to Victory
Richmond Building 1.05
9 April
Adding Content to Victory
Milldam LE 1.02
16 April
Communication Tools in Victory
Richmond Building 1.05
16 April
Effective Management of Discussion Boards
Milldam LE 1.02
23 April
Assessment Tools in Victory
Milldam LE 1.02
30 April
Introduction to Victory
Milldam LE 1.02
7 May
Adding Content to Victory
Richmond Building 1.05
7 May
Making the best use of Graphics in eLearning
Milldam LE 1.02
7 May
Using Rich Media Content – An Overview*
TV Studio (Rotunda)
14 May
Communication Tools in Victory
Milldam LE 1.02
14 May
Podcasting – Make it Work for You and Your Students*
TV Studio (Rotunda)
21 May
Assessment Tools in Victory
Milldam LE 1.02
21 May
Streaming – Make it Work for You and Your Students*
TV Studio (Rotunda)
28 May
Introduction to Victory and Communication Tools
Milldam LE 1.02
28 May
The TV Studio – Make it Work for You & Your Students*
TV Studio (Rotunda)
4 June
Adding Content to Victory
Richmond Building 1.05
4 June
Effective Use of Captivate
Milldam LE 1.02
http://www.elearning.port.ac.uk/
1
It’s all about the experience!
Electronic Learning, or ‘eLearning’ is just another form of learning, just as ‘eBusiness’ is
nowadays just another element of doing business. Electronic delivery of a message can
enhance it or detract from it – but ideally the delivery mechanism should be invisible. It is
the message that is important. In recent months, learning materials already being
delivered via the WebCT Virtual Learning Environment have started to be moved to
‘Victory’, the University of Portsmouth’s new VLE. Victory* allows academics to deliver
content to students, either by copying files directly from their local computer hard drive, or
by creating web pages directly within Victory.
Some lecturers prefer to maintain all the resources for the
units they deliver in one place, sometimes via their own
website, such as on the UoP ‘UserWeb’ pages, or a CMS
based portal like Tom Chapman’s ‘Marketing 101’.
However we choose to deliver content, the student experience
will be enhanced by students being able to easily interact with
the materials online. This may involve their watching
streaming videos, taking part in online discussions or
formative quizzes, being able to catch up with a lecture
delivered on campus that they missed, or just studying via a
wireless link in areas around the university grounds.
Students are coming to expect that we will provide these
facilities, and to maintain or expand our student numbers, we
need to respond. In future, every new course will need to
include an online companion site. New courses/units will fail to
get approval from the Associate Dean Academic at validation
events where an appropriate online delivery vehicle does not
form part of the proposal submitted to the validation panel.
Note that both WebCT, and the L:\LectData drive space, are
due for retirement in September 2009.
*‘WebCT Vista’, christened ‘Blackboard Vista Enterprise License’ by WebCT’s
new owners Blackboard Inc., has been branded ‘Victory’ by the UoP.
Email the eTeam!
david.starkey@port.ac.uk
rachel.short@port.ac.uk
elearn@port.ac.uk
Portsmouth Business School
eLearning Team
PBS eTeam: New Resources available to Staff
The Direction of eLearning at the University of Portsmouth
7
2
Blended Learning News
David Starkey: PBS eLearning Coordinator
The second semester of 2007-2008 is now well under way, and a
number of Victory units are in use. Rachel has been very busy
assisting PBS staff gain access to units migrated from WebCT by
the DCQE eLearning Centre, especially for those of you who
couldn’t make the group migration sessions. The one-to-one
tutorials she has provided have proved popular, and will be
offered again during the summer, in the run up to Semester 1 of
the next academic year. Thanks Rachel for a great effort!
We have produced a number of guides to help PBS academic and administration staff
make use of both Victory and other new facilities on offer in 2008.
Firstly, we are about to launch the ‘Guide to Using Video in Higher Education.’ This
document is aimed at describing how users can use video to make all sizes of video
production in support of teaching. Major productions, that draw on facilities offered by
Richard Hackett’s Media Production Team based in ‘The Rotunda,’ can be initiated
using the forms included in the guide. Comprehensive guidance on deciding what type
of video to make, how to write a script, what a ‘treatment’ is, and how to book DCQE’s
media services, is included in Elearning Guide No.1. For less complex productions,
PBS staff can make use of the services of the ELC and Service Delivery technicians to
record smaller lectures, seminars, or classes. PBS has procured new video equipment
to make such productions of high quality – see the centre pages of this leaflet for more.
We will also be launching a printed guide to the features of typical Victory sites in
Elearning Guide No.2, ‘Using the Victory VLE to support Teaching.’ Future guides will
cover podcasting, screencasting, quizzing etc: See the summer issue for details.
The Blended Learning Working Party awarded several chunks of
its £100k budget to course development projects. A business
simulation game being written by Andrew Lee and Sara Gentle
received £10k, and the development of a distance learning
component of the MSc Leadership & Management, being created
by Dr. David Hall’s course team, won £5k. Bids for other amounts
were received, but there currently remains around £75 – £80k
unspent, so why not submit a proposal that will make use of new
learning methods or techniques to enhance your teaching. This
money is available to stimulate innovation in teaching, so go for it!
University Learning Developments
Nipan Maniar: * For the full study summary, see the insert
University eLearning Pedagogic Developer
A podcast is a series of digital media files that are distributed over
the internet for playback on either a portable media player (e.g.
an iPod) or on a PC. Podcasts typically consist of audio files.
However, they can now include audio synchronized with static
graphics (‘enhanced’ podcasts) and even video. Podcasts can be
accessed on the creator’s website or by subscribing to them
through ‘podcatching’ software (e.g. iTunes).
To investigate whether audio podcasting has widespread educational benefits that will
positively impact upon a significant number of students, we carried out a study* at
University of Portsmouth. Five units were selected for this project, one in each faculty.
A total of 323 students where registered for these units. Unit lecturers had to record
an audio to introduce their lecture followed by a lecture summary on weekly basis.
Audio was recorded in an MP3 format using ‘Audacity’ software. In total, 86 audio
files were created and delivered to 323 students studying the units. A survey was
carried out at the end of semester to study the way students accessed audio files. A
total of 256 students (76%) out of 323 students completed the survey.
Of 256 students, 144 students (56%) listened to one or more of the audio files. Audio
files were delivered using two different approaches, either by file delivery via
WebCT/Victory, or by delivery of audio files using RSS downloads via ‘podcatching’
software like iTunes synchronised to an MP3 player. Running time of the audio files
was generally between about four and eleven minutes.
At the end of the semester, the usage of each approach was evaluated. Of 144
students, 63% listened to the audio files on their computer via WebCT/Victory, 24%
subscribed to the podcast as the main way they accessed the audio files, while 13%
of students subscribed to the podcasts, but still via WebCT/Victory. 44% accessed the
files each week for revision, 44% of students accessed the files nearer the end of the
term before exam/coursework, and 33% accessed the files when they were released.
61% of students thought that video files, i.e. audio files synchronised with still graphics
or moving video, would be preferred in future, while 37% of students would prefer a
printable text version. 10% of students were happy with audio files only.
To learn more about Podcasting IDEA (Identify, Design, Embed & Analysis), please
attend the DCQE workshop: “Podcasting – Make it Work for You and Your Students.”
Use of New Media in Teaching
3
6
Using Video & Podcasts in Teaching
Ken talks about
his experiences
using video and
audio to enhance
student learning
in his Economics
undergraduate
Level 1 teaching.
PBS eTeam: ‘You Make, We Bake!’
Victory Migration & Course Development
Ken Heather: Economics eLearning Champion
Rachel Short: PBS Online Course Developer
I deliver annually a unit in Economics to around 400 level one nonspecialist students. This is a course that I have delivered many
times before. It is very intensive and covers a huge amount of
ground. Although some students are very enthusiastic others see it
as subject to be gotten out of the way, whilst still others are
frightened of it.
Victory Migration 1 has seen the delivery of more than 25 PBS
one-to-one sessions, which have proven to be very popular with
those who couldn’t attend the scheduled workshops. To continue
a good level of in-house support for our VLE, we will be running a
weekly drop-in clinic for all your Victory queries – see below.
In the autumn of 2007 I added some learning materials for the first
time. First I took some economics films that I had made as part of
an FDTL project. By modifying the content they were suitable for
use with students in a workshop context. Students watched a film,
then spent a short period in groups working through a series of
problems based on the film they had seen. The films and the
questions were available to students on Victory so they could
watch again or go through the material if they had missed the
class.
The other learning resource was for students to use in their own
time. This was also made available on Victory. It was a series of
podcast recordings of lecture summaries. There were two sets.
The first set contained a ten minute summary of each of the
lectures. These I had specially recorded and made available to
students weekly after the lecture was delivered live.
The hope was that students would listen to these podcasts
before coming to the lecture in the following week. They could
either listen to the podcasts on a UoP computer or have them
downloaded to their IPod. Each lecture podcast had a page of
accompanying notes, also available on Victory. The second IPod Nanos come
contained five minute summaries of what was to come in the in a range of
next lecture. This was also available on Victory.
colours, but some
The results of this experiment were mixed. The films were students prefer
generally received well. The IPods were listened to by only to watch video
listen
to
about 20% of students but those that did listen were and
enthusiastic and felt that it was a valuable learning resource. podcasts on their
These resources are now being made available to PCs. The UoP can
support either!
Collaborative Programme students in Bulgaria.
Drop-In Clinic (Computer Lab) – get help with Victory:
Richmond Building RB1.02 Wednesdays: 1pm to 2pm
Richmond Building RB1.03 Fridays:
1pm to 2pm
The remaining units within WebCT (semester 1 and semester B units) will be migrated
to Victory in the next few months. It is anticipated that all units migrated from WebCT
will be working within Victory from September 2008.
The eLearning centre is looking at the next stage of the project, which will focus on
additional functionality such as: e-portfolios, live classroom, voice tools and podcasting.
This is due to commence in September 2009 and they have begun exploring tools such
as Pebble Pad and Wimba (collaboration suite). Depending on the level of interest, the
aim is to introduce Wimba as an integrated set of tools within your Victory site. Please
contact me if you want to learn more about this.
Students should be automatically attached to unit sites. All new course portals will be
self-registering and any e-learning related queries should be directed to
elearn@port.ac.uk and not the personal email addresses of staff within DCQE.
Some of the problems experienced within Victory have highlighted bugs within the
system. The plan was to release a patch to fix these errors on the 15th February 2008.
This was abandoned due to members of staff expressing this as their ‘go-live’ date.
DCQE and IS will now be taking down our VLE to rollout 15 patches onto 3 servers on
the 14th March 2008. There will be no access for students or staff on that day, and you
may experience a few issues with the system for a couple of days after the installation.
The idle time within Victory has recently been increased from 30 minutes to 3 hours to
enable staff to continue to amend their sites without being kicked out of the system half
way through a chat session or similar.
Login to MyVictory: https://victory.port.ac.uk/webct/logonDisplay.dowebct
DCQE eLearning Centre Media Production
PBS Equipment Overview: New Video Recording Facilities
5
4
Making a Major Video Production
Richard Hackett:
Head of Media Production
Part of the eLearning Centre, the UoP
Media Production Team is based in ‘The
Rotunda’ on Ravelin Park. Where it is
desirable to create a longer video
production in a range of formats, Richard
Hackett can advise on the possibilities.
Richard and his team have backgrounds
in broadcasting, and can provide advice
or create a full scale video production
from script to screen.
The Rotunda is a fully equipped and
modern TV Studio, recently equipped
with an additional £150k of new systems
and equipment. These facilities include a
professional multi-camera environment
where interviews, discussions, and
presentations
can
be
recorded.
Additional facilities include a ‘green
screen’, (permitting a background to be
replaced with videos or images via
‘chromakeying’), and an audio recording
booth. PBS staff can book this to make
high quality audio files that can be
streamed from the streaming server farm
and called from a link in Victory. Richard
and his team can provide professional
facilities and advice on location filming
that might take place on or off campus.
Creation of images, backgrounds and
soundtracks is also within their remit.
Follow the link below to learn more.
www.elearning.port.ac.uk/projects
Means of Recording Video for Teaching
Making Video in Richmond Building
PBS has acquired a video kit that will enable staff to
video classes, seminars, or other sessions where a
single camera and up to two high quality
microphones would be needed. The kit includes a
radio microphone so that talks where only the
speaker and what they are saying (but not the
audience) must be recorded, can be filmed.
The camera is a Sony PMW-EX1, capable of
recording high definition video at 1920 x 1080 pixels
resolution to up to two solid state SXS Express
Cards. These cards can be removed and inserted
into any computer fitted with an Express Card slot,
or into an Express Card reader. Footage can then
be immediately imported into video editing software,
eliminating the need to capture it, which can
otherwise take hours or days. The kit also comes
with lights, cases, monitor, batteries and a tripod.
The video kit will be available for use by trained
academics or service delivery technicians upon
request, as described on page two of this leaflet.
If you have an event you would like to
film, or have filmed for you, why not
ask David Starkey or Richard Hackett
about how to go about it? Have a go!