Making lectures more
interactive
Pilot studies of LectureTools at UCL
Vicki Dale, Jane Britton, Jane Burns & Matt Whyndham
v.dale@ucl.ac.uk
BETT 2014, London
LectureTools Overview
• Interactive teaching and learning software
– Hosted on a cloud
– Students interact with slides in real time
• Lecture prepared in PowerPoint
– Interactive slides added
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Multiple choice
Short answer
Ordered list
Image quiz
Numerical response
Multimedia
Rationale for using LectureTools
• To make
classroom-based
teaching more
interactive in a
project
management
course
• To explore the
functionality of
LectureTools
Low Risk Pilot
• Voluntary short course
• Non-academic (degree-related)
– Used for exam preparation
• High-performing students
• Small numbers
• Printed notes and normal PowerPoints available
Piloting the Pilot
• Practice run with E-Learning Environments team
• Range of devices
• Found out shortcomings / problems prior to
student pilot
– iPad app
– Texting facility
– Publishing results
• Need for signposting
Editing View
Presentation View (Lecturer)
The Dashboard
Student View
Publish Results
Written Answer Question
Written Answer View
Written Answer Responses
Ordered List
Drawing Tool
Pedagogic Use
• Exam preparation
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Practice
Share
Discuss
Peer learning
Anonymised
Dashboard questions answered retrospectively
2nd Larger Scale Pilot
Jane Burns
• Marketing Communications Module
• 50+ third year undergraduates
• LectureTools used for:
– Quick quiz questions
– Open questions
– Polls/Votes
• Also for launching interactive pre-linked materials
such as YouTube clips
Pilot study evaluation methods
• Observation of a 1-hour lecture
• Students
– Anonymised questionnaire
– Comments (benefits and limitations)
– Focus group
• Interviews with educators
Results of pilot evaluation
• 17 students participated
• Observation
– Range of devices used
• Some limitations with mobile devices
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http://www.flickr.com/photos/
rightee/2703215957/
Good signposting throughout by lecturer
Students using LectureTools to take/highlight notes
MCQs – no difficulties observed
Drag and drop problematic on mobile devices
Text responses – took longer, opportunity for distraction
– Wikipedia, email, social media, online shopping
LectureTools …
Would be a welcome addition to lectures
Made note-taking easier
Helped me engage with the topic
Was easy to use
Made the lecture more interesting
Strongly
agree
Agree
Stimulated my thinking about the subject
Enabled me to measure my understanding of the
subject
Neutral
Stimulated discussion in the classroom
Disagree
Helped me to prepare for the APMP exam
Strongly
disagree
Made the topic interesting for me
Distracted me from my learning
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
Perceived benefits
Interactivity encourages engagement and concentration
Easy to use
‘Cool’ or ‘great’
Note-taking feature was good
Helpful, improves teaching and learning
Can flag areas of concern
Like the drawing tool
Potential to enhance distance learning
Texting the answers a good feature
Opportunity to ask questions
Quizzes
It is practical
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5
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10
Perceived limitations
Distraction
[Open] Questions take too much time to answer
Drag and drop difficult
Texting answers problematic
Concerns about large class size
Worried about missing content in lecture
Worried about misspelled answers being displayed in front of
peers
Dislike staring at the screen
Technical glitches
Not all students have laptops or mobile devices
Activities initially hidden
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5
Suggested improvements
Option to download slides
Opportunity to review a summary of own answers at the end
of the session
Improvements to iPhone and iPad interface
Enable Windows shortcuts (Ctrl-S)
Link typed notes to parts of slides
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3
Student focus group
 Recognised benefit to learning
 Appreciated ability to ask Qs
during the lecture
http://www.flickr.com/photos/myutb/6355417549/
 (Initial) resistance to typing notes
in LTs
 Not suitable for drawing diagrams
 Open questions significantly
slowed session
Re: Benefit to learning
“I liked the LectureTools a lot. I’m really impressed by it. It’s so easy
to use and so helpful and most of us nowadays work on computers
anyway during the lecture so it just makes it easier not to write
everything in Word, copy the slides, we have everything on one
screen.”
“We haven’t really asked a question to a lecturer but I think that’s
great, that you can write a question and then the lecturer looks there
and then they can answer it.”
Suggested improvement (analytics)
“It would be nice if we had … at the end of the session a summary
of our answers, whether we got it right, whether we know the
things … because we did quite a lot of multiple choice questions
… so it would be nice to actually see at the end whether all of the
ones I answered were correct or not, whether I have to go through
it again or not. Because after so many questions, I could not
remember my answers, whether I was correct in all of them or
not.”
Interviews with staff
 Able to ascertain what students were thinking
 Able to provide feedback on student answers
 Some UI issues
 Underestimated time needed to create presentation
 Unable to monitor dashboard during live teaching
 Unable to download slides
 Changed the class dynamics
 Students with different devices had different experiences
 Reluctant to use with a larger class
Conclusion: Recommend more trials before wider roll-out
Re: the changed classroom dynamics…
“It changed the dynamics of the class, actually, because
everyone was focused on their computers. It really was
noticeably different. They weren’t looking at me, they weren’t
looking at each other, they were interacting with each other but
via their devices. That felt strange, it made the class quiet. It
was very quiet and focused, it felt strange actually. I’m used to
students putting up their hands or discussing in groups or
whatever. In one sense it isolated them while they were
working on a task, because they were focused on their typing
or their computer."
Overall findings
• Successful proof of concept
– Supported interactivity and engagement
• Some technical issues, especially mobile devices and
classroom bandwidth
• Need to better understand impact on teaching and learning
approaches
• http://discovery.ucl.ac.uk/1402478/
Considerations
• LectureTools is one of a number of interactive classroom
/ electronic voting systems
• Need to consider:
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What you will use the system for e.g. voting, testing, feedback
Discipline-specific needs
Educators’ openness to interactive lectures & the technology
Wi-fi capability in lecture theatres
Mobile device ownership (inclusion & access)
Licensing models (one-off vs. monthly/yearly subscription)
Retrieval of data (analytics)
Support required
Scalability
Questions and discussion …