DISTANCE LEARNING
FACILITATING STUDENT PRESENTATIONS WITHIN THE MOODLE COURSE
FRAMEWORK
BACKGROUND – MODUS OPERANDI
• The PPR Dept. offers students a range of modular distance learning MA courses
• The modules are based on the Moodle framework
• Student access designed to be flexible (time zones - working hours)
• Recorded lectures on are posted each week for student viewing
• Students expected to participate in discussions by ‘posting’ responses and opinions on
the week’s topic. (equivalent to online seminar discussion)
• Sometimes asked to record their own presentation and upload
BACKGROUND – EXAMPLE ‘SEMINAR’
BACKGROUND – EXAMPLE MODULE
BACKGROUND - LIMITATIONS
• Sometimes asked to record their own presentation and upload to Moodle
• This is intended to replicate and facilitate seminar discussion
• A real-time on-line discussion is impractical due to:
distance learners work/family commitments
distance learners based in different time zones
BACKGROUND - TIME ZONES IMPACT
THE ISSUE
• Sometimes asked to record their own presentation and upload
• Student’s ability to perform this task has had mixed results
• Since course inception a large number of students consistently fail to upload a ‘working’
presentation
ANALYSIS
ANALYSIS - STUDENT ISSUES
• Sample taken of one PPR MA distance learning group in 2014-15
• Twenty one participants in module
• Wide geographical range (Europe, Central Asia, Middle East, N America, S America)
• Wide age range (from early twenties to sixties)
• Looked at actual results
ANALYSIS – SUCCESS/FAILURE TO POST
ANALYSIS –ISSUES RAISED BY STUDENTS
• Could not post with audio
• Windows media formats too old - clashes
• Wrong format posted… not accessible to other students
• Couldn’t figure it out, saved & posted as PDF instead
• Difficult to do audio & visual…posted separate presentation with separate audio
• Posted blank presentation
OTHER INSIGHTS
• Age was an irrelevance
• Geographical location irrelevant
• Lack of understanding was an issue
• Platform issues causing software conflicts
ANALYSIS - PLATFORMS
SOLUTIONS
INTERIM & LONGER TERM
INTERIM – BASIC ‘HOW TO GUIDES’ (MAC & WINDOWS)
Starting point is need to
Ensure students utilize the Office
365 suite which includes the
latest PowerPoint version.
Produced basic ‘How to Guide’
More sophisticated response
needed…
INTERIM- XERTE
• Identified Xerte as an appropriate on-line resource for creating help
• Open –source
• Lancaster University support/hosting
• https://xerte.lancaster.ac.uk
• Tool kits to build ‘learning’ projects
INTERIM – XERTE SYSTEM
SOLUTIONS – LONGER TERM
• Need a system which can operate across platforms
• Can operate using different browsers
• Easy for student to use AND upload
• Can be supported by Lancaster IT
• Is both secure and private but accessible to other course participants
• Does not involve extra monthly fees
EVALUATION OF ALTERNATIVES
• Various presentation systems evaluated but rejected on the basis of security, access, ease of use issues,
costs, platform & browser incompatibilities and problems experienced by other universities. These
included for example:
• Kaltura
• Prezi
• Explain Everything
• Camista Studio
• Google Docs
• Exception was Panopto….
PANOPTO
• Concluded continued use of PowerPoint (PP) was the best way forward due to student
familiarity & access to the programme.
• Can facilitate the recording & uploading of a student PP presentation to Moodle.
• Panopto allows the extension of recording rights to students participating in specific
Moodle modules
• Achieved by the creation of a student ‘assignment folder’ by the Administrator unique to
each student on the course.
PANOPTO FEATURES: SIMPLE STUDENT INTERFACE
PANOPTO FEATURES : PLATFORMS SUPPORTED
PANOPTO FEATURES:VIDEO & AUDIO CAPTURE
Student captures their PowerPoint
presentation with audio source (and in-screen
‘talking-head’ if desired).
When completed, the student uploads to the Lancaster
server.
USED BY OTHER UNIVERSITIES
University of South
Wales
Imperial College
London
University of Kent
University of Bath
Southampton University
Louisiana State
University
Eastern Washington
University
University of
Washington
Hong Kong University
Bangor University
BANGOR UNIVERSITY
• “We’ve also begun to allow students to use Panopto to film their own assignments and submit to
a tutor via Panopto’s ‘drop box’ style functionality.This is definitely an increasing use case for the
video platform and lots of academics are now asking for their students to be able to create
recordings for assessment.”
PANOPTO BENEFITS
• Relatively simple for student to use
• Relatively easy for administrator to set up student folder
• Easy access for module lecturer/tutor to evaluate student presentation
• No platform issues
• Secure (Lancaster) hosting
• Existing Panopto systems already used in Lancaster (expertise)
• Student functionality already used in other universities.
NEXT STEPS
• Roll out the Basic Guide and the Xerte ‘decision tree’ help guide to the PPR Distance
Learning Hub page
• Trial the Panopto Student ‘upload facility’ to a PPR Distance learning MA module to
assess.