Balancing e-lectures with podcasts: a case study of an undergraduate engineering module

The work described in this paper is based on an engineering module that has run for six years (each academic year since 2004). The module is run online although the learners are campus-based students. This has provided an unusual opportunity to compare the same students’ experiences of on-campus and online courses. The course comprises a rich online environment including e-lectures, podcasts, video clips, website links, animations, background reading, formative quizzes, summative assignments and discussion boards. The e-lectures comprise a PowerPoint-like screen with a spoken audio track and other facilities, including a rolling transcript, video controls (for stopping, pausing and rewinding) and a search facility. Each e‑lecture is short (a maximum of ten minutes) and links to some of the learning materials (e.g. video clips and formative quizzes). The podcasts are mp3 audio files, each lasting approximately ten minutes, and are produced weekly and published through the virtual learning environment. This paper presents a pedagogical model that has been designed to develop a structure for combining these virtual learning elements and considers some of the opportunities provided by such innovative approaches for the enhancement of engineering teaching at undergraduate level. It presents research findings on student learning outcomes and provides suggestions for adopting the design for learning model presented in the paper

Evaluating the impact of video-based versus traditional lectures on student learning

Copyright ©2010 International Research Journals. This full-text open access article is available at the link below.Although, computer assisted learning and multimedia programs have emerged into higher education institutions, there is no clear evidence that such a movement can improve student learning. This study was conducted to provide an objective assessment of the impact of lectures with the use of video clips on student learning over traditional teaching methods. Five university students participated and experimental control was achieved using an alternating-treatments design. Overall, students experienced sixteen 5-minute lectures, half on kinesiology and half on psychological issues for children, delivered by either traditional or video-based methods. Results showed that teaching material based on video clips was at least as equally effective as standard teaching lectures. Similar data were collected during 1-, 2-, and 3-week follow-up measures. These results come in agreement with the current literature reinforcing the suggestion that the use of videos in education may hold great promises.This article is available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund

Learning flexibility: the environment and a case study

This paper outlines the flexible student learning environment in the Faculty of Engineering and Surveying, before concentrating on evaluating one online learning option. This Faculty provides a variety of high quality on-campus, distance education and on-line academic programmes and various learning strategies for the heterogeneous student cohort (national and international). By accessing appropriate flexible learning and different learning experiences, students are empowered to determine learning opportunities and methodologies to suit their personal needs. The off-campus mode study may disadvantage students since they don’t have the benefit of face-to-face instructions or to participate in formative assessments delivered informally in lectures. This may lead to feelings of remoteness and isolation leading to poorer learning, lower results in assessments, and may also contribute to drop-out rates, particularly in first year courses. To overcome this inequity, the usual training materials presented for a first year course in 2005 were supplemented with PowerPoint lectures, enhanced with synchronous audio, and a series of quizzes to be used as formative assessments. The lectures and quizzes were presented online via a course web site and were designed to become an integral part of the learning experience. An evaluation of the effectiveness of these strategy demonstrated improved students' learning, a positive contribution to the learning experience, increased enjoyment of the course, and a strong learning motivator. Students reported feeling less disenfranchised with the university and having a greater affinity with the lecturer

Podcasting in Higher Education: Students’ Usage Behaviour

At German universities, podcasting is still a relatively new method of teaching and learning, on which only few studies are available so far. The present report aims to describe students’ usage behaviour and their assess- ment of podcasting. The findings are based on a survey of students at the University of Flensburg, who took part in lectures recorded and made avail- able as podcasts during the 2007 summer term and 2007/08 winter term. A total of 148 students took part at the two survey sessions. The majority of the surveyed students are inexperienced in the use of podcasts, as the descriptive results show. For most of the respondents, lecture podcasts were their first contact with this medium. Mainly a notebook is used to listen – at home – to the podcast of the recorded lecture. The focus in this regard is on playing back or catching up on the lecture at a later point in time. The main purpose for the students is to systematically prepare ahead of written tests and examinations. Slightly more than half of the respondents consider the opportunity to use podcasts to be no substitute for attending lectures. A clear factor in the success of lecture podcasts is that they are available with no cost involved. Another important factor is that the students can reuse and replay the recorded lecture. Podcasts are considered a possibility to assimilate the contents of lectures better and more efficiently. Students who do not use lecture podcasts justify this by stating that they have difficulties in learning with a computer.podcasting, podcast, higher education, usage behavior

Innovative learning in action (ILIA) issue five: Learning technologies in the curriculum

Consideration of the papers and snapshots in this edition of Innovative Learning in Action, focused on learning technology, will provide the reader with insights into a range of excellent and innovative approaches to the application of learning technologies to enhance learning both in the classroom and at a distance. It also provides us with examples of how learning technologies can both stimulate and support partnership with staff and students and collaborative learning and working. This edition is particularly timely given the aim of the University’s 2005-2008 Learning Technologies Implementation Plan (LTIP), which is to enhance the quality of, and access to, learning, teaching and assessment by supporting and developing the curriculum through the appropriate and effective use of learning technologies. The LTIP is designed to help us to reach a situation where the effective use of appropriate learning technologies becomes part of our normal teaching, research and enterprise activities, and enhances access to our programmes by all our students whether they are learning on campus, at a distance, or in the workplace. The emphasis at the University of Salford has consistently been on the identification and creative application of the appropriate blends of ICT and traditional methods, shaped by pedagogical, rather than technological drivers, and acknowledging and reflecting different academic contexts and professional and vocational requirements. We have some excellent examples of how this has been achieved here, ILIA once again providing us with an opportunity to reflect on practice and student learning, to share experience and hopefully to identify future areas for collaboration in a key area of curriculum development

Exploring the virtual classroom: What students need to know (and teachers should consider)

Technological improvements in many countries have meant that institutions offering distance education programmes now have more options available to them to communicate and interact with their students, and increasingly, attention is being turned to the potential of Web2 technologies to facilitate synchronous interaction. This study explores the affordances and limitations of an online virtual classroom, Adobe Connect Pro, when used in the learning programmes of two groups of undergraduate and postgraduate education students. Results indicate that while both groups gained value from using the classroom, they also found it a completely new environment, and one to which many had trouble transferring the interaction and communication skills developed in other contexts. The reasons for this related to three specific areas of knowledge – technical, procedural and operational, that were identified as being critical to student performance in this environment. The study suggests that educators and course designers need to embed strategies into their online offerings to enable students to develop these, if they are to gain substantial benefit from the availability of virtual classrooms. Additionally, the study identified that when making design decisions about online learning environments, it is very much a matter of horses for courses when selecting tools for specific purposes. While the virtual classroom proved useful for developing social connection and a sense of community, it may not be so beneficial for supporting deeper learning

Media Usage in Post-Secondary Education and Implications for Teaching and Learning

The Web 2.0 has permeated academic life. The use of online information services in post-secondary education has led to dramatic changes in faculty teaching methods as well as in the learning and study behavior of students. At the same time, traditional information media, such as textbooks and printed handouts, still form the basic pillars of teaching and learning. This paper reports the results of a survey about media usage in teaching and learning conducted with Western University students and instructors, highlighting trends in the usage of new and traditional media in higher education by instructors and students. In addition, the survey comprises part of an international research program in which 20 universities from 10 countries are currently participating. Further, the study will hopefully become a part of the ongoing discussion of practices and policies that purport to advance the effective use of media in teaching and learning

Maximising Social Interactions and Effectiveness within Distance Learning Courses: Cases from Construction

Advanced Internet technologies have revolutionised the delivery of distance learning education. As a result, the physical proximity between learners and the learning providers has become less important. However, whilst the pervasiveness of these technological developments has reached unprecedented levels, critics argue that the student learning experience is still not as effective as conventional face-to-face delivery. In this regard, surveys of distance learning courses reveal that there is often a lack of social interaction attributed to this method of delivery, which tends to leave learners feeling isolated due to a lack of engagement, direction, guidance and support by the tutor. This paper defines and conceptualises this phenomenon by investigating the extent to which distance-learning programmes provide the social interactions of an equivalent traditional classroom setting. In this respect, two distance learning case studies were investigated, covering the UK and Slovenian markets respectively. Research findings identified that delivery success is strongly dependent on the particular context to which the specific distance learning course is designed, structured and augmented. It is therefore recommended that designers of distance learning courses should balance the tensions and nuances associated with commercial viability and pedagogic effectiveness