Journal of Learning and Teaching No. 1

University of Chichester E-Learning Benchmarking Report - ExecutiveSummary

Web 2.0 – What is it and Why You Should Care

Blogs and Work-Based Learning (WBL): The Design, Implementation andReview of Online Learning Logs

The Long and Winding Highway: 10 years of C&IT and E-learning Revisited

To E-nfinity and Beyond: Taking the Plunge into Podcasting and Pedagogy

How to Guides: Creating a Podcast

How to Guides: Embedding a YouTube Video into a PowerPoint Presentation

JOLTJournal of Learning

& Teaching

JOLT

E-Learning

Journal of Learning and Teaching

1

Journal of Learning and TeachingIssue 1: E-Learning

Contents

University of Chichester E-Learning BenchmarkingReport - Executive SummaryJohn Scriven

Web 2.0 – What is it and Why You Should CareLindsay Da Silva

Blogs and Work-Based Learning (WBL): The Design,Implementation and Review of Online Learning LogsTim Friesner

The Long and Winding Highway: 10 years of C&IT andE-learning RevisitedDr Jessica de Mellow

To E-nfinity and Beyond: Taking the Plunge intoPodcasting and PedagogyIan Worden

How to Guides: Creating a PodcastMatthew (Roz) Hall

How to Guides: Embedding a YouTube Video into aPowerPoint PresentationDr Andy Clegg

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p. 32

p. 34

June 2008


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University of Chichester E-Learning Benchmarking ReportExecutive Summary

John ScrivenOnline Learning Co-ordinator

From May 2007 to January 2008, the University of Chichester participated in Phase 2

of the HEA/JISC led e-Learning Benchmarking process. The aim of this exercise has

been to examine our progress in embedding e-learning throughout the University

and the ways in which it has altered the student learning experience. Along with 37

institutions in England and Wales in Phase 1 and 24 in Phase 2, Chichester’s results

will form part of a national picture that will inform HEFCE policy.

The Benchmarking Exercise was timely in that Chichester was due to undertake a

review of existing e-learning policy and practice during 2007. The aim was to reflect

on what had been achieved so far and to modify existing strategies. Benchmarking

was welcomed wholeheartedly as an exercise allowing us to formalize the review

process within an environment that would see us working with, and learning from,

other institutions in the sector. It would also give us access to a team of experienced

advisors and ultimately to create strategies based on thorough research.

The Benchmarking exercise was completed during the autumn semester 2007, involving

as many staff and students as possible in order to generate reliable data. E-learning

Benchmarking (BM) has been coordinated by the Centre for Learning and Teaching

and the results are being disseminated via an external report to HEA/JISC and an

internal report (this document). The reports were also presented to the Learning &

Teaching committee and formed part of the annual Learning & Teaching Conference.

Anticipated outcomes from the exercise:

· A clearer picture of what the University delivers in terms of e-Learning

· The perception of both academic and support staff in the effectiveness of e-learning

· The perception of students in how e-learning is supporting their study

· An understanding of what is needed to improve the effectiveness of e-learning

· A strategy to implement the findings and to embed the Benchmarking process

· An e-Learning Semester to raise awareness of the findings


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Summary of Findings General observations

· Students are positive about e-learning and find it essential to their study

· Staff find e-learning a useful way of enhancing the student experience

· E-learning is being developed in interesting and exciting ways across the University

· Both staff & students comment on the limitations of the present systems

· Staff comment on the lack of time & resources to engage fully with e-learning

Areas of good practice:

· Strategic documentation is regularly updated and reviewed

· The VLE extends to all students down to modular level

· The project fund for staff helps develop innovative e-learning

· E-learning is led by pedagogy, not by technology

Key areas that need to be addressed in the light of the findings:

· Portia has many of the essential components of a Virtual Learning Environment

(VLE) but is lacking in several areas, e.g. online assessment, document management

and detailed student tracking. The University needs to introduce a true VLE such

as Moodle in order to answer the criticisms of the present system.

· The present system is perceived as less than 100% reliable. Better resourcing in

terms of backup systems and more trained staff would improve both real and

perceived performance.

· There is little understanding of the costs of using technology in learning (this is

problematic across the sector as a whole), an example being determining staff

workload in using technology to enhance learning. A better costing model needs

to be developed.

· At present much of the development work is being undertaken by enthusiasts,

without reward or recognition. Together with a lack of a costing model, this may

result in progress that will be less structured, ad hoc and depend on the goodwill

of a few early developers.

· Although e-learning is generally well-accepted, there are areas where this is not

the case. The staff development team needs more specialists in educational

technology who can work across the University. The profile of e-learning needs to

be raised by targeted activities to demonstrate its usefulness. With this in view,

the semester from January to May has been designated an e-Learning Semester

with a series of events and workshops.


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· Usability (the ease of using e-learning) tends to be assumed rather than tested

according to agreed standards. An example is that of staff & students who comment

on difficulty in navigating around Portia - both groups need to be involved in

evaluating systems. This procedure is already underway.

· Accessibility (access for disabled students & staff) to e-learning resources is only

at a minimum level. Although the University reacts swiftly to student needs, it

needs a clear policy that responds to this legal requirement. It is recommended

that a working group be set up to address this issue. Initial meetings with the

Disability & Academic Skills Service, Information Services and the Online Learning

Coordinator have already taken place.

Chichester needs to build on the general enthusiasm for e-learning and utilise the

information from benchmarking in a strategic manner so we can move towards

achieving our vision of the effective application of learning technology for all our

learners, whatever their mode of study.

The University has made great strides in e-learning during the last few years and now

compares well with other institutions in terms of planning and strategic

documentation. However, it is not able to implement these strategies particularly

well, for a variety of reasons. These include lack of human resources to support e-

systems and financial resources to improve the quality and robustness of these systems.

In addition, it is clear that there has been a lack of commitment in the past and an

ability to avoid engaging more fully in e-learning. As has been noted by several key

staff, the University needs to invest in improving e-learning resources if it is to meet

the expectations of staff and students, both present and future.

The Benchmarking Exercise has proved extremely useful in identifying areas of good

practice as well as areas of concern. It is important to embed this process into an

ongoing cycle of Quality Assurance in order to provide a continuing quality audit of e-

learning.

The exercise has also demonstrated that Chichester has many areas of e-learning where

it exceeds the maturity level of other universities. Having made a good start, it is

important that we build on our successes and improve in the areas where we are less

good.


5

Web 2.0 – What is it and Why You Should Care

Lindsay Da SilvaTechnical Services Librarian

Abstract This article is about the ideas behind Web 2.0, and looks at some examples of Web 2.0

services, such as RSS, blogs, and social-bookmarking, and how these can be used to

enhance learning and teaching.

Introduction to the Idea You may already have seen the term ‘Web 2.0’, or similar, in a number of areas, and

indeed many people just add ‘2.0’ to other terms (e.g. ‘Library 2.0’, for Web 2.0 ideas

in libraries) to describe these new ideas. So, what does it all mean?

Web 2.0 is a difficult term to define, since it represents a trend, or way of thinking that

is made up of certain common ideas about the development of the web. The main

idea shared by most Web 2.0 technologies is concerned with putting the user at the

centre of the service, so that they get the services they want and that are relevant for

them, rather than being on the ‘outside’ using the service. There are a number of

attributes shared by most of these services, such as being hosted services, so the user

doesn’t have to install them (very useful in ‘locked-down’ PC environments, such as at

most institutions). Lots of the services are free, some just requiring registering with

an email or username/password, so you can try them and use or discard them

depending on how useful they are to you, and most are also very easy to use to

encourage the end-users. I guess one of the most important idea is that of sharing

and collaboration, hence the impact of social networks, blogs, and wikis.

Internet

User 1: searching for particular websites

User 2: searching for particular websites

‘Web 1.0’:

The ‘Old’ Way


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You may now be thinking that this is all very well and good (though it may sound

rather waffly, which may reinforce the idea that all this is just a fad!), but some of the

Web 2.0 services can really change the way you work, and add a new sense of

motivation and excitement as you discover new ways of doing things. You don’t need

to worry or understand what the term really means, you just need to try the various

services and experiment with them to check if they are relevant to you and do what

you require, and if not, you can either discard them, or better still, re-purpose them

to suit your own requirements. This, I think, is one of the hardest parts of Web 2.0

stuff – trying to be imaginative and thinking about ways you could use a new service

to more accurately reflect your own individual requirements. The exciting part of all

this, though, is that a service can be transformed into a really useful and popular tool

just by imaginatively tweaking it to suit a particular environment.

So, you now have a vague sense of the ideas behind Web 2.0, but as I said earlier, it’s

all about the services and technologies that allow you to engage in all this creativity,

collaboration, and sharing of ideas, so what are the services, where can you find out

about them, and how do you use them? Well, there are lots and lots of services

which could be described as Web 2.0-type services, and this in itself can be a problem.

There are just so many services that people don’t know which service to try, which is

the ‘best’ one, and sometimes they just give up trying any of them! You need some

sort of strategy to cope with the mass of stuff out there, and the best way I think is to

concentrate on particular categories of service. The world of Web 2.0 technologies

can be divided into particular areas, such as RSS, blogs, wikis, podcasts, social

bookmarking, social networks, virtual worlds, etc, etc, and within each of these broad

categories, there are many examples of software services that perform similar functions

in each area. So, how do you know which is the ‘best’ blogging software, for example.

Well, ‘best’ depends on your own particular requirements, so it’s very hard to compile

a list of the ‘best’ blogging software, and this applies to all the other categories as

well. The best way is just to try various services until you find one you like, and of

Web 2.0:

User-Centred

and Sharing

Internet

User 1: receives updated information

from chosen websites

User 2: receives updated information

from chosen websites

Sharing between users via Web 2.0 services


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course you can rely on the recommendations of others to create that short list of

services to try in each category.

The logical next question is where to start your Web 2.0 journey? Again it all depends

on your particular requirements and interests, but I would suggest you start with RSS,

since this technology will keep you informed about all the other services that are

constantly developing in this rapidly changing area.

Really Simple Syndication (RSS) RSS stands for ‘Really Simple Syndication’ or ‘Rich Site Summary’, and is one of the

most important and useful Web 2.0 tools. If you do nothing else, use RSS – it will save

you lots of time and help keep you up to date in whatever field you’re interested in.

So, what does it do? When you find an interesting web site, what do you do? You

make a note of the address so you can come back to it by saving it in your web browser’s

favourites, or some other method. When you want to see if there’s anything new on

that website, you type in the address or click on your favourites list to get back to the

site, and look through the whole website to see if there’s anything new. RSS saves you

all this time by alerting you, via an RSS reader, when anything new is added and tells

you what it is. So, instead of you going out to search for that new stuff, it comes to

you, all within the one space of your RSS reader (you see what I mean about Web 2.0

services being user-centric?). As you can imagine, this can save a huge amount of

time, since you don’t have to keep checking all those useful websites for information,

and also makes sure you keep up to date with all the new stuff that is being added to

any of the websites from which you have created a feed. Most readers allow you to

mark any new feeds as ‘read’, and thus you can keep organised and just read the new

feeds, or any particular headline that grabs your attention.

Sounds good, but how do you set it all up? You first need to decide which RSS reader

you want to use – as usual it all depends on personal preference, but I would

recommend either Bloglines1 or Google Reader2. Once you’ve registered, you just

have to log in to the service and then you can start to add feeds to your chosen reader.

This is simply a matter of clicking the RSS icon and adding the resulting link to your

reader – the reader will have instructions on how to do this. You can create feeds

from any website that displays an RSS icon as above (note that they don’t always look

exactly like this, but they will be similar). You can find this especially on news sites

and blogs, since they are updated regularly, but increasingly you find RSS feeds on lots

of other sites too. You’ll soon have to stop yourself creating too many feeds, but it’s

very easy to add and delete feeds from your reader. Then, whenever you have a spare

moment, just log in to your reader and see if there’s anything new to read. It’s also

much quicker to scan the list of headlines on your feed reader until you find something

of interest, before you mark them all read.


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From a library point of view, RSS is also a very good way of keeping up to date with

new research and news in your chosen field since lots of journals have RSS feeds with

tables of contents. So you could create a folder on your reader with all the feeds from

your favourite journals, and thus be able to quickly scan the list of articles from the

latest issue to find any topics of interest. RSS has lots of other potential uses as well,

remember, it’s up to you to think of the best use of this technology. I personally find

it an invaluable tool, for example for keeping up to date with new Web 2.0

developments via various blogs I subscribe to, as well as keeping track of new

documentation and forum postings from our library management system supplier.

Blogs Now that you’re keeping up to date with all that’s happening in the world and in

whatever subjects you’re interested in, you keep finding out about lots of new and

interesting stuff which you, now being a Web 2.0 convert (!), feel you must share.

Hence we come to the wonderful world of blogs. Again, you may have a view that

blogs are either for geeks who only like to write about techy stuff, or people who feel

they must share the day to day happenings of their lives with the rest of the world!

However, blogs can be a great tool for anyone involved in education, since they are a

very useful way of communicating with others – you write the post when you’re ready,

and your readers can read it whenever they are ready to digest the information (again,

user-centric). Also, that information can be delivered to your readers in easy-to-digest

bits of information, which you can build upon, post by post, gradually educating your

readers about a particular subject.

In the library, we’ve found that writing a blog has benefits not only for the readers,

but also for the authors. Not only does it improve your written communication skills,

but it also helps in clarifying your ideas or explanations, as you find yourself thinking

about the best way to describe something within the confines of a succinct and

interesting blog post. Writing blog posts regularly also motivates you to learn new

things in your field (“what am I going to blog about for this week?”), and it gets you

thinking about ideas and issues. Blogs can also help you collaborate with your fellow

colleagues since you can pass on ideas which may not suit your particular blog but

may be useful to them. This way, discussion is stimulated and the result should be the

production of interesting and insightful blog posts.

I must not forget to add that I actually find writing blog posts quite fun, since it’s a

creative activity (a screenshot of my e-Library blog is below – accessible from the

Library Services home page on Portia). Blogs are a very good medium for getting

information quickly to your readers, but be warned that it can take some time to

establish a readership of any size. It helps if you post to your blog on a regular basis -

I try to write a post at least once a week, and you can also store up ideas by writing

drafts and releasing them when required. As with most things, your readers have to

develop the habit of reading your blog, though of course with RSS they don’t need to

come to your site just to check whether you’ve written anything new all the time,


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they could just subscribe to your blog with RSS.

As to the question of which blogging software to try, we in the library have opted for

the free hosted version of Wordpress3 - this allows some customisation of how your

blog looks, and most importantly provides usage statistics. I would also recommend

Blogger4, which allows much more customisation and interactive elements to be added

to your blog. Usage statistics are quite important, since sometimes it can feel like

you’re just ‘talking’ to yourself, so it helps motivation if you find out someone is actually

reading your precious posts! Statistics also help to gage your audience’s reaction to

particular posts, and you can begin to get a feel for which subjects they like and which

they find less interesting. If you’re very lucky, someone may even be brave enough to

comment on a blog post, after all part of the attraction is meant to be the interaction

with your readers, but I have never had a comment from any student yet (maybe it’s

just me!).

Social Bookmarking Organising your list of favourite websites (especially now you’re using RSS and find so

many more!) can be a pain, for most of us they just end up as a huge long list of

websites we’ve come across, or the more organised may have them in subject folders.

Then you’ve got the problem that some are stored on your computer at work, some

may be on another computer at home, but what if you find something interesting for

work when you’re surfing at home, etc.? Services such as Del.icio.us5 aim to solve

these problems by allowing you to store your favourites on the hosted service, so

they are always available on any computer with Internet access. All you have to do is

create a free account and then you can start enriching your favourites by tagging

them with keywords so you’ll be able to find them again. This produces a tag cloud

(or a tag list, but I prefer tag clouds since they provide more than one piece of

information in a visually-interesting way), which is just an alphabetical listing of all

Screenshot of my e-Library blog


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your tags, grouped in a block (or ‘cloud’) with the more common keywords in a

proportionally larger font. This being a Web 2.0 service, you can also share your

favourites with others and send suggestions to other members of Del.icio.us. You can

find out about more interesting websites by searching on Del.icio.us, and since these

websites have been shared by people who think enough of the site to add it to

Del.icio.us, you’re bound to find something of interest which you may not have

discovered otherwise. Looking at the favourites of someone who shares your interests

or research may also lead to more useful discoveries.

In the library, we have an account at Del.icio.us, so students and staff can see our tag

cloud and find useful resources related to our courses and more general topics. Web

2.0 services are meant to encourage engagement and interaction in a two-way process

between students and educators, so it would be great if students (and staff!) sent us

their favourites to add to our account – it could provide a useful area for finding

quality web resources for the whole University, all accessible from our growing tag

cloud on Del.icio.us, as below. You can easily tag all favourites relevant to a particular

subject, so that you can then see just the links for that subject.

The library’s Tag Cloud on

Del.icio.us


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What Next? So, you’ve set up RSS feeds in your chosen RSS reader, you may have even started a

blog to effectively communicate with students and colleagues, and you’ve organised

your list of favourite websites on Del.icio.us, so what’s next? Your path on the Web

2.0 road now depends on your own interests, but there are many interesting routes

to follow and lots of discoveries to be made. For example, in the Library we have

started to use the Pageflakes6 service to create subject-specific pagecasts, which are

just easily created websites made up of modules of different content. There are really

so many different services constantly being created and waiting to be tried, and you

can find out about them via RSS feeds to various blogs and websites. You could read

a book about Web 2.0 (for example, try Phil Bradley’s book7 (2007), available at Bishop

Otter Campus library, and read my blog, or any of the other blogs on the Library

Services home page on Portia, to keep up to date with new developments.

Conclusion Web 2.0 may be a hard term to define, but it encompasses a growing and developing

list of services and technologies that can make a huge difference to all of us, no matter

what aspect of learning and teaching we are involved in. Why should you care about

Web 2.0? The more we try out and experiment with these services, the more we can

understand how to re-purpose them to suit our own particular requirements, and

thus improve not only the way we do things, but also help educate others to learn

and prosper in the rapidly changing environment that Web 2.0 technologies effect.

It’s also very exciting and fun, so join the Web 2.0 revolution, it could be the future!

Useful Resources 1. Bloglines: http://www.bloglines.com/

2. Google Reader: http://www.google.com/reader

3. Wordpress: http://wordpress.com

4. Blogger: http://www.blogger.com

5. Del.icio.us: http://del.icio.us/

6. Pageflakes: http://www.pageflakes.com/

7. BRADLEY, P. (2007), How to Use Web 2.0 in Your Library, Facet, London.


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Blogs and Work-Based Learning (WBL): The Design, Implementationand Review of Online Learning Logs

Tim Friesner, Senior Lecturer in MarketingSchool of Social Studies

The paper considers the pros and cons of online learning logs. It recalls the outcomes

of a live project run with more than 50 students from a UK-based University. It

includes the perceptions of staff and students after the implementation of a tailor-

made online log assessment. Other findings are offered, and recommendations are

made to those that may wish to extend and develop ways to assess online learning

using Information Technology.

Learning logs are an increasingly popular mode of assessment in Higher Education.

This paper reports upon a live project that was created to deliver an online development

of traditional paper-based learning logs, diaries and portfolios. It considers the design,

implementation and review of online learning logs. A summary of knowledge relating

to learning logs sets the scene for a more detailed outline of the online project itself.

An examination is made of the potential problems with paper-based learning logs and

an argument for an online approach is reasoned. Then a description of what an online

learning log would look like is offered, before a more detailed examination of the

students’ perception of the strengths and weaknesses of online learning logs is made,

post-Work-Based Learning. Finally, the views of the tutors that support the online

learning logs are recorded, before conclusions are drawn, and recommendations are

made for those that may wish to extend online learning logs as a mode of assessment

for experiential learning.

The online learning log is a departure from more established learning and teaching

tools often found contained in Virtual Learning Environments (VLEs), since it is

adaptable, flexible and learner-driven, and it could also be potentially extended to

encompass learning through a learner’s life. It is argued that the online log has the

potential to play its part in overcoming some of the problems associated with ‘mature’

VLEs (Stiles 2007).

Learning logs measure learning from experience. Whilst theory is important, practice

underpins experience, and it is practice that is the essence of experience contained in

learning logs (Moon 1999, Cottrell 2003). There are a number of research studies that

have been conducted using learning logs, mainly from the subject disciplines of Human

Resource Management (Barclay 1996), Education (Clandinin and Connelly 1991) and

Marketing (Friesner and Hart 2005). These previous studies have slightly differing uses

for logs. One thing that they have in common is that they suggest that logs record

learning in practice through the mechanism of ‘reflection.’ Logs also have a prescribed

format that follows the stages of knowledge acquisition through the transformation

of experience. Such stages have an epistemology that includes the Lewinian Experiential

Abstract

Introduction

What are Learning Logs?


13

Learning Model (concrete experience, observations and reflections, formation of

abstract concepts and generalisations, and testing implications of concepts in new

situations), Dewey’s Model of Experiential Learning (observation, knowledge,

judgement and purpose), Piaget’s Model of Learning and Cognitive Development

(concrete phenomenalism, internalised reflection, abstract constructionism and active

egocentrism) and finally Kolb’s Learning Cycle (concrete experience, reflective

observation, abstract conceptualisation and active experimentation). The research

and work of Lewin (1951), Dewey (1938), Piaget (1970) and Kolb (1984) all form part

of the epistemology that supports the theory of experiential learning, and hence the

structure and reasoning behind learning logs. Commonly the stages are represented

as described by Barclay (1996) under the sections called preparation and the action

plan. These form the basis for the two stages, or ‘phases’ of the logs. Clandinin and

Connelly (1991) considered a range of research methodologies suitable for recording

personal experience, and found that learning logs best fitted their purposes. It is worth

noting that their perspective sees experience not as a record written directly into a

diary, but as a story that is retold after an event. Their reasoning is driven by their

philosophical point of view. They take a middle ground position when considering the

philosophical perspectives supported when studying experience. They criticise what

they see as a ‘linguistic left’ that sees text rather than people as the experience and

the involvement of the researcher in that text as part of that experience (Watts 1992).

Finally, Friesner and Hart (2005a, 2005b) used learning logs as a method of research

and data analysis when addressing reflection and experiential learning.

The purpose of this e-learning project was to design, implement and review a web-

based form of learning log assessment. The Web Log or ‘Blog’ essentially replaced the

paper-based learning log and its portfolio, which are currently popular. The context

for this project was a Work-Based Learning (WBL) module, which forms a part of a BA

(Hons) Business and Management suite of degrees. Business and Management students

complete Work-Based Learning (WBL), a double-module, during their final semester

at Level 3.

Between January 2007 and March 2008 local and national employers offered around

50 full-time student work placements for a 10-week continuous period, and hence

provided an ideal opportunity for the implementation of this e-learning project.

Naturally the Blog had the same Learning Outcomes as its paper-based predecessor,

which are as follows:

Project Background


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On successful completion of this module students will be able to demonstrate:

1. An appreciation of the placement organisation, its management and the

changing business environment in which it operates.

2. Skills of reflection, independent learning and Personal Development Planning

(PDP)

3. Preparation for, or development of, a career in business and management.

Considering the vacuum for any recent research into the topic of learning logs, the

short answer is ‘nothing!’ Therefore the reasoning for a move to an online substitute

is solely practice-based, since the project discussed in this paper is the result of action

learning undertaken by a small team of Business and Management tutors at a UK

university. The need for an online learning log was driven by a number of potential

problems that could arise with its paper-based predecessor.

They are contained in tangible files or folders that make up a portfolio, essentially

containing a number of documents. If alterations need to be made, then paper

and time are wasted.

If your students require a tutorial, then the portfolio has to be copied and then

sent ahead so that the meeting time is maximized. Otherwise tutor and student

are restricted to flicking over the portfolio and sampling the work, perhaps missing

problems that could re-emerge at later meetings, even during final marking.

With formative assessment using learning logs how can any tutor be sure that the

student is working on the log unless one actually sees it? You could call a meeting

or you could assess sections of the work early in the learning process, but how do

you know that the work has not been written the night before? If one cannot in all

honesty see the logs in real time, one cannot ever be sure that the ethos behind

reflective and experiential learning is being upheld. It is a record of formative

learning.

How do you know when your student is having trouble with learning logs in the

work place if you cannot see them? If one doesn’t in some way monitor that logs

are being written, one cannot spot that a student is in difficulty. Of course, if you

meet regularly for classes, seminars or tutorials you will identify problems, but

what if your student is at work for long periods of time or some distance away?

Figure 1:

Online Learning Logs:

Learning Outcomes

So What’s the Problem with

Paper-based Learning Logs?


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So the online learning log has a number of potential benefits that could be captured.

Some of the key advantages are considered below:

As with most IT, benefits tend to include convenience, speed and ease of use.

Tutors will be able to see the learning logs as they emerge, and will be able to

intervene if problems arise, help the student to add depth to surface level

learning, and offer praise to those that are successfully logging.

You can compare and contrast progress within an entire cohort, or between

cohorts.

You can offer instant feedback to your students. You can also manage your time

so that you can fit in feedback when it suits you during the working week. This

would also remove the need for some or all face-to-face meetings with students.

There is also a benefit to the employer since the student would not need to

leave work placement to attend a tutorial, and a tutor would not necessarily

have to visit to check over learning logs.

Based upon these predicted benefits, the project had a number of aims and outcomes

that are summarised in Figures 2 and 3.

Project Aims

The aims of this project were:

(a) To design, implement and review a web-based form of learning log/diary

assessment.

(i) To adapt Blog software to meet the assessment Objectives and Learning

Outcomes of the Work-Based Learning (WBL) modules

(ii) To train students and staff involved in Work-Based Learning (WBL) in the use

of the Blog

(iii) To implement the aforementioned Blog software as students begin Work-

Based Learning (WBL)

(iv) To report and disseminate findings

How does an Online Approach

to Learning Logs help?

Figure 2:


Aims


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Project Outcomes

By the end of this project the University will benefit from:

(I) A purpose built online learning log/diary assessment, or ‘Blog.’

(II) An opportunity to offer Blogs (as a form of assessment) to tutors and students

in other Subject Areas within The University.

(III)To share findings with colleagues from other institutions.

This project did not use bespoke technology such as Blackboard, WebCT or Moodle.

However it was coded using PHP: Hypertext Preprocessor which is the same dynamic

code that forms the basis for open access Moodle. A needs analysis was undertaken

which resulted in a project brief which was given to a professional PHP coder. Coder

and clients participated in a number of meetings until the project was complete. Points

(a) to (g) summarise what the online learning log would look like.

(a) Student Login:

Create a sign in page for students to enter username and password

Create a database table to store usernames and passwords

Write code to query database and check username and password against it

(b) Staff Administration:

Create a page with login and password for tutors to access their admin pages

Create an ‘account admin’ page, listing students with usernames and

passwords, with facility to change a password

Create an ‘add a student’ page with appropriate code to add details to the

database

Create a ‘document bank’ page which allows tutor to upload appropriate

documents and displays documents already uploaded (with option to delete)

Create an initial page, which shows the following links:

Links to the ‘account admin’ page

List of students with clickable links to each students ‘entry page’ (when

accessed via the tutor admin section. The ‘tutor comments’ sections will be

editable – email to student when tutor first completes this).

(c) Initial Log:

Create database table to store initial log forms against appropriate student.

Create a form, which allows students to store/amend details on their initial

log

(d) Final Log:

Create database table to store final log forms against appropriate student.

Create a form, which allows students to store/amend details on their final

log

Figure 3:


Outcomes

What Would an Online

Learning Log Look Like?


17

(e) Learning Log:

Create database table to store multiple learning log forms against

appropriate student (by log entry number)

Create a form, which allows students to create a new learning log and

choose a week/entry number to associate it with

Add some code so that when first created an email is sent to the tutor

Create a form, which allows students to amend details on the appropriate

learning log

Add a section at the bottom, which will display tutor comments but is not

editable by students

(f) Student ‘blog’ page with gallery:

Create a page where students can write some general notes about their

work placement and upload pictures of their work colleagues /placement

environment.

(g) Student Entry Page:

Create a page which:

Shows student details (i.e. welcome Joe Bloggs to your learning log).

Link to the log assignment page

Shows a list of documents which tutors have uploaded for information

(clicking on them will bring them up in a new window e.g. handbooks and

exercises)

Link to the initial log

Link to all learning logs currently completed. Clicking on links takes student

to the learning log to view tutor comments and/or edit learning log

An ‘add a learning log’ button

Link to the final log

Link to their ‘blog’ page

Once 50 students had used the online learning logs at work, their perceptions of the

strengths and weaknesses of online learning logs were investigated. Two focus groups

were organised during the 10-week work placement period. Both contained 10

students each. Naturally the focus groups supplemented the current student feedback

and quality assurance processes of the University.

Students essentially entered into a prepared and structured discussion with their tutors,

in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of the online learning logs. A record sheet

was circulated asking the focus group participants to list three strengths and three

weaknesses of the online learning logs that they have been using for the previous 8-

weeks (N.B. the focus groups were conducted 2 weeks before the end of the10-week

work placement/WBL period). Sheets were collected at the end of the discussion and

the researchers took notes.

Students’ Perceptions of

the Strengths and

Weaknesses of the Online

Logs


18

The underpinning research question posed was:

‘Based upon your recent experience of online learning logs, please take a few minutes

to record your views of the learning and teaching benefits of the online approach, as

you see them.’

Responses were summarised and grouped into clusters. Those that ranked highest

are reported first.

The students found the online logs user friendly and simple to operate.

They felt that since their tutors were checking the logs that it gave them the

motivation to keep on top of the assignment. This had helped them to stay on

track with their work. Logs supported effective time management.

The focus groups reported that quick feedback was appreciated, and this had

helped them to write more meaningful log entries. Students like the fact that

the online logs had a mechanism to notify them when the tutor had left

feedback.

Some students said they had enjoyed participating in a mode of assessment

they had not encountered before. This was refreshing.

It was appreciated that a learner could go back over previous log entries to

improve and develop them.

One unexpected strength was that work would not get lost since the logs were

‘on the Net.’

The simple layout made the logs easy to get to grips with, and the prescribed

structured, based upon cycles of learning, were appreciated.

Learners could access the online logs from work. This was a key benefit to part-

time and distance learners.

Ultimately learners agreed that online logs had helped them to maintain

reflective thinking and development.

Nearly all of the weaknesses from the students’ perspective related to functional

issues relating to word counts, spell checking, fonts and problems involving the

inclusion of diagrams. The online log was not connected to MS-Word – so it took

additional time to move material between a word processor and logs (although

this was not absolutely necessary).

Some students commented they would have liked even more feedback, and that

they would have preferred feedback after every log entry throughout the formative

assessment until submission.

Interestingly, some expressed concern over the security of the online logs, especially

in relation to the fact that other students could be reading their logs.

It was not as good as a face-to-face meeting with a tutor.

Learners experienced different periods of time between creating logs and receiving

feedback.

SWOT and other analyses used need their own sections within the online logs.

Strengths of Online

Learning Logs

Weakness of Online

Learning Logs


19

Feedback was taken from the seven tutors that had supported students with their

online learning logs. Feedback was positive, with a few issues relating to the

functionality of the assessment. After getting to grips with the basics of the online

log, tutors reported that they had found it simple and straightforward to use. As

predicted during the earlier design stages:

There were no paper-based portfolios to be reviewed. Online logs were quicker

and more convenient. Tutors gave feedback whenever and from wherever they

wished.

The necessity for face-to-face tutorials was removed, although some face-to-face

meetings were organised where tutors felt support was needed. This was conducted

on a case-by-case basis.

Tutors could spot who was logging and who was not. Interventions could be made.

On the other hand, praise was offered to those that were progressing well.

Cohorts could be compared and contrasted in real-time.

Tutors have choices and voices. One of the tutors suggested that there would be a

benefit in creating a way for all of the draft logs to be archived therefore the true

progress of the learners could be mapped from start, through tutor feedback and

practice-based experience, to the submitted learning log. This is an example of how a

tailor-made approach allows for the development of an online assessment that could

be built the way that tutors want it, and not the way that that it is marketed to them.

It is stimulating to design your own online assessment as opposed to going in search

of one that is already in the market. It allows you to be precise with your needs as a

tutor as well satisfying the needs your learners may have. That way (budget allowing)

one can improve the online environment in a tailor-made manner year-on-year. Based

upon student feedback and our experiences as tutors we can invest in improvements

that will almost certainly be implemented and deliver a targeted benefit.

The online logs could be extended to include all manner of work-based online

curricula such as entrepreneurial games and case studies, live research and other

online modules.

A version of the online learning logs could be adapted that took advantage of

mobile devices such as phones, PDAs and games consoles.

Interested individuals and groups could develop the online learning logs concept

across subject disciplines in order to deliver focused benefits to both learners and

tutors.

The increasing popularity of learning logs in a post-Leitch (2006) era also holds

some opportunities. More modules and programmes will inevitably be undertaken

at work, and the online log approach offers and assessment meeting the needs of

learner, educator and employer.

Tutors’ Perceptions of the

Strengths and Weaknesses of

the Online Logs

Conclusions and

Recommendations


20

Online logs, which essentially contain electronic text in a database, offer researchers

the opportunity to use learning logs as a mode of data collection on experiential

learning.

Finally, if you code in PHP your work can be integrated into Moodle. The Moodle

environment has a number of benefits including a lower initial investment in a

Course Management System.

BARCLAY, J. (1996), Learning from experience with learning logs, Journal of

Management Development, 15(6), 28-43.

CLANDININ, D. J. & CONNELLY, F. M. (1991), Narrative and story in practice and

research, in D. SCHON (Ed.), The Reflective Turn: Case Studies in and on Educational

Practice, pp. 258-281), Teachers College Press, New York.

COTTRELL, S. (2003), Skills for Success: The Personal Development Planning Handbook,

Palgrave Macmillan, London.

DEWEY, J. (1938), Experience and Education, Kappa Delta Pi.

FRIESNER, T. AND HART, M.C. (2005a), ‘ Learning Log Analysis: Analysing Data That

Record Reflection and Experiential Learning’, Paper to the 4th European Conference

on Research Methodology for Business and Management, Université Paris-Dauphine,

Paris, France, 21-22 April 2005.

FRIESNER, T. AND HART, M.C. (2005b), ‘Learning Logs: Assessment or Research

Method?’, Electronic Journal of Business Research Methods, 13(1).

LEITCH REVIEW OF SKILLS (2006), Prosperity for all in the Global Economy - World

Class Skills, HMSO, London.

LEWIN, K. (1951), Field Theory in Social Sciences, New York, Harper Row.

KOLB, D. A. (1984), Experiential Learning: Experience as the Source of Learning and

Development, Prentice Hall, New York..

MOON, J. (1999), Learning Journals: A Handbook for Academics, Students and

Professional Development, Routledge, London.

PIAGET, J. (1970), Genetic Epistemology, Columbria University Press, New York.

STILES, M.J. (2007), Death of the VLE?: a challenge to a new orthodoxy, The Journal

for the Serials Community, Volume 20 (1).

References


21

WATTS, S. (1992), Academic leftists are something of a fraud, Chronicle of Higher

Education, pp. A40 – A43.


22

The Long and Winding Highway: 10 years of C&IT andE-learning Revisited

Dr Jessica de Mellow, Principal Lecturer for L&TSchool of Cultural Studies

“I have always thought that a [Managed Learning Environment] only becomes

effective if students want to engage with it. Stagnant or dumping grounds do

little to inspire me and are equally unlikely to inspire today’s modern, MTV

student generation. Forcing students to use it by only delivering coursework or

module notes does little more than allow the user to tick the box saying the

MLE is being used. The box alongside effectively remains empty.’

Mark Russell, e-learning tutor of the year 2003 (JISC Inform, 2004:6)

Many, if not most, academics report a significant shift in emphasis in their teaching

environment and methods since the late 1990s, as accelerated development in

technology and a culture of e-learning impacts our students’ expectations of what,

and how, they learn. But do teaching and assessment methods which appear to engage

with an emerging cultural language really increase qualitative learning, and foster a

deep relational synapse between subject and individual knowledge?

I have been involved in developing and delivering online learning in my own teaching

in English Studies since 1997. During that period, the sector’s response to e-learning

nationally has evolved in a discernable sequence ( itself a rich case study in the quick-

time evolution of a ‘new’ pedagogy): enthusiasm and utopianism in e-learning pioneers

and enthusiasts in the late1990s; recognition of the commercial benefits of e-learning

as the century turned, with the collapse of UK-eU in early 2004 the prime example of

a prematurely buoyant response to e-learning’s commercial potential; a more sober

evaluation of the strengths, weaknesses and pedagogical benefits – and constraints -

of e-learning in 2008.

Despite the distance travelled – and lessons learned – from the events of 2004, the

residual influences of earlier stages of development in e-learning still inform our driving

policies, from the government’s strategy on e-learning down. Consequently, and

unusually, ‘top down’ policies such as Hefce’s (now anachronistic) statement that

‘wholly internet-based e-learning has recently captured the imagination because of

the opportunities to explore exciting technological possibilities’ (Consultation on Hefce

e-learning strategy, 2004, Annex A, 2, 6) and the JISC strategy’s optimistic vision that

‘[I]n the future we will all be able to use information and exchange data in the same

way’ (JISC Inform 2004:5, p.5) are contested by ‘bottom up’ reports from practitioners

and researchers. These reports suggest that the commercial and pedagogical benefits

of learning environments based ‘wholly’ on internet activities might, after all, have

been overestimated; an evolutionary adjustment reflected in the emphasis on flexibility,

responsiveness and blended learning in more recent JISC strategic planning, and in


23

Chichester’s own evolving Learning and Teaching Strategy.

Experience as practitioners teaches us that a teaching method is only as effective as

the way it is approached and conceptualised. ‘Shallow’ C&IT approaches – an e-

learning component that consists solely of an unvaried diet of multiple choice tasks,

for example – are likely to produce as negligible a result in ‘deeper leve’l learning as

the least interactive and ‘read’ 50-minute lecture, no matter how impressive the site

animations. Yet at their most effective, virtual learning environments can harness the

energy of the best seminars and produce learning outcomes that are planned for –

and, intriguingly, some that are not.

The VLE components of our own portal, Portia, represents a learning environment

whose presence in our teaching methods and module delivery is now well established

across the University. As part of a portfolio of learning methods, C&IT approaches to

learning and teaching, and blended learning - planned and integrated mindfully in

our teaching - can enable our students to engage with a greater diversity of learning

styles, and combine relational thinking with recognition of kinaesthetic intelligence. ‘I

work better when I’m thinking at the keyboard’, one student wrote in a recent course

evaluation (ENL117, 2006): ‘doing stuff with the mouse and moving around the screen

unlocks something for me’, another commented. If even one student in a seminar

group of twenty-five is ‘unlocked’ by a learning method that speaks to their individual

cognitive strengths, can we afford to dismiss e-learning, and C&IT development

generally, as a costly sop to the so-called McKnowledge generation?

So what is the ‘added value’ of C&IT in undergraduate teaching? In 2004, a Times

article, ‘Is a Degree Still Worth Having?’, the value of learning is framed in terms of

financial worth. The gap between graduate and non-graduate salaries is shrinking

briskly, the article reports, as the disparity between humanities and science graduates’

salaries widen (The Times, 23 April, 2004). Four years on, the statistics to support this

argument are persuasive; educating undergraduates in a climate of widening access

and declining ‘graduate’ jobs seems likely to move the ‘value added’ status of C&IT

and e-learning beyond pedagogic theory and into the stark figures of recruitment and

graduate employment.

With the knowledge that IT and communications skills are now a matter of financial

contingency for students and a key recruitment issue for subject disciplines, continuing

debate about the pedagogic value of C&IT in undergraduate teaching seems

increasingly anachronistic. Yet as we move from a C&IT culture of ‘should we?’ to

‘how should we’, resistance to new teaching technology is still evident in academic

departments nationally. Will e-learning prove the thin end of the wedge, eroding

contractual hours and threatening job security? Why, some colleagues have asked,

are we investing heavily in technology such as video conferencing equipment and

interactive whiteboards for no other reason, it seems, that this technology exists,


24

while academic research remains chronically under funded in many institutions?

Where is the proof that this technology really enhances learning, and benefits our

students?

Adopting new learning and teaching methods involves change and risk. My first

experiment in C&IT in teaching, in 1997, was not a success. In the late 1990s I shared

the excitement in the cultural and intellectual resonances of a now quaintly named

‘information superhighway’. When Chichester adopted its first network package,

Groupwise, I began using email to communicate with seminar groups, sending

preparatory information through the system and sometimes uploading entire lectures

after a session - an exercise I would have resisted, in any other context, as low-value

learning. The technology existed, and I created a use for it; what mattered at that

point was the novelty of the method, rather than its qualitative value. Error number

one: the novelty of a new teaching method dropped me straight into the pitfalls of e-

learning as Mark Russell described it, using technology as a ‘dumping ground’ for

information that could have been accessed as well, or better, in contact time.

Additionally, the practical limitations of learning via a network system were soon

exposed. To make sense of the exercise intended to promote accessibility and flexibility,

I needed a web-based system accessible from home PCs. In 1998 I advanced the

experiment and set up an external MSN home site, using it, again, to lodge documents

and make announcements, and gave students a broad and vague invitation to ‘make

comments’ on reading material in the message board section. While the experiment

was received favourably, the student’s evaluations praised my intentions, rather than

real improvements in their understanding of the subject. Most students did not have

access to PCs at home in 1998; IT training was sporadic and net culture and IT skills

were largely perceived by mature students in my groups as the preserve of their

children. I had not built demonstrations or training into the experiment; my students

needed direction and support in using the message boards. A year on, I realised that

the experiment was little more than a bolt-on to a module which could, and had,

existed perfectly well without it; a well-intentioned exercise in technology for

technology’s sake.

By 1999, without the support of other users and a body of published research, I had

fallen into the patterns of teaching I strove to avoid elsewhere: regurgitating lecture

notes; providing handouts without setting tasks or testing understanding; establishing

myself up as the sole provider of information, whose job it was to transmit information

to a passive audience. The experiment reinforced a useful lesson: teaching methods

can reinforce, weaken or appear to transform entirely teaching principals I assumed

were uncomplicated, transferable or innate. I was learning what my students learn

also: ‘the meaning of the distinction [deep or surface] has to be reinterpreted in relation

to different subject areas’ (Ramsden, 1992, p. 49), and to different teaching methods.


25

In 2003, five years after my first experiment in blended learning, I used the college’s

new web-based learning package, Portia, to re-launch a refined e-learning provision

for the same module. Now, rather than using the package as an email and

announcement facility, or uploading documentation which could have been (and was)

reproduced as handouts, I now integrated online work into the main module outcomes.

Students were asked to post their own learning tasks, respond to one another’s ideas

and contribute to an online research database:

By removing myself as ‘webmistress’ and delegating control of the site to the students

themselves, participation improved; we were able to blend the results of online work

into contact time seminar discussion. The C&IT component was now clearly integrated

with the module outcomes, and so with assessment criteria; evaluation of the course

showed a good level of appreciation for the value of the provision, and not only its

good intentions.

As the cultural and pedagogical gap between question and answer, search and result

diminishes, the status of teachers and the physical body of the teacher are

problematised increasingly as agents of knowledge. The growth of IT culture and e-

learning may come to increase our professional status as conduits of information

(‘qualified search engines’, as a colleague commented), but it carries risks, not least of

which is an return of atomistic and surface learning approaches that the availability

of sophisticated methods of delivery seem to assure us belong to a remote pedagogic

past. Yet my experience of blended learning at Chichester since 1997 has convinced

me that a well-planned and rationalised application of C&IT in can equal a good

‘traditional’ seminar session in terms of learning value; it can certainly exceed an

indifferent one. We should, at least, be reassured by the way that new technology has

re-energised inveterate questions - what is learning, anyway? What does a teacher

offer that technology cannot? - the debates and theoretical divisions that energised

our thinking and teaching, decades before our whiteboards began writing back.

READING WOMEN'S WRITINGS

Topic: Excess vs. Deprivation Author: Helen Stone | Posted on: 9-14-04

If the first section of "Fasting, Feasting" represents over abundance

(hence three quarters of the novel) and the second section symbolises deprivation, it is apparent that there needs to be a

balance in life in order for happiness to prevail. If so, are the majority of characters victims of their own unbalanced decisions?

Post a message Show all replies

Message List (Click a message to view) Author Replies Posted on

abundance/deprivation Renate Fuchs 0 9-22-04

Fasting Feasting/Balance Tracy Murphy 0 9-17-04


26

To E-nfinity and Beyond: Taking the Plunge into Podcasting andPedagogy

Ian Worden, Principal Lecturer for L&TSchool of Visual and Performing Arts

‘To infinity… and beyond’ is of course Buzz Lightyear’s catch-phrase from Disney and

Pixar’s first computer animated feature Toy Story. The 1995 film is a story that starts

with a disruption to the status quo in the ‘lives’ of the toys in Andy’s bedroom. On

the day of Andy’s eighth birthday all the toys are anxious that they are going to be

replaced by a new toy. Woody, an old fashioned pull-string cowboy doll who has

been the little boy’s favourite toy is particularly concerned. Enter Buzz Lightyear, the

‘must have’ action figure and high-tech toy of the moment who soon becomes the

little boy’s new favorite toy. Buzz’s arrival leads to all sorts of ‘trouble’ for Andy’s toys:

friction, hostility, misunderstanding and even jealousy. By the end of the film though

the two ‘squabbling rivals’ Woody and Buzz have learnt how to get along together

and realize they are both significant in Andy’s life.

The ‘shock of the new’ of Buzz fuels an anxiety in the toys that something new, a new

technology in particular, can create in other spaces. Part of the narrative of Toy Story

seems analogous with the trouble that new ‘buzz’ e-Learning technologies like

podcasts, wikis and blogs can cause. The University of Chichester’s e-Learning

Benchmarking Exercise – HEA/JISC (2007) interestingly provides stories from staff and

students of some of the troubles and anxieties associated with new technologies and

e-Learning in our spaces. In a paper presented at the university’s Learning and Teaching

conference in January 2008 Maggi Savin-Baden also mapped out challenges and

troubles faced by academic communities in reinventing learning and reconceptualising

learning spaces in the twenty first century. Savin-Baden suggested that, the reason

we need to invent our curricula as more troublesome learning spaces is because of

the challenges of new and emerging technologies and the impact they are having on

staff, students and what ‘learning’ means (Savin-Baden, 2008: 3).

Troublesome learning spaces, according to Savin-Baden, might be fraught with

difficulties but this need not always be seen as a bad thing because ‘spaces and places

where shifts in learner experience occur’ (ibid.: 11) can lead to what Savin-Baden

terms ‘transitional’ and ‘transformational learning’. Other academics such as D’Andrea

and Gosling (2005) have also explored the added value of learning technologies in

improving learning and teaching in general and the Executive Summary of the UoC e-

Learning Benchmarking report (available on the CLT site) highlights ways e-Learning

projects and initiatives have enhanced student learning at this institution in particular.

This paper documents some of the findings of a project started in the academic year

2006-2007 after a successful bid for funds to support enhancements in e-Learning. It

explores some of the challenges of a new ‘buzz’ digital media channel like podcasting

and examines ways it might be integrated into our curriculum spaces in a blend with


27

conventional approaches to learning and teaching that impacts on the student learning

experience. The paper documents the podcasts we created, details feedback from

student evaluations and provides some information on how to create podcasts.

The iPod Cometh The iPod has been hailed by Apple as ‘the most iconic invention of a generation’.

Whilst Apple would say that, there is no doubting the company’s success with its

product in terms of market penetration. Now in its eighth year, the iPod is the best

selling portable digital audio/video player on the market. In the fiscal quarter between

July and September 2005 Apple sold 6.5 million iPods. Over 120 million iPods have

been shipped in total now since the product was launched in 2001. In that time

Apple has developed various ‘generations’ – the iPod Classic; the iPod Touch; the iPod

Nano; and the iPod Shuffle. Initially compact portable iPod MP3 players were designed

to store music digitally. The number of songs a device could store would be dependant

on the size of its memory. The iPods could download music from Apple’s iTunes site.

Music could also be ‘ripped’ from CDs and then turned into digital files before being

transferred to MP3 players through a computer. Other brands such as Sony, Samsung,

Philips and Technika now offer MP3 players and there are a number of different file

types and ways to download audio material. The more recent MP4 players have all

the features of MP3 players but have full colour built-in LCD screens that will run

films, videos, TV programming, digital photos and can be used in connection with

audio books, organiser functions and slide presentations. The new generation iPods

can now store anything from 1,000 songs (4Gb iPod Nano) to 40,000 songs (160Gb

iPod Classic) and have up to 30 hours of video playback capacity. The take up of such

digital media technology alongside mobile phones has been significant with students

(69% of Level 3 students we worked with owned MP3 or MP4 players, 67% of Level 2

students owned such devices and 82% of Level 1 students had portable digital audio/

video players).

Project Podcast Given such a take-up of this new technology by students, our project sought to connect

with the UoC initiative to develop and increase the incorporation of C&IT in the

student’s learning experience and the various departments’ responses to the

University’s revised Learning and Teaching Strategy with respect to e-Learning, diversity

and accessibility. We wanted to explore how podcasting might add to the continued

enhancement of the quality of student learning provided by initiatives undertaken

with Portia and virtual learning communities/environments in general and Course

Home Pages in particular. Students would be able to access lecture materials online,

download these materials as podcasts on their computers, or save them as MP3 files

or MP4 files which might be accessed in their own time on portable digital audio/

video players or mobile phones. We hoped to use podcasts to make learning and

teaching sessions more accessible, diverse and imaginative for a student body on the

move and a generation of students attuned to digital media.


28

Other universities have also begun to realise these exciting possibilities for learning

and teaching. Researchers at Sheffield Hallam for instance, have been working with

multimedia and digital audio learning objects for the last three years. Their projects

have focussed more on audio recordings of what they call ‘chunks’ of lectures – audio

notes and selected moments/ideas captured during lectures for reconsideration

(Nortcliffe and Middleton, 2006). These materials are made available to students

before and after lectures. Student feedback on the added value provided by podcasts

to the face-to-face lecture has been positive at Sheffield regarding ‘post-lecture

learning’. In their presentation at the ICED conference in 2006 Nortcliffe and Middleton

also drew on the work of Williams and Fardon (2005), Russell and Mattick (2005) and

Law (2005) who have monitored the impact of such technology at other institutions

on student attendance and motivation to suggest that the streaming of audio lectures

and other such activities need not reduce student attendance (a troublesome issue

with podcasting for some stakeholders) and enhances student learning. Our project

wanted to build on the work undertaken at Sheffield by complementing audio files

with slideshow and video formats.

Podcasts are Go! We created podcasts on four selected modules across two departments in the first

semester of the 2006-2007 academic year. The first podcast was for a lecture on

naturalism on a Level 2 English module. This session fitted in with a trip to see

Strindberg’s play The Father and a pre-show talk on naturalism by a colleague from

the University of Portsmouth at the Minerva Theatre. A copy of this talk was made

available to students on our Course Home Page on Portia to provide a rich blend of

materials – pre-show talk (that could be revisited in another format as a Word

document), trip, lecture and podcast. The lecture was recorded and uploaded on

Podcast Admin on Portia unedited.


29

As a lecturer the first trouble you encounter with podcasts is hearing your voice and

becoming aware of certain mannerisms you weren’t aware of! There is also the issue

of being ‘miked up’ and realising your performance is being recorded. We also scanned

in some acetates used in the talk that would advance on students’ computers or MP3/

MP4 players in the right place. A clip from Ibsen’s A Doll’s House was also uploaded as

a MP4 file that would run on players with this capacity or a computer. For the second

podcast we chose a lecture on representation and stereotypes delivered using

PowerPoint to examine how slides would work on certain players and again included

a film clip from the lecture (Four Weddings and a Funeral). This session was troubled

by the fact that for some reason the audio didn’t record. We resolved this by recording

the lecture in another space without any students. Interestingly a Level 1 Media

Studies lecture that usually lasted for an hour shrunk to a twenty minute podcast

without student interaction. The third podcast was a Level 3 lecture on film noir, neo

noir, the femme fatale and gender. This lecture was trouble-free and we uploaded

four film clips (The Maltese Falcon, Fatal Attraction, Basic Instinct and Disclosure) to

see how relevant technologies would cope with download capacities and timings.

The audio was edited to tidy up the pauses and any inconsistencies to see how much

time this would take and what effect it would have on the podcast. The fourth session

we worked on was a lecture delivered by a colleague on the Level 1 Media Studies

module to get input from another member of staff on their experience of podcasting.

We also used this session to create two other shorter podcasts that went beyond

capturing actual lecture content experienced by students. One was a PowerPoint

slideshow of images from postmodern culture and accompanying music and the other

was a short five minute talk on Bend it Like Beckham (the film students were studying

as part of their assessment) with music extracts from the film’s soundtrack bought

through iTunes. The last podcast we created was a guest lecture on Oscar Wilde’s The

Picture of Dorian Gray for a first year English course Victorian Literature where we

filmed the lecture (including the audience) and uploaded audio, PowerPoint slides

and a film clip. This approach proved rather ambitious and we were troubled by

editing time, syncing up sight and sound and download possibilities. As a result we

uploaded the session in the usual format without the shots of the lecturer and cutaways

of the student experience of the session.

Podcasts to the Rescue? Student evaluations of the various podcasts we created were generally positive. Some

of the benefits of this particular technology seemed to tap into the ‘Accelerated

Learning Cycle’ as developed by Alistair Smith (1996). Smith’s cycle involves the

following interconnected points or moments - ‘connection’, ‘activation’, ‘demonstration’

and ‘consolidation’. Podcasts can connect with learners in new ways, activate and

reactivate learning imaginatively and demonstrate issues through technologies

students are attuned to. A number of comments welcomed them as a useful space/

place to ‘consolidate’ learning and participate in post-lecture learning. One student

commented, ‘It enables students to re-do the lecture in their own time’ (Level 3 Media

Studies). Another suggested ‘I found it really useful as I could be listening to it and


30

doing something else’ (Level 2 English). The idea of ‘redoing’ and ‘revisiting’ recurred

throughout the positive comments and one student added, ‘Sometimes you don’t

capture all the lesson and this is a helpful recap’ (Level 1 Media Studies). Another

noted ‘I can go over something I didn’t understand the first time’ (Level 3 Media

Studies). Comments from Level 2 English students on the issue of consolidation

included, ‘It was good to revisit to solidify knowledge. Strange to hear the past again’,

‘It was good to go over and pick up on some points’, ‘It was really interesting and

helped with my understanding’ and ‘Great to hear the lecture again.’ Others who

had trouble taking notes in lectures because of the pace of lecturers for instance,

found the podcasts valuable – ‘I felt like I was taking the whole lecture in and there

was no pressure to jot things down while missing another important piece of info. I

could go back to something if I didn’t understand and listen to it until I felt happy’

(Level 1 Media Studies). Several students for whom English was their second language

also praised the podcasts and a Level Two English student commented that podcasts

were ‘Another way of going over notes instead of just reading.’ Other comments

linked the benefits of podcasts directly to assessment - ‘Great idea if you’re writing an

essay to do with that particular session’ (Level 3 Media Studies).

Some students were troubled by various technologies or uncertain how to download

podcast materials from Portia – ‘I tried but the technology got the better of me’ (Level

2 English), ‘It was difficult to download the visuals and audio separately – lot of messing

about’ (Level 3 Media Studies) and ‘I was unsure how to download it’ (Level 1 Media

Studies). Another Level 1 Media student felt ‘it’s a good idea, it just needs to be

explained a bit more.’ Other students didn’t feel it was necessary to ‘redo’ the lecture

as a podcast because they had ‘sufficient notes’ and they would rather use their players

for other purposes. A number of responses thought podcasts would be useful if

students missed lectures but there were concerns that podcasting could impact on

student attendance – ‘Could affect the amount of people turning up to lectures’ (Level

3 Media Studies) and ‘Some might think they can miss lectures. These should definitely

not be used as an alternative for lessons on a regular basis’ (Level 3 Media Studies).

Cast-off These are interesting comments. Podcasting quite rightly shouldn’t be seen as a

troublesome ‘alternative for lessons on a regular basis’, a rival or something that’s

going to replace other approaches. This particular buzz technology though blended

with other approaches can impact on the learning experience for some students

beyond our time together in the classroom. Such technologies might also not be as

troublesome as we think and might be significant with regards to diversity and

accessibility. Perhaps this project was more a case of dipping a toe into the water and

others might like to plunge into the possibilities afforded by podcasting. Come on in,

the water’s fine.


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References D’ANDREA, V. AND GOSLING, D. (2005), Improving Teaching and Learning in Higher

Education: A Whole Institution Approach, Open University Press, Maidenhead.

LAW, E. (2005), ‘Promoting Understanding Using a Virtual Learning Environment’

International Conference on Engineering Education, Gliwice, Poland.

NORTCLIFFE, A ET.AL (2006), ‘Providing Added Value to Lecture Materials to an iPod

Generation’, ICED Conference, Enhancing Academic Development Practice:

International Perspectives, Sheffield Hallam University, 11-14 June 2006.

RUSSELL, P AND MATTICK, K. (2005), ‘Does Streaming of a Lecture Result in Empty

Seats’, The Proceedings of ALT-C 2005 Exploring the Frontiers of e-Learning: Borders,

Outposts and Migration, Manchester.

SAVIN-BADEN, M. (2008), ‘Second Life Learning: Liminality, Liquidity and Lurking’

Keynote Speech, Learning and Teaching Conference, University of Chichester, 17

January 2008.

SCRIVEN, J. (2008), University of Chichester e-Learning Benchmarking Internal Report,

Centre for Learning and Teaching, University of Chichester.

SMITH, A. (1996) Accelerated Learning in the Classroom, Network Educational Press,

Stafford.

WILLIAMS, J AND FARDON, M. (2005), On Demand Internet Transmitted Lecture

Recordings: Attempting to Enhance and Support the Lecture Experience in The

Proceedings of ALT-C 2005 Exploring the Frontiers of e-Learning: Borders, Outposts

and Migration, Manchester.


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How to Guides: Creating a PodcastMatthew (Roz) HallFront Line Services

Step 1: Using PowerPoint Presentation Slides1. Open the slides in Microsoft PowerPoint.

2. Go to – FILE, SAVE AS, FORMAT. Then select jpeg.

Your PowerPoint pictures will now be saved into a folder as separate pictures

and are individually viewable when clicked on.

Step 2: Using Garage Band version 3.0.41. Click on the Garage Band logo in the tool bar (a guitar icon).

2. Select NEW PODCAST EPISODE in the option screen.

3. Select file NAME and a file to SAVE INTO.

Step 3: Creating your Podcast episode1. Select the FINDER icon in the Toolbar (Blue face).

2. Find the SOUND FILE and DRAG it onto the Garage Band workspace.

3. The screen is split into three windows;

Window 1 shows the layers of the Podcast. Each is named down the left hand

side; Podcast Track, Male voice, Female voice etc… More can be added if needed.

Window 2 shows in detail the track selected. If the Podcast track is selected

then it displays the chapter titles and what Picture is attached to it. If a sound

recording is selected then it’ll display the wave formation.

Window 3 displays a Preview of the Podcast you are making.

1

2

3


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4. Move the PLAYHEAD to the start of the recording and select PODCAST TRACK

in window 1.

5. In window 2 select ADD MARKER.

6. Give the Chapter a name and then select the FINDER icon on the toolbar.

7. Find your individual PowerPoint pictures and DRAG the required one onto the

Garage Band window 2 where it says: DRAG ARTWORK HERE.

8. Double Click on the picture to open a window to RESIZE.

9. PLAY the Podcast until you reach moments where you want to add new Chapters

(and Pictures) repeat 5-8.

Step 4: Deleting Sections of Audio10. If there are moments of the sound recording that you do not require you can

delete them easily.

11. Select the TRACK in window 1.

12. In window 2 move the cursor over the sound recording until it changes into a

CROSS.

13. CLICK and DRAG to select the section you do not want.

14. CLICK in the selected area – this will isolate it from the rest of the recording.

Press the BACKSPACE key to delete it.

Step 5: Converting to .mpa15. Select SHARE at the top of the screen.

16. Here you have an option to open your Podcast in iTunes or to save onto Disk.

Both have the same effect.

Step 6: Converting to audio only .mp317. In Garage Band select PODCAST TRACK in window 1. Select them all and delete.

Also delete any picture you have given to represent the episode.

18. Select SHARE at the top of the screen and open in iTunes.

19. In iTunes select iTunes at the top and go into Preferences.

20. Select ADVANCED and then IMPORTING.

21. Change IMPORT USING… to MP3 ENCODER.

22. Then select your Podcast Episode in your iTunes Library, go to ADVANCED at

the top and select CONVERT SELECTION TO MP3.


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How to Guides: Embedding a YouTube Video into a PowerPointPresentation

Dr Andy Clegg, Principal Lecturer for L&TSchool of Social Studies

Open a new PowerPoint presentation and generate a blank screen.

In PowerPoint we need to have the Developer Options shown in the main ribbon.

Click the Office Button and then click PowerPoint Options.

Select show Developer Tab in the main ribbon

Click OK.


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The Developer Tab now appears in the main ribbon. Click this tab.

Click the More Controls button.

The More Controls dialog box opens.

Scroll down and select Shockwave Flash Object.

Click OK.


36

A cursor appears on the screen. Draw a

rectangle; this will give the size and

position of the video that you want to

embed.

With your rectangle selected, press the right mouse button and click Properties.


37

The Properties dialog box appears.

At this point we now need to include the url link for the video clip

that you want to embed.

Go to YouTube and find the video clip that you want to embed. I am

embedding a clip from Fawlty Towers that I use when delivering

customer service training.


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The Properties dialog box appears.

In the YouTube window click (MoreInfo) to highlight the required URL

The required url link is revealed.

Select and copy the url address.

Return to PowerPoint and the open dialog box for the

Shockwave Flash Object.


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Paste the url link next to Movie.

We now need to make a slight change to the url.

Specifically change:

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsm3FObZ1sI

to

http://uk.youtube.com/v/Vsm3FObZ1sI

You would need to make this change for any url link you

pasted into the dialog box.

The basics are:

Delete the elements in red

an d put a forward slash behind the v

Run your presentation and your YouTube video clip will appear on the screen.

Remember you need to be connected to the Internet for the video clip to play.

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsm3FObZ1sI

http://uk.youtube.com/v/Vsm3FObZ1sI

Documents

Journal of Learning and Teaching No. 1