Technology for teaching, learning and assessment

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Technology update for Colleges Scotland

» Jisc offers digital services and solutions for UK education and research. The charity does this to achieve its vision for the UKto be the most digitally advanced education and research nation in the world.

» Working together across the higher education, further education and skills sectors, Jisc provides trusted advice and support, reduces sector costs across shared network, digital content, IT services and procurement negotiations, ensuring the sector stays ahead of the game with research and development for the future.

» Find out more at www.jisc.ac.uk

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http://www.jisc.ac.uk/

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» Jisc Digital Student project – investigated student expectations and experiences of technology

» Phase 1 – HE experience

» Phase 2 – FE experience (completed May 2015)

› Desk review of 63 reports from FE sector

› 12 focus groups with 220 FE learners

› Six national consultation events

» Findings from Learners’ expectations and experiences of the digital environment in the Further Education and Skills sector: A review of the literature conducted for the Jisc FE Digital Student Project, Metaxia Pavlakou and Rhona Sharpe, 2014 -http://digitalstudent.jiscinvolve.org/wp/files/2014/12/JISC-FEDS-lit-review-Dec19-branded.pdf

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» Benefits

› Allows access at times that suit learners e.g. travelling

› Portable – anywhere, anytime learning

› Contextualisation of learning (e.g. use of location features such as GPS)

› Capture and record data and learning as it happens

› Peer and student-centred learning

› Promotes active learning

› Provides bite-sized e-learning

› Reduces technical barriers to e-learning

» Effective use in colleges requires strategic approaches – rolling out of wifi and BYOD policies

» Can blend and blur traditional boundaries between informal and formal learning – not necessarily a bad thing.

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» Tools to plan and organise learning such as reminders, mind-mapping tools and audio note taking can help and support learnings during their studies

» Case study: Using AudioNote to record notes in a Psychology class at City of Glasgow College - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=5002

› This is an example of the AudioNote app being used successfully by an HNC Social Care student to create accurate records of lectures. He has dyslexia and struggles to take legible hand-written notes and the effort of note-taking distracts him from what is being discussed. The AudioNote app records the lecture whilst the student types minimal text (mostly key words). Lecture slides can also be captured using the in-build camera on the iPad he is using. Using the app also helps the student engage in group work; enabling him to capture comments from team meetings.

» Tools to support the learning process and can be used to create interactive resources and collaborative activities. These include digital curation tools such as Pinterest and Scoop.it. Other tools include Voicethread, Polleverywhere, Socrative, and Educreations or Explain Everything.

» Case study: Wraparound e-assessment for Core Skills Communication at Cumbernauld College - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2465

› This example highlights the use of self-contained learning objects (grammar chunks) that contained an explanatory video, made with the Explain Everything app.

› Explain Everything was used with an iPad turning it into an interactive whiteboard enabling the creation of video tutorials incorporating handwriting, text, images and a voiceover.

› The videos were made available in Moodle and a quiz was created for each video.

› Student feedback about the videos and quizzes was very positive and were described as “fun”, with students scoring high marks in the quizzes (90%) and they appreciated the immediate feedback.

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» Technology Enhanced Learner Support in Construction (TELSiC) Project at the City of Glasgow College - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2163

» Project aimed to engage learners with the pre-vocational construction curriculum by:

› Empowering learners to develop essential skills

› Providing tailored teaching approaches and resources to meet their personal learning needs

» Project enabled purchase of 20 iPads enabling:

› Interactive learning

› Learner centred personalised learning

› Contextualised learning through augmented reality

› Use of a wide range of apps:

– Educreation app: students write on interactive whiteboard to answer the Khan Academy Question

– Mindmapping app (MindJect Maps) to help students plan their work

– Presentation app (Prezi) used for showcasing student work

– Online storage (Dropbox) used for students to save their work on the iPad

» Identified benefits

› Creation of interactive, contextualised, multi-sensory teaching and learning materials

› Enhanced student engagement

› Improved achievement with students empowered to monitor their learning

› Collaboration between different departments in the college

› CPD opportunities for staff

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» Academic staff consider social media to enhance the quality of the learning experience, however some consider it to be a distraction. The most popular tool was YouTube (ETNA 2012)

» Case study: Stranraer cutting crew Facebook - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2163

› A Facebook group was set up – this was requested by students and was a student led group

› Used initially for general communications between learners and tutors

› Secure groups created for all hairdressing courses

› Use expanded to include:

– School links students posted pictures of practise styles they created at home and received tutor feedback

– Peer feedback was used constructively by learners and helped foster strong feelings of community and peer support amongst learners

– Mobile devices were used to allow access to the learning platform and access an online consultation sheet allowing learners to post and comment whilst on work placement

– There has also been a focus on employability with a secure group has also been created for local salon owners

› Using the Facebook groups encouraged learners to take ownership of their course and learners engage more, welcome feedback and communicate with their peers and the course tutor

» Case study: Pinterest: The Art of Digital Curation at Cumbernauld College - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=2437

» Pinterest is a social pinboarding site which allows users to collect and share images and website.

» The “pinned” website images are arrange on boards fro different topics.

» Used by the former Cumbernauld College with NQ Art & Design students

» Used by Art lecturer and students to compile and share boards about specific artists and boards relating to learning outcomes

» Focus on images collections ensures students remain more focused

» Students also create sites to collate and share ideas with each other (peer learning)

» Started to be used in other areas to introduce students to the concept of research using the internet – of particular relevance to curricular areas that are visual in nature e.g. fashion and beauty

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» Good student feedback:

› “I use Pinterest all the time. I made some boards on the same topics as our course units and I use them for inspiration. I’ve made other boards on artists that interest me – people I found myself. I have a board for called “Random, One Off Art” for things I intend to draw soon. When I get enough of my own work together, I’ll put up a board on Pinterest.”

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» Technology enhanced assessment is much wider than online muti-choice quizzes. A number of technologies can be used to demonstrate student competency including:

» Using e-Portfolios to evidence that specific skills have been demonstrated

» Virtual worlds can be used to provide simulations and authentic settings for assessment

» Games can be used to help learners demonstrate ability and comprehension by completing a task before they move on to the next level

» Blogs can be used to demonstrate competency and understanding, and can be effective reflective tools

» Online polling can be used to gain a quick overview of understanding

» Automatically marked quizzes can provide feedback and help students see how they are progressing

» Case Study: Assessment through podcasting and video production at Borders College - http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=232

» HNC Interactive Media students participated in a number innovative assessments including the construction of a podcast equivalent to the 1800 reports identified in the unit spec.

» They also created a script for broadcast purposes and filmed and edited a short film based on the script. The film was embedded in a site and made available to ‘clients’ (local organisations) demonstrating their employability skills via the assessment.

» The quality of completed projects delivered to clients has increased significantly through the introduction of innovative teaching methods

» Case study: Using QR codes and mobile technology with hairdressing and beauty therapy students at Perth College -http://www.rsc-scotland.org/?p=232

› QR codes were used to access a number of interactive resources including quizzes and formative assessments

› These were accessed using smartphones so no need to book computer labs for these activities

› Activities could be completed outside class, promoting self-directed learning

› Has promoted discussion and reflection on activities

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» Summer of student innovation project - https://www.jisc.ac.uk/rd/projects/summer-of-student-innovation

» 2015 FE competition ideas - https://elevator.jisc.ac.uk/e/3-fe-learner-led/ideas

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