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Using Videoconferencing to Teach. Simon Clarke Presentation to the to the UHI SAG, 22.06.09. Objectives. What can be taught? What constitutes good VC teaching? What about asynchronous delivery? What staff development is needed?. What can be taught by VC?.
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Using Videoconferencing to Teach Simon Clarke Presentation to the to the UHI SAG, 22.06.09
Objectives • What can be taught? • What constitutes good VC teaching? • What about asynchronous delivery? • What staff development is needed?
What can be taught by VC? • Any classroom based subject involving presentation and discussion • A lot more than we currently offer! Shetland students, Inverness tutor.
What does VC struggle with ? • Practical skills • Fieldwork • Laboratories • These elements are present in most programmes • Can be supported in other ways, but needs to be planned for in programme design. Shetland students at Birnie, near Elgin
Recipe for Success • Staff familiarity with the VC kit – to the point where they can concentrate on the teaching. • Good lesson planning – harder to improvise over the VC. • Most of the rules for good VC practice are more widely applicable to teaching generally.
Interaction is Vital • Tutor is blind and deaf while presenting. • All learning works better with active students. • VC sessions that are not interactive might just as well be recordings.
Audience Behaviour • VC is a transferable skill the same as essay writing • Poor technique has to be corrected
Enhancement - Visually Rich Lessons • Input from PC or Document Camera • 35mm slide, documents up to A4 and 3D objects • Not much harder than in face to face teaching
Virtual Learning Environment • All content; notes, assessment etc online. • VC free to concentrate on interaction. • Provides security of delivery
Asynchronous Delivery • VLE vital, even for VC dependent modules • Stand alone VLE delivery not that easy • Successful interaction much more difficult to engineer • VC can be streamed – recordings can be downloaded over the internet. • Does not provide for interaction – not in itself a replacement for VC.
Pros of Asynchronous Delivery • Online delivery can reach beyond UHI’s campus network. • Some students are only available out of office hours. • Fewer timetabling issues.
Cons of Asynchronous Delivery • Fully online learning requires very heavy investment in materials. Economic logic requires it be done to very large groups. • Requires a range of staff skills quite different from conventional teaching. • Online courses brings us into a completely different market with many much larger more prestigious competitors.
ConferenceMe PC based VC • Builds on existing UHI strength in VC use. • Allows outreach beyond the campus network • Relieves timetable pressure to some extent
Staff Development Needs • Basics very simple • Quickly taught in a technical induction. • Learning takes much longer! • Requires practice and reflection. • Some experienced users are dreadful! • We need a culture of peer review and self improvement embedded within and between teams.
What do UHI’s Managers need to do? • Don’t imagine our problems will be solved by better technology. • Insist on peer review being established. • Set SMART targets for improvements in VC delivery and VLE support materials. • Think much more explicitly about UHI’s strategic direction with regard to learning technologies, preferably before committing us to large procurement programmes.