WELCOME

Welcome to assignment 3:

Develop e-learning components using learning management system tools and provide a rationale for their use.

Once you have read the introduction, and then moved on to read the purpose of and had a look at each screencast, I would like to invite you to give me feedback on the following points:

 

·         What do you feel works well in this screencast?

·         What did you find challenging in this screencast?

·         What suggestions to you have for improvement/extension of this screencast?

Introduction:

The faculty where I work recently reviewed a degree with a focus on a more blended delivery approach to teaching and learning. One of the online tools that have been introduced into the reviewed degree is ePortfolios.  EPortfolios are digital portfolios where students are encouraged to build-up, work in, and maintain examples of their work, in a digital online environment (Ministry of Education, 2011).  However, the setting-up and initial use of the individual ePortfolios has presented challenges (and frustration) for a cohort of first year, first semester students.

 

Therefore, the aim of this project is to use Screenr as an elearning tool for developing a series of instructional screencasts for this specific cohort of tertiary students. The focal point of the instructional sceencasts will be around supporting students to set-up and initially use individual ePortfolios, with a focus on providing students with context specific, flexible, continuously available, easily accessible support system personalised to their specific needs (Salmon 2002).

 Screencasts are a screen capture of the actions on a user’s computer screen, usually with accompanying audio, and distributed through RSS. A screencast captures what happens on a monitor over a period of time. The audio track can be a narrative from the presenter, or background audio from another application. Screencasts can be produced in various formats, but are generally watched streamed over a network. Screencasts can be thought of as podcasts of a computer monitor. Screencasts capture the feeling of personal connection that podcasts provide, with the added benefit of video to see what is being discussed and can be easily distributed through blogs and other Web pages (7 Things you need to know about screencasts, n/a).

 

Reference:

 

Ministry of Education. (2011). Digital Portfolios: Guidelines for beginners. Retrieved June 30^th 2013 from http://www.minedu.govt.nz/~/media/MinEdu/Files/EducationSectors/PrimarySecondary/Initiatives/ITAdminSystems/DigitalPortfoliosGuidelinesforbeginners.pdf

 

Salmon, G. (2002), Pedagogical requirements of VLEs: Pets and Planets, UCISA TLIG-SDG user Support Conference, Leeds, 2002, http://sstweb.open.ac.uk:8282/oubs/gilly

 

7 things you should know about screencasting.(2006). Retrieved June 30^th 2013 from http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7012.pdf  

 

E-LEARNING ACTIVITY ONE

E-learning activity one:

Screencast one - Setting-up a Wix e-portfolio through eMIT

http://screenr.com/JLKH

Above is the link to the first screencast that was developed to support students to set-up and initially use their individual ePortfolios. The focus of this screencast is around providing students with context specific, flexible, continuously available, easily accessible support system personalised to their specific needs.

To this end the screencast begins with students being invited to access their own course eMIT (blackboard) site. They are then directed to a specific tab and then a specific folder, that will take then to the ‘Wix web builder’ link that has been imbedded into their course tools. It was decided to imbed the link into eMIT, as some students found it difficult to find the ‘Wix web builder’ link on the internet. It is hoped that this context specific approach will help to alleviate the initial frustration and stress expressed by some students.

The students are then shown how to access templates that are relevant to the focus of the course and encouraged to ‘have a play’. According to Oehrli, Piacentine, Peters & Nanamaker (2011) to be effective screencasts need to be short, and they argue that when considering illustrating basic concepts two short videos back to back can be more effective than one long video. With this in mind I decided to finish this first screencast at the ‘have a play’ stage, so that students could have time to get their mind around what the site looks like and how it works.

Student access to the screencast link was provided through the course eMIT site. As it is envisaged that the screencasts will be used by students to support/extend the learning in the classroom, the course lecturer loaded the link after she had shown the students the ‘how to steps and discussion’ in class. Once students have access to the link they are able to watch it many times, and they are able to stop and start the screencast when needed, thus making it flexible, continuously available and easily accessible.

Don’t forget that I value your feedback and recommendations for improvement:

·         What do you feel works well in this screencast?

·         What did you find challenging in this screencast?

·         What suggestions to you have for improvement/extension of this screencast?

 

Reference:

Oehrli, J; Piacentine, J; Peters, A and Nanamaker, B. (2011). Do Screencasts Really Work?  Assessing Student Learning through Instructional Screencasts. Retrieved July 26th 2013 from          http://www.ala.org/acrl/sites/ala.org.acrl/files/content/conferences/confsandpreconfs/national/2011/papers/do_screencasts_work.pdf

E-LEARNING ACTIVITY TWO

E-learning activity two:

Screencast two - Setting-up a home page in Wix

 http://screenr.com/BMOH

Above is the link to the second screencast that was developed to support students to set-up and initially use their individual ePortfolios. The focus of this screencast is around providing support for students to set-up their home page in Wix. It is a direct follow on from the first screencast ‘Setting-up a Wix e-portfolio through eMIT’, and once again it is meant to have a strong focus on being context specific, flexible, continuously available, and an easily accessible support system personalised to students’ specific needs.

After the students had accessed the first screencast I sat down with the classroom lecturers to discuss what they felt  should be the focus of the next screencast. I chose to work with the classroom lecturers rather than make the decision on my own, because according to Huges (2004), in the social environment of the classroom the teacher is in a position to identify the students familiarity with the technology required, proficiency in the language of instruction that would best meet their needs and therefore determine what support is most needed.

After some discussion and reflection it was decided that this next screencast would support students to set-up their ‘front page’. The lecturers felt that this should include using a blank template into which the students add the course title as the name of the page, and insert a photo. Once again a consideration was to ensure that this illustration of basic concepts was effective, and therefore I kept it short and to the point.

Don’t forget that I value your feedback and recommendations for improvement:

·         What do you feel works well in this screencast?

·         What did you find challenging in this screencast?

·         What suggestions to you have for improvement/extension of this screencast?

 

Reference:

Hughes, J. (2004). Supporting the online learner. In Anderson, T & Elloumi, F. (Eds), Theory and Practice of Online Learning (pp367 -383). Retrieved July 28^th 2013 from http://www.cde.athabascau.ca/online_book/pdf/TPOL_book.pdf