ISSUE 1 ; 1/10/08
ILT NEWS
EGG SUCKING
APPLYING FOR UNIVERSITY
NEW LEARNING CENTRES iN A524 and W103
During the summer, Estates and IT were
very busy setting up new Learning Centres
around the college. Now departments can
deliver blended sessions without having to
come out to the Hive.
The rooms have break out areas for discussion
and group work, shelves for subject specific
resources, books and magazines and are
also equipped with projectors.
They are ideal for workshop-type sessions
and drop-in but are bookable with facilitators
through CELCAT, by department administrators.
THIS WEEK IN MOODLE
This week Tutorial Moodle was launched with
materials and activities for tutors of full
time students. The materials are organised
into weekly topics, with resources to aid
the delivery of Every Child Matters as well
as copies of the relevant letters, forms and
tutorial paperwork.
There is also a calendar with important
tutorial dates, deadlines for student reviews,
parents evenings and so on.
Each week, Steve Tucker’s suggestions for
lesson content and his weekly Newsflash
for Students will also be posted into this
Moodle’s News Forum. If you are registered
with the page you may already be receiving
automatic email updates of news from the
site.
This week there is an interesting activity
suggested by Clive Stocker on the subject
of Images of Britain that will definitely
get students debating and there are some
thought-provoking videos on citizenship and
life decisions from teachertv and an online
democracy game. Next week look out for
A524 is used by
Hospitality, Health
and Beauty, Sport,
Travel and Tourism
and Public Services.
W103 is Humanities
and Science’s domain. The Hexagon, M102, is
for Engineering, Refrigeration and HE Research
Sessions while M306 belongs to Health,
Care and Early Years / IT and Business
Management. The Hive is still buzzing with
a range of students but particularly Creative
Arts.
ILT TIP OF THE WEEK
Setting up Moodle Journals
Many vocational students need to keep an
ongoing record of their development, so
why not give them their own online journal?
Students can access it from home and write
in it at anytime and staff can add inline
comments to encourage and cajole. The
journal is private and can even be graded.
To add a journal, make sure editing is on and
• Click on add an activity.
• Choose online text assignment from the
list of options.
Now set your preferences for the journal by
• Giving your journal a name
• Put a short description or introductory
message
• Set your deadline for completion or leave
it open indefinitely
• Make sure you check the box to allw
resubmissions so that students can keep
adding entries.
• Check the box to allow inline comments
so that you can give regular feedback.
• Check the box to say whether or not you
want to receive email updates of every
entry.
materials for Black History Month, with 100
Great Black Britains and The Race Debate.
Lead tutors are set up as teachers on the
site and can upload useful bits and pieces,
contribute ideas for lessons etc. while
most academic staff appear as students on
this moodle .... but don’t let that stop you
contributing. If you have an idea for a good
tutorial session or have come across some
useful resources let us know and we can
add them for you ... or just post them to the
page’s news forum to share.


RESOURCES ROUNDUP
http://www.visiblebody.com/
Complete fully interactive, 3D human anatomy model with detailed
models of all the body’s systems. Check out the head region demo
and see how you can explore a 3d model of the head in your
browser window. Excellent, bright and colourful 3d graphics, easy
to use. Excellent addition to a Moodle page or for use in class on
a whiteboard or projector
EGG SUCKING
APPLYING FOR UNIVERSITY
EGGHEAD
Academic and provocative
theories and debates on
the subject of ILT
Are videoed lectures an effective teaching tool?
E. Bennett. Department of Creative
Technologies, University of Portsmouth, UK
It has been argued that videoing face-to-face
lectures can provide students with a valuable
resource to complement their studies (Hermann,
Hürst and Welte 2006; Krüger and Nickolaus
2006; Brotherton and Abowd 2004). Students can
watch the videoed lecture to revisit any points
that they did not understand whilst watching the
lecture face-to-face. Furthermore, they can stop,
start and rewind the video to address their specific
needs. In fact, software has been developed that
enables students to personalise a videoed lecture
by adding their own annotations (Lauer, Trahasch
and Zupancic 2005). On a more practical level,
videoing lectures allows students to catch up if
they miss a face-to-face lecture. This also enables
them to adopt a more flexible learning pattern if
they wish.
Despite these suggested benefits, few
evaluations have been conducted. Furthermore,
the evaluations that have been conducted show
conflicting findings. Some indicate that videoed
lectures can improve students’ grades and
increase their overall level of satisfaction and
confidence with the course (Chiu, Lee and Yang
2006; Day and Foley 2006; Harley et al. 2003;
Zupancic and Horz 2002). However, other work
found that the availability of videoed lectures
made no significant difference (Brotherton and
Abowd 2004; Bell, Cockburn, McKenzie and Vargo
2001).
There is also conflicting evidence surrounding
whether providing video recordings of lectures
has an adverse affect on attendance (Brotherton
and Abowd 2004; Bell et al. 2001).
Potential negative impact of videoing lectures
Although some (but not all) evaluations revealed
positive feedback from students(Section 2), there
are two underlying reasons why videoed lectures
may not benefit the majority of students.
They should not see a lecture, or indeed the
lecturer, as the only source of knowledge about
the subject area. Instead, a lecture should teach
students the key ideas, and students should then
ISSUE 1 ; 1/10/08
be expected to consult other sources to
clarify things they did not understand. For
a new student this may be as simple as
studying the recommended course text
book, whereas more advanced students
may visit the library, search the internet
or even read academic journal papers.
This activity is crucial if students are to
develop into independent learners. When
considering the purpose of a university
at this basic level, the argument against
videoing lectures is clear.
Videoing lectures promotes the idea
that the lecture is the only important
source of knowledge about the subject
area. It removes the students’ need
to consult other sources, and hence
reduces the opportunity for them to
develop as independent learners. Or in
other words, videoing lectures promotes
the transfer of knowledge and facts,
whilst diminishing the importance of
constructing knowledge.
It could be argued that the common
practice of giving students a copy of the
Power Point slides suffers from the same
problem as giving students a video of the
lecture. However, this is not true. Power
Point slides (typically) give students
an overview of the concepts and key
terms, however, their virtue is that they
are incomplete. Therefore, in contrast
to videoed lectures, they only provide
a starting point for making notes and
consulting other sources to clarify points
that were not understood.
Clearly, it is idealistic to believe that all
students independently investigate things
they did not understand after a lecture.
In reality, they often do not. Pragmatists
may argue that universities may as well
accept this, and use videoed lectures
to overcome the problem. However,
the authors argue that anything that
reinforces the idea students do not need
to look beyond the lecture material to
gain an understanding of a subject area
should be treated with caution.
NEXT WEEK
teachertv, voting powerpoints and
some good practice casestudies