Video Conferencing for Beginners: research-based training

To date, over 50 members of staff, from Exeter and Cornwall campuses, have participated in a beginners workshop to prepare them for using VC for cross-campus teaching. The workshop is a small group session with no more than 7 participants, as each participant experiences what it is like to deliver lectures by videolink – from both the ‘home’ perspective and as a participant at the remote site. Staff are also introduced to other ways of using VC in teaching and supporting student learning – from virtual tutorials in real time to the potential of videostreaming to enhance students’ access to online resources.

Feedback from participants

Of the feedback received, 100% strongly agreed or agreed that they would recommend this course to colleagues.

The most positive comments were about the relevance of the content to their training needs, the clear and logical presentation of materials, and the support provided by the facilitators. Full feedback can be viewed here, or see a sample of the comments received below:

“The presentations were the most useful. They enabled me to use videoconferencing on one hand and to be in the audience (both in the home audience and in the remote one) on the other and thus to start learning and reflecting about how to use it properly.”

“Discussion and practical – facilitators were helpful and encouraging, exchanging notes with other colleagues was useful.”

“It was great to have individual practice and feedback. This was possible because there were only six of us at the session.”

“Everyone should do it as part of their development.”

Research-based Materials

Training materials have been further developed using feedback from participants and data from Exeter’s Pathfinder project. The revised PowerPoint presentation contains both student and staff views of VC’d teaching in order to raise awareness, and tips for good practice:

A resource bank of video clip examples is in the process of being created to show the real experience of video conferencing and good practice points to note.

A further series of video clips have been created to show simulated examples of how not to deliver a video conference teaching session!

Literature Review and Concept Map

Work continues on a literature review on the use of videoconferencing for learning and teaching. A summary was appended to our first HEA Interim Report, to demonstrate the scope of our searches and to highlight key themes and sources:

Literature Review Summary

On the recommendation of Betty Collis, our critical friend, the project team has created a concept map to demonstrate the scope of the literature review. Thank you to Betty and others for their feedback.

The literature review is being further developed following Betty’s visit, and an updated summary will be included with our next HEA Interim Report.