Staff Interviews

To date, the project team have interviewed a number of staff about their experiences of teaching and supporting video conferenced lectures.

We carried out two pilot interviews – one with a member of AV support staff and one with a member of academic staff.

Questions have been refined based on their contribution to achieving the aims and objectives of the project, and in the light of feedback from Betty Collis’ visit. We are continuing to arrange further interviews across academic Schools, starting with those in Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry. Current versions of interview schedules are as follows:

Academic Staff – Interview Schedule

AV Staff – Interview Schedule

Ethics Application – Approval Received

We are pleased to report that we have gained ethics approval from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, with whom we will carry out a study of the impact of telematic lectures (a form of video conferencing) and video streaming (where the lecture is recorded and made available to students) on undergraduate student learning. Our key research activity will be conducting 20 student interviews. Please see the documentation below, including the student interview schedule:

PCMD Ethics Application

Video Conferencing Project Protocol

Student Interview Schedule

Student Invitation to Participate

Student Consent Form & Information Sheet

Peer Review Feedback

September / October Update

The first “Team F” CAMEL meeting took place at Kingston University during September. Each institution presented its project progress to date. The value of planning ahead for journal articles based on the project was noted and Betty volunteered to help the teams in planning and coordinating their efforts for this, as well as in planning for the reports that HEA will require. The Helga social networking environment was also discussed, along with the timing of the project (it is not aligned with the academic year).

Then came our first Steering Group meeting, where discussion focused on the first HEA interim report. Work to date was presented by members of the core project team: the literature review, planned data collection (questionnaires, student and staff interviews) and staff training were discussed. Talk then centred on:

• The value of video streaming for students: a mini-project is being undertaken with the Peninsula School of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), which aims to evaluate the impact of video-streaming of lectures on undergraduate learning. Early analysis of use by PCMD suggests benefit to student learning, though it is not yet used by other academic schools.
• There has been high demand this year for staff ‘training’ sessions, to prepare them for delivering lectures by videoconference. Availability of suitable training spaces to run these kinds of sessions has caused some problems, as have staff changes during the recent restructure of Academic Services, though in most cases sessions have been able to be re-scheduled.

During September the VC project team collected a huge amount of data from new undergraduate students across Exeter and Cornwall campuses. 501 questionnaires were completed by new students in Geography, History, Politics, Law and Biosciences (a 75% return). We also carried out two focus groups with ten students from the Department of English. Both the focus groups and questionnaire enabled us to gain valuable insights into students’ expectations/perceptions about the use of videoconferencing in the context of their programme.

In October we received our first visit from our critical friend, Betty Collis. Betty met with the core project team and others associated with the project, including participants from the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry and the School of Education and Lifelong Learning, the Dean of Undergraduate Studies and the newly appointed Head of the Education Enhancement Unit’s e-Learning team, Matt Newcombe. Preliminary results from new student questionnaires and staff interviews were presented by Research Fellow Ruolan Wang. Betty then visited one of the lecture theatres equipped for video conferencing and we discussed in more detail the VC for Learning and Teaching workshop that, to date, around 50 staff have participated in. Betty and the core project team then discussed possible publications, reports, potential directions for the project and general reflections from the day. Please see Betty’s notes.

We’ve benefitted enormously from Betty’s visit. On her recommendation we have reviewed our overarching research question, and this will have some impact on the kind of questions we cover in staff interviews in particular. We’ve also been asked to present at the RSC’s regional conference in Bristol next spring, but that still seems a long way off! Still so much to do!

September update

A number of activities have taken place this month, in preparation for the start of next academic year.

Over the summer we’ve been working on a review of the literature on video-conferencing in the context of learning and teaching. The key areas covered by the literature are as follows:

a) The role of VC in distance education

b) Teacher education (prior to live classroom experience)

c) Use of VC in teaching medicine (providing access to experts, the use of video-streaming)

d) Language learning

e) General use of VC within Higher Education – small and large group teaching

f) Use of VC in schools

g) Staff /student attitudes and experiences

h) Staff training for effective use of VC

In addition, a concept map of the literature is currently being produced in order to show our thinking, with comments from the project’s critical friend, Betty Collis, and the project team.

Staff development has also been high on the agenda, with Videoconferencing for Beginners training sessions now booked for September. The new teaching programmes starting on the Cornwall campus from October ‘07 (Law, and Humanities and Social Sciences), mean that a greater number of staff have requested training than in previous years, and in time for the new semester. A training session has been prepared, built on a review of existing resources, and it is hoped to enhance this further as we draw on data and resources created by future collaboration with academics and support staff involved in videoconferencing during the lifetime of the project.

A number of academic schools and departments have requested the collection of data regarding student perceptions prior to any experience of receiving video-conferenced teaching. We expect to collect data from the same student groups at a later date, so that we can compare perceptions and motivations before and after their experience. Whilst one department have opted for a focus group, an questionnaire-based exercise has been requested by the others. Hence we have also been busy designing the questionnaire, and consulting with a sample of academic and support staff involved in the project. Data collection will take place during Induction Week.

We’re looking forward to meeting up with our F cluster friends in Kingston next week… and hoping there’ll be time for a breather, if only on the train on the way up!

An update…

With thanks to our critical friend Betty for the summary of this phone call with Liz Dunne, our Project Lead

Liz updated Betty on the current activities in the project, many of which relate to gathering baseline data based on what the different faculties want to know.

There will be an emphasis on collecting data from students, some by questionnaire but most by face-to-face contacts with students. Other current tasks relate to gathering the information about when VC will take place within courses (semester starts in October), and also developing training for the instructor participants. Liz noted that the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry, a joint initiative of Exeter and Plymouth universities, has considerable experience with VC over their different campuses and is willing to join forces in terms of developing training packages as well as sharing student data.

Much of the telephone conversation focused on models for the use of VC within courses. Betty noted that using VC to transmit a lecture was an obvious model but based on other research, this can be the moment to look at the overall balance of a courses and decide on where VC can support other aspects besides instructor content transmission. Liz noted that Geography students at Exeter were already using VC for group work outside of lectures; Betty supported that idea and suggested several other ways that shifted the use of VC to a channel for students to report on their collaborative work.

The VLE is an important tool to enable students to study lecture materials before a real-time session, do something (perhaps collaboratively) and post results in the VLE, and then the instructor uses the real-time session and VC to guide students on reporting on their submissions. Liz noted that these sorts of ideas were very good, but it would be a change process for instructors who generally think of the lecture as the time and place when they deliver content. Liz did note that Exeter stresses inquiry-led learning and active learning, which lead themselves well to a different balance in contact time.

Betty and Liz also discussed the upcoming literature review of the project. Betty noting that more than 5 million hits are available via Google for the key words: video conferencing, teaching and learning. Betty indicated she would like to see a concept map or some other cluster of main lines of all this literature.

Action points: During August/early September:

• Rachel to produce a concept map or other overview of clusters of relevant literature and send to Betty
• Jane to collect the teaching ideas being discussed so far in the project and send to Betty
• All the project team will look at the expected and possible outcomes for the project given in the project plan to identify indicators for those outcomes and send the ideas to Betty
• The project team will send its interim report for HEA (due early September) also to Betty
• With this input, Betty will arrange a phone meeting with the Exeter team in early September before the CAMEL meeting in Kingston on 13 September.

Upcoming visits: Betty will come to Exeter on 16 October and meet with the team on 17 October. She will also come to the Steering committee meeting on 9 January 2008. After that, a time for another visit will be arranged.

Time pressures

Just an observation, really. Staffing, time and space have been particular challenges for us, the appointment of our Research Fellow having fallen through at the last minute, major refurbishments of our workspace getting underway, students disappearing for the summer, staff holidays coming up fast – oh, and the small matter of other work we all need to do in addition to Pathfinder!

We’re all optimistic about staying on course, but October onwards will be particularly mad. Are there extra funds available for therapy, I wonder…

Our first VC Project Pathfinder Group meeting – 28th June, 2007

Getting this many members of a large group around the table at the same time was quite an achievement in itself – all the more so because we’re 100 miles or so apart. The meeting itself was therefore videoconferenced. Amazingly, and thanks to the attention to detail of those concerned, people, papers, technology and food all arrived in the right places at the right times!

The Pathfinder Group consists of the core team and key contacts with academic Schools. The purpose of this initial meeting was to introduce everyone to each other, report progress so far and initiate discussion about the project and where to go from here. Information about project planning, documentation and blogs was also conveyed to the group.

Two of the three project team members, Rachel Kowalski and Sue Howell, are now officially in post. Our Research Fellow, Ruolan Wang, has also been appointed and will start work as soon as possible.

Aims and outcomes of the project were then reviewed, and representatives from Schools asked about the extent of any existing data on the student experience in particular, eg through module evaluation.

Finally, School representatives were invited to talk about their particular interest areas in relation to the project. These included:

• Managing expectations and inducting students into VC situations for learning and teaching
• Improving interaction and engagement with students at remote sites
• Linking VC with other technologies to complement delivery (eg resources in WebCT)
• Making links with experts from other institutions or organisations, including international links
• The need for flexible induction and training of staff in the use of VC for learning and teaching

Group members were invited to think creatively about conference presentations and other scholarly outcomes that the project team could help to facilitate.

Finally, and perhaps most importantly, one participant from the Exeter contingent was concerned that the Cornwall-based staff had a more impressive lunch. Still, the Danish pastries and sausages disappeared very quickly here at the Exeter end!

Why videoconferencing?

After reading our initial post, you may be wondering why we’ve chosen to focus on videoconferencing for our project. Afterall, it’s ‘old’ technology – haven’t we been there and done that? Well, in a sense yes, but in our context we’ve decided, the answer is to do with what can happen when a University like our own has to adapt rapidly to new campus development and academic partnerships.

Although Exeter has been involved with VC since the early 1990s, much of this activity has been fairly small-scale, VC being used to facilitate access to experts in particular research fields. In the past few years, however, use of VC has grown to support, in some cases, significant amounts of cross-campus teaching. A particularly active user of VC and also videostreaming is the Peninsula College of Medicine and Dentistry (PCMD), a partner institution with the University of Plymouth and the NHS.

But how do these activities affect our staff and students? Well, this project is our opportunity to find out!

Through Pathfinder we will evaluate the impact of delivering by VC on the experience and practices of academic staff as well as students – in a variety of contexts and across a range of disciplines.

One of the most important outcomes of our project, we hope, will be an informed debate about appropriate use of this technology in particular academic contexts, and the collection of data to underpin staff development.

All of us in the Project Team are very excited about the prospect of working with our cluster group, and also with Betty Collis, our critical friend, which reminds me… we’ve yet to fix a date for Betty’s visit. I must get on to that!

My next report will be about where we are in the project, so watch this space!

Themes and purpose of our project

(i) to evaluate the ways in which videoconferencing is currently being used for learning and teaching at the University, either as a standalone technology to support lectures, or in conjunction with a Managed Learning Environment

(ii) to share and identify good practice relating to use of this technology in a range of educational contexts

(iii) to develop a range of products and resources to inform appropriate staff development

(iv) to inform the development of relevant strategies, including the University’s Education Strategy, as well as institutional initiatives concerning the development of learning spaces