Podcasting

I have been using coursecasting for a year, as a value-added feature of an on-campus class. The image below is a still from one of my lecture video-podcasts (vodcasts), indicating the split screen composed of a talking head, synchronized with a presentation slide deck, and a navigation pane for jumping between slides.

My students say that vodcasts are used most heavily at exam time. They work as a remedial tool (may be especially good for disability and ESL students). And the videos are great for those who miss class but want to catch up before the next one (though average attendance at lectures is in excess of 80%--in evening classes of 450 people, tracked using iclickers).

The only real issue that has emerged occurs when students try to play the vodcasts wirelessly. Then the playback sometimes hiccups, making notetaking frustrating. To fix the issue, the vodcasts could be downloadable, and/or the students need to be plugged into a network for faster and more stable connectivity.

Other issues to ponder for those considering podcasting include the production costs in terms of equipment purchase or rental (camera, tripod, mic, DV capture deck, tapes, computer, software), and personnel costs (camera, editing--in my case I hired undergraduate videographers and professionals from Queen's ITS Video Multimedia Production).

Other factors being discussed and debated include the political and personal issues regarding a perceived or real loss of control over lecture material and intellectual property--in which case there is always Creative Commons Licensing. And then there is the personal issue of one's comfort with being recorded, filmed, downloaded, and publicly distributed outside the walls, halls, and towers of the campus.

I have been blogging about "professors on podcasts" and related trends in digital popular culture in the mainstream news media.

Update: I just posted David Harpp's paper (see comments below) in the eLearning links section.

"Hey, I went to that (medical) school..."

Found on This Brazen Teacher blog while surfing for info about Divergence testing:

"If we taught babies to talk as most skills are taught in school, they would memorize lists of sounds in a predetermined order and practice them alone in a closet."

--Linda Darling-Hammond

eLearning

I've just added a link to Sidney Eve Matrix's page about eLearning. This will definitely be a thread to explore on this blog and I hope that E2QUATE will provide a space to bring together those interested in eLearning on campus. We'll be developing a satellite site with more eLearning links. Feel free to suggests people or links that will contribute to this. Amy Allcock at MedTech has helped me begin to develop eLearning modules using a variety of platforms. The current software that we are using is free and open source, eXe. Here's an example of a module about Emergency Ophthalmological Presentations made using eXe for School of Medicine.

First set of interviews

Colette and I had the chance to interview Jason Laker (Student Affairs/Women's Studies) and Kathleen Norman (School of Rehabilitation Therapy) today about their experiences and interests in teaching. Based on these interviews, we will be creating web pages in collaboration with Jason and Kathleen outlining some engaging techniques they have used. These will include an outline of their experiences, "break through" moments and pitfalls as well as examples of teaching materials. As we move forward, we'll try to enhance these pages with any related content, background, links or literature that we encounter along the way. Feel free to contribute to the blog if you have something to add. We also encourage those with ongoing stories to tell to share them here - are you embarking on teaching a larger class and wondering how your active techniques will "scale up". Share your journey with the E2QUATE community...

Suggest a link

Please post comments suggesting links or groupings of links (e.g. e-Learning, case-based-learning) that would be a useful addition to this site. Right now, the links are weighted towards my personal experience, but this blog is not about me, it is about a community that we are building together at Queen's.

What does E2QUATE stand for, anyway?

Enabling Educators (E2 - should be squared but my html is useless and I don't know how to do a superscript, any help is appreciated!) at Queen’s to pursue Active Teaching strategies and promote Excellence. The core objective of this project is to connect those individuals at Queen's interested in pursuing active teaching strategies. This will involve a wide cross-section of teachers (both established and beginning) as well as educational developers. We hope to profile teachers who are currently using a variety of instructional methods - cataloging their journey as well as their successes. Using a variety of different media, we will archive examples of different teaching methods used at Queen's. More than anything, E2QUATE will promote discussion, sharing and support amongst a grassroots group of teachers with a common set of values about student engagement and learning.

Project launch reception

On January 27th, we hosted a reception at the University club. This was an opportunity to describe the E2QUATE project (and explain that the "2" is really a superscript indicating that the "E" is squared: "enabling educators") and inviting participation. There was support, interest and a lively discussion amongst participants. Colette did a terrific job organizing it all and next, we move forward to start our interviews.