Dr Paul Beeson BSc, MSc, PhD, CSci, FCPM, FFPM RCPS(Glasg), FHEA, a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Health and Society attended two Xerte training sessions with Anne Misselbrook the Content Developer on 19 April 2016 and again on 11 August 2016.
After attending the August session, Paul started to build his Xerte e-learning packages. Paul took a sensible approach to the Xerte development and contacted Anne for support and they met on 16 August to discuss the plan for Xerte. Paul acknowledges the importance of storyboarding with instructional design. Paul was able to put the content in order in a plan before using Xerte software. Anne helped Paul with designing the structure of the Xerte package with instructional design, provide recommendations about page types to use, and show Paul how he could ‘duplicate’ his Xerte for re-use with different content, thus saving time.
Anne emphasised that the Xertes need to be interactive and future proof.
Andy Stenhouse and Rob Farmer from the Learning Technology team got involved with supporting Paul with video clip recordings.
Video clip describing cheilectomy surgery
Paul needed video clips to complement his content and has since embedded quizzes to some of these using Kaltura CaptureSpace.
Paul has developed an impressive 21 Xerte e-learning packages (11 Xerte packages for the 2nd years and 10 Xerte packages for the third years).
At the end of September Paul added the survey questionnaire to his NILE sites.
Sample questions asked include:
- Overall do you think that the Xerte’s are of benefit to learning and why?
- What are your feelings to this approach to teaching?
Paul made the survey a mandatory part of the course and got the 2nd and 3rd year students to complete the survey at the end of term once they had used the different topic Xertes.
Anonymous feedback comments referring to the first question above include:
“Yes, the visual learning of video clips is especially beneficial”.
“I really enjoy the pre learning xerte, it sets me up with some base knowledge and understanding – giving me the foundations to build on within the lecture but also allowing me to bring something to the lecture”.
“It has been very helpful with pre-lecture learning”.
Anonymous feedback comments referring to the second question above include:
“I found it very useful”.
“It’s really good! It has everything we need to know about the topic”.
“Very satisfied, uses a different approach”.
However there does seem to be a misunderstanding about the delivery of teaching. See the feedback comments below:
“It is a good extra to the lecture but nothing can be better than good time spent with the lecturer. The face to face style is needed for this course”.
“I enjoy this style of learning when used in conjunction with the lecture”.
“Teaching is favoured fills the gaps of the Xerte’s”.
The Flipped Classroom is the teaching style being promoted and this is a mix of online and face to face learning. Some students are indicating that they think online is replacing face to face, but this is not the case.
Neurological Causes of Forefoot Pain
Paul states:
“Lessons learnt include making sure the e-learning package is varied and not too long. Also, the importance of making a plan prior to construction of the Xerte. This can’t be emphasised enough”.
What Paul liked:
It was useful to have the opportunity to attend a Xerte training session more than once as this helps reinforce learning.
Paul liked the direct phone support provided by Anne Misselbrook and the opportunity of being able to share his Xerte examples with Anne for her feedback.
In addition, Paul looked at websites to find examples of good practice.
Conclusion
Students need to have a shift of attitude from the thought that “they (Lecturers) are making us do this” to accepting the message (from Lecturers) “we’ve done this for you and we are helping you by giving a structure and a piece of work useful for your learning and for revision” says Paul.
Paul states that we are giving the e-learning to students to enable their learning and to help facilitate learning in a different way.
Paul feels that using Xerte e-learning packages makes his course cutting edge and interesting for students. E-learning gives another option for how students learn.
