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"Case Studies"
One of our students in FHES (Faculty of Health Education and Society) has reflected on the first few weeks of term and their opinion on pre-lecture coffee and Hyflex:
“For me the first two weeks have gone well, I have quite quickly adjusted to the way things are working. Did have a minor hissing fit last week when I arrived on campus at 8h30 for a 9 am lecture to find no coffee would be available till 9 when I had to be in class. Pleased to say that by this week the matter was resolved, and pre-lecture coffee was available.
I have decided that under the present conditions I prefer the synchronous online lectures to in class as despite the limitations around having discussions I can at least breath and focus. In class, I have found wearing a mask very distracting and I spend more time suppressing my claustrophobia then concentrating on the lecture, also I find the lecturers talking from behind a visor is quite muffling and I can’t always make out what is being said. That said clearly some lecturers are way better at delivering online than others but I have been very impressed with how Collaborates breakout function works. This has been my tech revelation of the year so far.”
The University is continuing to refine hyflex models and share experiences on when this works well, how it can be refined and when other methods of delivery may be more appropriate.
For more information on socially distanced delivery then please see the Learntech blog
If you have other experiences to share then please email rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk
“The situation was that the room was not big enough to accommodate all the students, so they chose to sit nearby, whilst there were others who could not come to the face to face session and were online.
I am a bit of a wanderer when I am teaching and so I do not know if the students could always hear me when I move around. There is also the issue of not being able to hear the student’s contribution because of the masks and so I needed to ask on a couple of occasions for them to repeat themselves.
…there is a need to multi-task in terms of ensuring there is participation and accessibility of resources and activities for this delivery method.
On reflection, I will ensure that I have a hard copy of the presentation, in case IT issues occur and to keep checking in with the students who are online or sitting nearby more often. The 2 hours flew by.”
The University is continuing to refine hyflex models and share experiences on when this works well, how it can be refined and when other methods of delivery may be more appropriate.
For more information on socially distanced delivery then please see the Learntech blog
If you have other experiences to share then please email rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk
Sally Sun from Faculty of Business and Law has kindly reflected on her experiences of Hybrid / Flexible Learning on the module BUS1004 (Introduction to Management).
She notes ‘…this is a case study about my practices of teaching students online and F2F at the same time during March 2020. I feel that I have adopted some teaching practices which are very similar to what is suggested in the HyFlex teaching approach, so this is my reflection about my experiences of what went well and what can be improved. This reflection is designed around Gibb’s reflection cycle to help me focus on my experiences.’
4 key points were noted by Sally regarding her experiences:
- The new delivery format has satisfied the needs of a certain kind of students
- Students got excited when they interact with students online
- She felt extremely exhausted after the session
- She felt the teaching quality was not her best level for F2F students in the class
The University is continuing to refine hyflex models and share experiences on when this works well, how it can be refined and when other methods of delivery may be more appropriate.
For more information on socially distanced delivery then please see the Learntech blog
If you have other experiences to share then please email rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk
This blog is a home for some of the links which provide useful ideas for icebreakers for online classes. If you have particular favourites/collections then please email them to rob.howe@northampton.ac.uk.
Adding Some TEC-VARIETY: 100+ Activities for Motivating and Retaining Learners Online.
As Faculty Lead for Interprofessional Education in the Faculty of Health, Education and Society, I needed to create a resource that students could engage with on day two of their programmes – meaning it had to be user-friendly and accessible to students with a range of IT skills. Having previously tried NILE, I found that this was far too early to introduce it as a synchronous learning tool as students were unfamiliar with the VLE and its tools for working collaboratively. When discussing my dilemma with Rob Howe, he suggested I try Bootstrap xerte and set up a meeting with Anne Misselbrook as the University’s ‘guru’!
After a short walk-through I had a go at creating my xerte and found the process to be very straightforward (after a minor issue with formatting that Anne was quick to support me with). The end product looks professional and user-friendly – I’m delighted with it and look forward to hearing future students’ feedback on its accessibility. I aim to use Bootstrap xerte in the near future for creating a resource for anatomy and physiology and in the current climate can see it as an excellent platform for developing online resources that look professional and are easy to navigate for the student.
Senior Lecturer in Marketing Kardi Somerfield provides a reflective insight into how students can be involved in both module content creation and assessment design, by facilitating online debates which inform the end of year exam.
Working with third year Marketing students in the module ‘Issues of Advertising Practice’, Kardi encourages her students to view the debates as an opportunity for democratic learning by giving them the role of a weekly chair. To fulfil this role students must begin a topic with their own question, host a debate and nominate a best post of the week.
Her approach has been highly commended by the module’s External Examiners as being innovative and well run. The Dean of Learning and Teaching, Prof Ale Armellini said: “Kardi’s approach is highly engaging for students, as well as rigorous and innovative. This is an exemplar of active blended learning in practice, where student centredness, personalisation and interaction operate together towards the achievement of outcomes and a fantastic learning experience”.
In this short video Academic Librarian Joanne Farmer explains how academics can best use Aspire reading lists to engage their students.
Aspire Readings lists are created and maintained by module tutors. They are added to each module site and can contain links to books, e-books, journals and audiovisual resources.
Joanne says “reading lists are an important part of the student learning journey and often a starting point for any research or work undertaken. It is worth spending time developing reading lists so students are encouraged to engage with a range of resources”. She cites Rob Farmer’s reading list –
An Introduction to Climate Change for Non-Scientists and Non-Specialists, as a good example to look at for ideas as it has an engaging narrative and structure.
The creation and updating of reading lists are supported by the Academic Librarians who can be contacted by email: librarians@northampton.ac.uk
In this ABL Practitioner Story, Grant Timms (Senior Lecturer in Marketing) reflects on his use of the Kaltura video recorder and streaming platform to create videos and video quizzes to support student engagement.
Grant shares his feelings on the importance of considering the needs of the audience, how analytics help him track audience engagement, and how to stand out in a digital world where students attention is often hard to catch.
The Kaltura Capture recorder and the MediaSpace video streaming platform are available to all staff and students at the University of Northampton. A link and an introduction can be found on the NILE Help tab, under Tools & Resources.
If you’re inspired by his experiments with video quizzes then contact your Learning Technologist for training and support, or explore on your own by reading this FAQ.
http://askus.northampton.ac.uk/Learntech/faq/188945
Case study produced by Learning Technologists Al Holloway and Richard Byles.
In this new ABL Practitioner Story, Clare Allen (Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour) shares her experience and thoughts on using Padlet in her teaching to support open group discussion.
At the beginning of the year, she asked the students to discuss in small groups what they thought learning was and to use Padlet to upload an image that best represented the thoughts of their group.
Clare talks about how she introduced this new tool to her students, why she found Padlet more engaging than simply delivering PowerPoints slides and what impact she feels it made on students understanding of their subject.
Listen to Clare in conversation with Richard Byles and Al Holloway, Learning Technologists for the Faculty of Business and Law, and if you’re interested in exploring how Padlet could support your teaching then copy the following link into your browser:
http://askus.northampton.ac.uk/Learntech/faq/186022
Padlet is available free to all staff and students at the University of Northampton and can be found on the NILE Help tab, under Tools & Resources.
FBL Marketing Lecturer Samantha Read shares her top ‘Teaching and learning resources – Ideas for an ABL approach to teaching and learning’.
This list features links to; OERs(Open education resources), tools for creating interactive images and video, collaboration tools, quizzes and polls, gamification ideas, storyboarding templates, articles of interest and links to further training.
Samantha recently spoke about her experiences of ABL at the FBL Faculty ABL away day, and recommends that staff consider the following points when implementing a new tool:
- Don’t try to introduce too many new tools into your online and face-to-face sessions. Practice using a few and start to integrate the ones that you feel confident using and can support students in adopting.
- If you want students to use an online tool for the face-to-face or online element of your session, provide them with really clear instructions (including a short video where possible) and begin using that tool during the face-to-face session so that everyone will feel comfortable using it.
- Where possible, embed your resources into NILE so that they are easily accessible. You can usually find an ‘embed code’ to copy and paste into the html section of a NILE content area rather than directing students towards a link.
- Don’t feel disheartened if one idea works for one group but does not work for another. For me, it’s all about trial and error and adapting the resources and tools to each individual group of students based on their skills, learning preferences and the feedback they provide.
Samantha’s ABL resources can be viewed on the Padlet below. Please feel free to add any other resources that you would recommend to others.
