IMPALA Informal Mobile Podcasting and Learning Adaptation
The Use of Video-Podcast to Provide Summary Lectures
Geography, University of Nottingham
Summary
This podcast application was developed within a level one GIS module in Geography, University of Nottingham. The podcasts contained core materials of the weekly lectures and were developed as a strategy to teach a large student cohort. The purpose was to give students the opportunity to revisit lectures at their own time, especially during the revision period. These podcasts were 15-20 minutes videos delivered via WebCT VLE on a weekly basis. The lecturer will reuse all these podcasts with minor changes for the next year.
Context
The video-podcast lectures were developed for a module Geography Information System (GIS) within a first year undergraduate course in Geography, University of Nottingham.
The module was assessed through two computer-based multiple-choice tests, an individual project to produce a map of the student’s home town, and a group project to create a hotel.
Challenge & Rationale
Teach a large student cohort
One of the challenges of this module was to support learning to a large number of students (more than 200 students in 2006/2007), where there is usually limited interaction with the lecturer on a face-to-face level. Video-podcasting can help to reduce the demand on one-to-one based interaction. The purpose was for students to access the summary podcasts and study the lecture materials at their own time, instead of coming to the lecturer and seek support on a one-to-one basis.
“It’s too big a class size. This way, they know their resource is there at a good quality that they can access from their own student rooms, on their own mobile devices when they want to support their learning. So if they’re going through reading that I suggested in the textbook, and they’re not necessarily fully understanding the materials, the chapters in the textbook are also referenced back to the podcasts. So there’s a link, if they get stopped, they don’t have to email me. The first protocol is go and watch the podcast, because the chances are, I would have covered that material, at least, in a brief sense already and that’s usually enough to get them moving without having to have a face to face interaction with me.”
Save time in learning
The lecturer also hoped that students can save time in learning as learning theories by watching video-podcasts is easier than reading through a textbook.
Increase flexibility in information delivery
Another purpose of using video-podcasts was to increase flexibility in information delivery and to make information available on students’ demand.
Application
The lecturer developed video-podcasting that covered the core material of the weekly lectures to support student learning the theories. Each video-podcast was about 15-20 minutes long. The video-podcasts were made available on WebCT VLE. Students can watch the video lectures together with the Breeze presentations.
The lecturer developed the summary podcasts in the following way: begin with the learning objectives, develop them into core PowerPoint slides, and split them into separate video summaries. Each summary begins with the learning objectives and followed by a set of required learning. The lecturer then expanded his face-to-face lectures on top of the summaries.
Technology
The lecture summaries were produced in the fashion studio within Department of Geography, University of Nottingham.
Evaluation
The impact of podcasting on students’ learning was captured through qualitative and quantitative methods. Quantitative data was captured through an end-of-semester questionnaire with ninety-three students in the end of the semester, developed to gather data on students’ pattern of listening to podcasts, such as how many podcasts they listened to, time and place they listen to podcasts, and reasons for not listening. The data were analyzed using Excel employing descriptive methods.
The qualitative data was captured through two focus groups with twelve students during the middle of semester and personal interviews with nine students in the end of the semester. Student interviews, lasted about an hour, were conducted using a semi-structured interview schedule developed to explore how student learning is supported by podcasts.
Staff experience of developing podcasts was gathered through a personal interview with the lecturer who developed the podcasts. Information gathered included pedagogical rationale of using podcasts, the development process, and issues encountered.
All interviews with both students and staff were recorded on a digital recorder and transcribed verbatim for analysis to identify key themes and issues. The qualitative data was analyzed using a grounded theory approach offered by Strauss and Corbin (1990). The analysis of qualitative data was facilitated by using software called QSR N6.
Benefits
Revisit lecture materials
The main benefit of providing students with summary lectures on video-podcast is that students can go over the lectures again.
Some students watched the video-podcast lectures to catch up the lectures they missed.
“If you miss the lecture you can listen to again. It’s very good. If you have that, you don’t miss the content you should hear.”
Some students used the video-podcast lectures as a tool to reinforce what they have already learned in lectures.
“It’s quite good for us the summaries because sometimes the lecture just doesn’t go that well or if the topic is really complicated, it’s really good to go back and have a strait summary after you have a quite good grasp… just kind of confirm what you’ve already known.”
“Because you can revisit material and you’d have your lecture notes from the lecture but then to be able to hear it again would just help you to memorise it and get it firm in your head.”
Many students commented that being able to watch the podcast lectures helped them to catch up the bits they may not understand during the lecture and to develop a better understanding towards the lecture material.
“And also having it explained again because with some modules, you get the slides online or on WebCT. So you watch those but not everything’s on the slides because the lecturer stands and explains things that aren’t in detail on the slides. Whereas you watch the video, it’s getting it explained to you again.”
“Yes, but because it’s a different module, I think. GIS is a hard module to teach for a number of reasons: first of all, no one’s done it before, before you come to university, so the way of having the podcasts means that… there’s a high chance people aren’t to understand it so they can revisit it.”
“And having already seen the material once, it meant you were further able to understand it because you’d be able to pay attention to it and stop and start it, rather than just being in a lecture. If you missed something, you’ve missed it so you could revisit it.”
Many students watched the videos just before the exam. They commented that the video lectures helped them to do revision in an efficient way.
“Because it’s (video-podcast lectures) filmed before, it’s more focused, you can gather it quickly. And sometimes it has more details than the actual lecture because obviously in the actual lecture, people ask questions, and we tackle the questions, so I find it more helpful.”
“I use it for revision as well. It’s just a quick way of complete summary. It’s shorter than the lecture. So takes about 20 minutes to get the whole information.”
“But we had a textbook but I found that went into a lot of detail and sometimes, especially when you’re revising you just want the facts. So (the lecturer) who was taking our lectures, had the online videos which we talked about before and I did use those a lot actually.”
Many students watched the video-podcast lectures to make better notes.
“I had a textbook and notes from lectures so I look through the notes from lectures and read the textbooks that were relevant. Then what I also did was use the videos so I’d watch the videos of the lectures and check my notes were complete and basically go over some of the things that I might have missed in the lecture and… It’s just a useful way of refreshing the lecture, really. I can’t always keep up, making notes in the lecture. It was useful to be able to go back and check you had it right. Just get a second chance.”
“And again you can pause and make notes. Erm, you know sometimes if a lecturer is getting really excited and they talk really fast and you’re trying to get it all down, it’s just you can’t do it. And you could go over them two or three times.”
“I think when I watched the lecture ones for revision I made a few notes on top of the lecture notes so I did a few things. Like maybe before that, if I’d got a word wrong or something, make a few corrections or something, stuff like that.”
“Definitely back from lectures, more podcasts of lectures would be really useful because erm, I find it really useful to go over them again and I can make better notes the second time. And things like lecturers may still need to spell it out, I don’t know what name it was but if you hear it again you’ve got a better chance of figuring out what name is was and finding it, that kind of thing.”
Many students agreed that podcast lectures are not likely to replace the face-to-face lectures, as things are likely to be explained thoroughly and students can ask questions and get immediate answers during the face-to-face lectures. However, video-podcast lectures serve as a good supplement to face-to-face lectures. They provided students with an opportunity to revisit the lectures, helped students to develop a better understanding of the lectures and to do revision efficiently.
“So the face-to-face lectures were really useful; they were the most useful because if it was explained really well and you could ask questions in the lectures and get answers but then… I can’t even remember everything in the lecture. And I try to make notes but I’m not very good at making notes so it was really useful to be able to look at it all again.”
"But I think the thing was quite good because sometimes you might think ‘Well, if the lecturer’s summary is online, some people don’t go to lectures’ but I think most people still went to his lectures. He’s quite a dynamic lecturer; as I’ve said before, I’ve enjoyed his lectures. And also, because they were only summaries, it wasn’t the full lecture and it didn’t… If you missed all the lectures, you would have struggled. I mean, missing one or two wasn’t really a problem. The summaries were good enough. But if you missed a lot, you’d be in trouble. The video summaries don’t replace the lectures."
“I think just… You know when a lecturer’s lecturing, they’ll often choose to explain these things two or three different ways just because some people take a little bit longer to understand something. And some explanations work better for other people than you know… And that’s quite nice. And there is always during the course of the lecture to ask if you don’t understand the issue, which you don’t have if you’re doing it over the internet."
“I would have always attended the lectures but I found it helpful to then be able to revisit them. So I found them helpful.”
Motivational
Many students described their feeling of watching videos as motivational and engaging because of the visual element.
“Watch helps. It’s more engaging if watch.”
“And then it was motivational because you could actually see him going through it, so he made you realise you could understand it if you just looked again.”
“Because I find that I struggled to sit down and read something and kind of, take it in and remember it. I find it quite hard to, I don’t know, engage with it. Whereas when I’m watching videos, I feel more connected to it. I get much more like, it goes in. I remember much more of it. If I have to read the text, I really struggle to remember it but video just seemed to be much better at kind of, going into my brain, memory much better.”
Flexibility
Watching video-podcasts offers flexibility in student learning. Students can watch it at their own time and at their own pace.
“Yeah. I think it’s more interesting, a more positive image. You feel like… He took the time to do the videos, which just shows he’s dedicated to like, you and your group doing well. Whereas with some lecturers you feel like they just walk in, talk about and walk out again and that’s it. Whereas you felt the time he’d taken to do the videos and stuff, made a much positive image.”
“Yes, I think everyone enjoyed the GIS lectures and that was due down to (the lecturer) because he was a very personable lecturer as well, so I think that helped.”
“He got everyone enthused into the subject, which meant that people were more likely to look at the podcast because they wanted to learn about it and to pass. He does differ from other lecturers like, in his manner, and in his teaching style because he was a very charismatic lecturer. You know, he’d get us all involved and also we were pioneers of the text system. We’d text in questions but also comments so we had a good rapport going. And when you like a lecturer it means you’re likely to work harder anyway for them, rather than if you dislike them. ..We probably had the most attendance at those lectures as well.”
“I think GIS exceeded my expectations. I wasn’t quite sure it was to start with but I found it fun and although it was quite challenging, it was rewarding.”
Lessons Learned
Make podcasts essential in your module
In order to promote the use of summary podcasts, the lecturer designed it in a way that links well to the assessment. The lecturer also made it very clear at the beginning that in order to be able to perform well in the test, the most important thing was to watch the podcasts.
“The lecture summaries, the way I’ve tried to get round that is the very first assessment that they do with me, which is a simple multi-choice test which we run through WebCT. I make it very clear that all of the information that they need to support their learning to do well in that test is giving through those video summaries, podcasts. In other words, that’s the key to success, ‘guys, going interact with these podcasts’, and they do. So, there is an element in having to develop the strategy for your module that makes the use of the podcast essential in one aspect and highly desirable for them in the other and so, these are core and the module has always been designed that way with these podcasts being core and so they’ve just absorbed it, they’ve just done it. There’s been no questions of ‘should I do,’ they just do.”
Attendance
There was a concern that with video summaries being available to most lectures, students would not turn up to the lectures. However, that hasn’t been the case in this case study. Students use them as a means for revision.
“That hasn’t been the case and attendance has been pretty much straight across the board and in any lecture of two hundred, perhaps a hundred and fifty. There is always a fair number that don’t bother coming, I’ve found there’s been no significant drop over other classes I’ve taught in six years…My suspicion is the use of this podcast is generally after the lectures rather than before.”
Promote flexible learning
The lecturer made all the summary podcasts available on WebCT since the beginning of the semester. The purpose was to allow students to explore and experience, and be flexible. He felt ok if students don’t come to the lecture if they’ve got sufficient information from the podcasts. The most important thing is that students learned something.
“And I’m not, to be honest, if a student feels that they’ve got sufficient from a podcast, but if they don’t feel they want to come along to the lecture, that’s fine. If what we’re doing here is promoting flexible learning, then we can’t have it both ways. And if a student decides that they want to use the materials flexibly and that means I’m not going to come to the lecture, then so be it.”
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