Jisc Digifest 2019
Jisc Digifest 2019
I attended the 2019 Digifest in Birmingham on the 12th and 13th March 2019. The theme for this year was Education 4.0, which, along with the fourth industrial revolution, describes the rise of artificial intelligence (AI), augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) in education and how these tools may fundamentally change the way teaching and learning takes place. This takes place alongside the rise of blended learning, flipped classrooms and other methods of teaching and learning that have become more common in the past 10 years.
How digital video innovates pedagogical methods
The first session I attended was “How digital video innovates pedagogical methods” with Havant and South Downs College. They discussed the creation of videos for staff and student support as well as reaching out to academic staff to assist them in creating their own video content, taking ownership of it and using it in a blended approach to teaching. Key to this was the philosophy of creating the best quality video possible as a well designed video can be reused and conveys confidence in students. It was also noted that students felt that the learning experience is better when poor production is not there as a distraction.
Videos were created and stored in a central location (google drive) so that all academic staff could access them and re-use them in their own teaching. This reduced duplication and the time taken to create popular videos and created a consistent learning experience for students.
The project also led to academic staff and students using video as assignment submissions and for feedback.
How this applies to SUMS
Flipped learning using video and other learning objects allows for students to complete background reading and view processes before attending a live session. For example, experiments can be filmed so the process is clear to students and they then attend a lab session. In this session they no longer have to complete the background reading or watch demos, they can quickly move to undertaking the experiments and working with the academic member of staff to clarify details and better understand what they are doing. This is a better use of time for both students and staff and while the work required to create the video/learning object is pre-loaded at the start of the course, they are reusable and so the time saving and more fulfilling live sessions offset that in time.
Any video that can be used across multiple courses should be stored in a shared space to facilitate the reuse of these videos when appropriate.
For distance courses with limited face to face sessions, demonstration videos and background reading means that the focus of the face to face can be implementing the learning, assessing skills and/or gaining a deeper understanding of the topic rather than focussing on the basics. Therefore a flipped approach should be considered when planning a residential week.
Engage students through virtual reality
Unfortunately this session turned out to be a poor sales pitch for VR Education Holdings, who create 3D virtual environments that can be explored such as the Titanic. They also have a tool called Engage VR which allows for 3D classrooms to be created and allows students to join as avatars. The teacher can show powerpoint slides, video and other external resources inside this classroom as well as drop 3D assets in. These classrooms can be recorded and walked through later by students.
While at times interesting visually, the session was poorly delivered and did not really show any student engagement. There was one interesting statistic in that the knowledge retention rate of students who learnt about a process in VR was 80% whereas those who learnt about the process via other methods it was only 20%. Unfortunately they passed by that slide before I could note the reference for that statistic.
A colleague of mine who was also in attendance pointed out that the speakers use of the Cone of Experience by Edgar Dale is a flawed and unproven tool (https://elearningindustry.com/cone-of-experience-what-really-is) and therefore it was disappointing that the speaker relied on that as evidence to support what they were saying.
How this applies to SUMS
VR is still a new technology and while it probably isn’t applicable in all cases, there are areas it may be of use. For example anatomy where a 3D model can be dissected by students and mistakes can be reset without damaging a real sample. Also the ability to run through life-threatening scenarios without the real risk could allow for students to practice repeatedly until they no longer made mistakes. This could be assessed by giving them slightly different variables each time so they cannot rely on memory of the scenario alone.
Not a VLE, but a virtual learning environment
This session from the University of Lancaster discussed the idea of a VLE not being one piece of technology, but the bringing together of multiple tools to create an environment that supports learning and collaboration. This is an idea that resonates with me and probably is the future of VLE’s, however I think it will take time for this to come about as it requires re-thinking internal processes and planning.
Unfortunately the discussion around this idea was cut short and the session mostly became a demonstration of how Microsoft Teams can be used as a collaboration space as it allows for Office 365 tools to be linked together in one collaborative space. This is interesting and does merit further investigation, however it is clearly not a replacement for the traditional VLE and actually could lead to duplication across multiple virtual spaces. For example, while Teams allows for the submission of assessments, there is no way to write these scores to a gradebook on Blackboard or Moodle which would be required to link in with assessments completed there.
Teams does have addons to 3rd party tools however this means using many other tools and the associated risks (GDPR) and costs associated with that. A more sustainable method would be a VLE with a wide variety of free extensions/addons/plugins such as Moodle which facilitates this.
How this applies to SUMS
Teams should be explored as a tool for collaboration for academic staff and students however it is still early days and therefore is not a realistic replacement for a VLE. With the upcoming VLE review it is hard to know what is going to be possible with a new system and so that project should be monitored closely and potential functionality requirements that seem to be missing should be highlighted.
Listening to teachers: a qualitative exploration of teaching practices in higher and further education, and the implications for digital
This was a panel session discussing the results of the Jisc paper of the same name (http://repository.jisc.ac.uk/7232/). A lot of the discussion was about how building peer groups, peer support and more standard support between student and teacher is a key part of the teaching experience of those surveyed. There was little discussion about technology except for in the ways it can facilitate these support networks both on campus and at a distance but it was pointed out that students should not be forced to use a public platform for support or learning due to the lack on anonymity this causes and therefore has an impact on what students are willing to say/do.
How this applies to SUMS
Any staff involved in teaching or student support should review the Jisc paper and identify whether the conclusions have an impact on their role. The paper can act as a starting point for further conversations about student support and the changing role of teaching staff.
Digital expectations and the student lifecycle: is engaging with students on mobile essential?
This session was a workshop in which as groups we discussed the challenges of advising and supporting students from open days through to becoming alumni. Mobile apps were obviously the suggested solution to these challenges. While the facilitator was from Guidebook, an app development company, this session did not turn into a sales pitch and was instead a real opportunity to discuss how mobile can support students at different stages of their time at University.
The student lifecycle was broken down into the following sections:
- Discovery
- Prospect
- Admission
- Orientation
- Residential life and welfare
- Graduation
- Alumni
For each of these times in the lifecycle, the group I was with identified the challenges of navigating University websites, VLE’s and other sites to find support and guidance as quickly as possible. We agreed that a “one stop shop” app would be appealing to many students. One thing noted however was that a well designed website would help as well however often different parts of the site are managed by different teams and therefore there is lots of duplication and not always a logical pathway to find the information. I also pointed out that for distance students a lot of the advice is often “go to X location” which is not feasible for distance students and therefore a separate app may be more beneficial to them.
Discussion around the massive amount of support and engagement early on in their time at University prompted one attendee to note that this steadily declines and students are left to their own devices, when a small prompt like a welcome back message after a break with reminders of key information would help refocus the student.
How this applies to SUMS
A SUMS specific app that supports students throughout their lifecycle might be useful as it can ensure that they have all the relevant information they need to support joining the school and then their time within the school. This app would have to be carefully designed and managed to ensure it is up to date and remains relevant and should ensure that there is specific support and resources within it for distance courses going forward.
A review of the information required for such an app would ideally identify gaps in current support and guidance which could then be rectified both on school websites and in an app.
How YouTube revolutionised learning and nobody noticed
This final session was a demonstration of how Oxford have created a process and support for academic staff to quickly create, edit and share video content with students. It discussed how YouTube led to the pace of video and editing technology increasing exponentially while costs dropped and how it is therefore possible for anyone to create high quality learning resources using video.
The key part of this session for me was the link to examples of different types of instructional video (https://canvas.sbs.ox.ac.uk/courses/427/pages/different-types-of-instructional-videos). Having these examples to help hesitant academic staff seems to be an ideal way to help them focus their thoughts on what the video needs to be and therefore avoid recording hour long lectures when that may not be the best way to capture the content on video.
How this applies to SUMS
As discussed in earlier sections, moving towards a blended approach to teaching would result in better face to face learning experiences and better use of precious teaching time. It would allow students to be more flexible in how they learn and when. However, it is a difficult concept to grasp if the same thing has been done over and over again and academic staff are comfortable in their way of doing things. This session really highlighted to me the value of support and demonstration content to support recommendations for changes to how teaching takes place. It is one thing to hear someone say “record a short video” and another to see how that video can be created and how it can quickly deliver the same message as a long form lecture.
Going forward this type of resource is something I need to work on alongside resources on pedagogical theories and methods of teaching.
Conclusions
This Digifest was a mixed bag and I felt some of the descriptions of sessions were not really representative of what they actually were. While some of these were still interesting, I am unsure if this is a trend that will continue and therefore make the programme less reliable in deciding whether to attend in the future. Overall however it was a positive couple of days that helped solidify some ideas and highlighted resources and documents that may be useful going forward.