Higher York eLearning Conference

This was my first trip to York St. John and it was great to be given a chance to see what was happening in their eLearning world. St. John is a relatively small institution so taking a glimpse in to their practices was interesting as they are able to do things that a larger institution would, perhaps, find difficult. The sessions were all together interesting but a bit too long for one to keep completely attentive towards the end however, the last session I went to was somewhat refreshing as it engaged the group by having a more practical element. This was Brett Wilkie & Andreas Liefeith's Employment of audio video feedback within an educational setting. Pretty self-explanatory. There is no denying this was a very simple idea however, I would like to explain to why I thought it was great: 

The Concept:

The assessment is filmed, the assessor has a microphone, the assesse also has a microphone. As the assessment goes on, the assessor gives real-time feedback that is recorded with the film and is given to the student as their feedback. Simple. right? Well, yes, it is probably one the most simple concepts you are going to find at an eLearning conference, but the results it gave seemed nothing but positive.

Initial Feelings

The group were spectacle to say the least. Two people left the session within five minutes which, while I would have probable cried, didn't seem to deter the presenters. After the concept was explained, many people within the group weren't taken, perhaps it just seemed too easy to be effective or that it wouldn't work with their students. It took the presenters much persuading to get the group even slightly enthused to give the challenge they had set us a go: 

The Challenge

One person is sat, blindfolded, and has to throw beanbags (there are only three) into a hoop 3 meters away.

We were given three tasks
1.) Plan what we were going to do
2.) Present what we had decided
3.) Put this into practice

All aspects of this was all filmed and commentated on like a real assessment. Presonally I don't think have an assessor their put me off in anyway. I didn't present our ideas but I think having someone mumbling in the back-ground while I was doing a presentation may have put me off slightly but, then again, if your used to being assessed that way, it may not have.

Conclusions

The presenters really had a job convincing people about how useful their system is and, they did an incredible job of combatting all those concerns, some of the questions that came up:

How can you give adequate feedback?

The feedback is immediate and is linked with what the student is doing straight away. If anything this enhances their feedback as there is no chance for them to forget anything as they aren't reflecting on it. If they need to run over or they have additional comments they can keep the camera running, so nothing is cut short or rushed.

Doesn't it put the student off and affect their performance because they are aware of being marked?

Any examination stressful and nerve wracking for a student. They are also always aware of when they are being marked. In the presenter's experience they haven't had any one react badly simply because of the camera or the microphone.

Is it just novelty?
Initially, perhaps, but the stats show that the amount the student views it does increase. Surely the novelty wears off after the first time the video is seen, then it is simply the feedback that students are accessing the video for.

My consensus

It's not ground-breaking, but, it's a simple way of getting great feedback to students whilst giving it context and saving the tutor much time. The only time it takes after the actual assessment is, any additional comments the tutor wants to record (so, minutes) and ten minutes to upload and send the video to the student. This cuts down dramatically on the time it takes for tutors to give feedback, perhaps, improving the quality of it.

This only works for certain types of assessment, translating most successfully into a practical assignment e.g. a coaching practical for a sports science student. It would also require the tutor to become comfortable and confident in commentating on what a student is doing. The benefits of this is that the student knows exactly what the tutor is talking about, they student can assess themselves also, there is no confusion in terms of not understanding what part of their performance the tutor is commenting on.

I do really struggle to see any draw backs, it does only work in certain situations but that's not necessarily a bad thing, why does all feedback have to be in the same format? Why can't it be in a way that is most useful for the type of assessment? I did mainly theory based modules in my degree however the ones I did do would have benefitted greatly from audio/visual feedback. The tutor does have to be completely happy with it though, if they felt, in anyway, uncomfortable with the equipment/ commentating etc. the quality of feedback would suffer.

By the end of the session I think most of the sceptics had been turned, perhaps people just couldn't grasp the fact that something so simple could be so effective, maybe they thought that there just had to be negative side to it as well. Overall it was fantastic to see just a plain old simple idea that works on so many levels.