Category Archives: Vinkkejä

Vinkkejä opetukseen

Viklo opettajakahvila 1/18 ja avainkäsitteiden oppiminen

Vuoden ensimmäinen Viklo järjestettiin maanantaina 5.3. 2018 klo 14-16 Viikin Oppimiskeskuksessa. 

Iltapäivän varsinaisena teemana oli “Tieteenalasi avainkäsitteiden oppiminen”. Uusimmasta tutkimustiedosta tästä teemasta alusti Viikin uusi pedagoginen yliopistonlehtori Ilona Södervik. Katso Ilonan diat aiheesta.

Alustuksen jälkeen työskentelemme ryhmissä  ja ideoimme Flingan avulla keinoja tieteenalojemme käsitteiden oppimiseen.

Tämän jälkeen tutustuimme oppimiskeskuksen älytaulujen pedagogisiin käyttömahdollisuuksiin Viikin AV-tuen Ada Ullströmin opastuksen jälkeen. Joitain kokemuksia oli jo opetuskäytöstä Viikissä. Mahdollisuus tallentaa, jakaa ja täydentää aikaisemmin tuotettua tietoa lisää älytauluun kerroksellista kerrontaa perinteiseen liitutauluun nähden.

Seuraava Viklo 8.5.2018 klo 14-16. Laita kalenteriisi!

Mid-month edtech: Screencasts and more time for students

A good proportion (47%) of teachers in Viikki were interested in recording lectures for later use in our 2014 survey on teaching facilities. After the survey, to record live lectures as they happen in lecture halls has become widespread. On the other hand, making recordings outside live lectures is not yet as common – although Viikki teachers are pioneers in this regard as well (see Chiara Lombardini’s excellent summary on producing lecture videos).

In this blog post we focus on screencasts: short recordings typically made without a live audience. Whatever happens on the computer screen is captured, and added with a voice-over. For an example, see screencasts from the programming MOOC at Kumpula. At its simplest, a screencast features lecture slides with or without the lecturer’s voice. Students may watch the content independently, and contact hours are preserved for interaction.

For making screencasts on your desktop:

Facilities to make screencasts at the Viikki campus:

Screencasts can also be recorded with online tools often used for streaming live lectures and meetings:

Editing is not compulsory, especially if you make short, up-to-the-minute casts. For longer casts or those used for a longer period of time, editing is usually a good idea. The Educational Technology Centre at UH updates a list of available editing software.

A recommendable option to share the screencasts to students is the UniTube uploader, but you may use any online tools that you’re accustomed to.

The main difference between recording live lectures and making screencasts lies in how the interaction with the students is organized. Ways to incorporate interactivity to screencasts include:

  • Apply the principles of flipped classroom, and use the face-to-face time with the students for exercises, student presentations, group discussions, checking that the students have learned the content…
  • Communicate with the students through screencasts: give feedback, dedicate more time on difficult concepts…
  • Some applications (see, an overview from JAMK (in Finnish)) provide the possibility to include interactive elements within the video itself – use them creatively!

UH Yammer group “Opetusvideot” (Teaching videos) is a place to follow the latest news on the topic. Please let us know if you’re interested in making screen casts for your students, let’s have a workshop or two!

 

 

 

 

Experiences of online assessment with Moodle quizzes

Here in Viikki teachers increasingly use online assessment tools, such as Moodle quizzes, as a part of their courses. Implementations include automatically assessed multiple choice questions, calculations, manually graded essays, to name a few. These are used to assess pre-course starting levels, as well as a basis for grading, or the progress of a whole cohort each year.

In our workshop on the Quiz activity in Moodle, one of our pioneering teachers told us about using the Quiz activity as one way of grading students on a field course. Typically, after field courses, both students and teachers return to their home towns across the country, or even across the globe.

What motivated the teachers to experiment with online assessment in that situation, was that paper exams were a hassle to organize.

The teachers came up with the idea to ask the students to write essays online, on questions related to the variety of topics covered on the course. Each teacher added their own questions to the Question bank in Moodle (sort of an database used to build a Quiz), with the help of a simple instruction sheet. After the exam period, they could find the answers to their own questions under the particular question.

Examples of questions that promote a “deep” approach to learning:

Assessing students online sometimes raises concerns about the risk of students copying questions and answers from each other. One solution for this, which the teachers on this course used successfully, is questions that individualize the student well. These include, requiring the student to design a research plan, or to comment the exercises done on the particular course. In addition to possibly preventing fraud, questions requiring students to apply knowledge are considered to promote so-called deep-learning, which implies the ability to connect their skills to different contexts, and to build upon existing knowledge (Biggs, 1999).

Moodle Quiz process

Moodle Quiz process

Moodle randomly assigned the questions for a particular student to answer, as each teacher had included two or more questions in the Question bank. The teachers considered that this random assignment was the most distinctive advantage of putting up the assessment online, in addition to the practical benefit of getting rid of the paper work.

Random assignment of questions is the most distinctive advantage, in addition to getting rid of the paper work.

Scaling the grades, however, was not as handy. Moodle scales the points awarded in a Quiz nicely, but way too nicely for certain purposes, such as giving the grade “Pass” only after receiving a certain amount of points, or when the student is allowed to choose to answer only some of the total number of the questions.

So far, on the field course there has been several rounds of online essays as a form of assessment. The only tweak made in the process was the time limits in the exam. At first, the time period when the exam could be taken was limited to 3 hours. After the e-learning support (i.e. the undersigned) messed with the visibility of the Moodle sections, the teachers decided to expand the exam period to a longer one (couple of weeks), when only the time for one student to answer the questions was limited to three hours. This gave more latitude to both human errors and technical failures.

Expanding the exam period gives more latitude to human errors and technical failures.

For teachers in Viikki, workshops for building online assessments can be held upon request (or you can self-study in Moodle), please contact the e-learning staff of your faculty if you’re interested in taking your assessment online!

Reference:

Biggs, J. (1999) Teaching for quality learning at university. Buckingham: Society for
Research into Higher Education.and Open University Press.

Hybrid lectures – case Basics in Chemistry, fall 2014

Case example: Basics in Chemistry

In the second Viklo Café this fall, university lecturer Seppo Lindroos and course assistant Miia Mäntymäki shared their experiences from their course Basics in Chemistry, which blended traditional lectures with distance learning. In addition to the lectures, the course included walk-throughs of home exercises. The “hybrid” dimension was added as the teaching was streamed through the web conference system Adobe Connect (AC), so as to allow the around 20 students from the Lahti campus to participate remotely. In addition, the lectures were recorded and the course participants could watch the recordings online.

Hybrid lecture in Viikki

Hybrid lecturing in Viikki

A room for the students to follow the lecture from a desktop computer was arranged at the Lahti campus. The remote participants could send chat messages to the lecturer through a chat window in AC. In practice, around 200 students participated in Viikki, and a handful in Lahti. Anyone on the course could follow the streamed lecture from their own device through AC, and ten to twenty students used this option on each lecture.

A close-up of the AC system

A close-up of the AC system

Need for hybrid lectures

A practical demand for hybrid lectures stems partly from the aim to reduce facility costs by the means of distributed learning environments. This tendency, understandably, raises concerns. For example, how to make sure that the mediated form of learning does not compromise the expectations of interaction between the teacher and the students? On the other hand, it could be taken as a chance to think anew the environments of learning and teaching. Hybrid lectures could support more flexible learning, such as increased possibilities to “flip” the classroom (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flipped_classroom): to increase the interaction between the teachers and the students by dedicating classroom time to solving practical problems. The course materials, for their part, are learned outside the classroom: for example through recorded lectures. To take advantage of these possibilities, we hope that sharing our experiences below will encourage and help teachers to organize hybrid lectures, and steer the designers of teaching facilities to accommodate them.

The technical setup for the case example hybrid lectures:

  • a web conference system, e.g. Adobe Connect (supported by the University of Helsinki). Other options include Skype, Google hangout.
  • a computer equipped with an internal microphone and camera, or, a microphone-camera set can be borrowed from us e-learning specialists. Its pick-up range is quite limited (2 meters), so the lecturer needs to move it according to their own position.
  • to connect the document camera to the desktop computer:
  • the content you want to share through AC, e.g. slides. Almost anything from your computer desktop can be shared – except sound, but videos can be uploaded to AC to show them to the remote participants.
  • site to share the links to your AC room and recordings, e.g. Moodle or Matskut
Experiences Future directions
The lecturers were surprised that the technical side worked smoothly. Only once the Lahti side had their net connections down, but that did not concern only the AC environment. The students appreciated that the recordings were available afterwards. Checking that the minimum requirements for AC (Flash player, for example) on the desktop computer in the classroom are up-to-date and that a maintenance break is not scheduled to overlap your lecture. This can be checked from the front page of the AC support blog
Document camera synced ok with AC. Changing the view from the slides to the document camera, however, took an excessive amount of time. Being in the “Share desktop” view in AC (everything on the computer desktop is shared through AC) also when showing the slides could be an option to smoothen this out at least a bit.
Interaction between the lecturer through the chat window was challenging according to both the lecturer and the remote participants. Especially, the remote students’ current level of knowledge was difficult to communicate and assess. Pre-tests and tests during the course in Moodle, and instructions for learning the prerequisite skills. A time slot could be allocated for communication with remote students. Possibly also a separate tablet, laptop or phone for the lecturer to check the comments from AC without changing the view on the big screen in the lecture hall.
The remote students found the physical space inappropriate for following the lecture. Equipment, such as speakers, screen or personal computers at the remote site
Exercise walkthrough with AC and a document camera

Exercise walk-through with AC and a document camera

The amount of hybrid lectures will most probably increase in the future, as more and more courses are shared for example with the Lahti campus. This would demand an open and flexible, ready-to-go system of streaming and recording video lectures, as well as smooth integration of devices, including desktop cameras, throwable microphones, with the computers that the web conference system runs on.

We e-learning specialists at the Viikki campus are happy to arrange the equipment and help in designing your course that would include both remote and participants. This could be the case if the space is too small to accommodate the participants, the schedule does not allow everyone to participate simultaneously, the course is not held every year, etc. Please send any questions my way (vilma.lehtinen@helsinki.fi, 040-759 3911).

 

 

Verkkoluento AC:lla -koulutuksen jälkipyykki

Järjestin viime viikolla kampuksen kollegoideni Outin ja Kristianin kanssa Verkkoluento Adobe Connectilla -koulutuksen. Koulutuksen tavoitteena oli tutustuttaa osallistujat AC-verkkokokousjärjestelmään ja esitellä heille Infokeskuksen verkkokokoustila. Luonnollisesti kävimme läpi myös verkkoluennon suunnittelussa huomioitavia asioita ja puhuimme luentovideoiden käyttökohteista. Verkkoluennolla tarkoitimme tässä yhteydessä luentovideota, jonka opettaja tekee yksin – ts. ilman opiskelijoita – ja jakaa sen opiskelijoilleen verkossa esimerkiksi linkkinä Moodlessa.

Verkkoluento = luento verkossa?

Verkkoluentoa suunnitellessa on hyvä irtautua totutusta 45 tai 90 minuutin luentosyklistä. Toisaalta pitkiä luentoja on puuduttava seurata tietokoneen näytöltä, toisaalta opettajan on tarvittaessa helpompi tehdä lyhyt video uudestaan kuin uusia koko puolentoista tunnin video pienen virheen vuoksi. Lyhyet videot voivat hyvin muodostaa pidemmän sarjan, jos asiaa on enemmän.

Mihin verkkoluentoja voi sitten käyttää? Koulutuksen osallistujat kaikki mainitsivat aiheeseen virittävät luennot, joita opiskelijat voivat katsoa ennen kontaktiopetusta. Myös ulkopuolisten asiantuntijoiden tai yhteistyöyliopistojen luentoja voi toteuttaa verkkoluentoina. Opettaja voi myös vastata videolla opiskelijoiden luennon jälkeen esittämiin kysymyksiin. Videoituja seminaariesityksiä voi hyödyntää palautteenannossa. Ja nämähän pätevät, oli luentojen tallentamisen tekniikkana mikä tahansa.

AC-verkkokokousjärjestelmää ei ole suunniteltu luentojen suoratoistoon ja tallentamiseen, mutta varauksin se soveltuu siihenkin. Verkkoluentojen tekemisessä sen etu on siinä, että video tallentuu yliopiston palvelimelle, josta sen voi julkaisun jälkeen jakaa opiskelijoille. Huonona puolena on, että flash-videoita ei voi katsoa tablettilaitteilla. Myös AC:lla tehtyjen tallenteiden editointimahdollisuudet ovat rajalliset. Toinen yliopistolla tarjolla oleva tekniikka ja tila on oppimiskeskus Aleksandriaan avattava UniTube-studio.

Laitteet, työkalut ja oikeudet

Vaikka verkkokokoustilassa on kamera, käytimme koulutuksessa paremmin yhden puhujan kuvaamiseen soveltuvaa webbikameraa. Jos tarvitset webbikameraa, voit lainata sellaisen Outilta, Kristianilta tai minulta. Oman kameran ja mikrofonin voit hankkia myös helpdeskin kautta (ks Tietotekniikkalaitteiden hankinta). Kamera kannatta asetella sellaiseen paikkaan asentoon, että kalvojasi katsoessasi ja kameralle puhuessasi myös videolla näyttää siltä, että katsoisit kalvojasi. Jos selkäsi takana on tumma tausta, saattaa kamera ylivalottaa kasvosi. Esimerkiksi Infokeskuksen tilassa olevat siniset verhot kannattaa vetää syrjään. Jos kuvaat videota omassa työhuoneessasi, siivoa mahdolliset epämääräiset röykkiöt selkäsi takaa.

Kurssimateriaaliin on koottuna tiivistetysti ohjeet AC:lla tallennettavan luennon tekemiseen. Koulutusta varten laitoimme AC-huoneisiin työkaluiksi Share-podin luentokalvoja varten, Note-podin luentorunkoa varten sekä kameran. Lisäksi teimme toisen näkymän pelkälle Share-podille. Ideana on, että tätä toista näkymää voi hyödyntää, jos kalvoissa on jotain yksityiskohtia. Tässä kohtaa kannattaa varmistaa, että näkymissä on samat Share-podit, jotta kalvot näkyvät myös näkymästä toiseen siirryttäessä! Testaa myös, että mahdolliset PowerPoint-esityksesi kuvat ja animaatiot näkyvät AC:ssa. PowerPointin sisällysluetteloa ei valitettavasti saa näkymään tallenteessa. Share-podissa on myös valkotaulu sekä piirtotyökalu. Hiirellä piirtäminen ei kuitenkaan ole helppoa!

Kun videosi on valmis, julkaise se ja jaa linkki opiskelijoillesi. Katseluoikeuksia ei valitettavasti voi jakaa Oodin kurssi-ilmoittautumisen tai Moodle-kurssialueelle rekisteröitymisen perusteella. Vaikka julkaisetkin videon (Make Public), täytyy satunnaisenkin katsojan saada sen osoite jostain tietoonsa. Jos haluat, ettei video ala elämään omaa elämäänsä verkossa, voit kurssisi päätyttyä perua sen julkaisun (Make Private).

Hyödyllisiä linkkejä