Volume Two - Academic Conferences

Iain Stewart et al.
No-one was concerned that the “production values” of the recording were not of “broadcast
quality” - the content was clear.
More than half the class filled in a questionnaire, but even those who had not filled it in said they
had viewed and used the recording.
Virtually every student wanted the mechanism employed by other presenters.
Figure 2: Integration of recorded lecture with slides and textual material
In parallel with this work, another project was working in the area of lecture capture. In this case the
underpinning concept was to support the different learning styles of the students. Irrespective of one’s
view of the importance of “learning styles”, it is evident that providing a range of resources which can
be used by students in a manner which best suits them while still within a structured framework
means that the students have greater flexibility in how they can approach learning.
Content was made available within the Blackboard Virtual Learning Environment :
Lecture Video
Timed Slides with audio
Podcasts (providing extra depth or of relevant topics)
Tutorials linked to appropriate points in the presentations
Past papers
Downloadable exercises
This content allowed the students to follow the flow of the content in the traditional way by watching
the video or running the slideshow and listening to the audio, or they could take a more enquiry driven
approach and work from questions back into the content.
The pilot was tested in a final year honours programme where 31 students took the module. At the
end of the module a questionnaire was issued to the class by an external facilitator and responses
were gathered. 17 students provided detailed answers. These responses were then used by the
facilitator to drive a discussion to elicit further points. The key points from the review were that :
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