Tel Tales

Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

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PDFs: Particularly Dependable Format? Pretty Dull, but Functional? Or Profoundly Dreadful Files!

Introduction

PDFs aren’t something I’d normally spend much time thinking about (I much prefer swimming or learning the guitar in my free time). The format barely existed when I was doing my undergraduate degree, so when I came to my Masters 20 years later, I was thrilled that there was this simple way to get all my reading material on my computer or iPad. OK, it was mildly exasperating that it was fiddly to highlight or copy text for my notes, but it was a small price to pay for how readily available all the information was.

However, a recent meeting with the European Ally User Group has given me a whole new perspective on PDFs. It raised various questions about how useful they are, from both an accessibility and a study skills perspective.

The problem with PDFs

In the best-case scenario, an accessible PDF can be created from a Word document by including things like alt text to describe images and using appropriately styled headings. A screen reader should be able to cope with a PDF generated in this way.

But even in this best-case scenario, PDFs are not ideally suited to online academic reading and research. Students will struggle to annotate, highlight, or copy-and-paste parts of the text without downloading extra apps. Regarding accessibility, PDFs do not address needs for changing fonts or colours. And most PDFs are designed to be printed on A4 rather than viewed on a screen – the size doesn’t change automatically to suit the device and browser, so the user will have to rely on zooming and scrolling horizontally as well as vertically. 

What about the worst-case scenario? This would be where a page has been scanned to produce a PDF. As well as exacerbating the issues described above, screen readers may not be able to get any useful information since the text will just be an image, rather than readable characters.

There is some help available: students can use Blackboard Ally to transform PDF files to a format that suits their needs. However, this isn’t 100% reliable as I found in some experiments with older, scanned PDFs. For example, using Optical Character Recognition (OCR) on a PDF with what appeared to be a shadow effect on a title resulted in double letters, changing Week 1 to WWeeeekk 11. There were also some unfortunate effects from tables – where a cell spanned two rows, it shifted all the data in the first row into a column to the right. But anyone using a screen reader would already be having issues with these documents anyway. So wouldn’t it be nice if students didn’t have to rely on this kind of fix – if the file was already conveniently available in a form that would work for all users?

Solutions

Let’s start with the bare minimum – avoiding the worst-case scenario and making sure that PDFs are nicely structured for screen readers. When creating your own PDFs from Word, follow these general accessibility principles:

  • add alt text to images (right-click an image and select ‘alt text’)
  • avoid tables unless they are necessary (and don’t merge cells)
  • use styles for formatting headings and text to improve page navigation and give structure to the document (proper use of styles will change your life, I promise – see this Quick styles video for how to use them if you don’t already)
  • in Word, click on ‘check accessibility’ from the Review pane for additional recommendations
  • use ‘save as PDF’ or ‘export to PDF’ rather than ‘print to PDF’ to preserve the document structure and any hyperlinks (ensuring you’ve selected ‘Document structure tags for accessibility’ under Options) 
  • if you have access to Adobe Acrobat Pro, you can also run an accessibility check with this, which will give helpful suggestions for fixing any issues

If you’re using a scanned file, have a look for an online text version. If you can’t find one, as a last resort you may be able to use optical character recognition to update scanned PDFs. Unfortunately, this will not work for mathematical notation – formulae are notoriously difficult to make accessible.

But can we do better than that? Well, why not move away from PDFs entirely? A potentially really accessible alternative (for your own content, at least) is to consider putting it in a Moodle page or book rather than locking it inside a PDF. This will have the bonus for you that you’ll be able to edit it easily whenever necessary – and if another lecturer takes over a module from you, they’ll be able to easily update this content. You can also use the selection of lovely formatting styles in the page content editor under the teardrop icon 💧 to improve the page appearance while maintaining accessibility.

Final thoughts

Throughout the Ally webinar that I mentioned at the start of this blog post, participants were sharing their institutions’ PDF policies and recommendations in the chat. These included promoting the use of ePubs, converting all PDFs to HTML, providing both PDF and HTML alternatives, or recommending linking to accessible Google docs instead. The general feeling was very much one of PDFs being on their way out – and no one sounded sad to see them go. Would you miss them?

If you’re interested in accessibility in Moodle, contact Tom Cripps (tom.cripps@port.ac.uk) for more information and support.

Credit Image: Photo by Andrea Piacquadio: https://www.pexels.com/photo/young-troubled-woman-using-laptop-at-home-3755755/

Are we being “captured” by our content – an opinion piece

Where misconceptions remain, should we reframe our understanding to ensure we don’t fall into bad habits?

I had a very interesting conversation with a Learning Designer with regards to video content on Moodle. The impromptu office conversation is something I’ve treasured since we returned to Campus post-pandemic. One of the gems to come from this conversation was – what constitutes good online teaching and what relationship does that have to video content?

The office consensus, perhaps understandable given our teaching backgrounds, was that the context in which the video is used is vital. Whether used in a flipped learning manner to stimulate further in-person discussion or to progress learning beyond the glass ceiling of set learning outcomes.

Ale Armellini has promoted the message that context, rather than content is king. He has said this on various stages and I am fortunate enough to have been in the room where those discussions have taken place. For the unacquainted, he provides a brief outline here https://www.cla.co.uk/blog/higher-education/content-is-not-king.  One idea is that the job of a university is to enable successful learning through quality teaching, but I wonder if sometimes ‘content capture’ falls into traps based on the phrase itself. 

The use of the word ‘content’ is both understandable and important in its distinction from ‘lecture capture’, the process of merely recording on-campus taught sessions. The University’s Content Capture policy offers both a definition of the term and examples of the various forms it can take:

“For example, this could be a short recording (audio and slides), a written summary of the session or a clearly annotated copy of the presentation slides providing an overview of key points, threshold concepts, or discussing points that students find difficult to understand. Such summaries, which need only be a few minutes long, can be created quickly and easily using available technology” (University of Portsmouth Content Capture Policy for Staff 2022, 3.2 p.6) 

While video tends to be the most popular medium, in terms of creation by academics and what is demanded by students, are we led to this by convenience and ease of access rather than what is the best for learning?

There is a danger that content capture can fall into the same trap that lecture capture falls into – the recording of an event. A means of cataloguing, or proving “teaching woz ere” at a particular place or time. The meaning of capture (hopefully ignoring the alternative meaning to take into one’s possession or control by force!) is below…

screenshot of the google page with the definition of capture written on it

The question is what are we recording accurately here? Is it a glorified how-to video? Are there opportunities to use and apply the knowledge within for the student?  I wonder if video content has good learning intentions but would this automatically translate to successful learning outcomes? There are a lot more moving parts involved. Just because a module has videos, it does not mean that it is a good example of an online learning resource.

VLEs at one period were rather like the Wild West. Modules would vary from town to town based on their sheriff – some hospitable to visitors, and some, a lawless landscape. A pandemic and the creation of a Blended and Connected delivery have helped improve the student experience online and has given them a much-needed consistent approach. The University quite rightly received plaudits with a CATE award.  This rewarded the hard work and efforts of all involved but also recognised the drive to change the culture around online learning and content capture.

However, with the weekly format of Moodle modules, students expect staff to “deliver” videos about the relevant taught content on a regular basis. Do we lose the true meaning of content capture and fall into the trap of just capturing material week by week?

Rather atypical to an opinion blog piece, this is meant to pose more questions and stimulate conversation rather than drawing definitive conclusions (surely I can get another blog out of that!).  The next time you wish to add a video to your VLE, perhaps it is also worth considering the given circumstances of learning around that material. Hopefully, then it will capture your students’ attention, meaning they will fully engage in not just the content, but the learning around it.

Credit Image: Photo by Compare Fibre on Unsplash 

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Bell – Part 3 – The Editing

And so, after a sun-kissed seven days in Sicily, it was time to head home. A nightmare return journey saw us almost miss our coach ride back to Portsmouth. I was grateful to get home, even if it was not until 2 am when I got there!

Looking across the "Valle del Bove"

Looking across the “Valle del Bove”

As previously mentioned, the trip coincided with an extraordinarily busy time of year for me, so I was unable to work on the videos for a few weeks after returning home.

However, I am glad that I had done some prep work, renaming all the files on the day I shot them. This meant I could come into the editing cold, but get back into the process without too much difficulty.

Some of the resources I could make exactly as planned, such as the one from Aci Costello (as mentioned in Part 2).

Fig 1. The first resource I’d planned with the hotspots

Fig 1. The first resource I’d planned with the hotspots

My prior knowledge of H5P in this particular setting proved to be really useful. I was even able to add another feature as a bonus (see Fig 3.) because I managed to find some 360-degree views on Google Maps.

This really added to the immersiveness of the resource – students could feel as if they were actually there!

Fig 2 One of the hotspots has been clicked on, giving a narrated video for students to watch and a link to a Google 360 view.

Fig 2. One of the hotspots has been clicked on, giving a narrated video for students to watch and a link to a Google 360 view

Some other resources required a change from our original plan. For example, we had organised one resource so that a student would have to make some decisions using the H5P Branching Scenario tool.

The idea was that the student would look at measures taken to manage certain rock formations and its impact on the local population, and come up with a recommendation for future action. But because of the nature of where we had to park the vans, it was impossible to get close enough to this particular site to get some close-up shots of the measures that had been taken. So, in the end, I created an animation from Google Earth.

It was almost as if it were a satellite view of our location before bringing up a still photo with a voiceover on top. See Fig 3 …

Fig 3. A draft version of a resource I made

Fig. 4 An example of one of the Google 360 views I had found of the location

Fig 4. An example of one of the Google 360 views I found of the location

Overall, I am happy with what I was able to produce for the department. I pushed myself both personally and professionally. I had never worked abroad before and I had never climbed an active volcano either! I hope this is the start of something new, something bigger and better, where I can go on these types of field trips more often. I believe that the “new normal” will see many more online interactivities. I can foresee an inclusive future in which students who might never have dreamed of studying practical courses, because of their own personal barriers, get a chance to do so through high-quality, engaging resources in an ABL approach.

Credit Images: All photos within this blog post were taken by Jonathan Bell

Guest Blogger: Rugaiya Ally with Tom Langston – Student Experience at the University

Introduction

This is the final part of a series of four blog posts conceived by Tom Langston and Rugaiya Ally as part of Rugaiya’s work placement within DCQE’s Academic Development and Technology Enhanced Learning teams. 

Tom and Rugaiya wanted to explore students’ feelings about higher education and their expectations about life at university, and therefore devised a set of questions to ask students about their experiences. Rugaiya then interviewed 14 fellow students from across the university faculties (with a predominant number studying in the Science and Business faculties) with most studying at Level 5. This series of posts constitutes a condensed summary of the thoughts and opinions of those 14 students.

In part one we investigated what areas of their course students found to be a strength and where they struggled with the progression through their course. In part two we explored student expectations prior to coming to university. In part three we examined students’ attitudes toward their future careers. Finally, here in part 4, we focus on the student’s university experience and how proud they are to be University of Portsmouth students.

Pride in being a student at UoP

The first question I asked was: What makes you proud to be affiliated with your university? 

The students said that many areas of the university offer them the chance to feel part of Portsmouth; they referred to “its diversity and inclusivity”.

Diversity (0.43)

“The history of the university; it feels good to know I am part of a long chain of people who passed through the same buildings.”

The university provides a space where being part of something bigger than the individual is important: “Recently, the university was in the top 40 for student satisfaction. I agree with that and it makes me proud to be part of this university that’s willing to help the students.

It is not just the name of Portsmouth that is recognised, but also the people who work here and who offer a sense of community – there is a sense in which they are the true heart of Portsmouth.

Clubs (2.00)

“The dedication that some of the lecturers have with the students and how willing they are to interact with them during lessons.”

“I am proud to be affiliated with this university since it made me develop a lot of skills from studying different courses to how they are applied in real life cases thus being confident to what is coming on careers and all programs concerning careers.”

“It’s a great University, top 100 and the architecture course is very well known around the world.” 

Ultimately, the support that many students receive through personal tutoring, ASK, their tutors and fellow students is a key point of pride to many: “The help I get from the university is beyond imagination!” 

What could be changed?

I then asked: What is something you would change about your university if you had the opportunity? 

Current students have a very similar and shared opinions concerning COVID and the pandemic.

Uni Experience (1.21)

Uni Experience COVID (0.23)

One student pointed out how important it is for new students and even current students to be introduced to the Student Support Services – Wellbeing, ASDAC and many others – as these are extremely useful: life at university is not easy! So instead of promoting all those discos and clubs, a major topic during inductions and orientations should be an introduction to Student Support Services.

“I think especially to first years (freshers), the university should make a great effort to introduce them to the different clubs and student support services that are held at the university. This would not only help them with their social skills but it’s a great addition to their CV for placements”. 

Another student commented on the feedback system after assignments. Sometimes the feedback is not really helpful, which is why some students do not even turn in their formative assignments for feedback. (This example highlights that the feedback for a group assignment can vary depending on the student.) 

If had to change anything it would be their feedback system, it is not quite efficient for me and also stops giving students different feedback for the same projects” 

Would you recommend your course to a friend?

The final question I asked was: Considering your complete experience with our curriculum being taught, how likely would you be to recommend your course to a friend or colleague? 

Overall feelings were positive: most students replied with “yes, very likely” and there were some great responses about their university experience.

Each student will have a range of experiences, however. The complete picture they build is a key conclusion to the time spent at university.

Overall (1.04)

“Yes, I would recommend it because, during my two full years at the University of Portsmouth, I have come to appreciate and enjoy modules like finance that I never expected to enjoy.”

While COVID was a major part of the university life of many students, there was a general understanding and appreciation of the work put in by academics. Although one student ranked the overall experience as 5/10 they were clear that the support provided by the university and their tutors was important.

Opinion (0.35)

One of the students would recommend the course to others due to the tactics used by the teaching staff at the university, which were helpful in making harder modules and disciplines easier to understand: “I would highly recommend biomedical science to others, pathological science is the main part of biomedical science and the teaching team here at the University of Portsmouth are amazing with incredible teaching tactics which makes it enjoyable and easy to understand, especially haematology and microbiology.”

“I would totally recommend international business and management to my friends and colleagues”. 

Another student pointed out how helpful the Psychology department is and that is why the student will recommend others to join psychology at UoP: “I would recommend it and I’d recommend the university because the psychology department is very helpful”.

These comments demonstrate how supportive the University of Portsmouth can be for the students, giving them a sense of pride to be part of something bigger than themselves. 

Conclusion

Throughout this series of blogs, Rugaiya interviewed students from a variety of faculties but found that they all had a shared sense of what being part of Portsmouth means. There are of course areas that should be continuously worked on and developed or enhanced but overall the experience that Portsmouth offers is one that elevates the individual and helps them to achieve a sense of personal success and pride.

Credit Image: Photo by Paolo Nicolello on Unsplash 

TEL in ’22 – and looking forward to ’23

(Co-writer: ChatGPT)

In 2022 the TEL team said “goodbye” to some valued colleagues, who moved to take up different roles within the University, and we said “hello” to new colleagues who joined us. Chris, Jo, and Mike have already introduced themselves on TEL Tales, so I would like to use this end-of-year post to discuss a couple of work-related highlights: our implementation of Moodle 4.0 and, regarding the key area of assessment and feedback, our pilot of the WiseFlow end-to-end assessment platform.

Moodle 4.0

Moodle 4.0 is the latest version of the Moodle learning management system, and it includes many new features and improvements that aim to enhance the user experience and support better learning outcomes. Some of the key improvements in Moodle 4.0 include:

  • A new and improved user interface: Moodle 4.0 features a redesigned and modern user interface that is more intuitive and user-friendly, and that provides easy access to the most important features and functions.
  • Enhanced learning analytics and reporting: Moodle 4.0 includes improved learning analytics and reporting tools that provide teachers with more detailed and actionable insights on students’ learning, allowing them to track their progress and identify areas for improvement.
  • Improved accessibility and support for mobile devices: Moodle 4.0 has been designed to be more accessible and user-friendly for users with disabilities, and it includes support for mobile devices, allowing students to access their learning materials and activities on the go.
  • More options for personalization and customization: Moodle 4.0 provides teachers and administrators with more options for personalization and customization, allowing them to tailor the learning environment to the specific needs and preferences of their learners.

Overall, Moodle 4.0 is a significant improvement over previous versions of the learning management system, and it offers many new features and enhancements that can support better learning outcomes and a more engaging and effective learning experience.

At this point I would like to ask the reader: did you notice anything unusual about my discussion of Moodle 4.0?

Moving on, another major project for the TEL team has been to support a pilot implementation of the WiseFlow end-to-end assessment platform. Our hope is that a dedicated platform will allow us to improve our practices around assessment and feedback. Let’s explore that idea below in a little more detail.

Assessment and feedback

There are many different ways to assess students, and the best approach will depend on the specific learning goals and objectives, as well as the context and needs of the learners. Some key principles and strategies that can help to ensure effective assessment of students include:

  • Align assessment with learning goals: The assessment of students should be closely aligned with the learning goals and objectives of the course or programme. This will help to ensure that the assessment is focused on the most important and relevant learning outcomes and that it provides valid and reliable information on students’ progress and achievement.
  • Use a variety of assessment methods: Different assessment methods can provide different types of information and insights into students’ learning, and it is important to use a range of methods in order to get a comprehensive picture of their progress and achievement. Some common assessment methods include tests, quizzes, projects, presentations, portfolios, and observations.
  • Provide timely and meaningful feedback: Feedback is an essential component of assessment, and it is important to provide students with timely and meaningful feedback on their progress and performance. This feedback should be clear, specific, and actionable, and it should help students to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and identify areas for improvement.
  • Engage students in the assessment process: Students should be actively involved in the assessment process, and they should be given opportunities to reflect on their own learning, evaluate their progress, and set goals for improvement. This can help to foster a growth mindset and a sense of ownership and responsibility for their own learning.

Overall, effective assessment of students requires careful planning, the use of a variety of assessment methods, timely and meaningful feedback, and student engagement in the assessment process.

Again, at this point I would like to ask the reader: did you notice anything unusual about my discussion of assessment and feedback?

I inserted those italicised questions above because I (Stephen Webb) did not write any of the text in the two subsections. My “co-author” (ChatGPT) wrote the text.

In 2022, GPT3 (Generative Pre-trained Transformer 3) became a mainstream technology. At least a dozen apps are available that can provide clear, comprehensible text-based responses to prompts provided by a user. An app such as ChapGPT can write essays (and poems, and computer code, and much else besides). And many of our students will know this.

Similar technology can generate artwork. The artwork accompanying this blog post is an original by DALL-E, from a prompt I provided. DALL-E is a much better artist than I can ever hope to be.

I hesitate to call this technology Artificial Intelligence because it is neither artificial nor intelligent; I prefer the term Assistive Computation. Whatever we call the technology, though, I believe that in 2023 we need, as educators, to start grappling with its implications. Can we reasonably assess students by setting them essays to write, when apps can spit out the essays for them? What does the technology mean for notions of authorship and plagiarism? (You will notice that I have credited ChatGPT as being the co-author of this blog post; is that reasonable or meaningful?) What are the best strategies for learning with this technology?

Of course, teachers as well as students can use Assistive Computation. As an experiment, recently, an academic asked ChatGPT to generate a question in a particular knowledge domain that could be set for a first-year undergraduate essay. (The question it generated was entirely suitable.) The academic then asked ChatGPT to generate a rubric for the question. (The rubric was acceptable.) Then the academic asked ChatGPT to write an essay based on the question it had set. (The essay showed no insight, made no new points but would have received a passing grade.) Finally, the academic asked ChatGPT to mark the essay according to the rubric. (The feedback, if nothing else, was at least provided in a more timely fashion than human teachers can provide.)

This experiment suggests to me that either (i) we cut out the middlemen (students and teachers) and let AI do whatever it wants; or (ii) we work together – both students and teachers – to understand how to use Assistive Computation to improve teaching and learning. 

There are many questions here. And I believe 2023 is the year we all need to start grappling with them. Another question: should educators be concerned about this technology? I’ll let my co-author answer:

It’s natural for educators to be concerned about the potential impact of technology on their profession. However, it’s important to note that systems like ChatGPT are not capable of replacing the role of a human educator. While they may be able to generate text, they do not have the ability to understand or evaluate the content of that text in the same way that a human can. It’s also worth considering that the use of such systems may actually highlight the importance of critical thinking and analysis skills, which are vital for success in education and beyond. In the end, the role of educators will continue to be important in helping students develop these skills and prepare for the future.

I (the human, not the AI) would like to wish you an enjoyable festive period and a happy New Year!

Credit Image: An original by DALL-E

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Bell – Part 2 – Sicily: The Filming

So the time had come to pack my bags, charge my batteries and wipe my memory cards clean ready for a week on the Mediterranean coastline. We caught a coach from Portsmouth to Gatwick and I was introduced to the students at the airport. One thing I noticed was how weird it felt that things were becoming more “normal” again! We had faced two years of social distancing and restrictions, but most of these had faded away into the ether (although many people were still wearing masks in indoor settings).

I got to my seat and settled in to watch a couple of films I had pre-loaded onto my tablet. As I mentioned in

An old Lava trench, looking up towards the erupting summit in the background.

An old Lava trench, looking up towards the erupting summit in the background.

Part 1 this was the first time I had been abroad in more than five years, so it was hard to get used to sitting in a confined space for a few hours. Fortunately, I was distracted from this as we flew over Sicily: Mt Etna, in all its imposing glory, dominated the skyline – to see how much of it stretches across the island was tremendous!

We touched down in the early evening and, following a (lengthy) delay in getting our hire vans, we arrived at our accommodation at about 9 pm that night. We were housed about an hour’s drive from the airport and on the way there we got our first real look from the ground at Mt Etna itself. I count myself incredibly lucky that it was erupting the whole time we were there. Plumes of ash spewing from the top and yet everyone was going about their normal business…

View from the rooftop of our hostel, Mt Etna erupting in the distance.

View from the rooftop of our hostel, Mt Etna erupting in the distance.

We stayed in a hostel in Giardini Naxos, a small town on the east coast. The owner was most welcoming, offering us local delicacies and some sweet wine upon our arrival. But it had been a long day of travelling so, after indulging in some Italian culture (it would have been rude not to!), I went to catch some much-needed sleep. In the morning I went up to the rooftop balcony to familiarise myself with my surroundings. This picture shows just how close we were to Mt Etna: the volcano was constantly erupting and in the evenings we were lucky to see some pretty striking lava flows with the naked eye. I could not wait to get closer to the action. If you would like to see more, please check the daily vlog that I began recording almost immediately.

On our first full day, we went to Aci Costello, which is another small town about a 40-minute drive down the coast. It was here that I could start filming for the first resource we had planned: a satellite image with hotspots that students could click on to get a better idea of the area in question.

The Aci Costello castle, I remember it was baking hot that day (as it was most other days!)

The Aci Costello castle, I remember it was baking hot that day (as it was most other days!)

We walked around this Norman-era castle, looking at different interesting viewpoints. On this particular shoot, I was left to my own devices. This was fine but, because I lacked the subject knowledge, it was hard to know what was “interesting” to film and what wasn’t. I did not want to waste my time so I referred back to the lecturer for some guidance at appropriate points. I shall talk more about editing this resource in Part 3.

On day 3 we tried to climb Mt Etna. Unfortunately, a bank of clouds rolled in as we began a two-hour trek towards our stopping point. The trip leaders decided it was not worth going all the way and abandoned the trek about an hour in. It was disappointing but we were fortunate enough to scale it another day! More of that later…

Each of the following day’s activities, because they were weather dependent, were confirmed the night before. We were fortunate that most days it was sunny, with a temperature in the high 20s/early 30s. That certainly made the trip more bearable!

Hi Viz jacket and helmet were compulsory in most locations!

Hi Viz jacket and helmet were compulsory in most locations!

Some of the activities required standing next to the main road, which meant filming was slightly precarious – but I had my high-viz jacket and hard hat on at all times!

As the days wore on, I got more familiar with the routine, the sketchy Sicilian driving styles, and the environment in which I was working. Each night, back at the hostel, I spent an hour or so renaming all of my files so that when it came to the edit, it would be a much smoother process.

The scenery was utterly breathtaking – but, as I shall describe later, nothing could have prepared me for what was about to come as we scaled Mt Etna once more.

During the day we drove up to one of the base camps and the students went off for a large portion of the day on a mapping exercise they had been preparing for.

Derek Rust, Trip leader explaining about a field mapping exercise the students had to undertake.

Derek Rust, Trip leader explaining about a field mapping exercise the students had to undertake.

During that time I managed to film a short video with Derek Rust, the trip leader, who was able to describe exactly what the mapping exercise was so that future students would be even more prepared for their trip. I also spent some time getting some B-roll (Background) footage that I could use to cut in with other videos I had filmed over the previous few days. I was distinctly aware of the explosive nature of the volcano – a loud bang occurring every 15-20 seconds – but nobody seemed bothered! So I decided not to worry about it.

Later that afternoon we drove around the side of the mountain to another “Rifugio” (Literally meaning refuge, but in this case was a small bar/cafe with a big car park) where we tried to scale the mountain once more. This time the weather conditions were more clement and we took a slow, steady walk to one of the ridges. The distance was perhaps only one or two miles, but because the gradient was so steep we took a couple of hours to get there! The ground surface was quite bizarre – neither soil nor mud, but a material called “tephra”, a gravel-like substance that had been ejected from the volcano years previously. It made our legs work that little bit harder. On the way up we stopped for photo opportunities and a deserved breather!

We finally reached our destination, just after sunset and I was surprised to find that we were not the only group there. A group of about 50 other people, a mix of locals and tourists, had also slogged their way up to see this magnificent view.

Mt Etna erupting in all its glory, a life changing moment to capture this eruption.

Mt Etna erupting in all its glory, a life-changing moment to capture this eruption.

The term “speechless” is often overused, but I genuinely was speechless! The scale was incredible. I had never experienced such a view. We could see for miles, across the Valle del Bove right down to the coastline; mainland Italy was in the distance. At this point I was ravenous so I sat against some rocks and ate my dinner whilst watching lava shoot hundreds of feet up into the atmosphere. It felt surreal!

I was surprised by how quiet it was. Compared to earlier in the day, where you could hear bangs constantly, this was much more subdued – although there were plenty of oohs and aaahh’s, almost like watching a firework display without the noise. Then, back to work: I took some photos and footage to feed into the bonus resource that we had planned.

After a couple of hours of admiring the power of mother nature, it was time to make our descent. It was pitch black by this point so the descent took almost as long as the ascent. We drove down the mountain, and back to the hostel, and I reflected on what was a long but thoroughly enjoyable day. 

 A couple of days later, it was time to head home. I was sad to be leaving – I had met some wonderful people, tasted Italian/Sicilian culture, and woken up to some of the most spectacular views I had ever seen! But I was excited to get back. I knew I had captured some great content and I knew that I could make some great resources from the footage.

In Part 3 I shall talk about the editing process, and how I turned the footage into Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs).

Credit Images: All photos within this blog post were taken by Jonathan Bell, except The Aci Costello castle which was taken from https://www.typicalsicily.it/

Introduction for Tel Tales – Mike Taylor

Hi, I’m Mike Taylor and since mid-September, I’ve been a Senior Learning Technologist (Assessment) with the TEL team on floor 3 of Mercantile House. In 2001 I was on floor 7 of the same building studying Maths and Astronomy.

After graduating and stepping out of Mercantile house for what I presumed was the final time, I began my first job in education as a library assistant at South Downs College. There, I was tasked with developing a website to promote an annual equality and diversity festival. I taught myself basic web design, which gave me my first insight into the power of using this kind of technology in education. Although most of the apps I relied upon are now defunct (Adobe Imageready, Flash and Fireworks… remember them?), it made me curious as to how this can be used to enhance learning. In hindsight, it also taught me the important lesson that the skills of an online developer must remain current!

I spent the next 11 years at South Downs teaching A level Maths and BTEC/HND Music Performance, along with a multitude of other roles (Course Manager; Lead Internal Verifier; Trainee Teaching Mentor; plus many more), all the time gathering skills and experience, and spotting opportunities to improve college life via the use of technology.

The move toward a career in online development came six years ago when I joined the Online Course Developer Team at St George’s, supporting the online learning of the Schools of Education and Criminal Justice. In 10 short months, the team taught me an invaluable amount and provided me with excellent opportunities such as obtaining my HEA Fellowship and giving me the freedom to learn and experiment with programming tools such as JavaScript and jQuery.

Five years in the two Schools of Engineering provided a more direct experience with HE assessment. This, along with everything we have learnt from our rapid response to the pandemic, has reinforced my confidence in the value of weaving tech into education. I took a deep dive into the world of automating workloads with Google Apps Script and built ethics review systems centrally and for the faculty. I generated an enormous question bank of auto-marking Maths questions for the Mathematical Principles modules, greatly easing the marking burden of the assessment team.

Now, 21 years later, I’ve returned to Mercantile house. A lot has changed. It looks a lot nicer, and I’m 99% sure no one uses Netscape anymore. But my trip down 4 flights of stairs has taught me that we are in a great position to enhance the student experience, improve our colleagues’ work lives, and innovate across the board.

I now have the incredibly difficult job of filling Mike Wilson’s shoes, a tough act to follow. Fortunately for all of us, he’s not going too far so the transition should be a smooth one, and I’ll be assisting him in the delivery of the trial of the end-to-end assessment platform WiseFlow. 

Computer images of Mike standing in from of his campervan playing a guitarIn my personal life, I love playing the guitar, ukulele and singing (there’s nothing as satisfying as a bunch of disparate musicians coming together to make a melodious racket) and camping with the family (and dog!) in our DIY converted campervan (see attached image generated by DALL-E!).

I look forward to working with you all over the next year. If you have any questions, drop me an email at mike.taylor@port.ac.uk.

Welcome to the team, Mike!

Guest Blogger: Teach Well: Principles to Practice Module

Hi everyone, I’m Maria Hutchinson and I joined the Academic Development team back in June as a Learning Designer. One of the projects I was given early on was to create a professional development module to support the pedagogical upskilling of our Online Course Developers (OCDs), Seniors OCDs, Learning Technologists, Educational Technologists, Learning Support Tutors, Associate Lecturers, or other relevant roles related to supporting student learning.

The aptly named Teach Well: Principles to Practice module has been approved and we are actively recruiting for TB2 Jan-May. This new 30-credit L7 professional development module is FREE for UoP and will run TB1 and TB2.

Join us on a pedagogical journey through 3 pillars of practice for teaching well in higher education, and gain the confidence to critically evaluate learning and design approaches and reflect on what it means to teach well across different modes of study.

On completion of the module, you will be able to support colleagues in the fields of learning design and wider pedagogic practice, including supporting workshops such as enABLe, the University’s framework to support innovative team-based learning design. You will also engage with the UKPSF and be able to work towards an appropriate level of Fellowship.

This practical module focuses on learning design, teaching practice, and assessment and feedback, in the context of a solid pedagogic framework linked to blended and connected learning. A significant component of the module content and associated skills is practical teaching.

Academic teaching students in classroomYou will learn via a mixture of face-to-face away days* and online synchronous sessions, including workshops, discussions and guest speakers, where you will be encouraged to engage. Guided learning will include asynchronous online activities, in addition to which, you will be expected to engage in assessment activities and independent study. Key dates of online sessions and away days.

*NOTE: Attendance at face-to-face away days are mandatory, therefore, you should ensure that you have prior approval from your line manager to attend them.

For more information and for details on how to enrol, please contact: maria.hutchinson@port.ac.uk

Guest Blogger: Rugaiya Ally with Tom Langston – Employability: Perceptions of the university in supporting student careers

Introduction

This is part three in a series of four blog posts conceived by Tom Langston and Rugaiya Ally as part of Rugaiya’s work placement within DCQE’s Academic Development and Technology Enhanced Learning teams. 

Tom and Rugaiya wanted to explore students’ feelings about higher education and their expectations about life at university, and therefore devised a set of questions to ask students about their experiences. Rugaiya then interviewed 14 fellow students from across the university faculties (with a predominant number studying in the Science and Business faculties) with most studying at Level 5. This series of posts constitutes a condensed summary of the thoughts and opinions of those 14 students.

In part one we investigated what areas of their course students found to be a strength and where they struggled with the progression through their course. In part two we explored student expectations of their courses and modules and what could be changed and what should continue. Here in part three, we examine students’ attitudes to their future careers, and how their taught modules helped them develop the life and employability skills needed to achieve their goals. Finally, in part 4, we will look at attitudes to university life in general. 

Employability 

The first question I asked was: How do you feel what you have learned on your course has helped you develop your career?

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One student focused on how learning on their course helped in finding passion, even if they are still uncertain of which careers to go into:   

It has helped a lot, even though I’m not yet sure what I want to do. I know that I like psychology and I like being able to link it to different parts, e.g. art/design/business.”

Another student found that their continued desire for the course has shaped how they approach the career that they want, and it helped develop useful relevant skills:

The fact that it has been a course I have always wanted to study and practice, and so it improved my physical and mental skills in the field.”

Some students developed extra skills and knowledge of their future careers:                    

What I have learned has helped me develop my career in a significant way, most especially in business management and when it comes to decision making.”

Similarly, a Pharmacy student explained how their course helped them to interpret data and practical applications for the components that make up medicine: 

“The information about drugs has helped me understand and interpret the excipients in it a lot.” 

Many students develop their passion over the duration of their course, and what they expect for their career can evolve and change over time:

“The different modules I have undertaken exposed me to different kinds of knowledge and career paths. In my Sixth Form, I wouldn’t have considered taxation as a career path but after my second year I realised that I do have a passion for the module and, luckily, I do understand it well.”

The next question I posed was: How has your university experience in general helped you to progress into a career?

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One student commented on how helpful the Careers and Employability team are in guiding students with extra information about the job market: “The placement team significantly helped me progress my career because of the guidance they were always ready to offer. They not only helped me with constructing a CV but the different techniques required to progress.

However, while some found their placement to be a success, others had a slightly more challenging experience.

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Another student mentioned how good and unique the University’s learning environment is in providing learning and teaching services with cutting-edge resources: “The University of Portsmouth provides hands-on simulation sessions, lab classes, dispensing sessions, and placement, which has helped me gain practical skills. As an international student, I appreciate that a lot, since in my country, there’s a lack of that.

One student is now sure of what career path to follow, and this is possible due to the help of personal tutors and course lecturers: “During the first year, I was quite unsure what to do but now I have a bit of a clearer idea on what I want to do once I graduate. Talking with my tutor and lecturers when I was in my second year has helped me decide as well.” 

Another student commented on the University’s alumni body, which is very helpful as you get support and guidance from people who are already in relevant careers or who have much relevant experience:

“The university has an alumni body that is accessible to all graduates for career advice, where I am given guidance on how to embark on my career.”

“It has opened a lot of opportunities I didn’t think I had.”

The third question I asked was: Did this course help you develop professional skills (e.g. written or oral communication, computer literacy, teamwork)?

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Some students found the learning in their courses helped them develop important life skills, such as writing and communication skills: 

Yes, the course helped my writing skills, because it is part of the course itself, to be able to express legal concerns and other different actions.”

“DLLP, particularly presentations, have helped me improve my communication and problem-solving skills, and therefore, I’m looking forward to improving more as I progress into the course. Meetings with personal tutors is also a factor which has improved my communication as well as writing lab reports, which have improved my writing skills.” 

One student pointed out how course group work helped them gain useful employability skills, such as team-working skills: “3 out of 6 of the total modules we did in the second year required us, the students, to carry out a presentation as a group. This helped me with my team-working skills and intellectual skills. This is because some of the presentations required us to present them to the class face-to-face while others required a lot of research in order to come up with a well-detailed business plan”.

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The goal of a university is to provide a student with opportunities to progress both educationally and personally. These experiences will be the building blocks for their careers and it is often not just the taught content but the wide variety of skills that are developed over their entire university life that help provide a strong foundation for employability after graduation. As demonstrated through the feedback of the students interviewed, employability should not just be something undertaken in the final year, but a culmination of all the time spent at university.

Credit Image: Photo by Luis Melendez on Unsplash 

Guest Blogger: Jonathan Bell – Part 1- Sicily: The Planning

It has been almost six months since I travelled on my first field trip abroad with a group of Masters students (and a couple of academics…), an expedition to Sicily during which I helped create some video-based learning resources. I thought now might be a good time to reflect on my experience in terms of planning the trip; filming the resources, and editing the videos once I got back. This will be a three-part blog in which I talk about each of those stages individually.

The trip was certainly a humbling experience for me, and I count myself fortunate to have been supported by my team and my manager and been allowed to travel to Sicily in what is usually an extraordinarily busy time of year for me in my role as an Online Course Developer.

So, where did it all begin?

Well, in September 2021 I delivered a workshop to a group of academic staff from our School of Environment, Geography and Geosciences. I talked about best practices in online learning within a Moodle framework and, at the end of the workshop, I asked – half-jokingly! – whether anyone had any field trips planned that year and would they consider taking me? (As I have posted in other articles, I have a passion for creating video-based resources. Up until that point I had worked on some great video projects, but all of them had been UK-based – mostly Portsmouth-based, though I did have one short day trip to West Sussex! After two years of Covid restrictions, and having not personally travelled outside of the country since 2016, I was desperate to spread my wings and push myself both in a personal and professional sense. So although my question was part in jest, I had good reasons for asking!) 

Back to the workshop: an academic did indeed pipe up and said he was taking some students to Sicily in May for one of his modules. I arranged to meet him afterwards to discuss this further, and he told me he was keen to get some of the activities recorded (particularly if the resources could also be used for marketing material). We met on a Zoom call to decide on a plan of attack: he told me the planned dates and a rough outline of the itinerary, and from that, I had to determine whether there was enough scope for me to stay a whole week 1647 miles from home!

In terms of conceptualising resource development, I decided that I would like to make the best use of the tools that I am familiar with in Moodle. Recently, I have had a lot of experience with H5P and all of the Scenic image looking across the forest, with a house nestled in the middleactivities that the software has to offer. On the other hand, I did not want my preferences to restrict the academic’s ideas too much: it is important that pedagogy comes first and the tool is chosen to support it, not the other way around.

So, to be able to bitesize this potentially mammoth project, we agreed to meet once a month to discuss one location and one resource. That way, we could focus our thinking on how to develop each activity. We took it step-by-step, first formulating a skeleton idea and then using a shared Google document to flesh it out in the time between meetings. I thought this was a great strategy to drive this project forward.

We came up with plans for three solid resources, plus another one involving climbing Mt Etna (although this was weather dependent as conditions are not always conducive to climbing a volcano). These resources were to feed into an Active Blended Learning (ABL) approach that we are fostering here at the University of Portsmouth. Our approach to ABL is to give students similar experiences in either a synchronous or asynchronous format. By filming and creating resources, students who were unable to attend the trip would still be able to have a meaningful experience and gain some knowledge from engaging with them. Additionally, if for some reason the trip had to be cancelled the following year, these resources could be pulled in with little notice to create a “virtual” field trip; students would thus not miss out as much. The hope for me is to be able to attend field trips each year and build a library of resources that academics can dip in and out of.

After making these plans, now was the time to run them past senior management. I needed to get some financial backing and the authorisation to be out of the office for a week at, as previously mentioned, the busiest time of year for me. Perhaps surprisingly, I got a green light with relative ease. There was still the threat that a major reappearance of Covid might cause the field trip to be cancelled and all that planning to be undone. So right until the week, we were due to fly I was not really getting my hopes up…

(Obviously, the field trip went ahead! In my next article, I’ll talk about the trip itself and my initial observations of working in a different country.)

Feature Image: Looking up towards an erupting Mt Etna from its lower ridges Credit: Jonny Bell

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