Chatting to Nitin Parmer from the Univeristy of Bath about the Audience Response Systems

Nitin Parmer a Learning Technologist form the University of Bath was kind enough to host me and take some time out to discuss the use of Audience response system at his institution.It’s always nice to catch up with colleagues from other institutions and find out what’s happening on their end and this meet up proved quite useful.

We discussed various issues related to the use of these systems. I was keen to find out how he had convinced staff to use the systems and also how to gain value in using the systems- pedagogical value. The systems need to be used in a way that gets students to think and engage more in what is being taught. We’ve had the systems here at Roehampton for a little longer than they’ve had them at Bath and though they have been used by various staff members here, I’ve always felt that we could get staff using them in a more meaningful way. Roehampton University recently hosted its Annual teaching and Learning Conference and the eLearning team did a session on Assessment and Feedback - an aspect that a lot of institutions are struggling with. One tool we show cased was the ARS. Nitin also mentioned that Assessment and feedback was an aspect they were trying to address with the use of the ARS. ARS provide for instant feedback which makes it an ideal tool for both Assessment and Feedback

The approach adopted at Bath hasn’t been very different from ours. Nitin has adopted a top down approach; briefing the Director of Studies at his institution then getting a few lecturers to use the systems giving them the full support they need. He then gets the staff to do a brief write up of their experiences. This is something I haven’t done here and will try and do. Nitin provides staff with a template and asks them to complete it; he then places this on the relevant website and has been able to refer other staff he wants to use the systems to have a look and see what their colleagues have been up to.

One key idea I will take from Nitin is the creation of a blog that will keep staff posted on what’s going on. I’ve started one for the Classroom Technologies project and will start one just aimed at the use of the ARS.

In summary, some of the stuff that’s been done that is different from what we are doing

Created a weekly blog that keeps all staff posted on what’s going on
Nitin spends an equivalent of 1 day a week on the ARS project
The units are held and distributed by the Audio visual team
Software is rolled out on every student facing computer and is also available to download via their Internet pages. Nitin mentioned he is doing a write about how students are using the software- I hadn’t thought of getting students to use it so I’m looking forward to reading the report
SIG that is looking at the systems- They will be holding a workshop/conference sometime later in the year and I hope to attend.

On another note, the University of Bath is a lovely Campus. The sports centre/village is amazing. The facilities are world class from tracks to swimming pools and I hear on some occasions the England Rugby team train there. You would have no reason to be unfit if you worked there.

Thanks Nitin for a very useful conversation.

Looking at the Mahara e-portfolio system.

The use of eportfolios is an area that has grown immensely in the last few years. Here at Roehampton a few members of staff have adopted it into their modules. Ali Messer and Bridget Middlemas are key users of eportfolio systems and if you would like more information on how they have been using them don’t hesitate to get in touch with me.

I’ve spent the better part of my day looking at the Mahara eportfolio system. For those of you who might not be aware, we are looking to move to using Moodle as our VLE here at Roehampton University and Mahara is an eportfolio system that integrates with Moodle. I’ve been involved in using the WebCT eportfolio system and a lot of the feedback has been that it’s a difficult system to use and WebCT doesn’t seem to be keen on developing their systems any further or atleast I’m not aware that they are.

Using Mahara hasn’t been as intuitive as I thought it would be. As with most things I’ve just thrown myself into the deep end without reading the instructions but I definitely will need to read up documentation related to using this eportfolio tool.

First impressions: Well, compared to the StudyZone eportfolio tool the interface is much, much, much more friendly to the eye and it seems to have a much more user friendly appeal. On logging in, you are presented with 8 icons representing the various things you can include in your eportfolio:

• About me
• My goals
• My CV
• My contacts
• Upload file
• My blogs
• My views
• Create view
  

I will try and summarise what each does in my next posting.

What are the Audience Response systems?

So whats all the hype about Audience Response Systems and what are they?

Well, for those of you who have watched Who wants to be a Millionaire they are similar to the little keypads the Audience members use to vote.

Roehampton University purchased a few of these a couple of years ago and though some schools have been using them they haven't really been used to their full potential and the eLearning team are keen to get staff across the university to using them to enhance teaching and learning in the classroom. The Classroom Technologies project (a TQEF supported project) is one initiative we are using to help make staff more aware of this technology and look and document best practice ideas.

We currently have a total of 160 keypads and 4 receivers (meaning we can run 4 simultaneous sessions). These can be booked through the eLearning services team.

If you would like more information on using the systems you can get in touch with the eLearning team. You can also view a an introductory presentation.

Getting the invite out

I've finally stated working on the Classroom Technologies project. I'm way past the intended project start date but hopefully now it will gather momentum. My invite is amended from the resources section of the CAMEL Project documentation.

A copy of the proposal drafted by Phil Cheeseman should give you some insight into the objectives, scope and time lines associated with the project.

I hope to update this blog as often as possible to keep you all updated on whats going on and how its working.

Marcia and Eileen have been my first confirmed respondees (is that a word) Yippee....