A Picture IS Worth a Thousand Words! Providing Audio Visual Feedback in an Online Course Darlene Jones-Owens & Janet Gubbins University of West Georgia

Traditional Student Feedback Typing long descriptions to provide feedback? Are the students –reading? –understanding? –comprehending? –learning?

The Course Every college and university has a similar course At UWG: Undergraduate Education Course: –Media and Instructional Technology (MEDT) Introduction to Instructional Technology –Applications course – use of productivity tools in an educational setting. –Two F2F sessions –Two Online Classes All courses (both F2F & Online) are identical in WebCT.

The Students Majority are sophomores planning on entering the COE. Several juniors and seniors already accepted into the COE A very few are students enrolled in other majors -- elective.

Feedback Choices Face-to-Face –Takes up too much class time and not possible with online instruction. –Graded project not open. –Student may not be reading on computer where project is saved. Assignment Drop Box –Project available, but not open. –Size of drop box feedback field constricting.

Drop Box

Use of New Feedback Tools Wacom Graphire Pen Enables mark-up of any Microsoft document.

Use of Electronic Pen

Use of Electronic Pen with Video Short arrows, question marks, circles

Video Feedback A screencast –A digital recording of computer screen output, often containing audio narration. –Camtasia supports compact file formats has editing features that allow mouse movement and audio. A screencast is essentially a movie of what a user sees on his monitor.

Screencasting Screencasts have been useful for software developers to show off their work. It is a useful skill for ordinary software users as well: –or to show others how a given task is accomplished in a specific software environment. Screencasts are excellent tools for learning how to use computers.

Using Camtasia 1.Open and evaluate student project. 2.Use Graphire Pen to circle, draw arrows. 3.Film the project corrections and record audio. Example: Correcting a formula in Excel.

Student Opinions 85% Agree 54 students

Student Opinions 91% Agree 54 students

Student Opinions 71% Agree 26% Neutral 54 students

Student Opinions 91% Disagree 54 students

Student Opinions 85% Disagree 54 students

Student Opinions 80% Agree 54 students

Student Opinions 75% Agree 54 students

Student Opinions 71% Agree 26% Neutral 54 students

Course Projects Microsoft Projects –Word – 3 –Publisher – 2 –Excel – 3 –Access – 3 –PowerPoint – 2 Other – Web Pages – 1 (3 pages) – Web Resources – 2 – Search Engines – 1 – Lesson Plan – 1 – Project “Tests” - 3 Total: 21 student projects 21 x 80 = 1680 projects to grade! 4 sections = approx. 20 students each The course is about learning to use the computer.

Current Project Posting feedback videos to a central place for student access.

Future Plans Using video to record PowerPoint presentations. Requiring students to use Camtasia in the online lesson plan.

Resources Camtasia: Free Trial: Editing Tutorials: enu/cs_showme.html enu/cs_showme.html

Balancing Act

Other Options / Other Uses Just-in-time support/training Across disciplines Other Considerations –Freebies –Issues

Just-in-Time Support/Training Past UWG research shows faculty learn how to teach online –on their own, –“in the halls”, –or just-in-time, instead of thru traditional means (workshops, etc) How can we take better adv of our limited time with them?

Just-in-Time Support/Training SnagIT (still images – some text)

Just-in-Time Support/Training Informal survey of 20 recipients who received both plain text & SnagIT images -14 felt it enhanced understanding -3 “would not have understood without the accompanying image” -3 felt it did not have an impact one way or another / but 2 said preferred anyway

Just-in-Time Support/Training Future Direction: Camtasia (AV screencasts): Beyond demos – show ‘em our problem- solving in action Beyond mini-tutorials – active learning help (they click the hotspots necessary to continue the action & get the answer)

Just-in-Time Support/Training More effectively conveys directions (faster, better, re-usable) From support helpcall to teaching moment!

Other Methods – Other Uses For Discussion-Based DE course: After unit discussion, narrated summary highlights key points /provides feedback on students work as a whole (Impatica for PowerPoint)

Just How Easy Is It? (Demos) SnagIT Camtasia Impatica for PPT

Other Methods – Other Uses History of MathCasts: tools, grants & lessons learned – BYU: homework solution – MathTV: many for the price of 1 –

Other Methods – Other Uses Villanova 2005 Roundtable demos: Chemistry – podcasts, screen casts, games for feedback & instruction English/Writing – Camtasia to provide feedback on written papers Psychology – blogs for journaling/ e- Portfolio

Other Methods – Other Uses Drexel resources: “Augmenting WebCT Courses Using Podcasts, Screencasting, Blogs, and Games” Villanova WebCT Conference 2005 More at podcast.blogspot.comhttp://drexel-coas-talks-mp3- podcast.blogspot.com Tutorials: elearning.wikispaces.com/tutorialshttp://drexel-coas- elearning.wikispaces.com/tutorials Thank you to Jean-Claude Bradley for permissions

Free Alternatives Screen View (like Camtasia/ AV Editor) – Audacity (Audio Editor) – MultiMedia Office (Audio, Video, Image, and HTML Editor) –

Other Ideas Captivate (was RoboDemo) – Deliver via podcast or “Flashcast” to mobile phone – –

Tablet PC Alternatives Free in Microsoft Packs 4Tablet PC: OneNote (has a built-in AV screen recorder like Camtasia) Snipping Tool (sim to SnagIT)

Tablet PC Alternatives Teaching w/ Table PCs – CS paper & demos: papers/mock-ccsc2004.pdf papers/mock-ccsc2004.pdf

Issues Open/Closed Environment Student/Teacher Privacy Time requirement – learning curve ADA Accessibility Copyright Spam if shared Cost

Your Thoughts Questions? Comments? Ideas?