1. Using Clickers to Control Access to Online Recordings of In-Class Lectures
How many of you use Blackboard?
How many use clickers? How many of you like clickers or feel they are used well?
Bob Armstrong
Instructional Designer
University of Maryland, Baltimore County

2. Overview
Session Objectives
Technologies & Innovation
Outcomes

3. Session Objectives Identifying the Problem Applying a Solution
Determining Outcomes
Adapting Technologies
Identifying the problem - What caused us to take a look at this process in the first place.
Applying a solution
Where the outcomes worth all the effort?
What available technologies could we use to solve the problem?

4. About UMBC
Founded in 1966
“Research Extensive university” Carnegie classification
12,268 Students - 9,612 undergrad - 2,656 grad
949 Faculty FT, 304 PT
Selected Brags - One of 50 Best Colleges for Women - 1st in undergrad chemistry degrees awarded to African Americans - President Among Nation’s Best Leaders by U.S. News

5. Blackboard Growth
Reflects individual course shells - sections enlarge the numbers
Individual Course Shells only

6. Blackboard Course Biology 301 Ecology and Evolution
Dr. Tamara Mendelson

7. Professor’s Problem
Record AND publish lectures for review ONLY by students who attended class.
Recording in-class lectures and posting to Bb - Make students accountable - Everything in lecture “fair game” - Will students still come to class?
- Recording biology science classes at UMBC is a common practice - most are videos but expensive
- Prof talks fast and hard to keep notes
- Why record the classes? Review materials left up and make students accountable for content

8. Lecture Recording

9. Possible Solutions Students Record Lectures Themselves
Prof encouraged this practice
“Everything I say is fair game for a test”
Manual Class Taping (send a field crew)
Labor intensive that can’t scale
Automated Class taping
Expensive and can’t scale across campus
- Students - Limits those that don’t have the resources
- Manual is currently done in other courses but is expensive, time consuming, and requires resources
- Automatic - have investigated but again resources 9

10. Solution
“Record the lectures and post them in a Blackboard course utilizing clickers and “adaptive release” to control access.”
- Instructor records and posts in the course with limitations

11. Process Record the lecture Ask at least one “clicker” question
Process “clicker” grades into the Bb grade book
Download lectures from recorder
Upload lecture materials into Bb course
Set-up adaptive release and make materials available
Notify Students that recordings are “up”
- Professor records lecture to make available to those with access
- Students must have clicker in working order to participate
- End of class clickers are processed into the course grade book
- Adaptive release creates the rules for access based on the clicker response in the gradebook
- Students notified in announcements when content is available.

12. Technologies - Digital Recorder
Sony MP3 IC Recorder
Inexpensive
Digital Recording
Easy to download
- Cost about $99
- Has own file structure for organization
- Creates MP3 file that posts directly 12

13. Recordings

14. Technologies - Clickers
UMBC uses CPS RF clickers from eInstruction.com
- Students buy we set up computers. Cost $21.50 initially to buy and then $13/semester max $39.00

15. Clicker Usage 24 20 18

16. CPS Clickers
Blackboard Grade book

17. Technologies - Blackboard CMS

18. Technologies - Blackboard CMS
Recordings posted in a content area
Access governed by adaptive release rules based on CPS clicker responses

19. Issues No clicker question, no restrictions on recordings
Clicker responses not always recorded
Extra work to post and set up
Mediation done by TA
Potential for sharing (academic violation) 19

20. Was it Successful? 51% of students rated it extremely successful
19% said they could “take it or leave it”
Will do it again in future semesters 20

21. Lessons Learned
Students can still share lectures with others who didn’t attend.
Consider making this a violation of academic integrity.
Depends on multiple technologies working together
Clicker malfunctions early semester required manual input of attendance. 21

22. Questions? Bob Armstrong New Media Teaching & Learning
University of Maryland,
Baltimore County
"Copyright 2008 Bob Armstrong, University of Maryland, Baltimore County. This work is the intellectual property of the author. Permission is granted for this material to be shared for non-commercial, educational purposes, provided that this copyright statement appears on the reproduced materials and notice is given that the copying is by permission of the author. To disseminate otherwise or to republish requires written permission from the author."

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