Last week saw the first Faculty of Engineering & Design Technology Enhanced Learning event. The event followed on from on from last semester’s LITEbox Technology Panel Debate chaired by Peter Lambert.
Jos Darling (Mechanical Engineering), Marcelle McManus (Mechanical Engineering), Mirella Di Lorenzo (Chemical Engineering) and Aydin Nassehi (Mechanical Engineering) each gave brief presentations. They highlighted their use of different technologies to address specific needs and to engage with students in their own learning and teaching contexts. Around thirty staff attended, in a range of learning and teaching related roles, from all departments and from different faculty teams.
The presenters gave their insights in to a number of developments. Steve Cayzer, an audience member, commented ‘It was great to see some of the innovative use of technology in the faculty. I found it particularly useful that staff were sharing actual experiences; the pitfalls as well as the opportunities.’
A full recording of the event is now available if you wish to watch again or share with colleagues.
Jos shared his experience of using online multiple choice quizzes for summative assessment. This approach helps to provide timely feedback for large cohorts. He shared the findings of initial pilots, and noted future trials and developments across the University.
Marcelle gave some great insights in to the use of lecture capture software for students to record group presentations. Industry experts can access the recordings at any time to provide feedback to students. Students write questions to their peers and develop new digital skills which are useful for online interviews.
Mirella explained how she uses Linoit (a virtual multimedia message wall or ‘post-it’ board). This provides an interactive space for students to ask questions and provide feedback. She shared ideas on how this can support student engagement in different contexts (for example with first or final year students). She also highlighted the positive feedback from students.
Finally Aydin demonstrated how audience response systems can bring presentations to life, allowing large student cohorts to engage and interact during lectures. Aydin gave an interactive demonstration and provided a useful comparison of different technologies (for example 2sli.de and Poll Everywhere).
Some key themes emerged through the presentations:
- learning technologies to encourage and manage interactions with large cohorts of students
- streamlining assessment practices
- providing timely feedback to students
- using technologies to help students engage in the learning process
- helping students to engage with audiences outside the University (e.g. in industry)
- how to balance the time invested in development with long-term efficiencies, and the beneficial impacts for staff and students.
We plan to hold further events to continue sharing good practice with learning technologies in the Faculty. If you would like to take part in a future event to share examples from your own learning and teaching context, please do get in touch.
Related events
LITEbox event on 7th April: Using Moodle for summative assessments to reduce marking time – Dr Momna Hejmadi, Department of Biology & Biochemistry
Using online multimedia message walls to encourage participation – workshop write up and recording – Dr Jessica Francombe-Webb
A flipped teaching toolkit for a quantitative module – event write up and recording – Dr Aydin Nassehi
See also Audience Response Systems – event write up and recording – Dr Richard Joiner, and a demonstration of the 2sli.de share system in the Technology Showcase – with Robin Shields
Videoconferencing and innovative teaching in social sciences classrooms – event write up and recording, showing another approach for students engaging with external experts – Dr Wali Aslam
