eLearning Week

During eLearning Week (eLW), several different tools were employed in various ways. CIT conducted sharing sessions with CNM teaching staff, resulting in a sizeable amount of feedback. This summary aims to consolidate common experiences and flesh out learning points for each tool, since every one brings with it unique advantages and challenges to the mix. Where necessary, CIT staff’s input is also considered, in order to provide a complete picture.

General Feedback and Recommendations

1. Tool to fit the lecturer
It was vital to allow lecturers to choose tools that they were comfortable with. Early training sessions enabled lecturers to match their perceived level of technological competence to the complexity of the various tools.

While this resulted in a number of lecturers opting not to use Centra after expressing initial interest, the situation could arguably have been worse if lecturers felt tied-in to using tools with steep learning curves.

Recommendations: Continue with tool preview sessions for staff before semester begins, closer collaboration with lecturers to determine their needs.

2. Early preparation vital
Regardless of the tools used, early preparation was of paramount importance.

This could be seen from the experiences of various lecturers, particularly several who used Breeze. Partly due to the fact that CIT promotes Breeze as a rapid eLearning content creation tool, several lecturers started preparing their Breeze presentations just prior to eLW. A number experienced technical difficulties, which delayed the publication of their respective lectures online.

Recommendations: Those liaising with lecturers have to provide reminders about preparing early regardless of the tool being used.

3. Expectations need to be managed
From the lecturers’ feedback, it is apparent CIT should have managed lecturers’ expectations in a more comprehensive manner.

Recommendations: The following points need to be reinforced – (1) the eLW scenario involving a limited/full campus quarantine, (2) that quality of lessons/communication will most likely be affected, (3) the relative lack of non-verbal cues for most of the tools, (4) the fact that real-life factors will still come into play for online learning (e.g. students can be late for online learning just as they can be for a class on campus), (5) the technology may fail or be problematic for various reasons (which CIT will do its best to resolve if those situations arise).

4. Student Feedback
There is a lack of student feedback that can be analyzed. This is due, in part, to the lack of a proper feedback mechanism and the simplicity of the questions.

Recommendations: Work with the lecturers to find out what kind of feedback they would like to have. Feedback also has to be garnered from students after each lecturer and tutorial. The liaison should work with their respective lecturers to integrate feedback gathering into their lecture/tutorial. This should also be settled early so that it can be worked into various lectures and tutorials.

Feedback about Breeze
Breeze is tool which allows users to add audio narration and limited interactivity to PowerPoint slides. CIT offers it as a ‘rapid content creation’ tool. While the end result is usually satisfactory, a number of lecturers found that creating Breeze presentations was far from rapid.

This is due to several factors, broadly grouped into preparation and technical issues. In order to prepare a Breeze presentation, most lecturers do not just load a ready-made PowerPoint and start recording – the way that the software creators conceive of its use. Most lecturers wrote a script, which took time. Having a script also leads to re-recording, as lecturers want their slides to be well-presented.

To compound matters, lecturers faced technical difficulties including:
- not being able to upload from home
- audio recording too large to upload
- PowerPoint file too large to upload
- publishing bugs which deleted the audio file

In order to circumvent these, CIT issued workarounds and tips. We are also in the process of checking with the software vendor about the technical problems we encountered.

Other feedback included the need to accommodate different platforms, particularly Macs, which many CNM lecturers use. While Breeze can be viewed in any web browser that has the Flash plug-in, creating Breeze presentations requires Windows and Microsoft PowerPoint. Lecturers pointed out that it should be able to accommodate other software such as Keynote (Mac) or OpenOffice (various platforms).

Recommendations:
- Start preparing early
- Issue a complete list of hardware and software requirements. (Esp. headset w/microphone.)
- Provide practical tips which will help reduce technical issues. E.g. Recommended PowerPoint file size, audio length (per slide), presentation length.
- Provide practical recording tips. E.g. Need a quiet place, setting audio levels, breath control.
- Prepare lecturers for things which might catch them by surprise e.g. Breeze presentations will be shorter than normal lecture, Breeze presentations are mostly one-way (also point out that simple quizzes can be added)
- Perhaps explore other tools which can accommodate Mac users and other presentation software.

Feedback about Centra
This is the most complex tool used during eLW. It was used for three different modules and respective situations: a very small class involving a facilitator and two postgraduate students (NM6202), a tutorial class with breakout rooms (NM2220) and a tutorial class without breakout rooms, using IVLE chat instead (NM2219).

Generic training for lecturers and tutors did not work well as it was not tailored to their modules. Having CIT staff sit in on a prior tutorial was highly beneficial, as it allowed our staff to see how the tutorial could be mapped to Centra’s functions.

Once this was done, training became more focused for both staff and students.

There is a significant learning curve for all involved. Staff and students have to learn the respective interfaces (presenter and participant). In the case of NM2220, some students had to learn to use the breakout room leader interface. CIT staff also had to become familiar with Centra, as it is only used for very specific purposes in NUS.

Reception to Centra was mixed. The lack of non-verbal cues and perceived lag made the normally intimate NM6202 class feel fragmented. As the users were at their respective homes, they also got distracted by going-ons in the house. The interaction was not at the same level as a face-to-face class.

This contrasts with the NM2219 and NM2220 tutors’, who generally felt that it worked well enough. However, tutors from all three modules noted that the discussion tended to be more superficial than in a live class. Nevertheless, tutors from these modules felt that the students found the online tutorial novel and enjoyable.

Feedback about IVLE Chat
IVLE Chat was used in at least two modules. Students are familiar with this mode of communication. However, the IVLE Chat tool requires modification to be usable as a robust tool for conducting discussions.

Some points brought up:
- IVLE Chat has fewer options than some commercial and even free chat tools.
- Students, particularly those on campus wireless or at home, kept on getting bumped out of the chat rooms.
- Students who tried to get back into the chat room entered a ‘clean’ room. They could not see the text chat history.
- Student interface does not allow them to save chat, which is vital for future reference. Students can take notes during a tutorial, but in a text chat, the chat history is the notes for the session.

Feedback about IVLE Forum
The IVLE Forum is a well-established asynchronous communication tool. Its use was modified by several lecturers to serve as the tutorial discussion. There were no technical issues. However, lecturers noted that time needs to be spent planning rules, protocols and procedures when using the IVLE Forum as a tutorial discussion.

Feedback about Podcast
One lecturer created an audio podcast as the lecture. The lecturer collaborated with students from Radio Pulze. It was a scripted lecture done in a dialogue format.

There were no technical issues with the preparation of this podcast. The lecturer prepared the script and recorded it with the Radio Pulze students in advance. The students took care of the post-production and CIT created the podcast feed and uploaded it to IVLE.

Feedback about Webcast
This is a simple way to employ past lectures to deliver content that has not changed much. Lecturers noted that it is one-way communication, not inductive and doesn’t facilitate collaboration.

Conclusion
Based on the lecturers and tutors’ feedback, there is plenty of room for improvement in terms of the tools provided and how CIT supports the use of these tools. Much of the staff feedback is very precise as it covers the specific tool they used. However, the lessons learnt can be applied for future iterations of eLW.

NUSSU's The Ridge Online featured eLearning Week in their latest article.

Fabius Chen, the article's author, notes that reactions are generally positive, although faculty staff opine that eLearning cannot displace face-to-face interaction.

Over the coming week, CIT staff will be getting feedbck from CNM teaching staff about their eLearning Week experience. Students can leave comments here or use the CNM eLearning Week Feedback forum in the IVLE Workspace (click the link on the right-hand sidebar).

As this entry is being written, there is one last Centra session to go, an NM2219 tutorial.

Earlier, we had concurrent NM2219 and NM2220 sessions at 10am. These seems to have gone on without much fuss. Also, the NM2220 class this morning had not received prior Centra training. They used it for the very first time and most got familiar with it quickly.

That's about it for eLearning Week. We hope that this was a fruitful exercise. It certainly was for the people at CIT who facilitated eLW. If you have any feedback, let us know on the blog or in the IVLE forum.

We wish the CNM students and staff a good semester break next week!

The fourth day of eLearning Week sees Centra sessions for both NM2219 and NM2220.

Students of NM3219 Writing for Communication Management will be experiencing a lecture created in a format which is unique among the range of tools used during eLW. They will download and listen to a podcast.

Mary Lee Ching Ling created this podcast with the help of Radio Pulze, and it is done in a conversational format. Students have access to the transcript and the tutorial assignment in the module's IVLE Workbin.

Students can leave comments about the podcast lecture (or any other eLearning Week lectures/tutorials) at the discussion forum in IVLE. It can be found on the right-hand sidebar, under Others. Feel free to post your comments on here on this blog too.

P.S. NM3219 students have also had a podcast lecture by Cynthia Owens earlier this semester.

We've reached the middle of eLearning Week at CNM. This morning sees two back-to-back NM2220 Introduction to Media Writing tutorials employing Centra. Other lectures will be conducted using Breeze. There will also be tutorials carried out via IVLE's Chat Rooms.

Yesterday's prominent event was the NM2219 Principles of Communication Management tutorials. Teaching Assistant Ou Meimin lead four virtual tutorials. Meimin used Centra and IVLE's text chat function for those classes.

After a summary of the week's topic, Meimin presented students with a scenario via Centra. They were to break up into pre-assigned groups and discussed the scenario from the perspective of different publics. The students had to come up with points supporting why their assigned public is the most important in the scenario.

The class groups used IVLE chat rooms to conduct the discussions. Initially, there were some problems with group assignment. A few students were also distracted with the font size and colour options that text chat afforded them. Nevertheless, most of the groups managed to carry out considerable discussions. They then summarised their points, which were transferred to Centra's whiteboard for everyone to view.

Things seem to be progressing well during eLearning Week. Hiccups abound, but thankfully, they have been just minor difficulties. Hopefully, the rest of eLW will run smoothly too.

eLearning Week kicked off yesterday. I dropped by Aaron Ng's NM2220 Introduction to Media Writing tutorial, which was conducted via Centra.

Aaron asked his students to do a quiz on IVLE, then proceeded to give them a class assignment. This required them to form teams virtually through Breakout Groups in Centra. The groups each had their own discussion through audio. Each group also had a whiteboard for collaboration.

As an observer, I noticed that things were slow to pick up at first as this is a totally new way of conducting a class for most of the participants. Still, the discussions started rolling along as the students adapted. One of the CIT staff who was located at the ThinkLab, where some students were accessing the virtual classroom, noted that the students looked very comfortable using Centra. Aaron also appeared relaxed and at ease with the system too.

Today, there will be more virtual classrooms, this time, for NM2219. However, there will not be Breakout Groups, so it promises to be easier.

Various lectures will also be delivered through Breeze as eLW continues.

It is Monday 18 January, and that mean eLearning Week has begun!

While things go on as normal in most parts of NUS, a lecturer and two postgraduate students are using Centra to engage in a virtual class. All the participants are taking part in this from home.

More updates to come as eLW continues...

CIT, OSHE and CNM will be holding four briefing sessions for students at LT 15. The sessions will be on:

• Tuesday 12 February, 12.00pm to 12.30pm


• Tuesday 12 February, 5.00pm to 5.30pm


• Friday 15 February, 12.00pm to 12.30pm


• Friday 15 February, 4.00pm to 4.30pm

Students are highly encouraged to learn more about eLearning Week during these sessions. You can choose the most convenient time to attend as each session covers the same ground.

Click the screenshot to view the tentative Virtual Classroom Schedule for eLearning Week.

The calendar can also be viewed online at http://nuscast.nus.edu.sg/elearning.htm. Remember to change the view to the week of 18 February!

A Lesson Plan in IVLE is a terrific way to organise your module's schedule and educational resources. A fully set up Lesson Plan gives you and your students a week-by-week or topic-by-topic overview of what it to come. Readings and other resources can be added to a week/topic so that students know what is relevant for the upcoming lessons.

We encourage you to set up a Lesson Plan so that students can access all the week's materials and resources from one place. It takes a small investment in time, but your effort will be well worth it.

Click here to learn how to set up a Lesson Plan in IVLE.