Our Monash polling system FLUX has just added some new and useful features: it is now possible to add images, code and LaTeX to Polls in FLUX!
Images in Polls
It's now possible to add images to Multiple-Choice Polls by dragging and dropping your image into the question textbox (see below).
Code in Polls
You can now write code in Multiple-Choice Polls either `in-line like this` or ```in blocks like this``` (see below).
Maths (LaTeX) in Polls
It's also now possible to render a limited subset of LaTeX in Multiple-Choice Polls by typing equations like this: $$ \sqrt(4) = 1 + 1 $$ (see below). If you are excited about the new features like me, why don't you login FLUX now and give it a try? If you have any further questions, please contact us or you can find answers in this support document.
I visited Caulfield's STARLab (Simulated Teaching and Research Laboratories) to observe the BFX5260 Treasury and Financial Markets teaching team in action, and I was in for a treat. The morning started out with great energy. Students were lining up to get their ID card scanned for attendance, and looking eager to get started.
This semester, the BFX5260 teaching team have implemented co-teaching, the flipped-class model, trading simulation, and digital in-class assessment all at once. How do they do it? Let’s dive in.
Co-teaching
Wayne Huf, Amale Scally, Simon Yap, Long Pham and Linh Nguyen make a great teaching team. They did a fantastic job collaborating to facilitate two classrooms simultaneously. One of the goals was to keep the two classes going at the same pace, and timing of in-class assessments to be in sync.
In order to achieve that, responsibilities are shared among the teaching team. Everyone takes turn to instruct, facilitate activities and provide technical support to students every week. The co-teaching model got everyone in the team on their feet, and actively attending to every group in the class. It was great to see how much attention and support students received throughout the session.
Flipped-classroom model
The concept of a flipped-classroom model has been around for some time, and has earned its place in the current landscape of higher education. Exploration and familiarisation with the new weekly topic happens prior to class time, and that's what has been implemented in BFX5260.
'Pre-load' materials including short videos, reading and exercise files have been provided for students to engage in independent learning every week. Moodle resources were referenced frequently during the session, which was a fantastic way to reemphasise the significance of the Moodle site as a one-stop-shop to assist students with their study.Workshop times are dedicated to hands-on activities and peer-learning where students exchange ideas and consolidate new knowledge. What's more, is that students are incentivised to complete pre-class work by a weekly test at the beginning of class. Even though questions are randomised, students were allowed to discuss and work collaboratively through this assessment.
An important note to take here is that the link between pre-class and in-class work has been well illustrated. Without having done their work prior to coming to the session, students' learning experience would not have received the same benefits and impact.
Excel classes were offered to students to help them
become more confident with using the software
Trading simulations
Throughout the session, students went through a range of simulated trading scenarios. Pre-programmed prompts were scheduled during some of the activities to increase interactiveness and sophistication of the exercise. This was a fantastic illustration of how complex and fast-paced a real trading environment could be.
The design of these workshops has thoughtfully taken into account valuable opportunities for students to apply what they have learned, and go from knowing to doing. What's more, is that students go to practice making decisions promptly and effectively, to respond to the dynamic nature of their future employment context.
To guide students through these simulations, procedural knowledge was demonstrated on Excel by the facilitator, followed by time for repetition on students' computer.
Students working on their Excel sheet
Learning is then solidified by peer learning. The trading simulations happened as individual exercises as well as group activities. Conversations were buzzing among students in the room to discuss the process and results of their practice.
Students discussed during the exercises
By closely watching and assisting students while the simulations occurred, the facilitator was able to recognise and showcase outstanding work from individual student for the whole class. The students were also rewarded with very encouraging comments from the instructor and their peers, adding even more energy to the atmosphere.
In-class assessment
In-class assessment was conducted at the end to solidify everything new students have learned throughout the session. To ensure the integrity and authenticity of students' attempt during the assessment, a software called AB Tutor was run in the control room. Excel files containing students' work were pulled from their Monash computer and deleted once the transfer has been completed.
The control room - where the "magic" happens
The vision
The learning activities in STARLab do not only provide an opportunity for students to gain simulated trading experience, but also expose students to ethic considerations, encourage them to be professional and understand the value of their human inputs behind machines. Click the video below to hear from the teaching team and a unit alumnus themselves.
A closing thought
It was inspiring to see the amount of thought and effort that went into designing and delivering the unit. Perhaps it took trial-and-error to continuously improving their teaching practice, but the team have been rewarded with the level of participation and engagement among students.
We look forward to observing more active learning strategies in your classroom.
It is very easy to let multimedia content go by unnoticed these days, only because they have become so ingrained in modern society. Ever since the rise of video-sharing platforms like Youtube in the last two decades, and the dominance of other social video players such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat (to name a few), videos have disrupted the way we absorb and digest information for good.
More videos are being watched every day on Facebook (over 8 billion videos in 2016), videos are getting shorter (up to 2 minutes long), and more than 50% of videos are watched on mobile devices (TechCrunch, 2016; Wistia, 2016; Ooyala, 2016, as cited in Lua, 2017). MOOC providers such as Coursera, Lynda and edX have attracted millions of users and are proving the demand for e-learning options. This speaks volume about the future of information consumption, and the inevitable changes in education alike.
Young generations are now considered “digital natives” who are growing up with every aspects of their life submerged in technology (LiteracyPlanet, 2016). Education at K12 level has been preparing children to be equipped for future work in the 21st century, so it is imperative for higher education institutions to continue with this roadmap and incorporate digital technologies in teaching and learning.
Why should we care about teaching with videos?
You have probably come across this video of Salman Khansharing inspiring stories on how he accidentally embarked on a journey to lead a global change in education technology and pedagogical methodology.
The idea is by that by utilising technology that is seemingly dehumanising, specifically talking into a microphone and illustrating on a screen, Salman was able to bring a human touch to the learning experience in three ways:
First, by allowing lectures to be watched online prior to class, valuable time in class is now devoted to meaningful interactions between teacher and students, as well as among fellow students.
Second, learning is personalised to students’ pace and to their level of understanding. Teachers are enabled to identify students’ deficiency and have more meaningful conversations with students about their progress based on video analytics.
And third, videos have removed boundaries in terms of time and space, i.e. limited class time and physical classroom space. Now students are able to watch, pause, rewind their lessons in the comfort of their own home.
All of these benefits point to an increase in efficiency in education, which has been threatened by the increase in size of cohorts and restricted time and space at many institutions. As a result, our effort in maintaining high quality teaching is facing critical challenges, and video teaching could be the answer. Ljubojevic and colleague’s research (2014) echoed the same sentiments when they found that using videos in teaching has led to an increase in students’ engagement and efficiency of the self-learning process, their satisfaction, and overall improved quality of learning experience.
More importantly, this approach puts students in the driver’s seat and encourage them to take ownership of their own learning journey. Videos could assist students in mastery learning, allowing them to explore and review a subject matter as much as they would like to in private, while taking the load off of lecturers (Galbraith, 2004).
What’s the catch?
The blended teaching method and flipped classroom model have sparked many fascinating debates regarding its efficacy and its impact on the effectiveness of teaching and learning. It is an evidence-based practice, and whether these models are suitable for every educator is subject to professional judgement. The literature has not offered a systemic look on the outcomes of using videos in teaching, and a consistent framework in how videos could be used to optimise the teaching and learning experience.
What is the best practice for using videos in teaching?
What we can suggest, however, is how to best adopt videos in your teaching to achieve the optimal results:
Videos could be considered as a complementary element of lecture delivery, not necessarily a substitution (Ljubojevic et al., 2014; Ramlogan et al., 2013). Keep your videos short and sweet, as this keeps students focused on the relevant information and support students' self-learning process(Ruiji, 2012).
Videos need to be accompanied by interactive learning activities (Meguid & Collins, 2017). A few simple examples include using Mars and Poll Everywhere in real time to keep students engaged and gaining immediate feedback on students’ understanding, or accompanying online lectures with interactive content such as H5P activities on Moodle. For more ideas on how to engage students on Moodle, visit the support site.
Constructive alignmentis still at the core of teaching, regardless of the chosen tools and teaching approach. A connection between video materials and other components of the learning package must be clearly and actively communicated to students. Lectures are advised to be mindful of closing the loop between pre-class, in-class and post-class activities, and how videos could support the achievement of learning outcomes.
What is available to us?
Monash has been progressive in this space for years. We have seen a significant growth in the use of lecture recordings, online lesson packages, internally produced animation videos and YouTube content to support teaching. This year, we are excited about the introduction ofPanopto, the new video management platform to help manage your teaching video content. From Semester 1, 2018, you will be able to create, edit, upload, store, search and share videos all in one secure place. Panopto will be integrated fully with Moodle so that all learning materials are centrally stored. Read more on Panopto in our blog, and be sure to get yourself up to speed by watching a quickstart guidefor Panopto.
Further reading:
Galbraith, J., (2004, September). Active viewing:
and oxymoron in video-based instruction?. Paper presented at the Society
for Applied Learning Technologies Conference. Retrieved from designer.50g.com/docs/Salt_2004.pdf
Khan, S. [Ted]. (2011, March 09). Let’s use video to
reinvent education. Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/salman_khan_let_s_use_video_to_reinvent_education
LiteracyPlanet. (2016). eLearning in Australian
classrooms [Report]. Retrieved
from https://www.literacyplanet.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/02/LiteracyPlanet-eLearning-Report.pdf
Ljubojevic, M., Vaskovic, V., Stankovic, S., &
Vaskovic, J. (2014). Using supplementary video in multimedia instruction as a
teaching tool to increase efficiency of learning and quality of
experience. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed
Learning, 15(3).
Lua, A. (2017, February 16). 50 Video Marketing
Stats to Help You Create a Winning Social Media Strategy in 2017 [Blog
post]. Retrieved
from https://blog.bufferapp.com/social-media-video-marketing-statistics
Meguid, E. A., & Collins. M.
(2017). Students'Perceptions of Lecturing Approaches: Traditional
versus Interactive Teaching. Advances in Medical Education and
Practice (8), 229–241.
Partnership for 21st Century Learning.
(n.d.) Framework for 21st century learning. Retrieved January 29,
2018, from http://www.p21.org/our-work/p21-framework
Ramlogan, S., Raman, V., & Sweet, J. (2014). A
comparison of two forms of teaching instruction: video vs. live lecture for
education in clinical periodontology. European Journal of Dental
Education, 18(1), 31-38.
Ruiji, L. (2012). The development on multimedia
teaching resources based on information processing theory. International
Journal of Advancements in Computing Technology, 4, 58-64.
Tuesday, 17 October 2017
A Video Solution for the University
Finally there will be a video solution for the whole university. Monash university does not have a video management system at this moment. Lecturers create videos with different software programmes. Some might upload them to Youtube or Vimeo while some just upload the video files into Moodle. Once the lecturer leaves the university, the Google account might be closed and the videos might get lost on Youtube.
MUOLT has been investigating a complete video management system for the university and they are very close to implement the Panopto system for us. In this month's tool tips, we would like to introduce it and you can think about what we can do with it next semester.
Panopto Video
Panopto is a video platform designed by Carnegie Mellon University for the specific needs of businesses and universities. It is used to manage, live stream, record, and share videos across the university. It also makes it easy to search and use the video resources that created and shared by your Monash colleagues.
The following video is a demo of the Panopto platform application in education industry. It provides a video content management system for creating, uploading, managing and sharing video and audio files. It also has the ability to do lecture recording and it is a great tool to do pre-class lecture videos as it can integrate interactive quizzes in the videos.
What is good?
What is so good about it? Let's count:
It can create and edit video/audio files. The staff are using so many different programmes to do that. Now we will have a same one and there will not be a format issue in the future.
It makes it easy for the university to upload, manage, share, and search for Monash video and audio files. Even after the lecturers leave Monash, the resources will stay.
You can add interactive quizzes into the video easily to test the student understanding
It has detailed report function to indicate the students and the time that they spend on watch your videos.
It is perfectly embedded into Moodle and you can add your videos very easily. (Not yet working in our Moodle at this moment)
Hey, it sounds really good. How about taking a look and playing with some examples by yourselves? Go to www.panopto.com and click Free Trial on the top right.
What is not so good?
We will have to wait until MUOLT and eSolution put it in the university system. It might take some time. Hopefully it can be done before next semester.
What's in it for us?
With Panopto, you can create and edit video/audio files easily. You do not have to look for a software programme to record your desktop screen and webcam or look for a programme to trim the videos anymore.
Also, you will be able to search and use the shared video from our Monash Panopto. You might be able to use the video resources in the same topic from other teachers without worrying about copyright issues.
And it would be great to see the student activity report about their timelines watching your videos. Therefore you can find out which videos are attractive and which are not so that you can improve the videos in the future.
If you are interested, give it a try. Keep following our TaLT communications. We will introduce more details about our Monash Panopto in the near future.
How is the new semester going? We hope that you are enjoying teaching the new student cohorts this semester. Have you ever seen them using a search engine called WolframAlpha other than Google? It is quite interesting as when searching for academic knowledge, it gives a set of related contents with equations and diagrams if applicable. It is quite handy and is popular among college students.
Wolfram Demonstrations Projects
The same company developed WolframApha and the famous Mathematica also created the Wolfram Demonstration Project to bring ideas to life. The project is an open-code resource that uses dynamic computation to illuminate concepts in science, technology, mathematics, art, finance, and a remarkable range of other fields.
The following video is a demo of the daylight calculator in the Wolfram Demonstrations Project. With this demonstration, teachers can use it to explain the concepts in a much more visualised approach. It also allows students to play with it to have a better understanding of the concept and master the calculation.
What is good?
What is so good about it? Let's count:
It brings ideas to life with its interactive and visualised features.
Now it has 11317 interactive demonstrations covering topics over math, physical sciences, life science, business & social system, system & model, engineering & technology, arts & humanities, and kids & gaming.
It is an open source system and hundreds if not thousands of authors have contributed to the demonstrations project.
It is free for any teacher or student to use.
You can embed that into your Moodle unit
Hey, it sounds really good. How about taking a look and playing with some examples by yourselves? Download and install the free Wolfram CDF Player. Try Consumer Choice: Income, Taste, and Prices or Radial Engine with the Internet Explorer (When we tested it, it had issues when running in more popular Chrome and Firefox)
What is not so good?
It works quite nice independently with the desktop application. It also means that it could be difficult to integrate the demonstrations into LMS or Powerpoint. Even though it works fine with Internet Explorer when we tested it, it had issues when running in more popular Chrome and Firefox.
What's in it for us?
Using the interactive visualisation of the concepts in nearly any topic in the business school. As the teacher or the student move a Demonstration's control, they can see a change in its output that helps the students to understand the concepts.
And the good thing is that we don't need to do anything but just find one Demonstration to use. You can either browse the categories to explore topics or simply search the concepts. There are plenty of Demonstrations waiting for you to explore.
If you are interested, give it a try. We think that it could be quite useful if it happens that someone has contributed the Demonstrations that we are planning to use in our teaching. It can be a good learning experience for the students. You can find the frequently asked questions on this page.
