The Webinar

Live notes from the session:

Information is on the Moodle site.
Research that has been done is wholly positive about the effects of audio feedback.

Portsmouth University. Find it personable, absorb information in different ways (skim read otherwise), listen to it on mobile devices on the move, shareable, can go through feedback in tutorials/agree targets.

Negatives seem to be all from the tutors side – about getting on board. Ultimately should be saving you time in the long run… Where it has been embedded evidence is that it saves time.

Negatives from students – some felt tutor was ‘cheating,, not a replacement, no visuals, can be too personal for comfort, can’t answer back/engage in dialogue. Some thought the novelty helped with success.

Range of tools that can be used for audio feedback. MP3 recorders (£8-20), record to iPhone (add http://www.ipadio.com/… A bit like audioboo). Particularly good for formative assessment. Screenr and Jing also useful. Example of staff member who does feedback into the device in class and then bluetooths it to student phones in class.

No eportfolio system? Try Posterous? [issues with privacy?]

Also podcasts useful, so e.g. Mike into an iPod. Recorded – placed into iTunes – so then becomes public data. Look at small microphones (£2ish – usually adequate).

Material will be on: http://www.jiscrsc.ac.uk/southeast/courses-and-resources/moodle-courses.aspx?

Tutors often prefer to record to PC as they have control over the file names. Most of these other ones don’t have meaningful names.

Microsoft sound recorder or audacity – can be provided portable style to be plugged into laptops.

Impressive. Tweeted about ipadio – had response from @ipadio with a link to http://ipadio.com/page.asp?section=99&sectionTitle=ipadio+in+Education.

Return assignments via Moodle. Most are uploaded individually via advanced assignment. Others put in folders online but are privacy issues there.

Conversation – run it in a ‘test’ assignment. Get students involved. Describe it like the Director’s Commentary … Talk as you read… Finding people’s way in. Efficient way to save time, and distributing it … Everything takes so long on Moodle. People more comfortable with audio than video (even a level/BTEC level – particularly self conscious).

Don’t get too hung up on scripting, etc — they are used to our voices, more engaging if not scripted. Expect effort in first stages, find what works for you – e.g. A list of repeated errors?

Care with quality of editing – too hi, the files will be too large. Compress audio, e.g. Lossless = like zip for audio. Much higher compression = lossy compression, most use MP3 – but it’s a licensed format hence why often a cost involved. Firefox doesn’t support MP3 as not an open source format. 96kbitspersecond about lowest can go to be usable – fine for text. 10 minutes about 1MB. Most 2-3 minutes, although exam paper can be 10-15 minutes – quicker than doing smaller bits – the file saving more of a complex process.

Cloud storage can be quite expensive. 365live – can give a lot of access control.. Could use something like Dragon to produce a text file – but would then have to proofread it. Could possibly ask students to bring in USB sticks that they keep just for feedback // need to take a backup copy .. Not ideal but an option.

Look also at – http://www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk/audio/.

Care with recording straight to apple devices – uses AIF files by default – have to go into recording format settings to MP3 – most widely used format.

http://moodle-rsc.ukc.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=154

Nanogong… http://gong.ust.hk/nanogong/ – can speed up & slow down, embeddable in Moodle. Have choice via (grade book) to give individual or general. Doesn’t yet work for Moodle 2. Can preset text to go into the text box… Then add file. If already pre-recorded quick to upload, but hoping for a neater way of doing it.

Asked students to write in the notes to give feedback and got v. Good feedback. As always, has to be one method out of several for feedback.

Office 2007 – can embed the audio directly into the Word doc http://www.howtogeek.com/80016/insert-audio-into-word-2007-documents-2. Office 2010 – not so good… More clunky? Not seen add-ins that make it better… powerPoint works well.
Oo
http://www.knovio.com/ … Uses JPEGs & PPTs only. Can’t use live, but prerecord – audio feedback with video. Student has control over whether text or tutor appears large on their screen. Useful for diagrams, art, etc – can put multiple pics in so can talk through several images. Link can be emailed to any number of students – if not appropriate – copy link & share. Embed code & social media buttons. Querying if a plugin allowing material to be downloaded.

What about http://keepvid.com/ to retain files? What about using the annotate features in YouTube – allows students to deconstruct a video. Staff could also write video comments as feedback. Can only annotate ones you’ve uploaded – but can give rights. Look for edit/annotate. Could set up e.g. A programme channel – give passwords so all can upload. Cn turn the annotations off.

Plagiarism detection – Turnitin. Farnham – made it part of HE policy that all assignments submitted. Students really like it – linked into Grademark so works well… Now picks up on Google translate re-translations – which students were using as a getaround. Avoids collusion. Leave up to professional judgement as to whether deal as ‘catch out’ or ‘teaching’. More effective if student uploadsn self. Need a policy to deal with it afterwards.

Other options a cut & paste suspect sections into Google.

Screen capture: Jing. screenr (no software required – also 5 min limit). Camtasia. http://www.yawcam.com/.

e-assessment showcase (eastern region 30 – March).

Adam etc happy to come for a 1-2 hour kick start session if can get small group (e.g. 10) together. Useful to collect case studies applicable to particular programmes… Are linked from the Moodle site.