Transcript p24_audio_recordings_of_lectures_as_an_e

Audio Recordings of Lectures
as an E-Learning Resource
Jim Balfour – SBE
Overview
• Why Now?
• Why bother?
• The Downside!
• The Process
• Pull of Push?
• Student Reaction
• Conclusion
Why now? what’s changed?
In a word – Technology
• Personal music players (e.g. iPods) allow
digital audio to played anywhere, any time
• Consumer electronics make recording audio
cheap and easy
• Free (or almost free) audio editing software
makes it quick and easy to ‘chunk-up’ a
recording
• VLEs, LMSs, etc make audio delivery over
the web accessible to anyone with a web
connection
Advantage to students when
• A lecture is missed
• English is not the first language
• Baffled first time through
• Annotating lecture notes after the ‘event’
• Attempting tutorial questions/revision
• Engaged in distance and/or part-time
learning
• Suffering from some special need (e.g.
impaired hearing)
Advantages for staff
 Professional Development
 Student engagement
 Encourages independent learning
 Less ‘knocks on the door’
 Big potential for distance learning delivery
 Lower failure rates?
 It’s sustainable!
The Downside!
 More technology
 Staff time
 Hardware costs
 Software costs
 Might ‘encourage’ students to miss lectures
The Process
Record lecture (128 kbs)
Move file from MP3
player to PC
Save files from WavePad
files as 24 kbs MP3s
‘Chunk-up’ audio file
using WavePad
Upload 24 kbs MP3 files
to VLE
Click boxes for
Additional slides
Pull or Push?
 Pull relies on students downloading (or
streaming) the audio files
 Push (or Podcasting) requires Podcasting
software on the student’s computer that will
automatically download new content from a
Podcast server
Results of Questionnaire Survey
 2 out of 3 students responded
 The resource was not universally used (55%)
 Many who did not use the resource thought it
would have helped them to learn (40%)
 The audio files were found to be Useful (3) on a
scale Not Useful at All (1) to Extremely Useful
(5)
 No measurable difference in exam performance
between listeners and non-listeners
 The ‘freshness’ of the audio files is regarded as
important
Conclusions
 Making audio recording of lectures available
to students is now easy, quick and
inexpensive
 The contribution to student learning made
by the files justifies the effort of producing
them, i.e. they have a high Value Added
Ratio
Total Learning Enhancement
Value Added Ratio =
Cost of Production and Delivery
Podcast Your Lectures
Jim Balfour – SBE
Mp3 Player
WavePad
MP3 Player Software
Saving as 24 kbs MP3
Upload to VLE