1. Creating Academic Skills e-resources to Increase Flexible Learning Opportunities & Promote Independent Learning Mary McCauley & Karen McCourt www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

2. Overview of this workshop • Present the findings of an ASU research project • Opportunity to use technologies to record a relevant podcast www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

3. Aim of the project Unique homepage hits since 20/09/11: 28,747 www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

4. Methodology • Research findings from UHBS show that students like and find podcasts useful (Mc Court (2011); Seed & Hyseni (2011)) • Online questionnaires to UHBS staff and students to identify their academic skills e-resources requirements - 83 staff responses - 101 student responses Next: Focus groups and questionnaires to UHBS staff and students to gain feedback on the newly created resources www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

5. Findings from UHBS staff • Support face-to-face time; reinforce & deepen knowledge & understanding. • Videocasts certainly reinforces learning; students have the opportunity of using it at their own place, time (& pace) • Add flexible & accessible resources to their study • Invaluable for overseas students…can listen & watch over & over again • Meets the needs of students with learning difficulties & discussion of sometimes difficult key concepts helps with understanding • Students learn in a variety of ways & resources available in a variety of formats supports this • Adds variety to learning; Increases engagement • Provide opportunities for better revision • Videocasts are visual…therefore useful for a generation heavily influenced by TV/Videos… make lesson more exciting & meaningful • They tell me they like them www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

6. Findings from UHBS students • More interactive so more memorable • Students may learn better by being proactive • More interesting & easier to understand • Allows for flexible learning; very, very practical; Audio can be transferred to a phone so used on the go • Can go through the pod/video cast yourself pausing it at crucial times • On an online course…useful to alternate reading with other forms of acquiring information…listening to or seeing someone makes it a bit more personal. • I take information in better when I hear it then reading the lecture notes myself; More engaging that just reading slides • Cater to a wider range of learning styles & can help to make learning/revising more interesting • When you put music on repeat on your ipod or mp3, eventually you learn some of the words…same with audio podcasts www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

7. E-resources will improve the ‘student experience’ www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

8. E-resources will help meet different learning styles www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

9. What’s next to support flexible and independent learning? Our Statistics folder contains videos for beginners in SPSS: • http://www.studynet2.herts.ac.uk/ptl/common/asu.nsf/Teaching+Documents/3941E76B2AC843C4802579CF003BED66?OpenDocument • http://www.studynet2.herts.ac.uk/ptl/common/asu.nsf/Teaching+Documents/7444EE395DD286C3802579CF003BF23F?OpenDocument • Working on: www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

10. Now, over to you… www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

11. In pairs/ groups of 3… • Discuss areas of graduate skills / academic skills / feedback… you’d like your students to work on. • Prepare a 3 minute recording • Swap roles! These recordings will be sent to you by Friday 11th May (state your name on camera) www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu

12. Thank You! LTI training available: • Using Flip cameras • Audacity • Camtasia For More Information: Mary McCauley: m.mccauley@herts.ac.uk Karen McCourt: k.mccourt@herts.ac.uk ASU website: http://studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu(we’d appreciate your feedback) www.studynet.herts.ac.uk/go/asu