The fourth annual Poll Everywhere UK User Group Event was held on Thursday 11th April 2019 at the University of Liverpool. This year’s User Group focused on the theme of ‘Increasing student engagement’ and was attended by around 60 delegates from higher education institutions across the UK.
The morning featured four presentations from academics using Poll Everywhere at different universities around the UK. Speakers’ presentations addressed a variety of different themes including gamification, engagement and feedback. This year’s presenters were:
Dr. Rosamond Watling, Regent’s University – Enabling and empowering students using open-ended questions.
Gustavo Espinoza-Ramos, University of Westminster – From the transmission to the connectivism module of learning: The use of Poll Everywhere to promote student engagement in the digital age.
Agnes Grondin, Middlesex University London – Revision Lectures revamped with Poll Everywhere Competitions.
Dr. Pete Smith, University of Liverpool – Closing the Loop.
These presentations were then followed by a question and answer session with all of the speakers, giving them time to answer audience questions and discuss their experiences. During this session audience questions were collected using (of course!) a Poll Everywhere Q&A question which was left running in the background during the presentations. This enabled questions to be captured throughout the presentations and then addressed at the end, allowing for all speakers to contribute to each question, whilst also allowing attendees to view each other’s questions.
After lunch, the afternoon kicked off with a presentation from Brain Goodman, Poll Everywhere Product Manager, who told us all about the newest Poll Everywhere features. As well as ongoing accessibility improvements, Poll Everywhere updates include:
This was followed by a Poll Everywhere ‘World Cafe’, during which participants were invited to visit different tables and discuss various topics with colleagues. Areas of interest were collected via Poll Everywhere before the event and each table was then assigned a theme based on the responses:
Technical
Pedagogical approaches
Getting started, implementation and engagement
Practical tips on teaching with Poll Everywhere
The student experience
Delegates then moved between these tables, selecting which table they would visit based on their interests and experience using Poll Everywhere.
To finish off the day we were treated to a tour of the University of Liverpool campus during which we met the resident dab fish, were shown some replica cave paintings and flint weapons, given a walking tour of the nearby university buildings and visited the local pub!
Dab fish
If you would like to learn more about the Poll Everywhere UK User Group or would like to attend a future event visit pollevusergroup.wordpress.com. If you’re a member of University of Sussex staff and you would like to start using Poll Everywhere in your teaching please contact tel@sussex.ac.uk.
The latest in the TEL seminar series will be on Friday 17th May, 12.00 – 13.30 in the Attenborough Centre for the Creative Arts. Staff and students are invited to join us to hear some exciting speakers and discuss ways in which the intersections of education and technology impact on equality.
We are thrilled to bring together three women who each have a particular perspective to share their ideas and experiences and discuss the topic.
Dr. Maren Deepwell
Dr. Maren Deepwell is the chief executive of the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and an Open Practitioner with a special interest in leadership, equality and open education. Maren believes strongly that the intelligent use of Learning Technology can best be developed by working across schools, further and higher Education. Her vision is for Learning Technology to become an effective way for all to learn, teach and assess – informed by open practice, innovative research and global policy. Building on this vision Maren works closely with teachers, leaders, learning technology practitioners and researchers to support ALT’ s members and contribute to the wider community. Maren is on Twitter at @MarenDeepwell and blogs at marendeepwell.com as well as contributing to #FemEdTech.
Mary Krell
Mary Krell (Senior Lecturer in Media & Film Studies at the University of Sussex) is a digital artist whose work spans performance, interactivity and narrative. Her work has been shown on multiple continents and she regularly collaborates with artists and thinkers from around the world. Originally from the USA, she has been based in the UK at the University of Sussex since 2002. Prior to coming to Sussex, she was the Head of the Design Department at Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle. Before entering higher education, Mary worked as a digital designer at Seattle’s Saltmine Creative during the initial dot.com boom of the 1990s. While at Saltmine she worked on projects for Wizards of the Coast, Microsoft and the Pokemon franchise.
Dr. Tamsin Hinton-Smith
Dr. Tamsin Hinton-Smith (Senior Lecturer In Higher Education) will chair the seminar and join Maren and Mary for a panel discussion of the ideas raised and audience questions. Tamsin first came to Sussex as a single teenage parent undergraduate student in sociology many years ago. This led to the development of some of her primary research interests around ‘non-traditional’ students in higher education, and experiences of (un)belonging and marginalisations. After developing an academic career in Sociology, including as Co-Director of the Centre for Gender Studies; Tamsin moved to the Education department at the University of Sussex in 2014 where she has continued to develop and expand her interests around people’s experiences of accessing and participating in compulsory, further, higher and informal educational contexts; and the organisational cultures that support or inhibit this.
The Flipped Classroom Model has been around Higher Education for a number of years. It has many loyal followers but has not yet been widely adopted at the University of Sussex. In this post we’ll look at what Flipped Learning is and why it has garnered such interest from the education community. We’ll also look at strategies to make it work in practice.
What is Flipped Learning?
Flipped learning is usually defined in contrast to the ‘traditional’ model of teaching, where you introduce your students to new material in class through didactic lectures and the students then complete practice exercises independently. In the Flipped model you present your students with new concepts prior to class, often through videos, then use class time for more active approaches, setting practical tasks and supporting students to consolidate and build-upon the prior learning (Bishop & Verleger 2013).
Why flip?
The Flipped Model brings with it a number of benefits:
Active, practical sessions. The traditional lecture format tends towards a passive experience for students. Studies such as that by Prince (2004) suggest that using ‘active learning’ techniques in-class improves outcomes.
Student paced. Providing pre-class activities allows students to work at their own pace and reduce cognitive load (Hamdan, et al 2013). This can be of particular benefit to students with specific learning difficulties.
Independence. O’Flaherty and Phillips (2015) point to the ‘potential to enable teachers to cultivate critical and independent thought in their students’. Activities which provide students with feedback help them to identify their own strengths and weaknesses.
Tailoring teaching. Using online activities prior to class has the additional advantage of giving you feedback about your students. You can find out about misconceptions prior to class and adjust your in-class teaching accordingly.
How to Flip your classroom.
Planning how to Flip your class is important. Bloom’s Taxonomy, provides a handy framework for helping to choose what to do prior to class and what to do in-class, ensuring a logical progression (Gilboy, et al 2015). Pre-class objectives may correspond to the lower tiers of the taxonomy with a focus on memorising and understanding, recalling the relevant vocabulary and how it relates to the basic concepts, while the higher levels may be better tackled in class with the support of the teacher.
Set clear expectations from the start. Make sure your students know what you expect them to do ahead of class and how this will benefit them.
Once you’ve decided what to present pre-class, you can save time by reusing existing online resources. There are a number of places to look, from YouTube to more local or specifically HE content on Canvas Commons.
The challenge that teaching staff often bring up first with the Flipped model is: ‘How can I be sure my students will do the pre-class activities?’ Motivating the students is key.
There is some evidence that students perform better with video as opposed to reading activities (Lee & Choi, 2019). Keep activities short and focused and be up front about how long each activity will take, for example ‘Watch this 10 minute video on X’. Pairing or grouping students in-class can also help to reduce the impact of any who have not prepared.
If you’re finding your students just don’t respond to the pre-class activities you could try a variation on the model such as the in-class flip.
We collected some tips from University of Sussex Flipped Learning practitioners, Dr Wendy Garnham, Susan Smith, Professor Andy Field and Dr Jennifer Mankin.
Keep activities short. Susan Smith, from the University of Sussex Business School has refined her pre-class videos down to around 3-4 minutes.
Plan how your pre-class activities lead into the in-class activities. Susan also stresses the need for the class time to build upon what has been learnt pre-class.
Vary the types of activity. Wendy Garnham from the School of Psychology raises the importance of variety (not just videos) to keep students interest.
Keep resources in an easily editable format. Creating resources can take time. Wendy recommends using online services such as Google docs because they are easy to update.
Use quizzes to motivate students. Andy Field and Jennifer Mankin from the School of Psychology use quizzes at the beginning of their class sessions to ensure that students complete the pre-class activities. Since the move to Flipped Learning they’ve also seen an improvement in attendance.
Even if you choose not to apply the Flipped Model to all of your teaching, there are some useful elements that you can employ to engage your students prior to class and make the best use of precious class time.
Do get in touch with your School Learning Technologist via tel@sussex.ac.uk for further ideas and support.
Gilboy, M.B., Heinerichs S., Pazzaglia, G. (2015), ‘Enhancing Student Engagement Using the Flipped Classroom’, Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, Volume 47, Issue 1, January–February 2015, Pages 109-114, Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jneb.2014.08.008 (Accessed:09 April 2019)
Lee, J. and Choi, H. (2019), ‘Rethinking the flipped learning pre‐class: Its influence on the success of flipped learning and related factors’. Br J Educ Technol, 50: 934-945. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1111/bjet.12618 (Accessed: 11 March 2019)
O’Flaherty, Jacqueline, Phillips, Craig (2015), ‘The use of flipped classrooms in higher education: A scoping review’, The Internet and Higher Education, 04/2015, Vol.25, C, pp.85-95 Available at: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.iheduc.2015.02.002 (Accessed:09 April 2019)
Prince, M. (2004) ‘Does Active Learning Work? A Review of the Research’, Journal of Engineering Education 93:223-231 · July 2004, Available at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/j.2168-9830.2004.tb00809.x (Accessed:09 April 2019)
Canvas includes several tools for communication between teachers and students within a module. In this post I will give an overview of Announcements, Discussions, Chat and Conversations, looking at when each would be a good choice.
Announcements
The icon for Announcements gives a very good idea of the sort of communication it provides – it is designed as a one-to-many form of communication just like the megaphone.
Announcements in Canvas are a great way of making students aware of important news. For example, if there is a change to the venue for a seminar or you want to remind students to bring something to a session, an announcement can bring this to students’ attention.
Tips for using Announcements
This form of communication lends itself to short messages that share information. Your message does not have to just be text-based; you can add images, video, files and weblinks to announcements if required.
There are 3 possible places that your announcements can be seen:
In the Announcements section of the Canvas Module.
As a number on the module ‘card’ in Dashboard view.
Discussions in Canvas are designed for more than a single message, allowing members of a module to discuss a topic in more depth.
Discussions are great for extending the sharing of ideas and understanding beyond lectures and seminars. The Rich Content Editor that is used throughout Canvas allows Discussion posts and replies to include a range of content such as images, videos, weblinks and files, so there are many options for students to express and share their ideas.
Students can create Discussions, either in the module (if enabled in Settings) or in their own groups. If required, discussion posts can be graded or students can ‘like’ replies so they could be used as a formative and/or peer assessment.
It is important to remember that unlike a forum, a Canvas Discussion is focused on just one topic, so you would usually expect to see a number of discussions on different topics within a module.
If you want students to be able to create discussions and/or upload files to them, then the relevant setting(s) need to be chosen in Settings / Module details / more options.
The Module Chat feature facilitates real-time, informal conversations between members of a module (staff and students). Chat does not have the functionality of Discussions, but allows quick messages like you might see on social media platforms, including emojis.
When Chat is enabled, a Module chat box is visible at the bottom right of all module screens. When you click on the arrow the window pops up and you can see comments that have been posted, or add your own. You can also see the whole chat by clicking on Chat in the module navigation menu.
Tips for using Module Chat
As a ‘live’ form of communication, chat messages do not produce notifications through other channels such as email or SMS (see Notifications below).. You can choose to have ‘new message alerts’ within Canvas which will sound a ‘ping’ when a new message is posted, so it is best used at a time that you are logged into Canvas and ready to respond to messages.
Chat can be enabled or disabled by editing the Navigation menu.
This is the mode of communication closest to email, with messages sent, received and managed through the Inbox on the global navigation menu.
Tutors can send messages to people attached to any of their modules, either individually or as a group, including a media message (audio or video) and attaching files if required.
These messages are handled at the user account level, so you can see all your incoming messages in one place or filter them by module.
Tips for using Conversations
The default notification for Conversations is the counter which appears on the Inbox icon in the global navigation menu. Users may also have set their Notifications to create an email or SMS text when a message is received, but this is optional. If you are not receiving notifications for Conversations, be sure to check your Canvas Inbox regularly.
If you are using Discussions or Conversations in your modules you can adjust your Notification settings so that you are alerted about new discussions, replies and messages. You can also get notifications about announcements.
You can add alternative email addresses or a mobile phone number if you prefer SMS notifications. For each ‘event’ on Canvas you can receive email notifications immediately, as a daily summary, a weekly summary, or not at all. For example, I might want a daily summary of replies to discussions, but immediate notifications of new announcements and messages in my Canvas Inbox.
Notifications preferences apply across a user’s account, not per module, but if you find you are receiving too many or too few notifications you can adjust your options. All Canvas users can set their own notification preferences, so students can also control what notifications they receive.
If you would like help using any of these communication tools in Canvas, or to discuss what might work best for you and your students please contact tel@sussex.ac.uk
On this show I had the opportunity to chat to Dawn Green, Development Co-ordinator at the Karten Network. Dawn also chairs the technology steering group, which meets to support the work of Natspec and the TechAbility service. More details of which can be found below.
I didn’t have long with Dawn, so this provides a brief overview of the work of the Karten Network. I strongly encourage you to find out more about the network and the great work that results in their investments.
Note: This was during a lunch break, so there is some background noise, apologies for that.
Specialism-based learning (SBL) is an approach to curriculum design. SBL works by giving each student a specialism or focus, which is distinct from the specialisms of their student peers. They are then expected to apply the theories being explored on the module to their specialism. In a SBL module:
Students choose or are given a specialism
There is a check in place to ensure they can apply the topics you cover to the specialism
There are learning activities that promote:
Sharing of specialist knowledge between peers
Confidence in students’ own disciplinary expertise
Cross-fertilisation of ideas
There is an assessment method that allows them to apply topics to their chosen specialism
At Sussex, it is an approach that we have seen adopted within Linguistics, Geography and Psychology, but it is relevant to teaching across the arts and humanities, sciences and social sciences, despite variations in teaching and assessment practices.
Examples
SBL in English Literature
SBL in Organic Chemistry
Students choose or are given a specialism
Students adopted a book
Students adopt a molecule
Check topics can be applied to the specialism
Gender, race, colonialism, power
Molecular structures, chemical properties, physical properties, experimental methods, separation techniques
Learning activities Teaching method
Lectures, seminars, group quizzes, video presentations and tutor and peer reviews of essays
Lectures, seminars, experimental practicals, group quizzes, video presentations, peer reviews of draft reports
Assessment method
Portfolio including essay, presentation & peer reviews
Portfolio including reports, video presentation, peer reviews and experimental practical reflections
So what technological tips can we offer you that can facilitate a specialism-based learning module?
Tip 1. Develop criticality within students
In an SBL module it is important that you set up opportunities for students to become critical learners, assessing the concepts that you are delivering to them and the extent to which they find them useful to understand their specialism. For example, in an SBL chemistry module where a student’s specialism is an organic module and the weekly topic is the separation techniques, the student will be expected to identify the techniques that are used to separate their molecule from the mixtures in which it is found. Some of the concepts may be more relevant to some specialisms than others, but students will be expected to give an account to how it was useful to their particular specialism or why it was not.
In order to do this it is recommended that the students keep a weekly journal where they record how they have applied the topic to their specialism. There are many tools available for the students to use (see some options in ‘Digital tools for reflective practice’). Alternatively, if you wish to comment on the students’ reflections you can use the Assignment feature in your virtual learning environment (VLE) to set up a weekly submission point.
Tip 2. Develop resourcefulness within students
Apart from understanding the concepts you deliver through your teaching, an SBL module expects students to do additional research on their specialism. A record of additional research can be kept in an online journal like one suggested above. Additionally, in order to organise one’s thought while accumulating knowledge on your specialism, SBL teaching recommends using mind mapping software. Mind mapping can be done on paper, but the advantage of using an online tools is that you can add links to websites, documents, images, podcasts and videos. OneNote has mind mapping features as does Padlet and Mindview is powerful mind mapping software that all students and staff have access to at the University of Sussex.
Tip 3. Develop students’ confidence in their own expertise
One of the key strengths of SBL teaching is that it builds confidence in students, ownership of their knowledge and lets them gain an affiliation with the discipline because of the unique knowledge they each acquire about their specialism. However, in order for their confidence and sense of ownership to grow they need opportunities to share their specialised knowledge and to get feedback. Peer feedback often provides as much or more confidence than feedback from the tutor, who students feel will always have superior knowledge to them. It is therefore important to set up opportunities to share knowledge with each other. This can be through student presentations, seminar conversations, online discussions in your VLE or using a collaborative online tool that allows students to share links and ideas such as Padlet.
Tip 4. Facilitate sharing of specialist knowledge between peers
SBL is a perfect solution for tutors who recognise the learning potential of collaborative activities between peers and for peers to teach each other. Peer collaborations can be unpopular with students and staff alike because they can lead to collusion or plagiarism of another’s work. However, using SBL where each student being focuses on a different specialism the likelihood of collaborations being viewed as collusion is reduced and the risk of plagiarism is largely eliminated. Students can engage together on disciplinary topics and concepts, but ultimately it will be on their application of the concept to their specialism that will be assessed. This leads to a natural interest in each others’ work, which is related but different from their own, and peer work leads to the cross fertilisation of knowledge.
Often within an SBL module there will be a proportion of the contributory assessment dedicated to a student presentation. Presentations are motivational for students who want to deepen their understanding so that they look knowledgeable in front of their peers and can answer questions. However, presentations can be time-consuming in big cohorts but technologies are available that will allow students to record their presentations and post their videos to the tutor and their peers. FlipGrid is one such technology and can embedded into most VLEs. Alternatively, online presentations can be shared using your VLE discussions area.
SBL modules also often use peers to review each other’s draft essays. Again students cannot plagiarise as the application of concepts needs to be on their own specialism, but during the peer review exercise students will learn from each other and from their experience of reviewing. SBL usually expects the tutor to provide training and guidance to the students on how to leave reviews sensitively and usually the peer reviewers will meet face-to-face in order to maintain collegiality and good communication. The use of online tools is also helpful to allow students to share work and leave each other feedback. Options include Office 365, where Sussex University students and have staff have 1TB of space each, and Google Docs. Most VLEs also allow peer reviews and in Canvas, the Sussex University VLE, you can allow peer reviews within the set up of an Assignment tool.
Tip 5. Enable appropriate assessment methods
SBL lends itself to many assessment methods, but particularly those that allow students to include personal reflections on their learning and evidence of engagement in peer activities. At our University, the assessment type would most likely be a Portfolio, Project-based, or Essay.
In SBL a Portfolio or Project-based assessment might include an essay and presentation which focus on the student’s specialism and their application of the concepts introduced in the teaching. The submission may also include the reviews the students left for their peers, their reflective journals and any other contributions they made on the module. In our institution the submission point can be set to Canvas Online submission which allows multiple file uploads or the upload of a zip file containing a number of files.
An Essay assessment using the SBL method would also expect the student to focus their writing around their specialism. The tutor may require students to include reflections about their journal and/or presentation and/or peer review. In our institution the submission point can be set to Canvas Turnitin which will check for similarities with other pieces of work held in the Turnitin database.
Summary
SBL is a teaching method that encourages criticality, resourcefulness and communication amongst students as well as developing a sense of of expertise and strong affiliation with the discipline area. It is an approach which is aided by setting up learning environments and using technologies for peer-to-peer activities and using an assessment method which requires learners to incorporate their reflections throughout the module and focuses on the application of the concepts introduced in the teaching to their specialism.
Specialism-based learning events
‘Active Essay Writing: Risk taking and specialism based learning’ is on 8th March, 2pm-3pm, Essex House 133, University of Sussex More information and booking.
‘Implementing specialism-based learning: engaging and inspiring students’ is on 11th March 14:00-15:30, Pevensey 1 Room 2A2, University of Sussex. More information and booking.
One of the features that stands out about Canvas is the ability to connect other systems into the modules, extending them with additional activities and activities. Recently, our library colleagues have been working to provide just such an integration for the Library Subject Guides. We’re delighted to host a guest post from Chris Brown, explaining how to add Subject Guide content in any Sussex Canvas module:
Do you want your students to make the most of Library resources?
You can now embed Library Subject Guide resources in your Canvas modules, making it easier for students to find, access and use these materials from within your teaching sites.
Library Subject Guides list key resources such as specialist subject databases and digital archives. You can access video resources, such as Kanopy and online newspapers, while our A to Z resources range from ARTstor to Zotero.
In addition to Subject Guides, the Library also provides guides to other resources, including reference management software and theses and dissertations.
Here’s an example of the resources available on the American Studies Guide:
How to embed Library Subject Guides in Canvas
You can embed Library materials as a new “Page”, or as a new “Item” in Canvas.
To do this, simply add an “external tool” and select “Lib Apps Library Content”. You then choose which Library Subject Guide materials you want to embed. You can choose to embed a full guide, a single page from a guide, or an individual content box.
Watch this 3-minute screencast to see the process in action:
Once you have made your choices, the item will appear in your Canvas unit.
As with any Canvas resource, you can choose when to publish the item to students, and you can edit or remove the item at any time.
Please contact the Library if you would like one-to-one support for using this tool. We would also be delighted to discuss how Library Subject Guides can better meet your needs and those of your students. You can email us at library@sussex.ac.uk or use the contact page on the Library website.
Our thanks to Chris for this post. If you are interested in learning more about the external tools you can add into Canvas, to extend the learning and teaching options available to you and your students, please get in touch via tel@sussex.ac.uk. We’d be delighted to hear from you.
Would you like to provide immersive, accessible and innovative learning and assessment experiences for your students? During the months of February and March, Technology Enhanced Learning will be offering a range of professional development opportunities for staff on these themes.
The themes align with the University’s continued efforts to improve assessment and feedback practices; strategic ambitions to establish the university as leaders in digital innovation and the recent EU directive to ensure university compliance with web accessibility standards.
Our programme includes interactive workshops and bite-sized webinars facilitated by learning technologists, as well as seminars delivered by guest speakers. All events are free to attend for University of Sussex staff, details of events and booking information are available on the Technology Enhanced Learning website.
What’s next?
We are in the process of organising additional sessions on these themes to run during April and May. This programme is set to be announced close to the start of April. Please subscribe to our blog (menu on the right-hand side) to receive email updates.
If you (or your department) would like more bespoke training on any aspects of technology enhanced learning which are not covered by our programme then please get in touch with tel@sussex.ac.uk
We are the Educational Enhancement team at the University of Sussex. We publish posts each week on using technology to support teaching and learning. Read more about us.
