Alice's winning formula
Synopsis
Alice uses a Breeze presentation to establish a supportive relationship between herself and her students.
Description
Alice has developed a unique Breeze (ie audio-enhanced PowerPoint) presentation, titled ‘A Winning Formula,' which she includes on each of her study desks at the beginning of the semester. This presentation sets the scene, level of commitment and expectations between herself as examiner of the course and her students. The presentation also asks students to commit to supporting one another and offers suggestions on how students can fully engage in the course as well as contribute to creating a community of practice. She also outlines her philosophy behind the use of other types of media to support the learning materials for the course. These include: Breeze, Camtasia (video capture), podcasts and study-desk discussion boards to back up the CD ROM content. All courseware is available in hard copy, online and on trans-modal CD for maximum flexibility.
Target audience
Alice is an examiner of ECE2109 (Early Childhood Partnerships) where she supports 70 external students, and she is examiner for ECE4010 (Leadership and Management in Early Childhood Settings), which is offered to 50 on-campus students and 35 external students. She includes the ‘The Winning Formula' Breeze presentation on the study desk for both these courses.
Learning goals and objectives
Alice is committed to providing students with a range of multi-media options and resources that offer maximum flexibility to their level of engagement with the course materials, as well as facilitating a strong community of practice. She tries to bring the course content to life and to give students real-life strategies and tools that are applicable in their context and practice. She emphasises the importance of building rapport with the students, inspiring them and gaining their trust, and she aims at building an atmosphere of support and care. This is initially done through the inclusion of ‘The Winning Formula' presentation on study desk, and continues with many other personal touches such as the inclusion of her image in Breeze presentations. Although at times she does prepare a script for her presentations, she also ‘ad libs,' to provide a more human and down to earth element. Alice believes that using these two techniques helps to break down the barriers of communication, and builds a strong connection between herself and her students.
Who did/does what
Alice tries to encourage students to provide support for one another, and she provides the resources for them to do so through discussion boards, which she visits regularly. She finds this system often saves her from having to repeat herself. Media services helped Alice with many of her video clips, and Caroline Cottman and Debra Vallely have helped and supported her over the years.
Results
Alice updates and refines her presentations regularly and, with permission, often uses students' work from previous years as exemplars. She has had fantastic feedback from students about her course materials and she notes comments from students on study desk that her courses are popular and fun.
Problems and advice for others
Alice says the biggest issue is the budget. The process of putting in a quote and justifying the expense for creating media clips, or additional resources can be arduous and time-consuming, However, she believes that examiners and teachers should nevertheless pursue a range of multi-media approaches as part of their commitment to students. Alice says care needs to be taken over copyrighted material, and DeC can help with this. She also points out that now the DeC design team (eg Caroline Cottman) are no longer part of the DeC team, it makes it more difficult to know where to go for advice and support in developing innovative approaches to teaching.
General recommendations
Alice would like a forum for meeting up with others and sharing ideas about technology-enhanced learning. She would love to have the opportunity to encourage more people to use these technologies and invites anyone who needs help or encouragement to contact her.