Mobilizing Education Media; Will we and should we?

Investigating the possibilities

A definition for Media Casting (podcasting)?

No ubiquitous definition exists

What is podcasting/media casting to you?

Common thread through most definitions in the academic literature is;Deliver content in the form of audio/video files over the internet

What it really is: Content distribution via subscription

Theoretical Models

Rogers Diffusion of innovation theory: Three of his four

theories of diffusion apply to media casting;

Innovative decision process theory

Individual innovativeness theory

Perceived attributes

Theoretical Models (cont’d)

Ely’s eight conditions for the facilitation of implementation of

technological innovation;

Dissatisfaction with the status quo, existence of knowledge and skills, availability of resources, availability of time, existence of rewards or incentives, Participation, Commitment, Leadership

Ely’s Final three conditions (1. Participation, 2. Commitment, 3. leadership) are essential to sustainability of tech. innovation (Zellweger Moser, 2007)

The Investigation

The focus of questioning and conversation with Faculty and

Students at the British Columbia Institute of Technology

(BCIT);

How do we assure we are diffusing innovative use of educational media?

How do we effectively encourage media casting as an educational enhancement?

If we cast media will it add value to the learning experience?

What pedagogical models of educational media casting do students perceive as valuable?

What topics/course content could benefit from mobilizing educational media?

Participation

A 40 question online survey to Faculty at BCIT focused on USE

A 20 question online survey to the student body focused on VALUE

Good balance of face-to-face/ online participants, representation from all schools (trades, health, technology, business) and balanced response from male and female participants

Average age of Faculty respondents was 41 and half of student respondents where 25 and under

64 Faculty and 274 student respondents to online survey

9 Faculty and 20 student phone interviews were conducted ranging from 10-40 minutes in length

83.3% of faculty and 82.8% of students stated that they knew what podcasting was

How do we assure we are diffusing innovative use of educational media?

The Learning & Teaching Centre (LTC) provides much of the support identified by faculty as “required” to successfully implement media casting but result of the survey expose the strength of such factors as intrinsic motivation (also noted by faculty as one of the incentives required to successfully implement media casting).

Although other studies show that other factors (interest in and knowledge of) effect technology implementation, the faculty at BCIT perceive time to be the most critical factor for successful implementation of media casting. Time within the context of this study was the time to gain comfort with the technology, the time to set-up for recording/editing of media prior to class, and the time to administer the availability of media resources for students.

Faculty are willing to give a marginal amount of time beyond there current workload but require assurance that they are accessing a model or method of media casting that is reliable and efficient.

Faculty appreciate the potential of media casting as an enhancement to course content.

Faculty see release time to develop media for casting and support provided by departments like the LTC as requirements for success as well as reward and recognition for taking such steps to enhance curriculum.

Perceived value of media casting should increase if its value is demonstrated by faculty who are already effectively using/implementing the system.

Increased faculty contact time and quick (short turnaround time) responses from departments like the LTC will improve the motivation to be an Early Adopter instead of a Laggard.

How do we effectively encourage media casting as an educational enhancement?

If we cast media will it add value to the learning experience?

Students, for the most part, have not seen mobile phones, iPods and other media players as tools to house educational content.

The expectation of content that’s accessible “anyplace and anywhere on any device” does not seem to exist for our 20 something “digital natives”. For them it’s simply about having media resources available to them (outside of class) to assist in their studies.

At BCIT, students request that media casts augment and not replace instructor student contact time and relationship building as students are conscious of the potential pitfalls to increasing Instructor use of educational technology.

What pedagogical models of educational media casting do students perceive as valuable?When students where asked the value (from extremely valuable to no value) they associated to types of media casts students perceived lecture review/summary, exam study aids and video demonstrations as more valuable than others.

Survey responses and comments also clearly indicated that they did not perceive student created media as part of project work of much value and felt that student created media casts transferred the burden of teaching from instructor to students.

What topics/course content could benefit from mobilizing educational media?

Business systemsCommunications courses

Oracle workshop course

Clinical techniques course

Advanced accounting

Math/geometry/physics

The overwhelming theme of responses/suggestions surround courses where students have experienced “information heavy” topics that have reduced Instructor contact time.

Technical jargon, procedural/systematic processes, spacial reasoning, exemplars/models of work product, process and technique... these are challenges that students have and perceive as potential areas for media development

Shortages of lab software licenses, media resources that must remain on campus and a lack of out of class support systems are perceived by students as limiting their potential for success. These are seen to be alleviated by having media resources available to them off campus.

Pathophysiology, Immunology and microbiology

TransistorsStats or Law

Worry less about computer self-efficacy and focus on getting Instructors release time and support to “play” with media casting

Institutions need to prioritize reward and recognition programs ahead of lecture capture systems

Focus on augmenting instruction with short succinct media “bites” (i.e. trailers for your lecture, review the highlights/salient points, week in review, reading summary, video demo’s)

Institutions and faculty need to work together to highlight the benefits of media casting AS its being introduced to students

Consider student created media casting when student interaction is very limited and the media created will resolve this issue

Faculty need to be proactive in seeking support from technology and academic professionals when deciding what media is appropriate to create/cast

How do we effectively encourage media casting as an educational enhancement?