LTTC Showcase & Graduate Conference

Observing the effects of introducing screencasts to support students using a computer simulation program to learn

computer networking.

Introduction - About Me

• Padraig McDonagh• Working in Computers since 1990• Teaching Computer networks since 2003• Lots of Industry/practical experience• Teach 1st, 2nd, 3rd & 4th year subjects certificate,

degree & honours degree.

Tutorials can be intense

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My Idea

• To scaffold or support learners.• I chose first year students.• Unfamiliar with College level.• Learning “alien” concepts.• Using new & complicated software to do it.

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Me

My Students

Program Interface

Packet Tracer

My Concept• Create screencasts.• Short instructional videos.• Capture actions on screen.• Can be used to teach tasks or concepts.• For my first years behaviourist/constructivist

principles apply.

Research• Four Strands– Action Research – my methodology– Network Simulation Programs – are they a valid

teaching tool?– Screencasts – Do’s and don’ts and theoretical

underpinnings– Cognitive Load – a specific aspect of learning I had

identified from the other literature

Creating the Screencasts

• Started with one tool recommended by a classmate – Microsoft expressions encoder.

• Ended up using another tool recommended by another classmate – Activepresenter.

Active Presenter Interface

My approach• Create some screencasts

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Do the Tutorial

Survey the Students for Feedback

Get the feedback and adjust the screencastsImpressive, I like this didactic tool you are using to teach very much, for some reason I missed this particular class where you explained to the class how to use this software and I felt it was of big help to me to make the assignment and learn what I missed in class.

It is good, because we can follow the video, pause, try do it and come back and check it.

Is easier for me as it lets me follow step by step and do it myself so I learn way easier and faster than reading a tutorial or instructions.

In my own opinion Screencast are very useful and really good for learn because if I misunderstand something I can just pause the video and play it again. I think the only disadvantages is if you have a question you can't ask the teacher immediately.

Publish more screencasts

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Run another tutorial

Survey again for comparison

Run Assessment using the program

Compare results to previous year

Run a Focus Group

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Analyse all feedbackThemes/Categories Convenience Learning Preferences – needs to be broken down Trustworthy source Sound Quality Video Quality Individual Attention Cognitive load – low incidence only prompted by the researcher is this irrelevant or just unlikely to be contemplated by the students. PMc OK Ive been told this will work so, so hopefully it will, so out of the five of you that are here how many of you viewed the screencasts? W1 - I viewed the first one, the second one, a little bit it was during the exams so I didn’t do the whole thing PMc sure yeah but you looked at them? W1 I looked at them PMc OK, and, did you think they were a good thing or a bad thing? or W1 Em, I liked them because you can go back to them, em its a good its kind of interesting

Findings so far• The screencasts have changed me more than

the students.• Assessment results improved BUT that could

be due to other factors – a whole other research project.

• The students liked the use of screencasts – mostly positive feedback – audio quality was an issue at the start.

• Read the theory first, too late afterwards to “shoehorn” in pedagogical best practice.

Where next?• More screencasts – Created 9 for the original

project, have published another 20 since.• More “depth”, introducing the why into more

advanced screencasts – 2nd & 3rd year subjects. • Screencasts for other lecturers, have created

some workshops to run over the summer.• Combine with other technologies to identify

“muddiest point” – Next Project??

Thank You for Listening

Questions?