Rotherham College of Arts & Technology

Year 1: Podcasts (video/audio) to mobile devices via a virtual learning environment 2007/2008

This phase 1 project sought to explore the potential to extend and enhance learning opportunities for learners (mainly on engineering programmes) using audio/video podcasts.

This was achieved via Moodle and SMS text subscription services that allowed direct delivery to individuals' mobile devices such as mobile phones, iPods and iPhones.

The aims were to provide better resources for learners with bite-sized personalised learning and to integrate the service with the College virtual learning environment (VLE).

College and Project Background

A partnership between Rotherham College of Arts and Technology (RCAT) and Yorkshire Coast College (YCC) was developed to extend and underpin innovative developments in mobile technologies and teaching and learning that were happening at the latter institution. RCAT staff had been inspired by groundbreaking work at YCC and wanted to harness this technology for themselves. YCC brought a neighbouring school, the Graham School, Scarborough, into the partnership and a bid was developed to allow lecturers and teachers to use digital mobile devices to offer new opportunities for learners to access learning materials, participate in learning activities, provide opportunities for formative and summative assessment and to extend the time spent learning.

Both colleges are medium-sized general further education (FE) colleges.  RCAT offers provision in 14 of the 15 sector subject areas from two main campuses, one in the town centre and one in Dinnington. It serves the Metropolitan Borough of Rotherham and attracts learners from areas of substantial economic and social deprivation. As a result of recent regeneration activities, the borough has moved from the 48th most deprived to 63rd out of 354 districts in the national Indices of Deprivation. According to the Indices of Deprivation 2004 Education & Skills Domain, Rotherham is the 30th most deprived district in England and 27% of neighbourhoods fall within the most deprived 10% in England. The percentage of people of working age with no qualifications stands at 18.9% against a national figure of 15.1%. Nearly on-third of adults in Rotherham are without functional literacy and numeracy to Level 2 and this affects their ability to study for the higher level skills required by the present and future workforce. The proportion of the working-age population in Rotherham with at least NVQ Level 2 has now risen to 57% but it is still 5.9% below the national average. 

Yorkshire Coast College, by contrast, serves the mainly rural borough of Scarborough, which is part of a district that includes 45 miles of coastline and a large area of the North York Moors National Park. The town area, nevertheless, has significant deprivation. The number of adults in the area of working age who are jobless is higher than the North Yorkshire average. In 2006/07 there were 1330 Year 11 school leavers from seven Scarborough schools and of these 54% achieved five or more GCSE’s at grades A*-C, compared to 53.5% in Rotherham and a national average of 62%. 

The project sought to explore the potential to extend and enhance learning opportunities for learners (mainly on engineering programmes) using audio / video podcasts. This was planned to be achieved via Moodle and SMS text subscription services that allowed direct delivery to individuals' mobile devices such as mobile phones, iPods and iPhones. The aim was to provide better resources for learners with bite-sized personalised learning.

RCAT targeted Level 3 learners (groups of engineering National Diploma learners) while YCC targeted Level 2 learners (young Apprentice engineers, Level 2 engineering Apprentices and construction learners). The project supported the development of the IT infrastructure of both colleges to allow for Podcasting and video demand, access to mobile technologies, the creation of personalised podcasts and the provision of revision material remotely and for absent learners.  It also allowed lecturers/ assessors to notify learners of content and where to access it by text message.

Outcomes for the project at RCAT are for greater access to learning resources, more time spent learning, to make learning more appealing thus aiding the retention and motivation of learners and for effective evidence- gathering through photograph and short videos. Podcasting will provide remote access for learners and personalised content as well as alerting learners to information. 

Project aims

• To develop the IT infrastructure of the colleges to allow for Podcasting and video on demand
• To allow a pilot group of learners access to mobile technologies
• To extend and enhance learning opportunities through:
  • creation of personalised podcasts by lecturers and assessors to supplement content, provide revision material, material for absent learners, etc, which can be accessed remotely on mobile devices or PCs.
  • provision of a system for lecturers / assessors to notify learners of content and where to access it by text message
  • assessing learners’ practical work and skills mastery remotely through video exchange.

Key objectives

• Produce at least 80 video / audio / skills demonstrations for access / viewing on personal storage devices or PCs. 
• Equip at least two lecturers at each organisation with mobile phone, portable video recorder and portable storage device to enable creation and communication of materials.
• Train at least two lecturers at each organisation in the use of equipment and production and communication of materials.
• Create a platform from which text messages can be sent to learners alerting them to materials and how to access them .
• Make podcasts and other learning materials available to download onto personal mobile devices to at least 50 learners in each college and 10 in the school in the engineering curriculum area.
• Make remote learning materials available to at least five work-based learning students in each college.

Benefits for participants

Benefits for learners, across all learner groups

Learners gained:

• access to high-quality podcast materials
• the ability to receive text messaging alerting them to content and how to download
• the ability communicate with colleges on other matters using texts
• training and access to materials and  encouragement to use e-learning more widely
• improved motivation.

Benefits for staff

Staff gained:

• the opportunity to develop their own skills in terms of e-learning, filming, producing podcasts, etc 
• the ability to produce high-quality learning materials
• the opportunity to share good practice with partner, and other, organisations
• motivation and inspiration through access to high-quality equipment.

Benefits for the lead college

The lead college gained:

• the opportunity to benefit from the expertise of partner organisation and colleague
• the advancement of its e-learning strategy
• improvement in e-learning infrastructure, especially around texting and podcasting. 

Benefits for institutions taking part (partners and colleges):

RCAT and YCC make the following comments about the benefits of taking part:

• MoLeNET money could provide teaching staff with the equipment that the needed to produce simple video podcasts.  The effectiveness of this led to the project being applied in other areas apart from engineering, notably in graphic design. YCC 
• Using the text elements of the project we have applied these across college to become part of the College’s retention strategy with reminder texts for no- attendance. This was in a fledgling stage before MoLeNET added impetus to develop this a college-wide system. This has seen a 10% improvement in attendance. We are now looking at extending this to student support as a whole and the use of positive texts as recognition for a good contribution from a student. YCC
• Link with secondary school has provided benefits in the sharing of facilities with a view to supporting the specialist Diploma agenda. YCC
• MoLeNET has had a positive impact empowering teaching staff to produce materials that can be used in a variety of contexts the strength of which lies in the students own ownership of these materials and their ability to have them on a variety of devices, fixed and mobile.  In a chicken and egg fashion as our tutors produce materials to be podcast so our learners are investing in the equipment to use them. (YCC)  
• Have been able to develop materials from the podcasts for general use, eg health and safety video – ‘spot the health and safety breach’. RCAT

Lessons learned

• Development time (non-teaching contact time) is essential for teaching participants if they are to fully familiarise themselves with the technology and produce materials.
• A smaller cohort of learners could have been focused on to make the process of gathering consent, conducting questionnaires, interviews, etc, more achievable, especially with the limited timescales.
• Not all learners were as enthusiastic or as adept at using mobile devices as is often assumed and age is not always a guide to digital literacy.  Weaker learners in terms of this need to be supported, encouraged and given additional input to provide them with these skills.
• Contingency plans need to be built into any teaching
• Videoing sessions was found to be easier and less intimidating for staff and students than had been assumed.