Learning Central How-To Video Demonstrations

Cardiff Player now hosts a range of how-to video tutorials, including administering basic tasks in Learning Central. Here is an example:

Loading Video Player....

Current titles include the following themes:

• Creating folders (Example above)
• Inserting audio
• Uploading and image
• Uploading a document
• Adding files to the content collection
• Embedding Flickr images
• Embedding YouTube videos

The list is being continually updated so check Cardiff Player (Martin Close) for new titles.

The Student-Information Relationship

An excellent conference presentation from the perspective of a Warwick medical student, who implemented an entirely paperless resource workflow during his studies, and why he thinks the methods he used made very effective use of some of the tools and resources available via tablet devices.

Cardiff Player Video Hosting

Cardiff Player is a new dedicated streaming-media server available for uploading and hosting video content at Cardiff University. The server is powered by Helix Media Library, a system which batch-encodes different video formats to H.264, which is supported by HTML5. The resulting upload is then assigned with a unique link, which can then be distributed as desired to a range of platforms, for example, Learning Central.

CORTEX on YouTube

CORTEX now has a dedicated YouTube channel (medicelearning). The purpose is to standardise the accessibility of all videos used within the School of Medicine domain so that they may be openly shared using all the features provided by YouTube. The main driver for the decision has come from a best-practice review for embedding video in material developed using the new mobile templates. The platform will also make use of YouTube's HTML5 technology, eliminating the need to convert videos in-house so that they may be used to maximum effect across platforms. Visit the channel here.

Actor Release Form

During the development of educational resources it is common, particularly within medical education, to employ actors - this includes patients who have agreed to a recording outside of the course of their treatment.

Prior to starting any recordings, actors should be provided with full details of what the recording will entail and how the recording will be used. The “actor” should then be asked to sign the consent portion of the Actor Release form to confirm they are happy to partake in the recording.

Where an actor is used within a recording, the actor, by law, retains copyright for their performance. To ensure Cardiff University retains the right to use the materials we produce, it is vital that all actors are asked to sign a Actor Release Form for their part in the recording.

The Actor Release Form is designed to record evidence that the media you are using has been granted for such use.

Before completing the form, please ensure you are familiar with the MEDIC e-learning Consent Policy.

Copyright Consent Registration Form

Modern teaching practices often make extensive use of creative media to enhance the information offered to students. However, such creative media (e.g. photographs, images, videos, audio, diagrams etc.) can be expensive to produce and it can be very tempting to download something from the Internet, or copy something from a book, to avoid the need to create media from scratch.

When obtaining material (for example; images, video, articles of text), the first step is to determine whether permission has been granted for use within education. If there is no clear indication then appropriate steps should be taken to obtain permission from wherever the material has been sourced. The Copyright Consent Registration Form is designed to record evidence that the media you are using has been granted for such use.  

Before completing the form, please ensure you are familiar with the MEDIC e-learning Copyright Guidelines. 

Collaborative Work using Google Docs

Google Docs is a collaborative workspace which is already being used within the medic elearning team whilst writing documentation requiring frequent input from two or more contributors. If you are not already familiar with Google Docs, it is another cloud-based web service which allows files/documents to be created and edited in real-time by multiple authors. Google Docs allows creation of documents as:

• Text
• Spreadsheets
• Presentations
• Drawings
• Forms
• Tables

The service is useful for the creation of dynamic content such as forms and surveys, useful for quick questionnaires should the need arise. Google Calendar is a useful feature for sharing an event or establishing availability without the need for extra effort in 'chasing' people up.

Once you have created your document, you can invite people to view/edit it via email.

Sign up to Google Docs now, or
Try without signing up

Venous Cannulation

The Venous Cannulation module has now been updated to include a video tutorial. The module covers the purpose and procedures of venous cannulation, including learning outcomes such as identification of appropriate sites.

Clinical Skills

• Sian Williams (Clinical Skills Tutor/Manager)
• Brian Williams (Former Clinical Skills Manager)

Launch Module

Blood Cultures

A new clinical skills module on the need for, and how to carry out sampling for blood cultures is now available in Learning Central. The module also contains a useful video demonstration.

Clinical Skills

• Sian Williams (Clinical Skills Tutor/Manager)
• Professor Paul Bradley (Director of Clinical Skills & Simulation)
• Dr Chris Hingston (Consultant Intensive Care Medicine)

Launch this module.

Selecting & Integrating Media in eLearning

Abstract
When considering the types of media to include in the module, it is important to ensure that the learner is not being overloaded or overwhelmed to the point of distraction from the intended level of engagement or from the learning objectives themselves, therefore it is important to keep use of different media (e.g. video, audio, hi-fidelity animation) in context, and strictly fit for purpose.

The purpose of this document is to analyse each type of computer-based media and explore their strengths and weaknesses when used within self-paced eLearning.

Text
Pros

• We read quickly
• Learners read at their own pace
• Text is flexible and searchable
• Text is easy to modify
• Text is portable

Cons

• English may be a second language
• Content may require graphic illustration

 Images Graphics & Diagrams
Pros

• No literacy skills required to interpret an image
• Highly applicable to medicine
• Simplifies, highlights and illustrates a principal, concept or process
• Graphics and icons provide associative markers for content
• Transfers information easily through charts and diagrams

Cons

• Copyright issues
• Awkward to update

 Animation & Animated Sequences
Pros

• Effectively reinforces points in a sequence or process
• Effectively transfers information about a particular system, sequence or process which static media (e.g. text or images) cannot

Cons

• Learners cannot view at their own pace
• Lengthy sequences cannot be remembered as easily as static versions
• Requires advanced skills
• Requires longer development time
• Awkward to update

Audio
Pros

• Few learners cannot hear (more cannot read)
• Points can be emphasised or transferred differently through speech
• Good for learners with English as a second language
• Can be used widely on portable devices such as iPods or mobile phones

Cons

• Learners do not listen at their own pace
• Requires higher level of skill to produce
• Awkward to modify or update

Web 2.0

Web 2.0 is commonly referred to as a second generation of services available on the web, allowing users to do more than just retrieve information. Social software is considered a key web 2.0 development, since it encompasses services which facilitate collaborating, sharing, meeting and communicating with others online. Although much of this activity is currently social, there is a huge education potential in these tools, particularly with students who are not campus-based.

While there is no set definition of Web 2.0, the phrase generally refers to the use of interactive and collaborative web applications as social media platforms, where users participate by generating their own content alongside the content provided by the websites themselves. This characteristic is often stated as being the primary difference between Web 2.0 and the original World Wide Web (Web 1.0).

Web 2.0 applications allow students to easily create their own content and also to actively share information, opinion and support across networks of students. They are relatively easy to use requiring little or no technical expertise and there are many free an Open Source versions availble that offer flexibility and convergence options with a number of systems. In addition, they provide educational opportunities for students ‘any time, any place’. The collaborative and engaging nature of these tools can then be used to support a number of educational processes such as reflection, knowledge building and encouraging student participation and discussion.

Web 2.0 Terminology
Web 2.0 literacy is increasingly important, so here is a glossary of social media terminology to help you get the ‘gist’ of the jargon.

• Tags - The categorization of content by users adding tags (short, usually one-word descriptions or keywords to facilitate searching). As opposed to a classical taxonomy-based categorization system (e.g. MESH), they are usually non-hierarchical, and the vocabulary is open
• Tag Clouds – Give you a visual idea of tag frequency for a blog or other social media site. The more popular a tag, the bigger the text appears in the cloud.
• Folksonomies – These are collections of tags created by many users within a single system
• Syndication – allows websites to ‘push’ new content to users. RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated works, such as blog entries, news headlines, audio and video in a standardized format. RSS benefits users who want to subscribe to multiple feeds using a feed reader. To provide a single point of access for updates to content from multiple sources. An increasing number of medical journals have RSS feeds available
• Mashup – involve the merging of information from multiple sources. For example, Google maps and BBC traffic data
• Open Source – Open Source refers to software that is available to the general public at no monetary cost. However, there may still be restrictions on what you can and cannot do with the software

Web 2.0 Software Tools
An outline of different social software tools follows. However, it is important to note that there is a growing trend for services which combine different features in one package, such as services which enable you to join online communities, set up blogs and wikis and share photographs all via one website.

Blogs
Blogs (short for ‘weblogs’) are personal websites that allow rapid updating by the author and can be most easily described as a web-based diary. Content can be easily created (listed in date order) and shared. They are designed to be interactive, allowing others to post comments about the blog entries; however, it is usually not possible for anyone to alter the content except the owner. Syndication options enable users to subscribe to blogs and digests. Increasingly, blogs incorporate multimedia, and you can also upload and read them via mobile devices. Examples of blog platforms include: Learning Central, edublogs. Microblogging – allows users to send brief text updates e.g. Twitter.

Wikis
Wikis are similar to blogs but allow the text of the website to be edited by others, with the creation of a common document that can be shared between individuals. Examples of wiki platforms include: Learning Central,  MediaWiki (the platform that wikipedia is based upon). wikis give an opportunity for users with different types of knowledge, confidence and communication to contribute equally to a joint publication. Collaborators who lack confidence to argue a case in a ‘live’ face-to-face debate can feel more comfortable making the same points in a wiki environment where the pace of discussion is slower and the quality of the thinking is more significant than force of personality.

Podcasts
Podcasts are audio recordings made available on the internet, which can be played on computers or downloaded to hand-held devices such as MP3 players, providing the potential for ‘anytime, anywhere’ mobile learning experiences. Users can subscribe to podcasts using RSS feeds, so that any new broadcast in a series is automatically downloaded to their PC or device. Podcasts have been embraced by the education sector, since they offer a lively method of communicating with different audiences – whether for lectures, discussions, audio guides etc…

Social Bookmarking
Social bookmarking allows users to save online resources as bookmarks, which can be accessed from any device with an Internet connection, both by the bookmarker and by the wider community. Most  bookmarking sites also allow bookmarks to be tagged to make finding them easier later. In these systems, bookmarks represent ‘links’ to web resources (they do not attach a copy of them). Examples of social bookmarking platforms include: digg, diigo

Media Sharing – Visual media can be uploaded and stored on a website and shared with please ensure that you refer to consent and copyright policies. Examples of media sharing platforms include: Flickr , You Tube

Social Networking – Involves the process of building online communities, often accomplished both through ‘groups’ and ‘friends lists’ that allow greater interaction on websites. Several approaches can be combined in these sites to make them extremely versatile e.g. blogging and file sharing. Examples of social networking platforms include: Cardiff University Connections Service, My Space, Facebook
Social software tools can provide significant support to both traditional teaching and distance education programs by facilitating interaction, collaboration, and the formation of
social networks among students.

Further Resources
Cardiff University Learning and teaching support
Learning Central
JISC e-Learning Programme
Donald Clarke “Don’t lecture me”
JISC Report “Higher Education in a Web 2.0 World”
www.jisc.ac.uk/media/documents/publications/heweb20rptv1.pdf
HEA e-Learning Programme
JISC Advance – Guide to Digital Media
7things you should know about… Podcasting
7 things you should know about… Blogs
7 things you should know about… Wikis

Cross-platform Video Publishing

As part of our drive to get materials as platform independent as possible (including support for mobile devices) I’ve been having a good look into how we publish video such that it works over the Internet easily, AND can be downloaded for use on devices such as iPhones, iPads, and other smartphone platforms.

In general it would seem that most cross-platform video is moving towards the H264(AVC) video encoding standard – even Flash player now supports this alongside its proprietary FLV format. Many of the modern web browsers (such as Firefox and Google Chrome) now have native support for H264 videos as part of their support for HTML5, so this would seem to be the way to go.

So, the next thing is to see if we can get this working easily in Blackboard – I’ve recently started playing with an Open Source flash-based video player called FlowPlayer, which I’ve uploaded to the Blackboard Content Collection, and which is embedding and supporting H264 videos nicely – I’m going to try using this for the latest Clinical Skills videos, to see how usable this might be for students – the main concern here is that Flash support for H264 is available from Flash Player 9 and upwards, and I’m not sure what the uptake of this version is within the NHS – then there’s the issue of getting MP4 video files through Trust firewalls, but we’ll give it a go and see.

As for encoding videos to H264, first of all, when we’re considering cross-platform support it is worth bearing in mind that while the H264 encoding format is fairly open regarding video size, quality and frame-rate, many of today’s mobile devices have rather tighter limits, governed by their limited processing power. The Lifehacker website has an article that looks at the requirements for running video on most current mobile devices, which recommends the following limitations:

• Video encoding format: H264(AVC)
• Video size: 480 x 320
• Video quality (bit rate): 1500kbps or less
• Audio encoding format: AAC
• Audio bit rate: 128kbps or lower
• Audio sample rate: 44100 or less

I’ve actually found that a video bit rate of 384kbps is quite adequate at that size, and keeps the file size down too.

For getting videos into the required format I’ve found the free software Format Factory to be excellent, both for re-encoding existing video files, as well as for ripping video directly from DVD.

This, of course, needs testing. I’ve already tried this on my Android smartphone and it seems good. Next will be to try this on our iPad and and iPhone to check they’re OK. We also need to ensure the above concerns about web delivery are not going to cause a problem.