FMS TEL Conference

The FMS TEL Conference ran at the beginning of this month. Fifteen events ran in the week beginning 6th September 2021, with diverse themes covering technology in teaching, technical guides and inspiration, and how we interact with technology as people.

Sessions were attended by staff from Newcastle and from NUMed, with over 150 session bookings across the conference. Feedback from attendees has been positive, and colleagues shared their plans for implementing their learning from the conference.

Many thanks to the session hosts, everyone working behind the scenes, and to the attendees for joining us.

Session resources can be found on our Canvas and MLE communities.

Basic Image Editing in Microsoft Photos

You may not have expensive software like Photoshop for image editing or you may just want to do a quick edit. There is a free option for basic editing in Windows 10. It’s called Photos.

If you’d like to find out how to do basic editing in Photos then check out this guide on the FMS TEL Community:

Canvas https://ncl.instructure.com/courses/30988/pages/basic-image-editing-in-microsoft-photos

MLE https://mle.ncl.ac.uk/cases/page/30511/

FMS TEL Conference – Resources Roundup

The resources from the FMS TEL Conference are now available via the Canvas and MLE communities.

Day 1 Recordings:
Monday 6th September

Welcome and Keynote

David Burn Pro-Vice Chancellor (Medical Sciences) and FMS TEL Team

An introduction to the conference and keynote.

Embedding Online Transnational Cross-Campus Teaching in Your Curriculum

Paul Hubbard, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, NUMed

The move to online learning and subsequent staff development of synchronous online teaching skills has created opportunities for increased links, and sharing of resources, between physically separated campuses. This means that cross-campus, transnational teaching, could be utilised to enhance teaching provision. This session will discuss some examples of cross-campus teaching on the MBBS degree between the UK and NUMed Malaysia, and explore the feasibility and opportunities for adopting cross-campus teaching in other courses within the University.

Boundary Setting and a Shared Code in the Era of Digital Delivery

Joanna Matthan, Director of Academic Studies, School of Dental Sciences

This session focuses on the teaching of Head and Neck Anatomy within the School of Dental Sciences, and how the move to online teaching necessitated the development of a specialised Digital Code around the use of cadaveric imagery. An excellent way to see how expectations can be set for even the most challenging of online teaching situations.

Day 2 Recordings:
Tuesday 7th September

Enhancing your Content: Basic HTML

Emily Smith, FMS TEL Team

In this session you will be introduced to easy changes you can make to divide up your content, add colour and make areas of your content pop! You will learn how to work around any accessibility issues and how to make your content look great on any device. No prior coding experience is required!

Including Accessibility in Digital Literacy – Teaching Students about Accessibility Best Practices in Written and Presentation Media

Michelle Miller, FMS TEL Team

This session introduces efforts to teach students how to use built in tools in Word, PowerPoint, and Adobe Reader to make their work accessible to users with a variety of disabilities. Addressing both the how and why to broaden digital literacy knowledge. Attendees will learn how create accessible documents for themselves, too!

New for 21/22 – NU Reflect

Simon Cotterill and David Teasdale, FMS TEL Team

See NU Reflect (previously ePortfolio), redesigned to emphasise support for reflective practice and awareness and evidencing transferable skills across the University. Presentation and demonstration plus time for your questions.

Day 3 Recordings:
Wednesday 8th September

Confidence and Resilience for Teaching with Technology

Paul Hubbard, Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, NUMed

Join Colleagues from NUMed and FMS for a discussion of how to build confidence and resilience when experimenting with new technological teaching methods. Examples of good practice and success stories will be shared, and there will be plenty of time to chat, ask questions and discuss your own plans.

Humanising the Online Experience

Eleanor Gordon, FMS TEL Team

Many of us – staff and students – have struggled with the feeling of losing the human connections we would normally have in face-to-face teaching spaces. This webinar concentrates on how to regain some of that connected feeling. The webinar will include plenty of examples and quick tips that can help reduce the awkwardness of teaching online.

H5P Demo and Try

Emily Smith, FMS TEL Team

In the first half of this session, medicine-focused examples of H5P content will be shared to get your creative juices flowing. In the second half of this session you will be let loose on the H5P platform to create your own content with members of the FMS TEL team on hand to assist with any queries.

Day 4 Recordings:
Thursday 9th September

Journal Club

Luisa Wakeling, Senior Lecturer, School of Dental Sciences

A special TEL edition of Journal Club will run on Thursday 9th September. Speaker to be confirmed.

Getting Your Work Out There – Using Canvas Commons to Share and Promote Your Teaching

Michelle Miller, FMS TEL Team

This session will introduce Canvas Commons as a digital repository for your Canvas Content that can be used to store and share your material within your own courses, within Newcastle University, and/or with all Canvas institutions.

Designing Convertible Teaching

Eleanor Gordon, FMS TEL Team

This session focuses on how to design teaching activities that can be easily flipped from synchronous to asynchronous, or in-person to online format.

Day 5 Recordings:
Friday 10th September

Avoiding Plagiarism: Helping Students Keep Their Turnitin Scores Low

Alison Clapp, Lecturer, FMS Graduate School

This session aims to increase the help we give to students to improve their academic writing with an emphasis on academic integrity. After a short refresher on how Turnitin scores work, we will discuss reasons for high scores, and how we can provide students with online activities to improve their writing.


Introduction to Authentic Assessment

Ruth Valentine, Dean of Taught Programmes; Chris Penlington, Clinical Psychologist; Eleanor Gordon, FMS TEL Team

This session introduces the principles behind Authentic Assessment, with real examples from FMS presented by practitioners. A range of examples and ideas will be shared, with frank discussion around challenges and benefits of this approach, and space to discuss how you might implement this in your own teaching.


Planning for the Future

David Kennedy, Deputy Dean of Taught Programmes & Deputy Head of School of Medical Education

This session does not have a recording.

New Digital Exams Software: Inspera

Inspera Assessment was selected as our digital exam system following a rigorous procurement process, which began with requirements mapping workshops in February 2020, attended by over 60 academic and professional services staff.

In 2021/22 Inspera will be the standard tool for centrally supported digital exams, and will be used for all modules that have a present-in-person digital exam in MOFS (with the exception of any specialist digital exams that require Numbas).

Inspera will be available for additional new digital exams from 2022/23 onwards. There will be opportunities during the academic year to see demonstrations of the software and learn more about the new types of assessment it makes possible. To discuss a potential new Inspera digital exam please contact digital.exams@newcastle.ac.uk.

Further information on preparing for exams in 2021/22 and the types of assessment possible with Inspera is now available on the Inspera pages of the Learning and Teaching website. This also includes information on how to prepare students for Inspera digital exams and links to student facing resources on the Academic Skills Kit webpages.

Webinars and in person workshops are now open for bookings.

For any queries regarding Inspera please contact digital.exams@newcastle.ac.uk.

Medicine Focused H5P Examples

As part of the FMS TEL Conference last week members of the FMS TEL Team created a few medicine focused examples of H5P content.

We have shared these examples with the University to use in course content or to clone and edit to fit specific needs. You can find all of our examples in:
All content > Faculty of Medical Sciences > Generic Content

H5P Folder structure

Example content includes:

  • Accordion: Vertically stacked expandable items
  • Agamotto: Sequence of images and explanations
  • Drag and Drop: Drag and drop task with images
  • Drag Text: Text-based drag and drop task
  • Flashcards: Stylish and modern flashcards
  • Image Hotspots: An image with info hotspots
  • Image Juxtaposition: Interactive images
  • Memory Game: Image pairing task
  • Timeline: Interactive timeline of event with multimedia

More Resources

The Hyflex Teaching Model

In response to the global pandemic, we have found ourselves faced with unprecedented challenges and a need to rapidly adapt our teaching delivery to accommodate students working remotely. Currently, we are aiming to return to a ‘business as usual’ model but in reality, there may be circumstances where some students are still unable to be present in person (PiP). Our international students are one particularly vulnerable group facing a continuous level of uncertainty regarding travel opportunities and restrictions. With this in mind, colleagues at INTO Newcastle University devised a delivery approach encompassing the Hyflex Model.

What is the Hyflex Model?

“The hybrid flexible, or HyFlex, course format is an instructional approach that combines face-to-face (F2F) and online learning. Each class session and learning activity is offered in-person, synchronously online, and asynchronously online” (EDUCAUSE, 2020). The main aim is that no student is disadvantaged, no matter which format they select. INTO Newcastle’s take on this approach was to connect PiP students with online peers through use of a camera, microphone, tripod and a hosting site such as Zoom or Teams. Asynchronous delivery is not a part of this approach. Session plans, pace of delivery and learning outcomes had to be adjusted because of the changed learning environment. A sample of FMS staff were able to experience this approach in real time at a training session delivered by INTO Newcastle’s Pre-Sessional Programme Manager, Darran Shaw. They gave the following reflections:

Overall

“While in no way perfect, this approach is something worth experimenting with”.

“The relatively cheap equipment was functional and would allow 3-way engagement”. 

Audio-related 

“I chose to join the ‘online’ part of the class via the Zoom meeting link on my phone. This was quick and easy to join, though we would possibly need to think about which accounts students have on their phones – whether they could join with their personal or university accounts. Once in the meeting I had minimal problems with sound or hearing the classroom participants. I can imagine this being difficult if the quality dropped though – even small cut-outs in the signal or sound pickup can make understanding difficult. This is even more of a concern for students joining who have poorer internet access, or who do not have English as a first language”. 

“To enhance the experience, I felt that the quality of the audio was the most important.  The levels of concentration required to filter out background noise and focus on the primary speaker is very tiring and difficult (this was already experienced with recorded lectures prior to COVID and even more diverse with academic recording or conducting zoom classes from their own PC over the last 18 months).  For those in the room, sound from all participants was equal and what we would expect, but it was not picked up equally by the microphone for those on-line.  Repositioning the single microphone was a trade-off to pick up more participants at the expense of reduced quality of the primary speaker. This could be enhanced by investment in a multiple microphone set up”.

“When the purpose of the teaching session is inter-participant communication, eg seminar, then we need to experiment more with all participants (PiP and remote) using zoom-like breakout rooms and headsets. In small classrooms/lecture theatres this is easier to control and can be achieved for lecture and seminar teaching”. 

Video

“Having a visual link to speakers and the PiP class gives an important feeling of participation and value.  I do not think the quality of the video is as important as the audio. Having said that, from the experience of this session a visual link to whoever is speaking makes it easier to focus on what is being said and allows non-verbal communication”.

“I feel it would also be good to have sight of the teacher and the class simultaneously. We spoke about this being important to pick up on cues when online participants can speak. We can see how easy it is to forget the online participants”.

Etiquette

“Appropriate etiquette is important and become vital for large class sizes. Emphasis should be placed on respect for other users, time management to attend equally (IT/bandwidth allowing) and professional level of engagement.  The latter should be specifically mentioned in Graduate Skills and academics should be allowed to comment on student engagement (recognising this is aspirational as it is almost impossible for one lecturer to monitor for large classes)”.

Top Tips for future Hyflex classes

  • There is a risk that an ‘us and them’ divide will form so it is recommended that staff look at mixing online participants and groupings in breakout rooms. PiP students could take turns signing in to Zoom/Teams calls.
  • A major requirement is sound. It would be worth investing in a few microphones to ensure the sound quality is equal between the participants in the room and the teaching lead. There would need to be potential wire issues and feedback issues sorted out. This is of fundamental importance due to the extra concentration and effort needed of online participants to hear what is said in the room. It is worth considering the use of a microphone that could be passed around easily.
  • Having multiple users logged on to zoom in the same physical space increases the chance for echo/feedback and therefore users need to experiment with the set up.
  • Whilst a hi-spec system, such as that available in the Boardroom is desirable, a low-cost camera recording the whole class will enhance feeling of participation, ‘time and place’ for learning.  The primary speaker can use a second camera (laptop or phone).  The two logged on as separate users.
  • Ground rules are needed: when to speak, recapping when unheard would be important, etiquette when joining a classroom remotely and being expected to participate fully as if present in person (but not in pyjamas or lying in bed).
  • Consider pre-planning task set up instructions. It may not always be obvious when students need to be looking at the shared screen, the speaker’s video input, or a gallery view of other online participants.
  • Be open-minded. Experiment with colleagues and test out the experience to determine what makes it easier for the teacher and the students. 

With thanks to the session leaders and participants: Darran Shaw, David Broadbent, Geoffrey Bosson, John Moss, Paul Hubbard, Luisa Wakeling, Eleanor Gordon

Resource: EDUCAUSE (2020) Available at: https://library.educause.edu/resources/2020/7/7-things-you-should-know-about-the-hyflex-course-model