Author: Emily

Case Study: ONC8030 Branching Activity

The Idea

Inspired by an H5P talk at the NU Learning and Teaching conference, Kay McAlinden, module leader for ONC8030 Psychosocial Issues in Advanced Disease, approached the FMS TEL team about creating a branching activity.

We jumped at the opportunity to be involved and offered our services to film and edit the videos, and also build the activity in H5P and Canvas.

Bringing to idea to life

Kay took the lead in crafting the scripts and coordinating an actor. Pip Davies, roleplaynorth Co-Ordinator, kindly offered to play our patient and Kay would take the role as the Health Care Professional.

Emily Smith and Tracy Connell from the FMS TEL Team volunteered to be our videographers and canvased the campus to find a suitable room to be our ‘doctors office’. Once the scripts were finalised and the room was staged, filming commenced. Using two cameras and a team of two videographers we were able to film both the patient and the health care professional scenes at the same time. This aided in the flow of the conversation for the actors and filming was able to be completed within a couple of hours, with brief interruptions for the inevitable giggles and occasional bloopers.

showing branching activity in H5P editor mode
Editor View of H5P Activity

Next, we moved onto the task of editing the footage, which was completed in Adobe Premiere Pro, and building the task in H5P. We had filmed two options for the patients thoughts so a few different variations were created. After choosing a variation, making any further adjustments and proofreading of the captions, the activity was finalised.

All in all, the process took around a week of work.

The Final Layout

The activity is situated within a discussion board on Canvas, providing students with the opportunity to complete the task and subsequently engage in discussions with their peers. This setup also enables us to gather valuable feedback regarding the students’ perceptions of the task.

Canvas discussion board with embedded H5P activity
Canvas Discussion Board

After the introduction and instruction slides the first statement is introduced. Students are then prompted to pick from 3 responses. The corresponding response video is played, and students get a opportunity to reflect on the response and consider the patients perspective. Finally, we get to hear the patient’s thoughts. There are 7 statements for the students to work through, guiding students through a sequential conversation with the patient, fostering a sense of engagement and interaction.

Student Responses

While the activity is not actively monitored we are able to track which students have completed the task, view their selected options, and read their written responses. These insights will prove valuable when we conduct future reviews of the activity.

H5P results page showing student chose option 3
Results page – Branching Route
results view of H5P showing free text comments
Results page – Free text comments

Student feedback

We have been inundated with wonderful feedback from all the students. Below are some of our favourite quotes:

“This was a really valuable reflection for me. I could think back to how I had previously handled discussions like this. Had I perhaps been too quick to try and offer solutions and fix things. “

“This was quite an interesting exercise. It is quite easy to tip into problem solving and fixing, however what this highlights is that stepping back, allowing space for difficult emotions to be expressed”

“This was really interesting, I liked that there was not necessarily a wrong answer but makes you think about how you are wording answers to patients and the sequence to presenting the information to the patient.”

“I thought that was an interesting activity. It highlighted the importance of actively listening to what your patient is telling you and not just them with more information…. It was interesting sometimes the one i picked wasnt said in the way I would have said and therefore the response from the patient wasn’t what I would have expected.”

“I thought this was a really effective activity; it made me really think about how I would respond in these situations and how to put myself in Linda’s shoes to try and understand her feelings. I found that my responses developed through the activity and could see how by offering more space and time for Linda to talk it allowed her to open up and feel understood. At the start I definitely could see myself trying to find solutions to her problems but it became apparent that answers weren’t what Linda was seeking, she just wanted reassurance and to be understood. This will be useful to take into practice.”

“As a healthcare professional, this activity has opened my eyes to the fact that more often then not, we have been taught to focus on the physical issues and to prioritise first the physical health, and then the psychosocial aspects of the person’s life. During this activity, I realised how therapeutic empathy can be in itself.“

Final Thoughts

The creation of this branching activity, led by Kay McAlinden and supported by RolePlay North and the FMS TEL team, has been a successful collaboration. Scriptwriting, filming, and editing, came together to create an engaging and interactive learning experience for the students.

The use of technology, including Premiere Pro and H5P, was essential for executing the activity seamlessly and collecting valuable data for future improvements.

The overwhelmingly positive feedback from students underscores the effectiveness of this activity in enhancing their learning experience. It’s a fantastic example of how technology and teamwork can result in innovative and impactful activities that students truly enjoy and appreciate.

Your Next Step: Resource and Support

This activity has kindly been shared with all staff at Newcastle University and is available in the Faculty of Medical Sciences > Generic Content folder within H5P.

all content, FMS, generic content, making empathic responses
Folder View in Canvas H5P app.

Taking Ctrl: Device Mode

The Problem

When you’re putting together course materials, it’s important to think about how it’ll look to your students. Laptops and monitors come in all shapes and sizes, so what looks good on your screen might not on someone else’s.

It is also becoming increasingly common for students to access content on their mobile phones and tablets. How can you efficiently ensure that everything appears visually pleasing and functional across these diverse devices?

The Solution

Windows: F12
Mac: Cmd + Opt + I

This opens the developer tools, which includes a ‘device mode’ where you can see how your content will look and function on different devices. The below example is using Chrome on a windows machine:

Example showing responsive and iphone views

Learn more: Chrome Documentation

Enjoy this post? Check out the others in our Taking Ctrl series.

Collaborative Documents in Canvas

Some group tasks are easier to complete using Word/Excel/PowerPoint. The easiest way I have found to share the files with students is to create a folder in SharePoint and provide a link to the folder in Canvas.

group activity. each group has a document. one link to access folder on onedrive
Task while the module is running

At the end of the academic year, I find its best practice to upload the completed documents and remove the link to SharePoint.

group activity showing links to 7 group documents
Task after module is complete

Benefits

  • Files are not lost, should a member of staff leave the University
  • The SharePoint files can be rolled back to a previous version and reused
  • The link in the original task can be used year after year
  • Files can no longer be edited by past students

Negatives

  • Can be time consuming if you have a lot of group activity files to upload

Preparing for a new term

The FMS TEL Team work with schools across the faculty to maintain and improve our E-Learning offerings. At the moment, this is around 40 modules.

Join us in this blog post for a behind the scenes peek in our last minute checks before publishing the new courses for September 2023.

What have we already done?

During the summer we imported last years content, updated the timetables, and refreshed any padlets or wiki pages. We review the student feedback received from the previous year, and see if there are any quick wins we can do, or any larger problems which are being mentioned multiple times or have been mentioned over multiple years. Suggestions are made to our Module Leaders and agreed improvements are actioned. These will usually consist of activity revamps, updating outdated information, and excessive reading materials replaced with graphics or videos.

The final checks

Our last minute checks will always consist of:

Run the Link Validator 

found 2 broken links, home page, students may not be able to access these links
Example of Link Validation results

What: The Link Validator will find any broken links within your content. It will display a list of the page/discussion/assignment where the broken link is located and what the broken content is, as well as how it is broken.

Where: Settings > Validate links in content > Start link validation

How: We review every broken link. Sometimes an external website may have changed their website layout so a new path is required. Other times a resource might not longer be available and an alternative source will need to be found. We go through the list, fixing what we can and send a list of any unfixable links to our Module Leaders to review.

Learn more in this Canvas Guide: How do I validate links in a course?

Check course accessibility 

preview of ally checks showing 99%
Example of Accessibility Report

What: Canvas has an integrated Accessibility Report using Ally that will check all content; including documents, images and HTML content. The University has no baseline score, however it is highly recommended that your course is as accessible as possible. For E-learning courses in FMS we aim for a score of at least 95%.

Where: Canvas course > Accessibility Report (side menu)

How: The majority of improvements are easy to make and Ally takes you through the process step by step. Most of the time it will be tagging PDF documents, adding alt text to images or editing images that are over exposed (usually screenshots). We start with the red items and move onto the amber items. It is usually a case of following the on screen instructions. We have a walkthrough document available on the FMS Community as well as a few other posts on Accessibility.

Learn more on the LTDS Digital Technologies website: Ally for Canvas

Create Groups and Journals 

students group patient 1 6 students patient 2 7 students
Example of groups in Canvas

What: On larger modules we tend to put students into groups for certain tasks. We find this helps with engagement, there is nothing worse than joining a task late and finding it already completed. Group tasks are also a great way to distribute workload and encourage teamwork. Some tasks also require privacy or independent thinking, for those tasks journals are a great addition.

Where: Canvas > People > +Group Set

How: Using the groups function in Canvas you can create custom groups, automatically assign groups or create journals by creating a group set with a size of 1. We will start assigning groups once students are added to canvas in the first week in September and then do daily checks for new arrivals every couple of days for the first few weeks of term. I also add a little message to the main board on my group activities asking students to get in touch if they haven’t been assigned to a group/journal yet.

discussion message asking to email for allocation
Example message on group discussion board

Learn more in this Discussion Board video series we created or in these canvas guides: Instructor Guides for Groups

Prerequisites and Requirements  

showing settings for lock until, pre req of previous module, requirements on all pages
Example of settings within Canvas

What: There are various ways to organise the flow of your courses. Adding requirements to your content creates a little tick box next to each item, so students can easily pick up where they left off. Using requirements also allows us to add prerequisites, which control when students can move on. They may have to contribute to a discussion board, or pass a test before moving on. We can also control the date and time certain content is made available.

Where: Modules > 3 dot menu > Edit

How: Most modules will have a lock until date, so content is released gradually. All modules include requirements on every page but they will vary from module to module. Some will just be “view” for everything so students can see where they are up to, other modules require students to complete certain tasks to get their tick. A few modules will use the prerequisite option to stop student continuing until they have completed certain tasks.

compete all items bar at the top, each item states view or contribute, various items ticked
Student View of requirements and prerequisites

Learn more in these canvas guides: Prerequisites and Requirements

We hope this little insight into our practice was interesting. Good luck for 2023!

Giving new life to an old presentation: A Module Revamp Case Study

The Situation

Have you ever heard students complain about a particular topic? Module Leaders for our Chemotherapy Nurse Training module often come across such complaints for their Cell Cycle topic. As the issue was becoming a perennial problem, we decided to thoroughly review the topic that was causing frustration among our students. This blog post shares our project and the transformative impact it had on our students’ perception and understanding of the once-hated topic.

Revamping the Content

We started with the learning objectives for the topic. Using Blooms Verb Wheel as a guide we changed the wording so the objectives would be measurable, and therefore the students could better understand what was expected of them. We removed words such as “understand” and replaced them with “describe”.

Next we reviewed the flow of the topic. We started with a text heavy page with stock images covering; cell basics, cancer, chemotherapy, and ending with the phases of the cell cycle. This page was edited, removing over 100 words, and rearranged so we covered; normal cells and their cycles, then moved onto cancer and chemotherapy. The stock images were converted into animated infographics that were tailor made for the content being discussed.

The biggest change was with the asynchronous lecture. The audio was good quality and the messages were still relevant, however the lecture slides were text heavy and had an outdated look.

blue slide with lots of yellow text
Original slide: What is the cell cycle
another blue slide with yellow text in bullet points
Original slide: This is good news, but…

The slides were given a facelift and where possible, animations were used to replace the text. We hoped the animations would assist the students in visualising the processes being described by the voiceover.

slide showing cells splitting
Updated slide: what is the cell cycle
slide showing checkpoints disappearing and slides duplicating with errors
Updated slide: This is good news, but…

Next the students had two tasks to complete. One was to answer some basic questions, and the other was to put their knowledge into action within a group activity. We spruced up the tasks visually, but didn’t make any other changes to them.

We chose to add a “check your knowledge” type quiz, using H5P, at the end of the topic. The questions directly linked to the learning outcomes and we hoped would help the students confidence with the topic.

view of quiz starting page

Student feedback (before):

Found the cell cycle topic very difficult to understand.

I am dreading the cell cycle topic

Student feedback (after):

The topic I have enjoyed most was topic 3 (The cell cycle) 

I have particularly enjoyed topics 3 – going further in depth into the cell cycle and pharmacology of the drugs we use has been really useful  

I quite enjoyed the cell cycle section…I enjoy the lightbulb moments I’ve had understanding how everything links together. 

Final Thoughts

The module team is thrilled with the amazing transformation we witnessed. Our goal was to address the complaints and make things better for the students. But we ended up surpassing our own expectations. The topic that used to be dreaded by the students has now become one of their favourites. The positive feedback from the students has made us proud and motivated us to continue on our journey for improvement. It’s really amazing to see such a big change in how they feel about the subject, with only a few tweaks in how the content was delivered.

Taking Ctrl: Insert a Link

The Method

Highlight the text you want to make into a link and then…

  • Windows: Ctrl + K
  • Mac: Command + K

Applications

Ctrl/Command +K will insert a hyperlink in:

  • Excel, Word, PowerPoint
  • Outlook – within the message body and also searches the address book for names typed in the address fields
  • Rich Content Editors, including Canvas, MLE and WordPress

Enjoy this post? Check out the others in our Taking Ctrl series.

Taking Ctrl: Snipping Tool

What is it?

A snipping tool allows users to capture a portion of their screen. This can be very useful if you need to share information, create instructional images, report bugs or issues, or save visual content for reference.

The Method

Mac: Shift + Command + 4
Creates a thumbnail in the corner of your screen, click it to edit or wait for the screenshot to be saved to your desktop.

Windows: Windows + Shift + S
Opens a quick snipping tool and saves the resulting snip to the clipboard.

Enjoy this post? Check out the others in our Taking Ctrl series.

Styled Blocks in Canvas

We have a few different Virtual Learning Environments in FMS. You may be familiar with Canvas or the Medical Learning Environment (MLE), but you may not be familiar with Ngage.

Ngage was used in tandem with Blackboard, but since the move to Canvas in 2020 the system has slowly been phased out and will be decommissioned in the next academic year.

A feature used quite extensively in Ngage were the activity elements. These elements were styled blocks which highlighted an actions was required.

Q&A block in Ngage

We did not want to lose these call to action blocks when we moved to Canvas so we recreated the most popular elements using the HTML editor in Canvas. We built on the original idea by using different colours and styles to represent different tasks or actions. By using the same styled blocks across all courses and modules students can navigate the content with ease, and at a quick glace know what is expected of them. They also help to make the content more visually appealing.

Reading Activity block with pale green background and uppercase title
Optional reading block with grey background, dotted border and lowercase title
Q&A block with pale green background, solid grey border and interactive button

To add even more colour and visual interest we agreed on an emoji for each task and added them to the blocks as well.

EmojiActivity
💬Discussion Board
📖Reading Activity
🎦Watch a Video
🎧Listen to a Podcast
🔎Research Activity
❔Q&A or Quiz
📝Journal Activity
👨‍👨‍👦‍👦Group Activity
💻Blog Activity
🗒Padlet Activity
📅Timetabled Event
Our chosen Emojis

We decided to use emojis instead of icons as emojis can be placed in page titles as well. Adding emojis to page titles gives students a broad idea of what is to be expected that week.

Example of using Emojis in page titles

Having the emojis in the titles also allows Instructional Designers and Module Leaders to view the distribution of tasks throughout a course, and quickly know which pages may need updated for the following year. Padlets, for example, need to be remade each year and a quick scroll through the modules area is all that is required to locate all the pages that contain padlets.

Want to make your own blocks?

You may first want to speak with your School or Programme team to come up with a shared theme or design. The blocks work best when used over multiple modules.

If you would like help designing blocks for your School, please get in touch.

Using overlays to make engaging videos

This post, kindly provided by Module Leader David Thewlis, discusses the use of OpenShot Video Editor to add overlays into videos for teaching.

Check out the resources section at the bottom of this post for step-by-step guides.

Example taken from MEE8079, Assessment in Medical Education, 2023

Why I use overlays?

I started my approach to online lecturing by recording in PowerPoint. Then I moved to recording in ReCap/Panopto. Neither were quite right for me, I felt limited in my delivery compared to in-person teaching. I found using props difficult when you only take up a small portion of a screen and emphasis on what really matters can be lost when you can’t feel the energy of the room.

I realised my biggest issue with my lectures was that I was relegated to a tiny corner and the slides had become central.

You want the slides to be condiments to what you’re saying, not be the main event.

Patrick Winston, How to Speak

Bell Hooks writes about academics hiding behind the pedestal lose engagement with the class. Unfortunately, online lectures can create a similar barrier between us and our students. Overlays is the approach I decided on to help reduce this barrier in my teaching.

I hope I am not the only person who spends hours watching videos on YouTube for inspiration. The videos I found most interesting (even if they were long) were simple speaker focused talks, which showed media when it was helpful. Replicating this type of content was my aim.

What can you use overlays for?

Overlays replace slides by allowing the speaker to have greater control over where and when to place media. You can incorporate pictures, videos, audio, and titles into a single talk with reasonably little skill (I have managed – you can too!). You can choose to direct focus in the frame. Wes Anderson has made a film director’s career out of this skill, perhaps we can learn from it.

Types of overlays:

  • Picture – these can act very much like slides. Placing them in a corner of the screen, or covering the whole screen can offer different experiences.
  • Titles – these are text which appears in picture. They can be used as a title, but I like to use them to correct a mistake I’ve made in wording I also use them to throw forward to an idea or call back something discussed earlier in the lecture or course.
  • Video – adding another video within your video can serve as a much better example than just simple explanation. I have done this a few times with examples of good teaching models recorded by my colleagues. I have also seen some effective uses of people having brief conversations with themselves using picture in picture overlays.
  • Audio– if you have a flair for the dramatic backing music might help at some point in your talk. Audio Commentaries can also create a richer resource, see our case study.
  • Emojis – They’re there. Why not?

How I set up overlays

You will require some basic video editing software – I like OpenShot Video Editor. It’s free and reasonably simple. Simplicity is the theme of my advice.

1.    Create/choose your media

Create a recording of your lecture using whatever recording device you have available. Errors or issues with the recording can be fixed in the editing process if needed. In this example on YouTube an instructor made a mistake with wording. Rather than re-record the entire video, which is otherwise good value, they corrected with an overlay title.

Making your images can be equally as easy. Saving pictures to an appropriate folder is one approach. I like to insert my pictures into a PowerPoint presentation to give myself the opportunity to get the structure clear in my head. I then save each slide as a picture. 

2.    Organise your content

Keep it simple and experiment with different formats. Layouts, text sizes, fonts, and colours all can have an impact on what you are communicating. Ensure that your titles are legible, and contrast appropriately with your background. I like the background to be the video of me generally, but I’ve seen solid examples of it being a slide or set of slides.

3.    Put the video together

I recommend you take your time editing your first few videos.

Regardless of the software you decide to use I recommend you save your project often! Losing an almost completed video is very frustrating.

You can clip your videos to remove errors. Insert other videos in the middle of your talk. Explore effects if you are delivering a narrative.

The export time can be quite long (mine usually run around 40 minutes for a 10-15 minute video). This is an opportunity to make a coffee, have a stretch, and look away from a screen.

Conclusion

Although it may need more initial time investment it is worth it. Using overlays can add a personal touch to any asynchronous video content.

Resources

References

  • Winston, Patrick (2018) How to Speak. MIT OpenCourseWare
  • Hooks, Bell (1994) Teaching to transgress : education as the practice of freedom. New York: Routledge.

FMS ❤ H5P

Below are some of our favourite uses of H5P from within the Faculty. If you have an example to share, please get in touch.

Fill in the Blanks for Click to Enlarge images

Students often complain that diagnostic images are too small to see clearly. A solution we found was to use H5P Fill in the Blank activity (without a blank).

Example from ONC8004. (Original image has been replaced to protect patient confidentiality)

Instructions

  • H5P Fill in the blanks tutorial
  • Set the Task description to say: (click the image for a larger view)
  • Use the Text blocks to describe the image
  • For behavioural settings, untick all except “automatically check answers after input”
  • LTI Settings: Set a max width of 1920 px (this will left align the content in canvas)

Branching Activity for personalised tasks

We used a branching activity for a statistics task. Students were given personalised tasks and instructions based on their software preferences.

Students choose a software
Students receive tasks for their chosen software
Instructions were tailored to the specific software

Instructions

Interactive Video to spark discussion

This video was originally designed to be watched in a classroom setting, where the video would be paused for an in class discussion. When the course was moved online we used H5Ps interactive video to auto pause at the right moment and we embedded the video in a discussion board.

Video auto pauses (at the white dot) and asks students to contribute to a discussion board task

Instructions

Virtual Tour (360) of a University Lab

We created a 360 tour through a large lab in the School of Biomedical and Nutritional Sciences. This was to familiarise students with the lab before attending in person, but also to show the labs to students working at a distance.

Screen capture of 360 tour in use

Instructions

Virtual Tour (360) to highlight hazards in a Lab

We created a 360 image of the new Nutrition Kitchen with hotspots highlighting some common hazards. Clicking on the hotspots will show a close up image of the hazard and/or some information on why it is a hazard.

Screen capture of hotspots in use

Instructions