 So welcome everyone to this session on active learning with video. My name is Elisabetta Lando and I am an Educational Technologist at City University London and I'm also the co-chair of our new, well it's not that new actually it's over a year old, but the sort of active learning special interest group. This is the link to the to the group so please do join it. As I was saying I am it started in I think last year in January in July 2020 so I've lost all sense of time as a lot of people have in these past two years. So it still feels really new maybe we haven't you know done as much as we could have because we've obviously all been swamped with a sort of new new turns in the pandemic tale at work and so forth. However it's not only for even though I do work in higher education it's not only for people who work in higher education but from all sectors including further education, primary and more. Just a quick poll here or quick hands up if you know where all the icons are. Is anyone here from further education or adult community learning? Does anybody wants to put their hands up or who's here from higher education? Okay right right right so mostly mostly I think from HE. Anyone from FE? It was an okay I think we're mainly from higher education. Okay I mean I'm my background I'm currently working in higher education as an educational technologist but my background is as a teacher in further education so I think a lot of it's quite interesting how ideas across the different sectors could sort of you know could could could help actually so that's why I think this the active learning special interest groups focus on different sectors is it's a good one because I think we can learn a lot from each other. Right so um so today's session is uh as promised it's on active um learning using video and I'm hoping it's going to be um a sort of conversation really that we all bring different stuff to the table and what I'm going to bring to the table is this evoli tool a video tag tool but um as I say please do do put any other ideas in the chat or you know turn on your microphone um and these are just some random stats I've got I'm sure there's you know better ones out there and again if you do know of any do post them into the chat this is the stuff that I was just thinking about in terms of the last two years since the beginning of the the pandemic um how much has video uh sort of video for learning um it must have expanded so much so I said some random stats here so some google stats on a hundred and twenty percent global increase in in daily views of videos for home learning or how has lockdown changed video learning that's from the sort of learning and development um sector for sort of human resources so 53 percent increase in video learning views very random there how two videos related to guitar I'm assuming learning how to play the guitar and over 160 million views globally um in in a month so that's from March to April and then probably the last one which is obviously more relevant to higher education looking at echo 360 the lecture capture platform saying that some users created 40 years of video content in the sort of final two weeks of March 2020 so it just you know that's just a sort of random sample of just the amount of video that was produced or has been produced in such a small period of time with the you know with the pandemic um and it will be really interesting to sort of have bigger bigger data around that over the past two years but must must be enormous it must be really interesting data so video for learning is you know has obviously been a major sort of um major increase in that but I think one of the things that does remain is is this statement really I don't know if you disagree or agree with it do post in the chat your thoughts about it um but I think this is something that I've been hearing from sort of student feedback come and student union survey was carried out over you know last in 2020 2021 where students were kind of saying they were feeling quite sort of tired watching so much video content um you know particularly uh with being at home with the sort of great uh pivot online but watching hours and hours of video content is quite exhausting and because yeah quite a passive experience so I think that's the challenge for today have you thoughts about that okay so what I'm hoping um we can do as usual bring up a good old padlet uh we do always like a padlet um if you could just quickly go into this padlet and just post any uh ideas sorry I'm just trying to find myself so the Evoli platform what basically it is it's a video tagging tool where they um um uh created this this video tool uh platform uh students um would access this uh video 24 hours before they have a session with a with a tutor and they would be look watch the video and tag ask questions um say if they liked it or if they didn't like it and then 24 hours before um the session the tutor would look at the videos look at all the data and then kind of see what were the sticking points what students were saying about the video what concepts they were having difficulty with and then they would sort of um uh plan the session accordingly so in that way they were sort of engaging the students in um planning the lesson together effectively so creating more of a dialogic approach it's a really simple tool there's nothing uh complicated about it at all but what I really liked about it was the approach um the approach which was engaging the student while watching the video and um supporting the students in sort of uh coming in to the to kind of planning the session if you will um Evoli in the spirit of open practice can only be used with YouTube videos um and um that's something um that's uh you know I think many of us uh fed back saying oh we would like maybe to use it with videos in media space or something um so that was something that you know we did say however I mean I would suggest if you were going to use it you could um use it uh put a video on YouTube um as unlisted for you know for a specified period of time and then you can take it down yes it's it's very simple Vanessa I agree it feels like nothing's really happening um so yes we have those kind of the the expressing the opinions or the whether we like it or we don't like it and then at the end you get the students are presented with the summary of their feedback so they can give an overall evaluation of the video um uh as well as the you know the tagging function there so um what the tutor um does is tutor dashboard is they go into um the notes or the feedback and they can see the um the data uh so the blue data though it shows that um you know students appreciated the video so there's quite a lot of I think interestingly sort of emotional feedback as well how did you feel about the video did you enjoy it did you like it so it's not only did you understand it um uh so we the yellow one is you know we didn't like that bit we didn't understand that bit and then the pink are all the questions is this one from um University of Glasgow Emily Nordman and Carolina cup of texel and that was a a blog on the echo 360 and I thought that was a an interesting one which is watch parties I don't know if anyone has come across doing some watch parties with students yes um I think that's an important thank you Teresa I think um I think you know something like the Evoli tool it's um it's a simple tool um but um you know and it's very plain what it what the thinking behind it um yeah really great thank you Vicki um I think it's such a simple principle behind the use of Evoli but I'm sure we could you know similar things can be done with the tools that you already have in your institution so for example you know with um lecture capture echo 360 punotto oh okay um and obviously we have h5p so you know I think um doing something like a video tagging using this kind of approach can is something that can be done um uh with tools we already have it doesn't have to be Evoli but obviously Evoli is very it's a very simple it's very straightforward it says what it does on the pack okay thank you Darren yes that's definitely I think they're really open to any any suggestions um as they're saying it's a open source it's done for the sort of community there's a real spirit of openness in the project so um uh something also to feed uh back to them and free as um uh and most importantly yes with the watch party I don't know if um uh who was from um Vicki would you like to tell us a little bit about the watch parties yes you're sorry for joining late I thought the meeting started later than it did but I know you're just kind of shenanigans yeah I'll watch the recording afterwards but um yeah just to contribute I know that people um in psychology a number of the staff there use Netflix watch parties um so that obviously not subject specific but as a way of kind of getting the students to feel comfortable and especially when you're working in the online environment where students are studying remotely it was a way for students to get to know their teachers and feel comfortable um being able to sort of participate in chats it was almost like onboarding them then for engaging in more kind of subject specific online conversations yeah I mean I really like the idea of this watch parties from the blog that I was reading about how um the tutor or the teachers can sit with the students watch the content together but then be able to sort of have the conversation and and you know take answers as they watch the content together rather than having that sort of unidirectional you know you know the teachers talking on the video giving a lecture and the students are passively watching I just love the idea of both of them being in the audience watching the content thank you Teresa sorry yeah no I was just going to say that's that's exactly how we did it with the dissection room because in the first lockdown the students couldn't go into the dissection room at all so um we filmed it for only within you know our eyes and the teacher would be in there saying okay now here's the gallbladder and you know etc etc and so he would just be explaining what he had previously filmed right there in it was in Blackboard Collaborate just like this and yeah I mean it was better than nothing okay but um uh so a good feedback from the students yeah actually very positive um in a sense I think they you know the dissection room for first year is it's a scary thing and I think in a way they kind of preferred this you know yeah yeah it gives that some and I just like the idea of the teacher being with them hand holding them through the the information um yeah I could imagine it must be quite a nice nice feeling to have that sort of well that distance as well as someone by your side rather than in front of you if you see what I'm saying so some nice ideas there and um any anything um any other I mean so um as I said I I um suggested Evoli as being um uh you know a good or an interesting sort of take on how to make active make video learning active and love this idea from uh Glasgow on the watch parties any other ideas there that we can share I'm just looking at the padlet at the moment lifesaver oh what don't know if anybody wants to mention the lifesaver would love to do an interactive film so is that like a scenario based learning or whoever put the lifesaver link into the padlet okay Mark would you like to tell us a little bit about it um okay so I suppose that's going as scenario based learning so you kind of choose which the best way like making that very active yes yes that that is really really lovely a lovely example there and the other one also um h5p interactive video tool for embedding questions and points on engagement any suggestions on how to make the most of questions and videos maybe that again that's kind of scenario based choice so you know at this point what do you think the best thing to do is a or b would that could be a question yeah Kaltura has a quiz feature Phil would you like to tell us a bit more what you mean by the community version this extends extensible um uh it was a few years ago I was working with the community version uh which I think is more open source than the the one that you have to purchase um it's usually something like six months behind the the commercial version uh it has apis that you can you can actually tap into and stuff like that um and I've often wondered whether it would be possible to create an interface well like the one that you just demonstrated the of early one um but also um particularly with the idea of branching videos so that students can answer questions that were posed in the video and depending on their answer it takes you to a different video or a different part of the video yes yes this this scenario branching thing a lot of work I mean they all sound amazing these these these different options um but I think the the big answer will get back from most most practitioners is it's a lot of work any suggestions around that about um you know what's um simple simple ideas to support the you know the the quick um engagement or quick sort of uh development of resources for active learning with video I do wonder sometimes if people aren't prepared to put the work in then um maybe they should just hand out books instead of bothering to give lectures yeah okay yeah just going back to basics there yeah yeah absolutely but um I think one of the things about the evoli one is if you have a video um you just put it on youtube and you put it in evoli and it doesn't involve that much effort really and it's quite a quick quick and sort of dirty way of just bunging in some that's not a good word but you know just in incorporating some active elements to to the video I mean that um that might be a nice one as well um one area of concern that's come up in our institution that we have few tools that offer video tagging sorry Vicky would you like to expand on that we've got culture and we've got um talus elevate and that provides an opportunity to for students to tag um and comment on video and we've got echo 360 as well so I think from an institutional perspective it's it there's a sort of perhaps not necessarily a concern but maybe I need to kind of outline you know how should staff be using the different platforms should staff feel free to use all the functionality of the different programs or should they use um some programs consistently for specific things um so that you know it's also rolled into um students and and how familiar they are um in terms of their digital literacy is engaging with material so I think you know our university is um an institute I don't know about other institutions but but we seem to like having you know one tool for the job and I think it just throws people when you have different technologies that can do similar things it's like oh which one should we use really so I don't know if that's something other people have come across as well thank you Nicky um is it yeah that's an interesting that's an interesting question is it about um saying supporting an approach oh thank you nilante thank you rather than um focusing on the on the different um sort of uh tools could that be yes I think it's about upskilling and kind of recommending to staff that you know you can use these different tools but we would recommend doing it this way for example um so yeah obviously this case study is a proven point of eco 360 working well for um you know watch parties so should this then be the sort of this is the the platform we use for that type of activity or do we give people choice in using different tools so I think that's something probably all institutions kind of think about yes yes um yeah I mean I and I can see why the confusion does happen especially if they're very similar and there's no you know it's not clear what the real difference is and and you know best to focus on a few good ones that everybody know where they are I think Sophie commented on that student struggle with that stepping outside of the VLE and if that's something I've heard is that students like to know where they are that familiarity of common tools and then once you start introducing new ones it becomes a bit of cognitive overload yeah it's that um it's a kind of um uh multiple economy isn't it it's a this mixed bag but then on the other hand you could it could be argued that you know once you are in the world world in the work world you probably will have to be dealing with lots of different um tools as well so being sort of flexible in your approach might be a key digital skill as well but um yeah that's a that's a a complex question um I'm still looking at the padlet and there's a a tide if students are tired of videos were they tired of lectures delivered in a similar way i lacking interactivity I think I think that's a good point who um who who the person who said that um I think part of the you know rethinking about how videos and and the sort of passive experience of video is all part of the rethinking of the whole um you know the whole sort of lecture model I think I don't know um if uh most of you agree with that or there's something else about that um also other comments from the padlets that um alt run a cpd webinar last year on effective instructional videos which was very useful so that might be I wonder if a recording of the session is available so it might be a good thing to look forward to see if that is available um okay okay and also some comments about people working with Penocto but finding it very fiddly um we're again going back to the evil evil lie it's very simple it really and I think I tried to do something similar on echo 360 and I found that very fiddly as well so fiddly I think is definitely something that is a problem um and again something that I really liked about evil lie was just the simplicity of it maybe even too simple possibly but um you know I certainly appreciated that and so I think um see people are uh wondering and needing to go and everything so um just to ask um yeah is a good reason to try evil lie very simple um it'd be great to hear who would who is interested in in in trying evil lie who would uh be um trying it out Teresa are you going to be trying it yeah I think I will um I've got to teach some students next week about online teaching and it might be just a cool thing to try something definitely never seen before yeah yeah and it's um it's gonna it's so simple so even just like an induction video something really light touch and you know not too um heavy uh in terms of um you know uh content just a nice way to uh to sort of kick an activity or a session off someone also mentioned voice thread um I don't know who's that does anyone um here use ever used voice thread which is something I've seen around for years and I've always found it really interesting but I've never had the opportunity to use it um has anyone ever so conversations oh yeah I'm going to put the padlet link in um let me see uh I think I have it here yep okay and so yeah please do carry on adding any anything there that's happened to me again okay yes so anyone had any experience with uh voice thread okay Teresa have you used voice thread in the past it was good for English teaching that's right when my background yes was is an English teaching and in fact I really wanted to to use it in that context so simple recording a voice in a discussion board type arrangement so a bit like um um the the quite new one the flip grids um getting students to record themselves and record each other um record their answers as well to to video so that's quite a nice one as well flip grid I think it's very similar to uh to voice um thread okay um unless we have anything with anybody else to uh yes I think and just the last point about the g the the data compliancy thing with the Evoli I had to admit that um I had to put it through the um a data check with my IT department and it um it got through as long as I promise to use the anonymous um uh ask students to kind of access the the Evoli platform anonymously um so it gives you both option what either students um log on with their with their email and they create a password or they can there's I think um most of you have done now uh you log on anonymously so uh um that that's again another quick win there as well but certainly to use these things you have to find out what your specific um uh you know what have your your IT um um yeah what what your university sort of uh wants from you in terms of using any external tools so you need to check that out definitely and as I'm saying this is a quick an easy win because it is um you do have that anonymous option there okay so thank you very much everybody uh apologies for the technical uh um of Blackboard Collaborate so chucked me off there um uh just a couple of links there which is the um uh a blog that I wrote about oh thank you uh Vicki a blog um but I wrote on um uh about the Evoli tool back in um in 2020 because uh actually the I was introduced to it just before the pandemic broke out in February um and uh they were kind of introducing it as so 21st century learning this wasn't the only tool there uh and it all seemed like oh this is you know really nice and it's good to have it's good to know but actually a few weeks later it was these kind of tools that you know suddenly became incredibly relevant with the great sort of online pivot so um that was um uh a really interesting um an interesting conference in the in the light of what happened afterwards and um yeah and then I put a link to the um the blog on the uh on the watch party which uh was great anyway thank you so much for for coming to this session yes uh that was a bit of a a Blackboard meltdown there but thank you for bearing with me and sticking to it and um yeah do let us know if um you know anything else comes up in terms of active learning video and do uh join us as well thank you very much