Excellence Gateway
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) West Midlands on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance: Further education and Sixth Form colleges, specialist schools/colleges
Keywords: Improving responsivesness to learners, learner support, visually impaired learners, e-learning, science, curriculum good practice
This case study highlights the effective use of audio technology to support visually impaired learners. The Head of Science at New College Worcester has created a series of MP3s for GCSE Physics and A-level Biology students to re-enforce learning and help with exam revision.
New College Worcester (NCW) is a residential specialist college and school for young people aged between 11 and 19 who are blind or partially sighted. The College offers a variety of GCSE, AS- and A-level courses, and extra curricular activities. It also supports students in developing independent skills such as living, mobility and ICT.
NCW was recognised as ‘outstanding’ following the last Ofsted inspection in 2005. It is committed to sharing good practice and works closely with the community through the Outreach Programme.
Previously, students received revision materials in the form of tape cassette recordings and CDs. These tapes and CDs spanned entire topics and lasted on average for 45 minutes. As a result, students often struggled to understand one aspect of a topic, a phrase or a single word.
Listening to a 45-minute recording would be roughly equivalent to a sighted person reading 10 pages of a textbook to perhaps access just one paragraph of interest.
Head of Science, Sarah Hughes, has a keen interest in ICT and its use in teaching and learning. One of her colleagues introduced her to Audacity – a free, open source piece of software for recording and editing sounds. Coupled with a microphone, Sarah created a series of MP3s and trialled them with her students. Following such positive feedback (the students commented on how useful the MP3s were), she decided to develop the idea further.
The MP3 files are based on content from GCSE Physics and A-level Biology revision guides. This enables Sarah to focus on one concept, and add additional comments, for example, offering suggestions as to how students may remember things. Rather than just reading directly from the revision guide, this gives a more interesting and engaging focus.
AS-level Biology students, for example, have access to MP3 recordings of paragraphs from the core textbook. The files are labelled according to the paragraph sub-heading, and placed in a folder which corresponds to the topic covered.
The MP3s can be as short as 20 seconds, but are generally no longer than five minutes. As well as being used for revision, the MP3s are also used to guide students to answer questions as part of homework activities, and are embedded in Word documents, for example.
Students have more control and can take ownership of their learning. The MP3s are stored on the College intranet and organised in folders by subject and topic. Students can download the required files onto their MP3 players, laptops or memory sticks. This alleviates problems of students losing cassettes or CDs, and means they can listen to MP3s ‘as and when’, for example, on the bus or in the gym using their MP3 players. It is more convenient and accessible than reading large print and Braille textbooks, which can be quite big and bulky to carry around.
For teachers, using MP3s means not repeating a concept over and over again in the classroom. Students directed to the MP3s can instead listen repeatedly to a topic in between lessons and at home. They can also read ahead and prepare in advance for forthcoming lessons. This is particularly useful, as students have commented that they hear new words which are pronounced correctly and often explained – not the case if they were to simply read the text.
The use of MP3s has since been rolled out to other staff at New College Worcester. Sarah delivered a staff development session on why MP3s are worthwhile for teaching and learning. The PowerPoint presentation that was used in the session (see end of case study), features examples of the MP3s, how to record them and the benefits to students.
Since delivering this presentation, the History and PE departments have also adopted the use of MP3s with further staff development sessions planned to encourage more widespread use across the College.
The MP3s are accessible to fully-sighted students too, and presents another way for students to access study materials. The resources are available year on year, ultimately making life easier for the teachers, students and College.
View Sarah Hughes' PowerPoint presentation on the use of MP3s, which she used on Staff Development Day.
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Source: Quality Improvement Agency
You can find this page and download any referenced resources from the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.org.uk/157248.
