Excellence Gateway
This case study was produced by JISC RSC (Regional Support Centres) Northwest on behalf of the Excellence Gateway.
Sector relevance:Further education colleges
Keywords: Improving teaching and learning, improving responsiveness, recruitment: responding to local and regional priorities, creating, a dapting and using e-learning materials, teaching and learning: enrichment activities, curriculum good practice, development of teaching and learning resources, meeting communities' needs, equality and diversity: access to education, development of teaching and learning resources, staff development
Through its NIACE-funded ELVIS (Engaging Learners Via the Information Society) project Bolton Community College developed a series of video resources to generate interest from the local community in its adult and community learning (ACL) courses. Initially working with a video production company, the College has used further project funding to progress to training tutors in developing effective video content for their courses.
Bolton Community College is a medium sized further education College offering post 16 and adult further education, from taster courses to vocational and higher education level.
The College has a main site at Manchester Road plus other hubs in Bolton. It delivers adult and community provision from a large number of venues across the Bolton area.
The initial challenge at Bolton Community College was finding a way to engage the local community in its ACL courses, particularly relevant for those who had not been in an educational setting for some time, or who may have had poor previous educational experiences or achievements.
Following this, they wanted to encourage the ACL courses to incorporate resources which would provide effective, engaging and timely learning opportunities for their learners.
Paul McKean, Learning Resources and ILT Development Manager at Bolton Community College, was successful in securing NIACE funding for a TrEACL (Technology to Enhance Adult and Community Learning) project to develop informative videos which would ‘engage' the local community and highlight the benefits of their ACL courses.
Engaging interest was particularly relevant for potential learners who had not been in an educational setting for some time, or who may have had poor previous educational experiences or achievements. In addition, Paul felt that using the videos would, for many, also be a step forwards in developing the skills to use the technology which would be incorporated into the courses.
11 videos were produced to promote the ACL courses. Paul used project funding to outsource the filming and output to a video production company. This helped overcome difficulties in being able to commit time from staff within the College, and enabled them to tackle the various aspects they wanted to incorporate, including:
Many of the learners approached to give their views for the videos had themselves been out of education for some time and unsure about taking one of the courses; as a result, they were keen to help others who might be in a similar position.
The production company guided Paul on capturing the right clips for the videos, ensuring that, for example, the learners contributing knew what to do and were asked questions which would prompt the right kinds of responses. The videos were produced as DVDs to be largely accessible to the households, community centres and community groups they would be targeting.
As a follow up to the first ELVIS project, Paul secured funding for ELVIS2, a NIACE E-Shift project which extended the theme of learner engagement to focus on complete ACL course ‘packages' through the College's virtual learning environment (VLE), with video as a key component of the content.
Paul looked for subject areas with activities, such as role play and demonstrations of techniques, which would benefit from use of video, and tapped into the enthusiasm of selected tutors in those areas.
The tutors determined which elements of course content would use video and whilst these, like the initial ELVIS project, were professionally produced, tutors had greater involvement in preparation stages, storyboarding the elements of their courses to be demonstrated. Filming was simpler than in the first project, becoming a ‘point and shoot' exercise to capture the required demonstrations. Editing stages were more complex, with the production company breaking demonstrations down into smaller ‘bite-sized' learning objects which could be viewed and revisited, as required.
The videos, which generally cover practical activities, have included how to make a teddy bear, icing a cake, and hairdressing for weddings. Some of the videos show techniques which are difficult for all learners to see fully in a single classroom demonstration, others demonstrate activities which learners will need to revisit to master successfully. One art tutor astutely selected techniques which would be covered in BTEC courses as well as ACL ones, thus maximising use.
In some cases, such as hairdressing techniques demonstrated against dark hair, it was difficult to show finer details. However, Paul points out that the videos are largely for the ‘consolidation' of activities that have taken place in the classroom; as such, they are reminders rather than the sole demonstrations.
Image 1: Screenshots from a technique demonstration video
Recognising that the use of a professional production company was not a long-term option for the College, Paul utilised some of the project funding to purchase digital video (DV) cameras, which enabled them to produce their own videos. However, he says that the lessons learned through working alongside the production company have been invaluable.
He also recognises that his team cannot commit time to producing video resources for tutors, putting their efforts into training tutors to do this for themselves instead. Despite this the main issue for tutors remains the time needed to plan and create the resources, rather than learning to use the technology.
Following issues that tutors encountered involving lack of network space to store large video files and lack of time for editing and encoding the files. Dean Baggaley, the College's VLE Administrator has developed a ‘back-end' application enabling tutors to upload video files which are encoded and exported automatically to a defined location, allowing them to get on with other work. This development, part of a MoLeNET project, has enabled them to make videos available for mobile devices (e.g. iPods, mobile phones) to widen the extent of their use.
As a natural extension to what they have achieved to date, the College is now developing the original engagement project to provide short ‘taster' courses, a blend of face-to-face and via VLE, which prospective learners can experience before committing to. These follow a similar ethos to the supermarket principle of ‘try before you buy'. The ‘taster' experience is intended to build confidence and initial competence, so generating interest and enthusiasm for a fifteen week course. The original ELVIS videos remain current for use in the ‘taster' courses as they displayed main College contact details only, not those of individual tutors which can easily outdate.
The route taken by the College in developing the resources and the skills to produce them has been made possible by linking the various stages of development to different, but appropriate, project funding opportunities.
A downside to this is where funded project timescales have not aligned with academic cycles. At times this meant that resources could only be trialled towards the end of a course, having to wait until the next run of the course for them to be fully utilised and evaluated.
Paul believes that other Learning Providers should be able to move straight into developing their own resources without the services of a production company, and offers some sound advice, as assistance, based on his experiences:
In all but one case, Paul has been able to use audio recorded at the time of filming, rather than requiring a separate voiceover afterwards. Not only does a separate voiceover take time, but from experience he says it is easier, and actually makes more sense, when activities are described as they are being demonstrated.
Paul is convinced that although some videos they have produced are not of a ‘professional' quality, this has not been detrimental to the finished resource or learner impact. He highlights YouTube and mobile phones as instrumental in a wider acceptance of ‘less than perfect' video.
The next stage of development for the College links to a new campus development. Paul plans to put webcams in these classrooms, enabling tutors to record teaching sessions at the push of a button, helping to engender a culture where staff use the technology as an everyday part of their teaching.
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