Media Arts

Experimental Learning in the World

My teaching over the course of the last academic year has involved:

1)     Communicating with students to both provide guidance and clarification pertaining to the subject matter of lectures and to help resolve technical issues in the MS Teams chat box functionality.

2)     Designing and delivering an hour-long lecture on the subject of “Idiocy, Stupidity and Transgression.”

3)     Convening discussion in a post-lecture seminar space.

All three of these aspects of my teaching during the course of the inSTIL programme were carried out in an online space over MS Teams. As I’ve addressed at greater length in my Evaluation of Teaching document below, whilst the lecture I delivered was designed to embody the core learning objectives of the Digital Aesthetics module I was teaching on (which emphasises individual and independent exploration and research on the part of the students), it nonetheless conformed to our customary understandings of a lecture as a teacher-led practice and learning resource. I also experienced some bandwidth issues at my end so was unable to keep my camera on throughout. Similarly, although my role in the seminar extended to convening, facilitating, and encouraging students’ discussion and feedback, at least three quarters of the hour-long seminar was set aside for student presentations. The reason that I wanted to mention the nature of my lecture and seminar here is that it can help to contextualise my idea for an innovative teaching strategy and learning task. The Digital Aesthetics module designed by Prof. Olga Gorinuova encourages students to draw connections between diverse forms of media, physical and digital architectures, and philosophical, sociological, and anthropological traditions. It also requires students to contextualise their responses to the taught material and core reading in light of current social, political and – crucially for my proposal here – environmental issues and events. These learning objectives coupled with the kinds of online teaching we have all been required to facilitate as a consequence of the pandemic has led me to think about the possibility of developing innovative teaching practices that take place both offline and outside the classroom or lecture hall. Whilst I was studying for the Poetic Practice MA at RHUL, Prof. Redell Olsen tasked the student cohort with attempting to write poetry whilst walking around London together. This fed into the theoretical literature we were studying at the time (which was related to Guy Debord and the Situationist movement). I was also struck at the time by the sense of community that this learning practice fostered between the students on the course, and how liberating it felt to compose academic work “out in the world”. I would be very interested to try to replicate aspects of this my future teaching. The idea would be (after prior consultation with the students) to propose an open-ended question, a quote from an academic text, or a series of theoretical prompts that would serve to stimulate and frame the students’ navigations through a city space. It would require students to write short notes, phrases, and impressions, to draw small sketches and diagrams as they walked, connecting with one another and with the world around them. I think this could act an as innovative example of a student-centred learning practice and environment for a few reasons:

1)     The question/prompt/quote used to precipitate discussion and composition would be agreed upon by the students. I would oversee this process (as a means of ensuring it related to the learning objectives of the module and the literature we were currently exploring), by I would not impose anything upon them.

2)     The question/prompt/quote would be sufficiently open-ended so as to encourage students with different approaches to learning and with different intellectual interests to engage the prompt in different ways: to develop different motifs, to discover different patterns as part of a communal learning body.

3)     I would not join the students on their walk, but would wait for them to return to the seminar or lecture space and would invite students to share their findings with one another (without requiring anyone to if they didn’t want to).

(Calum Hazell, Media Arts)

Inviting Students to Take an Active Role in Shaping Tasks: Selecting a Film for Discussion

Polly Hember (Media Arts) 

Teaching on a first-year module about the history of film, I was presented with the challenge of how to best engage students with complex theoretical topics. Other tutors had highlighted the topic of ‘Modernism and the Avant-Garde’ as being a particularly challenging topic to facilitate engagement within the classroom. Research also indicates that when students perceive the workload as high, they may resort to memorisation and recall to manage their learning, which has been shown to result in a surface approach to learning.[1]

To mitigate this and encourage students’ deep learning, firstly I approached the topic with enthusiasm instead of presenting modernism as something dense or difficult. As Paul Ashwin and others note, belief in the students’ abilities is crucial to encouraging their confidence and they are more likely to be motivated to engage in a topic.[2] Secondly, I planned a small group exercise which allowed students to become active participants in making and evaluating the decisions, which—as Cari Crumly argues—is central to a student-focused approach to learning, where students are more likely to feel responsible for their own development.[3] I did this by inviting students to form small groups, and make a collective decision about which of the three modernist films they wished to discuss. They had a choice between a variety of films, which they had all watched in the screening prior to the seminar. I gave them time to discuss within their groups which film they wished to analyse in more detail, providing them with an active choice in shaping of the task and the conversation that later emerged.

Through inviting students to take responsibility of selecting which core text they wanted to focus on and signposting my belief in the students’ capabilities to engage with this topic, I was pleased to witness a lively discussion, which facilitated interconnections, collaboration, and the opportunity to learn from one another.[4] I was very pleased with the enthusiastic and talkative manner in which the groups approached the analysis of the different films.

[1] Keith Trigwell, Michael Prosser, and Fiona Waterhouse, ‘Relations between teachers’ approaches to teaching and students’ approaches to learning’, Higher Education, vol. 37 (1999), 57-70 (p. 57).

[2] Paul Ashwin, David Boud, Susanna Calkins, Kelly Coate, Fiona Hallett, Gregory Light, Kathy Luckett, Iain MacLaren, Katarina Mårtensson, Jan McArthur, Velda McCine, Monica McLean and Michelle Tooher, Reflective Teaching in Higher Education, 2nd ed. (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020), pp. 13-14.

[3] Cari Crumly, Pedagogies for Student-Centered Learning (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014).

[4] Sally Brown and Phil Race, ‘Using Effective Assessment to Promote Leaning’, in University Teachers in Focus: A Learning-Centred Approach, ed. by Lynne Hunt and Denise Chalmers (London and New York: Routledge, 2013), pp. 74-91.

Bibliography

Ashwin, Paul, David Boud, Susanna Calkins, Kelly Coate, Fiona Hallett, Gregory Light, Kathy Luckett, Iain MacLaren, Katarina Mårtensson, Jan McArthur, Velda McCine, Monica McLean and Michelle Tooher, Reflective Teaching in Higher Education, 2nd ed. (London and New York: Bloomsbury, 2020)

Crumly, Cari, Pedagogies for Student-Centered Learning (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2014)

Trigwell, Keith, Michael Prosser, and Fiona Waterhouse, ‘Relations between teachers’ approaches to teaching and students’ approaches to learning’, Higher Education, vol. 37 (1999), 57-70

A Modernist Film Festival

(Christina Heflin, Media Arts)

Given “these unprecedented times,” and how much of the teaching has now gone online, there will be a need for more creativity. So, in certain instances traditional means of evaluation – research papers, in-class, closed-book exams, etc. – are no longer as effective. Students are now more than ever able to buy term papers online and there is no proctoring to ensure that students are not using their notes or Google during an exam. Thankfully, most students are more than equipped to produce a short film (approx. 3 minutes), and everyone has their own movie studio in their cell phone.

This film project would take the place of the traditional research paper and help them with their final exam. Towards the end of term, after the essential, basic tenants of modernism and film are explored and examples of the most important works are shown, explained and taught, the students would make a film based on the concepts. They would need to demonstrate some of the techniques, themes and concepts in order to display an understanding and each student – because arranging into groups would be too difficult – would also have an assigned technique that they would need to incorporate, such as abstraction or slow-motion, for example. This opportunity for experiential learning would allow the student to engage with the material and really understand what made these films worthy of study 100 years later. We would have a screening in which each student would introduce their film and give a small presentation. The films could easily be uploaded to Vimeo or YouTube and made available to the class as needed. Students would do double duty of peer reviewing as a form of their own analytic abilities as well as providing feedback to the student filmmaker. Peer assessment, as outlined in Teaching at University (2005) is a good way for students to “come to a much deeper understanding of how criteria can inform the development of a piece of work.”

The films would then serve as material for the final exam in which students would need to analyze the films – perhaps two from the film festival – and discuss how they relate to the films discussed in class. This idea of looking at the larger picture, instead of filmmaker A, film B and film genre C all under the umbrella of Modernist Film, is something that is discussed in Small Teaching (2016) and is an effective way for students to showcase their creativity and demonstrate a more widely encompassing understanding of the material overviewed over the span of the term. Because of the need to have truly understood the foundations of the films learned in class for their own films, they will be able to identify the key concepts and draw parallels between the student-made films and the originals.

References 

o   Morss, Kate, and Murray, Rowena. Teaching at University: A Guide for Postgraduates and Researchers. London: SAGE Publications, 2005. Accessed March 22, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

o   Lang, James M.. Small Teaching: Everyday Lessons from the Science of Learning. Hoboken: John Wiley & Sons, Incorporated, 2016. Accessed March 22, 2021. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Response: 

       Thank you for your insights to teaching under the pandemic and the move to online, such descriptions are beneficial to both development of teaching practice and enhancing student engagement over zoom and surprisingly within the classroom. I found the concept of creating a short film as a device for teaching an interesting idea. I fully agree with the evaluation needed in this time and such thoughts are critical to finding creative ways to both engage students and move forward, not only regarding teaching during the pandemic but also within a classroom setting. I would be curious to see the results of such an idea used nowadays within the same practice to explain to students such practices and showcase their ideas for practice - the idea made me recall the practical teaching module from media arts in some regard. Overall, what I found most interesting is the collaborative peer review and teaching through peer-based feedback. (Adam Nash)

The Art of Reading Well, Together (Lilly Markaki)

For my blog post, I have chosen to discuss a teaching strategy that is in no way innovative, but which remains, I think, of great value, especially for those of us situated within the humanities. 

Before I come to my brief discussion of the technique in question, I want to say something about the circumstances that led me to employ it: I am teaching this course for the first time and which requires students to engage with at least 2-3 key readings a week, the majority of which are highly theoretical / conceptual, ranging from meditations on the nature of images, to discussions of the politics of anonymity. Students are clearly trying to engage with these texts, but by week 4 (and as the readings and course get more demanding) we have hit a wall: no one is contributing to the seminar discussion. I ask my students to be honest and one by one they admit that they are doing the reading (or “trying to”), but it’s like reading in a different language which they barely understand. Of course. How and when did I learn to approach writing of this kind? How many years before I was able to isolate key notions in a text, or before I could recognise underlying paradigms of thought in them? 

So here comes the strategy / solution: I decided to read with my students (using an overhead projector) and to share with them, pen in hand, the sort of movements I perform when reading: circle the notions I think might be significant, add question-marks next to the things I don’t understand or look them up on the spot and write down the findings relevant to my study, and which might help me move on to next paragraph. The list goes on, obviously, and I hope some of my students will, by now, have developed their own reading habits, unique to them. What I can say for certain is that this exercise not only reminded me that reading well is an art to be mastered and one that we, as educators, should be sharing with our students; it also allowed me to form a stronger bond with mine because to read with them was my way of saying that I see them and recognise their needs. We’ve been on the same team ever since. 

Response:

Thanks for sharing your teaching methods. Asking students to read those texts and be able to digest key notions in a text are definitely the hardest challenges in teaching, especially when the contents are more abstract or conceptual. Therefore, as a teacher, it is really important to guide the reading session with the students. And students would find it very beneficial if we, as educators, can demonstrate, or share how our processes of reading are. What I also find interesting is that by sharing our experience, students can not only learn what is in the texts, but also learn to digest information from various perspective. I look forward to applying these techniques in my future teachings. (Xiaolian Zhang , Music)

Introducing a Framework First (Lydia Yeoman) 

This year I took over a second year Screenwriting class that has been taught in a similar way for more than a decade. The course had been designed to allow creative experimentation in the first term before moving onto more formal ideas about craft and structure in the second. The first term mostly revolved around creative exercises designed to get the students thinking outside the box. These exercises were generalised in terms of storytelling regardless of medium, with the emphasis moving onto telling stories for the screen in the second term. 

When teaching something as creative as Screenwriting I have found that student confidence is the primary concern. Without confidence, students are far less likely to engage with the material and are often unwilling to share their work with the class. Since sharing work is crucial to Screenwriting (indeed, it is the aim of Screenwriting!) we must first establish and build confidence in our students before we can expect full student engagement with the class. 

With this in mind I decided to re-design the course by moving the terms around. Instead of dedicating the first term to creative exploration, I instead instituted a 10 week series of lectures that introduced the students to basic screenwriting principles such as “dramatic action”, “character”, and “genre”. This gave the students a working knowledge of how screen-story works, demystifying the process and most importantly, demonstrating that screenwriting is a craft that can be learned as opposed to an innate talent. By shifting their perceptions of Screenwriting from a skill to a craft, students are far less likely to feel intimated or overwhelmed by the subject. Engagement increases and students are far less likely to take feedback on their work too personally.

By giving students a safe structure to work within they felt more able to begin to explore creatively. In this case, boundaries allowed them to free themselves as they had more of an idea of what was expected of them.

Response:

It is very important to build the confidence of students, as this is usually critical when it comes to class presentations, discussions, reflection on their work, or generally participation in the class. Redesigning the course to give first the knowledge and then to focus on making use of it is an excellent way to achieve a student-centred approach and encourage students' confidence. (Tim Breitfeld, Earth Sciences)

This is a critical aspect of teaching that needs to be adopted by anyone wishing to get the best out of the student and make sure they are actually learning. Laying a solid and well-thought out foundation for the introduction of new knowledge will help students build their confidence and interest in the subject. (Ayomikun Idowu, Management)

Thank you for sharing your experience and giving insight into the importance of shifting perspectives! Highlighting a vital need of increasing confidence can help on so many different levels, especially their learning experience and unlocking their potential. Taking on a student centred approach also encourages autonomy from the student, as well as, providing opportunity for the teacher to also be the learner. Vanita Chamdal, Psychology. 

Thank you for your input Lydia. Most certainly, redesigning a course and its methods can positively boost the ways in which students interact with the task. I found particularly interesting your approach to increase confidence, since I find it essential when teaching creative disciplines. Your idea of shifting the perception from 'skill' to 'craft' is an excellent method for teachers in the creative arts to bear in mind, and I will certainly explore this in my own field. (Amanda García Fernández-Escárzaga - Music).

The Power of Whiteboard: How I Gradually ‘Ditched’ PowerPoint (Tianyu Zhang, aka Sophia)

In the first term of 2017, I was the seminar tutor of ‘Film and Television Histories’ in the Media Arts department. Seminars enable smaller groups of students to discuss what they learn from the lecture and have their own voice, which is a great opportunity to practise one’s critical thinking and teamwork skills. 

At the beginning, I spent so much time on making PowerPoint and even made sure the slides look good. However, I gradually realised that sticking to each slide fixed the boundary of the seminar and risked running over time. Inspired by Hallock’s ‘framework’ theory (2012), I realised the importance of organising information. Hallock used a visual structure to capture students’ thinking. He asked students to use a square, a triangle and a circle to represent different types of information encountered in class. The method helped him to organise students’ thoughts and initiate discussions based on students’ major problems. I learned from the framework theory and decided to increase the usage of whiteboard, which would enable me to organise students’ ‘live’ opinions in front of them. By doing this the whole class was involved in the organisation process. Key words were fit into charts and diagrams on whiteboard, which also enabled me to draw down the thinking pattern of students’ discussion. By pre-designing the structure of charts, I easily finished the rest of the work during the seminar, which saved me a lot of time during preparation. On the other hand, this act of recognition strongly encouraged the students to be more active and willing to participate. Gradually they were able to go beyond the lecture and raised more questions for discussion. One day, they spontaneously started a debate during discussion and extended it after the seminar. The next week when they came back, they still remembered the debate from last week. I was so proud that they have fulfilled the aim of a seminar. 

Last but not least, the teaching urged me to learn quickly so as to teach at the same time. By using whiteboard, I was able to learn with the students and see us progress together. I did not abandon PowerPoints completely. I managed to keep a good balance between preparation and improvisation. I encouraged my students by acknowledging their thoughts and in return, encouraged myself by seeing how quickly I adapted to teaching. I believe effective teaching lies in the preparation of organising relevant knowledge to pass on students and at the same time, having students involved into the organisation process. 

References: 

Hallock, P. (2012). Using “Frameworks” to Enhance Teaching and Learning. [online] Faculty Focus | Higher Ed Teaching & Learning. Available at: https://www.facultyfocus.com/articles/teaching-and-learning/using-frameworks-to-enhance-teaching-and-learning/ [Accessed 21 Mar. 2019].

Responses:

Whether or not to use PowerPoint presentations during seminars is quite an interesting discussion which I have faced in my own teaching sessions. Getting rid of them certainly provides more time for discussion and allows students to express their own opinions. However, I wonder how much control you have over these discussions especially as I have noticed (1) that open-discussion can quickly get heated especially as undergraduate students are not always able to differentiate between a personal position and a theoretical stance; and (2) that the class tends to go quiet when students are pushed to the limits of their capacities and have no leader to find their way around, something which PowerPoint could have compensated for. (Moudwe Daga, Politics and International Relations)

I believe that the whiteboard and slides should go hand in hand. This is because, not always all the groups of students (especially, first-year) participate and speak their mind ‘live’. I would say that the slides should not be so detailed as to not  let the students think on their own, nor fully abandoned so as to make the students lose their spark-ignition which they receive from slides to think aloud and share their ‘live’ opinions. (Pallavi Bagga, Computer Science)

I can relate to this. I’ve also found it productive to ask for volunteers to do the whiteboard writing. Some students who hadn’t contributed as much in the past have stepped forward. This raises the energy in the room, makes the session more learner-centred and allows me to play a more facilitative role as a teacher. (Ian McDonald, Management)

This post made me reconsider my own practice and think more carefully about the ways that I could collect student opinions in the future - the tangible process of writing and the immersive aspect of watching the board fill with thoughts would be an interesting break from the 'norm'.  Maybe the inclusion of fact sheets or short summaries alongside this task would ensure that students leave with a reminder of the key theories that had shaped the discussions that they had just taken part in (Emily Hopkins, Geography) 

Inclusive learning (Maeve O'Connell)

The inSTIL session on Teaching to Student Diversity was particularly enlightening and as a result I’m changing the way I present information to be more inclusive. I have an autistic student and talked to them about what they need, but had not considered that there may be a lot of other students (with dyslexia for example) who would benefit from adjustments to how I deliver classes. With this in mind, I’ve integrated more visual media (photos, videos) into my slides and documentation to offer multiple ways for students to absorb the information, i.e. if I have students who find it easier to process text, graphics, or images, they would all be catered for.

I’m also looking into Inverted (or Flipped) Classroom (1) techniques. Usually I do an equipment demonstration in my sessions. It can be fairly dry and I feel the students would benefit from more hands-on activity time instead. With the help of my fellow Media Arts Technicians, I’m heading up the production of short demonstration videos for students to watch before attending class. Aaron Sams asserts that “one of the greatest benefits of flipping is that overall interaction increases: teacher-to-student, and student-to-student.” (2) I’ll monitor the results next term but I very much hope he is right.

These videos will be accessible to the students on Moodle, so I’m looking at redesigning our page to be easier for students to navigate and read without being overwhelmed. This means applying the same presentation principles – using Padlet to integrate well laid out images, graphics and videos, ensuring that text is easier to read. For example, Century Gothic and Verdana are said to be more dyslexia friendly fonts, and bullet points tend to be clearer than longer blocks of text. The goal is to have a centralised space with engaging forums and work sharing platforms to help students with their team work, and to really enhance the feeling of Media Arts being a community.

References:

1. Lage, Maureen; Platt, Glenn; Treglia, Michael (2000). Inverting the Classroom: A Gateway to Creating an Inclusive Learning Environment. The Journal of Economic Education, 31, 1.

2. Sams, Aaron (2012). Flip Your Classroom: Reaching Every Student in Every Class Every Day.International Society for Technology in Education.

Response:

I recently attended the UCL Education conference, where a similar - flipped - approach was discussed by lab technicians. They recorded the 'dry' demonstration part of the session and students watched it before the session. This then freed up more time during the session for active engagement. They also had newly redesigned lab spaces, with large screens around, on which they showed slides on a rolling basis, to assist the students during the session. Student engagement, including for the pre-session task, markedly improved. The staff did point out it was quite labour intensive, however; and that they had only completed this for a couple of units out of the many of the whole programme, but were hoping gradually to do so in the future. (Fiona Prendergast, EDC)

Response:
I have been reading this comment with interest, as started working with SEN learners a few years ago - I think your ideas are all great! I also found that many times, these learners know exactly what will support them, so it's certainly a good idea to talk about this or speak to SEN coordinators/specialists. On another note, I also started using flipped classroom elements and it has changed my teaching (for the better), because I can now concentrate on student feedback in the sessions - so much to learn still though! (Caroline Moeckel, Information Security)

Post (Jean-Baptiste de Vaulx)

During my first experience of leading seminars, I met with various challenges which are probably familiar to all other tutors starting out, including making sure that all students are engaged and participating in inclusive learning activities, or managing with the fact that the large majority of them  never do the required reading.

However, I wanted to share one example of an approach I tried in encouraging inclusive participation. Over the first weeks, I naturally found some students to be quieter or less confident than others. However, I realised there were students who remained quiet not because they were innately shy, but rather due to their lower confidence in expressing themselves as non-native English speakers. In accordance with the advice of Barker to perceive diversity as a rich resource rather than a ‘challenge’ to solve (Barker, 2012), I was able to use their different backgrounds as a means to add other perspectives to the discussion (e.g. asking them about their experience of watching TV and film in their respective countries). 

Yet, one student remained reticent to express himself in the first weeks. Making note of Jacques (2000) which stresses the importance of structuring activities to encourage less dominant members of the group, I saw an opportunity to involve this student and hopefully boost his confidence. One week, when the topic was Sergei Eisenstein’s theory of montage and his analogy between Chinese ideograms and film editing, I designed a task involving this student’s knowledge of written Mandarin on the whiteboard, which not only visually encapsulated Eisenstein’s concept for the other students but also made the student feel active and valued. Although I was slightly nervous that he would be shy about being specifically singled out for this task, I felt afterwards that he was glad I had asked him and his confidence in participating increased in later weeks. This is quite a specific example, and every situation and student is different, but I think what I learnt is that speaking up in group debates is not the only strength and there is always another way to find the unique expertise of a student and to bring it out such that they will feel more engaged and confident. I would be interested to hear from other tutors who have faced similar situations.

References:

Jacques, D. (2000) Learning in Groups, 3rd edn. London: Kogan Page.

M. Barker (2012) ‘Teaching International Students’, in University Teaching in Focus: A Learning-Centred Approach, K. L. Krause (ed.), London: Routledge.

Response:

I totally agree with the approach you implemented and wish more teachers would do the same. I find it very encouraging that you tried to find activities that would make this one student feel more confident, regardless of their English perhaps not being as good as of the other students; instead, you used it as an opportunity to boost their confidence! As a foreign MA student in the UK myself a few years ago, I had struggled to cope in seminars, as I was hesitant to speak up because of my English not being that great at the time. I was studying ancient Greek, and being a native speaker of modern Greek, there were many opportunities for my teachers to potentially include me in the discussions, simply by asking me a question such as ‘‘How has this word evolved in modern Greek?’’ (as most of the time I felt invisible due to language issues, I wouldn’t mind being singled out!). None of the teachers did this except for one, who every single time tried to actively include me in discussions/activities by asking me questions related to my own background and that only I could answer; I suddenly felt someone actually cared for my contribution in class and until today I remember the difference this had made in my overall performance during my studies. (Anon.)

Response:

Thank you for sharing this Jack. I really love how you made this such an interactive learning experience - even going beyond the classroom and exploring campus to do so! Such a creative way to engage students and make them think about the impact of their work. I also think it’s so important that you recognised how, so often, more information is needed about the design process. I find this is a common theme with my own students: often structural help is a missing part of the tool kit we give them. Addressing this in such a creative way is  really inspiring .(Anna Davies, Department of Law and Criminology)

A Tailored Cinematography Simulator for Higher Education (Aleksandara Rydzkowska, Media Arts Departament)

Moving teaching to virtual world brought to the light the need of finding a solution for conducting the most practical courses remotely. In the Media Arts Department, the cinematography class was the most problematic one. Tutors raised their doubts whether it is possible at all. Trying to find a substitute for teaching lighting on campus, I have found lighting simulators, that potentially could be used for the purpose, but they had some shortcomings.

The systems available on the market (CineTracer, Elixxier, Lightarchitect 2.0 add-on for Blender), are limited to the built-in locations that don’t reflect University’s reality. They also use equipment inspired by the high-budget film industry that is beyond the reach of students. Such software itself has a huge potential to solve the problem of teaching cinematography online, but to become a perfect digital solution for higher education it should be tailored to the university. Creating a digital environment suited to the university locations, as well as assets based on actual resources of the departmental equipment store, would give students a tool to practice Cinematography, using equipment they would normally have access to. It would give the opportunity to teach lighting practice, camera use as well as health and safety, in a safe environment.

The possibility of practicing skills at home and plan the production would solve other issues too. Furthered by COVID-19 and the immediate need to teach remotely, there is an ever-pressing need to overcome the present difficulties of teaching cinematography online, but also overcome persistent teaching issues around access to facilities to learn lighting practices. Students practical learning is limited by the spaces’ and equipment’s available at any one time; as well as tutors who have limited time and no tools to see students' application of lighting outside of practical teaching hours & assessments.

Additionally, similar tool with a game characteristics and user-friendly interface, could raise engagement among students who could learn and play at the same time.

Using The Affordances Of Digital Environments For Inclusive Learning (Eirini Nikopoulou)

The digital environments which we have been using during the last year for communicating, teaching, learning, and participating in various activities, have been more or less defining those activities. As a PhD student participating in various workshops and seminars, but also involved in teaching in higher education I kept wondering how to best utilise this new digital environment as a resource in order to promote inclusive teaching and encourage student participation.

As a teaching assistant I was able to observe the natural affinity which students had with online environments and digital activities in general. Students were attending the lectures and seminars through MS Teams. In the lecture and seminar which I designed and taught in the module, I decided to make use of those characteristics in order to create an environment where everyone was motivated to participate. I utilised a variety of visual materials ranging from hyperlinks, still images and videos to archive magazine covers in order to link the complex theoretical notions I was discussing in the lecture to real-life situations, in which those notions could apply. Additionally, I encouraged students to share their thoughts after having watched the videos and/ or visited the sites which the hyperlinks led to. I prompted them to use the chat rather than turn their camera on and speak because I wanted to ensure that even students with a slow connection or a broken camera had the opportunity to participate in the discussion. I found that this approach was quite helpful as the majority of students felt motivated to participate throughout the lecture and seminar and engage in discussions.   

Film Studies Worksheets (Rebecca Feghali)

When teaching first year undergraduate Film Studies, seminars are made up of students from a variety of backgrounds – some with experience studying film theory, many without. Moreover, many students are international or do not have English as a first language. This can make discussing dense theoretical ideas difficult and students often struggle to engage. In order to remedy this, I designed a worksheet that allows my seminars to be led by the films we are studying. Beginning with the screening of a short scene from this week’s case study, I ask students to fill in the gaps in the worksheet while they watch. This involves noting down everything they notice that could be a significant point of analysis. For instance, what interesting cinematography is used? How is the scene lit? What character/ narrative development is taking place? What do you notice about sound design?

This process allows students to gather their ideas individually before sharing them with the class, which then provides the foundation for further discussion. As students interact with one another and share ideas, I guide the discussion onto theoretical ground and we explore how these techniques used by filmmakers can be linked to theoretical ideas, concepts and literature.

Forming the basis of our film analysis, this is not only helpful practice for when students come to write their assignments, but also is an effective combination of group and individual work. It benefits both students who are confident speaking aloud in class and learn better this way, as well as those who prefer independent work. It is a helpful activity for those who are confident in film analysis, as well as those who require further guidance.

The Covid Pandemic and teaching in its ‘aftermath’ (Adam Nash)

The Covid 19 pandemic brought a great and sudden change to the forms of traditional learning. Before the pandemic there was already a debate around a hypothetical learning crisis deemed around teachings refusal to modernise [1]. Teaching should always be done in a classroom or otherwise appropriate environment; however, the Pandemic forced a new perspective onto teaching that required an evaluation.

Through this sudden shift there was a formal debate of technologies place in the classroom, as can be seen in the quick adaptation of technology notably Zoom and laptops provided for students [2]  something of which I considered throughout the Instil programme and my own teaching. Firstly, teachings reliance upon presentation and visual aids failed to assess some students auditory learning, whist teaching that relied upon a purely auditory basis left behind a visual learner. What we see during the pandemic rather is an increase in the use of video-based technology that becomes heavily sound focused to create an intermix mediums. This hence enables new routes where students thrive and this can be directly placed into the classroom.

One of these routes relies on the advantage of video editing and screen sharing, and in my specialty, we can take this to compare visual based media of which stimulate students to draw differences between clips to create a critical evaluation. This alongside a given speech keeps student engagement high and assists their learning. We can also see the advantage through several other forms for example visual based feedback, a clear opportunity to input ideas and a chance for wider creative discussions.

There are however some disadvantages, for example the online based learning method has evidently harmed some student’s confidence in their abilities. Something that is clear in my seminars is a fear of engagement with myself as the tutor. This is however easily resolved by pairing students together and giving them time for independent discussion before having students share their ideas.

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[1] Jill Attewell et al., ‘Modernising Education and Training: Mobilising Technology for Learning’, Learning and Skills Network (NJ3) (Learning and Skills Network, 2010).

[2] Byeongwoo Kang, ‘How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Reshaping the Education Service’, The Future of Service Post-COVID-19 Pandemic, Volume 1, 2021, 15–36.

Attewell, Jill, Carol Savill-Smith, Rebecca Douch, and Guy Parker. ‘Modernising Education and Training: Mobilising Technology for Learning’. Learning and Skills Network (NJ3). Learning and Skills Network, 2010.

Kang, Byeongwoo. ‘How the COVID-19 Pandemic Is Reshaping the Education Service’. The Future of Service Post-COVID-19 Pandemic, Volume 1, 2021, 15–36.