You should show that you have used a range of learning technologies.These might include web pages and online resources, Virtual Learning Environments, electronic assessment, blogs, wikis, mobile technology, AR/VR, programming languages, or other relevant technologies. It is important to make it clear how the technology you discuss is being used for learning and/or teaching.
When I first started teaching, the use of technology in my teaching was mostly limited to the use of Blackboard, and using YouTube videos in my PowerPoint slides. Leading on from my PhD on social media, I attempted to use social media to encourage a group approach to learning so I set up a Facebook page for the different modules I taught at the time. The main purpose was to encourage participation from students between lectures to keep them focused on the content. However, I found that only a few students engaged with this and the responses were essentially coming from the same students each week (less than 10% of the cohort). It seemed they were not keen to have one of their predominantly 'social' platforms used for academic purposes. I therefore decided to try and use alternative technology to support students in their learning. Below, I outline several tools I now use to support students both in my own modules but also more generally with academic skills support.
Another of my roles in the department is the coordinator for the Graduate Teaching Assistants who provide support with teaching and marking in the department. When I first took this role on, there was no one place the GTAs could go for information about their role specifically related to the department and the training they received. I was keen to develop a 'one-stop-shop' that they could refer to both during the training period but also throughout the entire time as a GTA. Below I outline how I use Google tools to support my role as GTA Coordinator and thus support the GTAs in their teaching roles.
As with many other institutions, the University of York has access to G Suite for Education. This has opened up access to lots of different tools that are suitable for teaching and learning. Below I outline two key tools from this suite I use for this purpose.
One of the modules where I use Google docs is in my Advanced Module, Cyberpsychology which tends to have a class size of 35 to 40 students. When designing this module, I wanted to allow students the opportunity to discuss in smaller groups the content they had been learning. I foresaw this as an opportunity for students to critically discuss the concepts and evidence they’d learned about. To do this and in line with the idea of constructive alignment (Biggs, 1996), I posed scenarios that tested their ability to meet the different learning objectives of each session. Allowing students to do activities such as this helps students ‘arrive at meaning by actively selecting, and cumulatively constructing, their own knowledge, through both individual and social activity’ (Biggs, 1996, p.348). However, after the first time I ran the module in this way, I realised I was unable to get a feel for what students had been discussing and I was also limited in the way I could provide feedback on their discussions, and therefore their learning. Additionally, unless students had been making their own notes on their discussions, they had no record of what they had discussed and therefore no record of the knowledge and skills they had co-constructed with their classmates.
It was around this time that the University invested in G Suite and I was starting to become aware of the different tools available. I decided that using Google docs would be a good tool for students to document their discussions in real-time. This not only allowed students to retain a record of their discussions but also a way for me to see in real-time what they were discussing. This now enables me to drop into different groups at appropriate places in their discussion. For example, I can now see if the discussion has slightly gone off topic, or if the group have misunderstandings about the topic they're discussing, and drop into the group to help them get their understanding back on track. Additionally, if I can see students have come to a dip in their discussion, I can drop in and give some prompting questions to get them to think more deeply about the content. Another benefit is that when I drop into the different groups, I can see what they have already been discussing so I'm not joining the discussion 'cold'. Students have found this really useful because it prevents misunderstandings going unnoticed, and for some groups challenges them to go further with their analysis of the materials. This results in students leaving the session with a clearer and deeper understanding of the material.
I was also keen to start providing formative feedback to students on a weekly basis so the record of these discussions gave me an opportune place to do this. I now go through each Google doc on a weekly basis and provide each group with feedback on their discussion. Importantly, the whole class can access all the Google docs via the Blackboard VLE so can benefit from the discussions and subsequent feedback of other groups. Students have reported that they find this weekly feedback very useful, especially during the revision period.
An example of a Google doc used in the academic year 2020-21 where the different groups discussed scenarios relating to one or more of the learning objectives:
Seminar 2: Self and Identity Online. Google doc discussion summary
I took over the role of GTA Coordinator in our department in October 2015 and very quickly learned that the training needed to be overhauled to provide GTAs the opportunity to have peer support from more experienced GTAs, and to allow them a chance to engage in reflective practice. In response to this, I changed the training to involve three different training sessions, and the requirement for each new GTA to complete a portfolio which had a strong emphasis on self-reflection. As well as overhauling the training, I realised there was no one place the GTAs could go to for information on the different roles, the hours and pay associated with those roles, and the materials from the training sessions. In October 2017, I set up a Google Site for the GTAs so they can access the materials they require during the training, information on the role and access to other resources useful for CPD. I update this site annually to reflect any changes in the GTA role.
Example of shared Google folders to store each GTA's portfolio
Part of the training process for new GTAs is to complete a portfolio which includes examples of marking, and self-reflection forms from their first experiences of teaching as well as observations of more experienced GTAs. Initially, new GTAs would email their forms to me as and when they completed them which not only meant a busy inbox but also meant I was having to transfer the documents to Google folders to store the portfolios. I quickly realised that I could just use the 'share' tool on Google folders to allow the GTAs to upload their documents straight to their own portfolio folder. This now not only means that both me and the GTA can access the information but I can keep track of when each GTA has completed the portfolio, and my inbox has fewer emails!
Shared Google folders for GTA portfolios (names are redacted to maintain anonymity)
As indicated in section 1a, one of my aims is to be a teacher who focuses on what the student does and how they construct their knowledge through various activities of the module. When planning my teaching, I am therefore keen to incorporate activities that will allow students a chance to work collaboratively with their fellow students to document their ideas about the content they've been learning about.
An example of a Padlet embedded into the VLE
A useful tool I use for this is Padlet - an online pad that allows multiple users to 'crowdsource' content and display it as text, photos, videos etc. I learned about this platform in a workshop hosted by the University's Teaching and Learning Forum Committee and could see how it was useful for collaborative work. Initially, I used these Padlets by adding links to the Padlet into the module information on our VLE but then realised they could be embedded which made it a smoother experience for students; they could easily see the contributions of their fellow students without having to click links and open up another platform.
I now use Padlet frequently for collaborative student work across most of my modules. For example, in my advanced module, students collate information on different topics we've covered to produce a revision Padlet that summarises the key points from each seminar (including videos the students have made).
The online video platform Panopto, was adopted by the University of York several years ago to enable lectures to be recorded and accessible to students after the lecture session itself. It also allows staff to record their own videos and store them in a choice of different folders (private or more public ones attached to modules). I have used this latter tool to store a series of videos aimed at helping students with their academic writing and embedded them on our Blackboard VLE. In particular, this series of videos has been extremely useful in our feedforward practices.
A key part of effective feedback is to make sure the guidance is explicit and helps students understand where they need to improve and importantly how to do it (‘feeding forward’; Evans, 2013). Having learned about the principles of effective feedback on our institutional PGCAP course, I realised that the existing way we had provided feedback did not make this explicit, hampering the students’ ability to use their own internal resources to work towards improvement. I therefore designed new feedback forms which have a distinct ‘feed-forward’ section, providing students with clear guidelines on the most important aspects they as an individual can improve on (Principle 10; Evans). However, it was clear to me from conversations with students that they struggled to interpret the advice in the ‘feed-forward’ sections, finding it difficult to understand exactly how to improve. I was able to secure some funding to pay and supervise a team of GTAs to record a series of ‘How to…’ videos that explicitly show students how to improve on different aspects of writing. I created the list of videos that needed to be recorded and then with conversations with the GTAs, added to the list (based on their experiences of marking student assessments). These videos are stored on the Panopto platform and are embedded into the Academic Skills pages of our Blackboard VLE. Links to appropriate videos from this series are now added into the feed-forward section of the feedback form by all markers in the department. Additionally, some staff have put direct links in their own module pages to specific videos they think will be beneficial for the assessment they set their students. This is an effective way to support student writing development as students are not only directed to the videos most relevant to them at that particularly timepoint but since all videos are on the VLE, they can access all videos at any point in their studies.
Since the first year of using these videos, I have made several additions to the series based on student requests but also based on suggestions from markers (GTAs and staff). I will continue to do this to ensure the series stays relevant to our students.
I became familiar with the online survey platform, Qualtrics, during my PhD when I sent out questionnaires to my participants. However, when I started teaching, I could see how it could be useful in different teaching contexts, particularly with my final year project students. Additionally, shortly after finishing my PhD the University purchased a licence for Qualtrics making the more advanced version freely available to staff and students across the University.
In the academic year 2018-2019, I led a project on supporting students with the development of their academic writing. Working on this project with me was a team of three teaching staff and two undergraduate students. The aim of the project was to provide resources for students to carry out independent work on academic writing skills and for these resources to be housed on our Academic Skills Blackboard VLE site (see Specialist Area). As part of this project, we wanted to develop a set of online self-test quizzes which would follow some static information presented to students. We wanted these quizzes to use different formats (e.g. ranking, drag and drop, MCQs, highlighting text) so Qualtrics seemed a more appropriate tool rather than the assessment tool on the Blackboard VLE. Additionally, my personal opinion is that Qualtrics delivers a better user experience due to the superior aesthetics.
Along with another member of staff, I co-created and subsequently embedded the quizzes into the VLE. The quizzes map onto skills students need to develop to meet the marking criteria for the different assessments they do as part of their degree. For example, one criteria for essays is that the narrative and structure are logical and coherent. We therefore had some content focused on structuring a paragraph, and for the subsequent quiz, students needed to drag and drop different chunks of text to create a well structured paragraph
Qualtrics survey embedded into the Academic Skills VLE pages
My final year project students also use this platform to create their questionnaires and collect their data. This has been a very useful tool and is superior to other freely available platforms in the University (e.g. Google forms) because of its advanced tools (e.g. skip and display logic, branching).
As already discussed in section 1a, I use Mentimeter in a variety of ways to enable students to make anonymous contributions to their learning. This can be done in a way for me to check their learning and understanding and then provide immediate feedback (e.g. by asking questions at the end of teaching sessions), or by crowdsourcing information 'live' that can be used in future teaching sessions. I find Mentimeter a better tool for crowdsourcing information live in large cohorts (compared to Padlet or Google docs) because it only requires short responses and is easily usable on a Smartphone. Two examples of how I use Mentimeter are outlined below:
Autumn 2019: I used Mentimeter in a lecture on personality traits and the associated measures used for different trait models. The task was for students to 'text-in' ideas of their own items that could measure different types of personality. After the session, I collated a selection of the student-generated items to then create an online questionnaire using Qualtrics, the data from which were used in a practical session for their Research Methods module.
Screenshot of the suggestions of Year 2 students on how to measure personality traits
Autumn 2020: In my Social Psychology lectures, I delivered a lecture on rioting behaviour. As an activity set to students, they needed to view different parts of a YouTube video showing rioting behaviour and then use two different theories to explain the behaviour at various points in the video. I used Mentimeter to ask students to 'text-in' their explanations during a synchronous online session. This allowed me to give immediate feedback to their responses and to correct any slight misunderstandings.
Screenshot of Year 1 student responses explaining rioting behaviour using two theories.
I have learned many lessons over the last few years in terms of the different types of technology I have used. Getting to grips with what works and what hasn't has been a rewarding experience and I have been able to build on these experiences year on year. For example, one aspect I've learned with using Mentimeter is to be careful about how questions are phrased to students. Certain types of questions can quickly lead to inappropriate content being displayed on the screen in a lecture hall. Although this is not always unavoidable, I have learned to either ignore these entries or to make light of them (depending on the context). Additionally, while Padlets are very good to allow students to crowdsource information, there is no ability to add controls such as word limits. One of the ways I've used Padlets in the past is to get a group of students to summarise an academic paper but this can often lead to very long passages of text which defeats the object of the activity. I've therefore found it useful to give more explicit instructions to students and to provide them with a template (e.g. four boxes with appropriate headings) to guide them in their summary. Often, these lessons come from experience and are not predictable (hence one lesson I've learned is how often students can be unpredictable!).
Nevertheless, I think the benefits have far outweighed the limitations I've experienced and I've been able to learn from the limitations and make adjustments to the ways in which I use different technology. I very much take the lead from students with this and if it's clear something isn't working, then I first try to find out why (if possible) and then make changes or stop using the technology. For example, using social media in my first year of teaching although felt a good idea clearly didn't work so I stopped using it. I will continue to reflect year on year on the different technology I am using to ensure it is supporting my teaching.
Although I use a range of tools as evidenced above, I am more than aware that it's imperative for me to keep up to date with changes in the platforms I use. For example, Qualtrics have recently updated their interface from the survey builder's perspective. While this does not include the addition of any new tools, it does mean I will need to spend time familiarising myself with the new layout and methods to create the different types of online questionnaires so that the next time I use it in my teaching, I have the skills to do so effectively. Additionally, I am always keen to learn about new technologies and/or new ways in which the tools I currently use can be used differently in my teaching (e.g. I'm aware colleagues from other departments use Xerte in their teaching but I have yet to learn about this platform). One of the key ways I try to stay relevant is to keep in touch with what others are doing, for example, attending workshops and conferences where colleagues share good practice. Throughout my career, I have found these an invaluable source of support and information regarding different approaches to teaching. I truly believe in the benefits of a collaborative and supportive approach to teaching, and I have learned so much from others in the same profession.
In order to foster this collaborative and supportive approach, I regularly attend and present at different events both within the University and also externally. I frequently attend (and have presented at several) institutional lunchtime workshops run by our Programme Development and Learning Technology Team (PDLT), and the conferences and lunchtime workshops of our University's Teaching and Learning Forum. Some of the external events I have attended and presented at in the past include HEA Conference, and Future Teacher Conferences and online presentation sessions. I recognise how valuable these are for my own development - after all, the way I presently use technology in my teaching has been heavily influenced by discussions with and presentations from colleagues at these types of events. I will therefore use these types of sessions to ensure the way I use technology in my teaching stays relevant, and that the tools are used to enhance learners' experiences in my modules. I can also pass this information and experiences on to others in my department by running sessions in my role as Teaching Enhancement Champion (see 1c and 4 for more information).