Progress on Q-Review, QMUL’s Echo360 Project
QMUL’s lecture capture pilot project, called Q-Review, is approaching the halfway point in its pilot year. While we’ve had our share of hiccups and setbacks, the project is progressing well. We’ve learned a lot about best practice for the system and are looking forward to disseminating this when the project enters its production phase.
So… what have we been up to?
The Code of Practice for Q-Review has been ratified by the Learning, Teaching and Assessment Committee. This provides a policy for how the Echo360 system is run at QMUL. The document can be found here.
There are now three hardware installations in centrally bookable lecture theatres: Perrin in Whitechapel (which is in collaboration with colleagues in the School of Medicine and Dentistry), Fogg in the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences and Skeel in the People’s Palace. All three systems are now operational. We have been collaborating with AV and Room Bookings on these installations and it’s been a great opportunity to work across central service departments.
We’re doing research into good practice with lecture capture. We have been working with the School of Biological and Chemical Sciences on a new method of module-delivery. We pre-recorded traditional didactic lectures, released them in advance, and ran online discussion forums based on the online lectures. This freed up valuable face-to-face time for interactive question-and-answer sessions. We are currently running surveys and focus groups and will have it written up for the end of the academic year. So far feedback has been very positive from both staff and students. Students have said that “it is extremely useful and allows me to understand the material better. That it can be played again and again helps me in remembering complicated exercises by repeating it as much as I need” and “the teaching method provided online was fantastic!! if only other lecturers would do it too!”
I’d like to record a session – what do I need to do?
You can use the system to record one lecture or a whole module. If you would like to use this system there is one thing to do and one very important thing to remember. Get in touch with us at qreview-admin@qmul.ac.uk and always turn on the microphone in the room you’re recording in!