| Audio transcript
I teach pharmaceutical microbiology, to pharmacy students and pharmacy and cosmetic science students.
[In collaboration with my colleague Malcolm Andrew] we developed and interactive VLE site. We had a tutorial for learning about the practicals, which was interactive with links. We then decided to put some videos in to it. So I was videod and Malcolm edited it and put it all together and embedded it within the site so the students could click on it and use it. We’ve had really good feedback; I think they really enjoy it. That’s been running for quite a few years.
[Interviewer question: what equipment did you use?]
We used video cameras from the university, and Adobe Premiere to edit the videos. It was quite a steep learning curve; he [Malcolm] put a lot of effort in to get to know the software. But once he did it found t wasn’t too difficult, it was quite easy then.
He then uploaded the videos, and we thought that works so well that it would be nice to make some in to podcasts and do other ones like how to make up injections and other intricate tasks.
I think it worked best with the ones where they normally had to have a demonstration in class you can’t always clearly see how to do it. So you can film it and then show it on the screen in the practical or make it available before hand so they can watch it as a podcast. So when they turn up on the day they are more prepared and know what they have to do.
[Interviewer question: do you think you will be doing more videos and podcasts in the future?]
We’ve had such good feedback from students, they really enjoy it, we good feedback on the module feedback forms. So we thought we would do some specific ones for the second year pharmacy and cosmetic science course> really simple things like hoe to do serial dilutions, how to spread plate, and do lots of microbiological basic techniques.
We decided that it works best if it is very specific to the practical elements. So they (students) felt that this was relevant to what they were going to do.
It took a bit more effort but we thought they seemed to get a bit more out of it.
[Interviewer question: how do you manage the use of the technology?]
Malcolm did a lot of the technical side of things. All of the equipment that we used is still available, and the video editing software is available. I’m going to learn how to do it myself now. I will work with other people who have done it before. With new technologies it is much easier to video. We did all of our originally with a big camera, with a tripod, Now people are using flip cameras. I know some other staff in Pharmacy are doing that. I think that’s a way to do it much more quickly, and if you don’t want to spend all of your time editing. You can take a bit of time if you want a nice professional sort of finish. If not you can do it more informally. |
