At the VC’s conference ASTI team members Daniel Metcalfe, Edd Bolton, Sarah Barnes, and Ed Bremner ran a workshop entitled: Working towards any time, any place, any device – research into delivering online teaching using webinar software. This reviewed experiences of piloting the use of webinar software to enhance student learning at Plymouth University. Rather than using normal presentations, this session was delivered online with GoToWebinar, which they had been testing over the last 6 months. Attendees of the session were welcomed to the room and after introductions the team left the room to present their sections online from the neighbouring room, via GoToWebinar. This delivery style was employed to give the audience the authentic feel of the webinar experience, encouraged by the presenters to interact by means of the software.
The workshop looked at four key areas:
- introduction and familiarisation with the software
- tools and features
- research finding from software use and recommendations
- case studies with academics
The aim of the workshop was to raise awareness of how webinars can enhance student learning and the student experience. Academics were made aware that this technology, as well as others, could be considered as part of the curriculum enrichment project and it is expected that webinars will be part of the way that future modules will be delivered.
The remit of the current project is to evaluate the product “Citrix GoToWebinar” to facilitate teaching in the faculty of Health, Education and Society. The product and process are still in pilot and this will continue for the academic year 2013-2014.
If you are interested in incorporating webinars as part of your teaching, please register your interest by completing this form.
A full report and of the finding as well as the recording of the whole workshop can be found here