Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Using Blackboard for student-led podcasting and group assessment

Chris Stokes - University of Sheffield - talked about an 'engaging way to present a group project' and replace group essays and rather than using yet another wiki (apparently there's wiki fatigue in the Dental School) Chris decided to get 3rd year students to make podcasts (or in reality, audio files) which can be peer assessed. 80 students in 5/6 (self-select) groups were given 2 weeks to produce a 5min 'podcast' based on the critcal evaluation of a published article. Students used Audacity or GarageBand and converted the files to mp3 before uploding to a MOLE discussion forum (My Online Learning Envt) in Moodle called the 'Podcast Wall'). On paper, each group assessed 2 other 'podcasts', the assessment criteria based on HEFCE standards for peer
assessment.

Chris demonstrated some examples; each one had a 'big opening' before becoming more serious
once they had got that out of their system. They were playing to the people who were
assessing them. Examples played were scripted, used clever editing and roleplay, used
backtracking tracks, presented as a radio show, or simply over the top.

Students found that it was difficult to condense their work into a 5min audio clip, but
thought it was an equitable and fair way of assessing as everyone in the group had to
contribute. Concerns raised by students included cross-over into informal space.

Next steps: peer assessment through Blackboard, full RSS feed for podcasts, possibly move to
producing video.

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