Webcasts

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Webcasts legal education the alternative to
the box under the bed
Patricia McKellar Paul Maharg
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presentation structure

• Webcast teaching learning resource-based
  instruction on the web
• Early examples and general approach
• Tour of the webcast learning environment
• Break (no Dada poetry) for discussion
• The webcast learning environment project student
  comment
• Questions discussion

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virtual learning environments

• Virtual learning environments (VLEs) --
  environments that use digital and electronic
  technology in order to facilitate learning and
  teaching.
• Eg BlackBoard, WebCT,
• Elements include
• Registration, authentication administration
  processes
• Separate areas for courses, modules, etc
• communication tools chat rooms, discussion
  forums, email, announcements
• information display tools scripted web pages,
  hyperlinks
• special applications, eg QuestionMark, etc

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actually should involve us in re-design of
teaching learning

• We have found
• Feedback loops essential
• Communicative potential of the environment should
  lie at the heart of the MLE/VLE
• Convergence principle electronic technologies
  need to converge seamlessly to provide an
  integrated learning environment.
• All technologies (electronic, paper, physical
  environment) should integrate to support learning
  across the curriculum
• Creativity in use of MLE/VLE involves re-design
  of traditional face-to-face DL teaching methods

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and creative use of integrated text image

• texts
• illustrative, explanatory, didactic, discursive,
  exemplary, reflective, etc.
• hyperlinked or static
• images
• via video role play, pieces to camera,
  scenarios
• static photographs, diagrams, graphics, tables,
  etc
• interactive images, moving or still

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design of webcast environments

• not lectures because not constrained by time,
  place or audience
• webcasts can be used as organisational centres
  for information knowledge
• must be designed to integrate with other
  technologies and resources, eg
• webcast lectures discussion forum, web links
  chat room.
• traditional forms of learning teaching

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our early concept of a webcast environment
PowerPoint slides
web links resources
video
bookmarks
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our early concept of a webcast environment
PowerPoint slides
web links resources
video
bookmarks
learning controls, guidance instructions
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webcast developments to date

• Over 25 separate webcast projects, from
  2001-2004, in legal education, both under-
  postgraduate.
• Projects range from one-off webcasts to an entire
  series of webcasts spanning a module.
• Used mostly in blended learning, but also in
  wholly distance-learning modules
• There were no models, no training courses we
  learned from observation of what worked and why

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early examples of webcast lectures

• Think about what works and what doesnt in the
  following webcasts as regards
• Presenter behaviour
• Navigational tools
• Information
• IT the Legal Office The Grid, Part One
• Professor Richard Susskind
• IT the Legal Office The Client Service Chain
• Professor Richard Susskind
• Negotiation
• Professor Scott Slorach

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problems with early webcasts

• very much presenter-driven
• no integration on-screen with other learning
  elements in the course
• limited navigation
• little incentive for independent learning
• limited resource-based learning
• one-off, independent events for both staff
  students. Not part of a coherent syllabus or
  curriculum design.

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later webcasts and development into a VLE

• Criminal Court Practice
• Presenter Ronnie Watson QC
• Civil Court Practice
• Presenter Patricia McKellar

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questions.

• Would this be a useful resource for law school
  teaching learning?
• What do the students lose and gain by using these
  resources in this context?
• What do you think the students responses might
  be to this environment?

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Webcast Learning Project

• Aims
• To investigate the
• variation in student learning
• quality of student learning on the two procedural
  courses
• Methodology
• Selection of 11 students to track throughout the
  year
• Students filled in and submitted weekly logs when
  they used the resources
• Focus group discussion late in semester 1
• Individual interviews in early/mid semester 2 and
  post-examination
• Questionnaire for project group
• End-of-year evaluation data derived from
  whole-year cohort

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navigation timeline

• I liked the way it changed on this one so that it
  was all on the same screen. I thought that was
  very useful. What I did like on the Criminal one
  was that it was labelled where you were going to
  come to the next section but at the same time you
  could easily do that with this and know which
  section you were on.

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finding resources

• Interviewer Did you use the flowchart thats on
  the resources page at all?
• Student Could you just remind me of what that
  is?
• Interviewer If you go into the documentation,
  you will see the flowchart there
• does this on laptop.
• Student Oh yes I did. I printed that off.
• Interviewer And did you find that useful?
• Student Yes
• Interviewer Right OK, thats interesting.
• Student I took that to tutorials actually and
  quite a lot of people noted and where did you
  get that they said.
• Interviewer So they didnt know where youd got
  it?
• Student No!
• Laughter

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finding and using resources

• I just didnt know it was there. I am not the
  least IT literate person but it was kind of
  squirreled away
• I saw that somebody had posted three answers and
  that was all. I didnt want to post some answers
  and have it wrong for a start and have it all be
  corrected or put up something really quite stupid
  and just think that I am right and have everybody
  laugh at me because I had put the wrong answer
  up. I did look at the questions to get some sort
  of idea what might come up.

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flexibility of use

• I find it a hassle coming in here to study.
  Apart from train times which are pretty
  unreliable from where I stay its just I study a
  lot better at home. I can get up early and study
  all day and go to my work and come back and study
  so I used it at home.
• In my tutorials there were a few dissenting
  voices about the whole webcast thing oh just
  have the lecture and then it would be over - but
  that is the whole point, it would be over!
• Proper lectures would have been better but the
  webcast lectures were convenient.

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absence of students

• Lectures are social events for students
  webcasts remove this element from a course how
  did they cope?
• Students still talked about the course, through
  other channels
• everybody would just talk about them. If you
  didnt understand anything you just phone people
  the night before and say what is this bit all
  about? You get cross ideas - some people have
  different things
• Students still met at tutorials

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absence of lecturer

• As a result, the image seemed to matter more
• its always there and its not just a text
  or a book that you have got because it is someone
  else sitting there talking to you. Its kind of
  comforting in a way as well, because they know
  what they are talking about, you cant misread
  it.
• I think that intonation as well was really
  important to me. Just reading something, you can
  read it, but the intonation I found really
  helpful. That was why I did go back over not
  just my own notes for the exam but actually
  watch it again because there is emphasis in
  important places and that is so important. Also
  you dont want to end up completely isolated with
  no I know webcasts are not very interactive
  anyway but they are much more interactive than
  reading a script.
• Interviewer Would it have made any difference
  to you if you
• hadnt actually seen the person and you had
  only
• heard what they were saying ?
• Student Strange, but I probably hardly looked
  at it the
• webcast image because I was writing notes
  anyway But I dont know it just seems quite
  nice having a
• person there.

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two approaches to learning

• Paperworld student
• Preferred f2f lectures
• Didnt use learning tools in the CD or online
  environment
• Used books, not e-resources
• Took verbatim notes from the webcasts
• Only listened to the webcasts once
• E-world student
• Comfortable using the webcast environment
• Used online information
• Used a word-processor to type notes
• Viewed and reviewed the webcasts
• Used the learning tools, eg speak-fast button

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two approaches to learning

• But these are actually pathologies of learning
  styles compare textual compositional styles and
  musical composition
• We found that most students adopted a position
  somewhere along the spectrum of these two poles,
  and the position was variable depending on
  purpose of use.

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forms of learning writing/typing notes

• I think I am happier doing it pen and paper. I
  guess, I have written shorthand, rather that
  typed shorthand, so I think I would rather write
  and I can write quicker. But not everyone will be
  the same as that.
• When I did the first few I was writing
  absolutely everything out and I hadnt really -
  because quite a lot of people were looking at the
  screen and were writing down what was on the
  screen and working their notes around that. I
  wasnt doing that. I was writing everything out
  ie webcast and screen text and that took ages.
  So it was like well Ill just write down whats
  on the screen and then write my own notes.
• In the Criminal webcasts note taking - I would
  have preferred to have been able to take notes on
  the computer but I didnt know how launch
  Microsoft Word.

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forms of learning using two computers

• I have seen people in the lab with two
  computers, and they are listening and typing at
  the same time. That would be quite good because
  although my typing isnt fast but if you could
  have a wee bit of note-taking then your notes
  would immediately be better.

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forms of learning writing and listening

• First time was a little strange and it took me a
  while to get used to pausing and taking notes in
  conjunction with watching. Felt a lot more
  comfortable by the end of the second series of
  webcasts
• Its like a different way of learning, like if
  you hear it and then you write it down and then
  you read it back. Then you learn something in
  three different ways

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knowledge objects forms of revision

• If Im reading notes you can skim over it and you
  can skip pages, but if you are listening and you
  dont hear something you have to go back and hear
  it. There is a different flow as well.
• Interviewer do you think the webcast
  environment helped or
• hindered your exam study?
• Student I think they helped
• Interviewer Why?
• Student Because you have just got more
  explanation when you
• are going over things that you can never
  get down in
• lecture notes or in handouts, to
  understand it. I think you
• learn better when you are sitting
  listening as well, instead
• of sitting reading, because you have a
  tendency just to
• skim through things when you are reading.
  Youve
• done it all before and you should know it,
  but if you havent
• listened to something you can speed it up
  a bit. But you are still
• having to listen to it all, you cant just
  skip big bits out. So I
• think it definitely helped.

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use of webcast as mnemonic

• I think, I would probably, I think, I would go
  back and watch them again. I would probably sit
  with my notes and just You wouldnt be learning
  new things again, so you would be just listening
  and reading over your notes and make sure you
  took in all the points. I would actually find
  that easier revision. I dont know if that is
  just my personality. But to listen to somebody
  going over it again, and it also means that if
  there is a particular section that I feel I have
  learned quite well, then I dont need to go over
  it again. So, I would pick out the sections that
  I think, oh goodness, I dont remember the
  Interim Interdict, Options Hearing or whatever
  and Ill go back to that particular section and
  just watch the webcast again with my notes,
  probably.
• I would actually use it for revision, just watch
  the webcast again. I find I take things in much
  better verbally than sitting reading particularly
  if it is a subject that can be a bit dry. To
  actually hear a lecture again would be better
  than, just than if we just had lectures and you
  didnt have the webcasts that we could go back to
  then all I would have to revise with would be my
  notes and thats a lot drier and sometimes you
  kinda look at your notes and think goodness I
  dont know actually remember what she was talking
  about and you find that the lecture, when you go
  over the point a few times, it makes it much
  easier to take in .

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use of webcast as mnemonic

• I would come in and maybe I would have something
  else to do during the day but then I would be
  able to fit in 45 minutes watching a lecture and
  taking outline notes maybe that time. And then
  what was useful about them was I could go back
  and just listen to it with my notes and not have
  to take any notes. I dont know, there is
  something mechanical which is very useful about
  taking notes and copying down to memorise stuff
  but there is something in terms of just sitting
  and listening to somebody describing what happens
  I thought that was particularly useful to
  me anyway.

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quality of learning

• Interviewer Do you think the webcast
  environments helped or hindered your
  study for the exams?
• Student Definitely helped. It was very, very
  positive. I
• know some people have complained that they
• found it hard to work and all the rest of
  it. But
• I just thought in comparison I have sat
  four
• years of exams before I came here, I am an
• expert as far as exams are concerned, and
  this
• has really, was two of the easiest exams I
  have
• sat, in terms of revision for them. I felt
  that I
• came in well prepared maybe my results
  will
• show that this was not the case! I
  definitely felt that I was really learning
  the material. I understood it better.

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contact details

• Patricia McKellar
• Patricia.Mckellar_at_strath.ac.uk
• Professor Paul Maharg
• paul.maharg_at_strath.ac.uk
• http//www.ggsl.strath.ac.uk/ltdu/research/default
  .htm