on casting and concept mapscasting and concept maps prepared for: e-learning unit prepared by: dr...

Teaching with New Technologies Award Scheme

2007-2008 - Project Report

Course Pacemaker

NON-LINEAR LEARNING USING ENHANCED POD-

CASTING AND CONCEPT MAPS

Prepared for: E-Learning Unit

Prepared by: Dr Janko Calic, Lecturer, Department of Electronic Engineering, CCSR, I-Lab

26 March 2008

Dr Janko Calic! Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, E [email protected] W personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/J.Calic T +44(0)1483 68 4739

School of Electronics and

Physical Sciences

http://personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/J.Calic

mailto:[email protected]



Project Report

Introduction

In the current climate of simplistic utilisation of the learning technology, based mainly on a unidirectional delivery of projected

PowerPoint slides, the issues of student feedback and exploitation of the gained knowledge about the learning process are

fundamental problems of e-Learning. This project takes a more detailed approach to student feedback by using the

concept-maps and utilises podcasting technology to adapt the teaching delivery to the student’s learning progress.

Project Objectives

The main objective of this project was to address the problem of unidirectional linear course delivery due to simplistic

utilisation of learning technology. Common understanding is that projection of PowerPoint slides enhances student’s

experience and thus makes learning more efficient when compared to the old-fashioned blackboard approach. Furthermore,

if one communicates with students using a technology that is familiar to them, such as podcasting, things can be improved

even further. However, superficial usage of lecture slides and straightforward podcasting of lecture recordings often prevent

teachers to easily adapt the pace of course delivery. Therefore, this project focuses on meaningful utilisation of presentational

technology and novel communicational media, e.g. podcasting, in the context of engaged teaching, especially when it

comes to setting the right pace at right level of detail. The project objectives were twofold:

i) to gain understanding of the student learning and students misinterpretations of the delivered content and make necessary

corrections immediately.

ii) to produce enhanced weekly podcasts couple of days after lectures as a response to feedback given by students through

the course forum (maintained by the lecturer or an existing portal like ULearn) or any other channel of student feedback.

This podcast could deliver more information focusing on the issues raised by students or detected by the lecturer after the

lecture sessions and would be delivered automatically to all students by podcast subscription.

Implemented Solution

The main goal of this project was to design and evaluate a methodology that will utilise podcasting technology in order to

adapt the pace of the course to student’s needs, where the student feedback is given by utilisation of concept maps.

Podcasting

The classical approach to podcasting is to generate live recordings of lectures or record comments to lecture slides off-line.

Here, in addition to lecture recordings, the aim was to produce weekly podcasts as a response to student feedback during

and after lecture. Approximately, two to three days after the lecture, an enhanced podcast brought additional information

focusing on the areas that students and/or teacher found unclear after the lecture. The main feedback channel was an

anonymous test where students drew concept-maps of the gained knowledge about the content of the course. In addition

the course forum as well as other feedback channels were considered in the assessment of the learning progress.

Course Pacemaker : Non-linear learning using enhanced podcasting and concept maps! 1

Dr Janko Calic" Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences, E [email protected] W personal.ee.surrey.ac.uk/Personal/J.Calic T +44(0)1483 68 4739


Physical Sciences





Concept Mapping

The idea of concept mapping, a widely recognised tool in the education research is proposed as a tool for understanding

student learning process. Developed as means of representing the emerging science knowledge of students, concept maps

are graphical tools for organising and representing knowledge, where the concepts are usually enclosed in circles or boxes

of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts. The research

showed that an important by-product of concept mapping is its ability to detect or illustrate the "misconceptions" learners

may have as explanations of content matter. Therefore, they can help the teacher diagnose the misconceptions that make

the instruction ineffective.

Having this in mind, the objective was to utilise concept maps to gain understanding of the acquired student knowledge of

the course content and accordingly adapt the delivery, either by podcasting additional materials and/or adapting my

teaching. In practice, one 15 minute blitz course on content maps and one feedback sessions with the students attending

the course was conducted. Drawing on the experience from this assessment, the impression is that the teacher can plan for

more effective learning, designing more detailed module description and precisely define possible course outcomes.

Furthermore, by using this method it is possible to introduce additional ways of active learning by exploiting concept maps in

the group work, as well as introduce more in depth assessment of the student understanding.

Implementation

During the course ‘Product Engineering and Management’ at Level 3, the average attendance was approx. 17 students from

24 registered for the module. The module comprises of a mix of engineering skills and technical content. The skills section of

the module is delivered through peer-assessed presentation sessions, while the technical part was formulated though a

typical lecture delivery.

Concept-map Tutorial

By combining skills aspect of the learning outcomes with

technical content of the course, a 15 minute tutorial about

concept-maps was delivered, using a standard format of

concept-maps, as given in the figure on the right. In

addition, after the tutorial, a whole session was presented

by using sequential presentation of a development of the

corresponding concept-map. Having used concept-maps

as a lecturing tool, students got involved in the process of a

sample on-line development of a complex concept-map. In

addition, my experience as the teacher was more confident

than after delivering by simple projected slides. During the

tutorial a very useful on-line tutorial was found at http://

www.surrey.ac.uk/bioskills/biomap/concept/frame.htm, and

it would be good if e-Learning centre could save the

presentation and adapt it for the future usage of other

teachers.

The tutorial slides can be found in the Appendix.




Physical Sciences

Sample Concept Map


http://www.surrey.ac.uk/bioskills/biomap/concept/frame.htm







Student Feedback using Concept-maps

After having a substantial practice with concept-maps, students were

asked to anonymously in-pairs produce concept maps of the topics

delivered up to that lecture. Group work initiated discussion and an

additional aspect of problem-based learning at the time of assessment.

Students were given 15 minutes to draw their concept-maps of the three

areas that we’ve covered by that lecture: electromagnetic compatibility,

thermal design and presentation tools. Without any guidance, student

decided to draw separate maps for separate topics. There is a wide

selection of styles and coarseness of the produced maps, as given in the

figure on the right.

The main conclusion was that after the first inspection of the maps, it

was very easy to understand the learning progress and locate areas that

were collectively misunderstood. This proved the usefulness of the

concept-maps in assessing students’ conceptualisation of the delivered

content.

The results of this assessment can be found in the Appendix.

Podcast Generation

The podcast generated after the feedback session

addressed areas and topics that were obviously

misunderstood by students. Using Apple Keynote as a

main tool for podcast generation, an enhanced podcast is

created and uploaded to the module’s ULearn (WebCT)

pages. Slides that follow the spoken explanation were

specially formatted to achieve good readability on the

small screen devices, as given in the figure on the right.

Evaluation

Evaluation of the presented approach was twofold by: (i) Continuous tracking of student feedback during the course that

gave not only information on the areas that need additional clarification, but the quantity and quality of feedback were used

to track how useful the feedback was; (ii) Evaluation in the form of questionnaire gave more precise insight in the

performance of the proposed system. There were two questionnaires, one specifically designed to evaluate the project

results and a more generic standard student feedback questionnaire set up by the Faculty.

The main part of the evaluation is a project focused questionnaire, delivered at the end of the module as an anonymous

WebCT quiz. The quiz comprised 5 questions and one text area to give overall reflection on the concept-mapping (CM) and

podcast exercise. The quiz was designed to attract more students, and therefore it was short and simple. The response was

good: approximately 40% of the registered students did it.







The quiz was designed as a multiple choice quiz, with a

singe statement and student’s feedback that could range

from strongly agree to strongly disagree (see the screen

capture of the quiz page on the left). The score was

calculated as a cumulative sum of the answers in the four

categories.

Some of the responses were:

“… Good. ...”

“… The concept mapping exercise was very helpful and

was a way of focusing my thinking about the subject. I

could not get the podcast to open on my computer but the

course and lecturing in general was fantastic! ...”

“… An interesting module with many learning experiences

gained …”

Results show very positive bias towards concept-maps

and the podcast. Not only in the context of this module,

but a general response was that the students will be using

CM in the future.

The standard student feedback questionnaire, set up by

the Faculty, showed that in spite of a rather complex

module structure and its high-level provision of the

technical content, the teacher got very positive feedback of

80% (4.00 out of 5.00). This is partially due to a novel

utilisation of technology in learning.

The overall subjective evaluation is that the concept maps

proved to be very effective in gaining a very deep insight

into the real learning process on various levels. Firstly, it

clearly highlights areas of knowledge that need additional

clarification. Furthermore, it gives a very good information

about the overall confidence students. Finally, experiment

encouraged utilisation of concept-maps as a teaching tool.



27/05/2008 16:56Assessment

Page 1 of 1http://vle.surrey.ac.uk/webct/urw/lc164304070041.tp164304090041/assessmentPreviewMgr.dowebct?assessment=209132385031

Blitz Questionnaire

Dr Janko Calic

Started: 27 May 2008 16:55

Questions: 6

Finish Save All

1. Question 1

I liked the concept-mapping excersise ...

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Disagree

4. Strongly disagree

Save Answer

2. Question 2

The concept-mapping excersise was disturbing the lecture ...

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Disagree


Save Answer

3. Question 3

I will use concept-mapping in the future ...

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Disagree


Save Answer

4. Question 4

The concept-mapping was a good reflection of my knowledge ...

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Disagree


Save Answer

5. Question 5

I found the podcast useful ...

1. Strongly agree

2. Agree

3. Disagree


Save Answer

6. Your feedback

Please, give us you opinion about the concept-mapping and podcasting excersise and your

learning experience of this module.

Save Answer

Finish Save All

Screen capture of the project focused questionnaire.





Question \ Response [%] Strongly agree Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree

1. I liked the concept-mapping

exercise 40 40 20 0

2. The concept-mapping exercise

was disturbing the lecture 0 20 60 20

3. I will use concept-mapping in

the future 40 40 20 0

4. The concept-mapping was a

good reflection of my knowledge 20 60 20 0

5. I found the podcast useful 20 60 20 0

Conclusions

This project demonstrated that technology in learning and teaching can be successfully utilised in gaining very detailed and

deep feedback from learners by exploiting concept-maps and podcasting technology. Not only this improved control of the

course’s pace, but enhanced the overall learning experience. Finally, the evaluation results show that the learning experience

was very positive and that the concept-mapping skills acquired will be exploited outside of the module scope.

The project leader would like to thank the students attending EE3.PEM module at University of Surrey in the spring 2008 for

invaluable feedback and support throughout the project.



1. I liked the CM exercise 2. The CM exercise was disturbing the lecture 3. I will use CM in the future 4. The CM was a good reflection of my knowledge 5. I found the podcast useful

Chart 1. Cumulative scores of the five questions per answer, from the most posi-

tive feedback on the left to the most negative on the right. Observe no strongly

negative opinion and a strong bias towards positive feedback.

Table 1. Numeric results of the quiz.





Appendixes

1. Tutorial Slides

2. Test Slides

3. Student Feedback - Concept-Maps

4. Podcast Slides







Concept MappingVisualising thinking

Dr Janko Calic

Concept Maps

• Technique for visualising the relationships among different concepts.

• Diagram showing the relationships among concepts. Concepts are connected with labelled arrows, in a downward-branching hierarchical structure.

• The relationship between concepts is articulated in linking phrases

Sample Concept Map

Usage

• Brainstorming

• Creative-thinking

• Complex ideas

• Collaborative work

• Software: CMapTools, FreeMind, OmniGraffle, NovaMind, MindMapper

Links

• Tutorial - http://www.surrey.ac.uk/bioskills/biomap/concept/frame.htm

• http://cmap.ihmc.us/

Concept MappingAnonymous Exercise

Task

• Not assessed - just as your feedback

• Work in pairs, with colleague next to you

• Draw a concept map (mind-map) of device design aspects we’ve done

• 15 min

Friday, 15 February 2008

EE3.PEM Student Feedback on their

understanding of the PEM lectures on EMC,

Thermal, presentation tools and device

interfaces

Dr Janko Calic

EE3.PEMFeedback

Podcast

Presentation tools

• PowerPoint/Keynote

• Flash

• LaTex (Beamer)

PowerPoint•Easy/fast

•Not original

•Not for demos

Flash•Time consuming

•Videos/Animations

•Programming

LaTex•Markup language

•Standard, academic

•Bad multimedia

Thermal Design

•Dissipated heat must be managed effectively

Thermal Design

•Hot spots

•Failure, function, reliability

Conduction•heat flows through a stationary material

!

Conduction

Convection•heat transfer by fluid flow - liquid or gas

Convection•Natural, Forced or Liquid

•Q = hc A (Tw-Tf)

Radiation•heat transfer by electromagnetic waves

Radiation

• No carrying medium

• Q = AF12(T24 – T1

4)

EMC

•Definition

•2 way problem

EMC•Issues of immunity and emissions

•Example: radio

!

Immunity - Radio

!

Emissions - Radio

EMC Directive• Maintain margin of

safety

• From tests to compliance mark

EMC Directive defines Immunity vs. Emissions

EMC Directive

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