Teaching through Play

Initial approach and presentation

Through my Self-initiated Project, I would like to critically evaluate RASE framework (Resources, Activities, Support, Evaluation) implementation as an expansion of the current resource database through the implementation of asynchronous and self-moderated interactive elements of Moodle. I do believe that this evaluation meets the criteria of a small-scale scholarly enquiry within the context of my own academic practice.

I would like to implement the framework within my teaching curricula as part of our transition into Blended teaching delivery. I do believe it would meet the Action Research criteria of being a transformative change in my practice through simultaneous action (implementation of the RASE framework structure and activities) and enquiry (data analysis on students engagement and progression) as well as if time allows satisfaction (based on when results for NSS and USS for 20/21 will be published).

All year one students’ will be participating through engagement with RASE framework materials provided to them on Moodle as part of their curriculum. I plan to use Dashboards data, on progression to be used for comparative purposes. To best evaluate benefits of RASE framework and all individualised engagement data, I need to research further UAL’s Code of Practice on Research Ethics and all supporting documents how to best anonymise it while still being able to present them, to be usable in any future conclusions and to be in line with all legal and ethical procedures and practices.

Optionally I am hoping to gain volunteers from Years 2 and Year 3 who are all of my former students and would be able to provide a legacy perspective on the presentation of the foundational curriculum of their degree. However, this may be way out of the scope of this project, thus its optionality.

The idea for the implementation of the RASE framework came to me as a result of several factors over the past year:

• My analysis of NSS and USS feedback from students that despite general high Overal Satisfaction (85-96%) and High Participation (86-100%) has radically different responses for the course being too easy, to easily being left behind for disengaged students who miss on classes.

• Learning through Thinking Teaching last year about Vygotsky’s Scaffolding as well as RASE framework and it inspired my to co-create with my team a road map for the course and ensure that year one is more: accessible, decolonised, representative and supportive which was investigated through my Curriculum Design Elective

• As I come from industry and am interested with my students’ employability I would like to frame in-class activities into findings of Games Fusion Project by the usage of Kolbs Experiential Learning framework (Kolb, 2014), which is the academic version of industries Agile methodologies.
• I would like to participate in a series of free educational training related to Blended teaching to better undestand current literature on the subject and have a better preperation on how this research should be carried out.

• Learning through a variety of staff training offered by Digital Learning including course as well as the Academic Enhancement Model has already taken place through Staff Development Weeks between March and October 2020.

The initial pitch idea has been recognised as worthwhile by both Iestyn (September) and Lindsay (October) however as soon as I started building the presentation I realised that I am not sure if I have “over scoped” the SIP or am bad at explaining it within the limit of 10 minutes. To be able to deliver within given time limit I have decided to use UAL’s new video Platform Panopto as both a learning experience prior to the recording of sessions for my own course, but as well as meta-experience for SIP presentation (as pre-recorded videos can serve as Resources and foundations for Support). The video closed in 10:02 with the last slide being just an invitation to discuss, question and share some ideas and as such was accepted to be presented on the live session on the 14th of October.

Presentation Feedback

All of the feedback has been supportive and enabled me on some reflection in terms of my SIP project. In general, participants were concerned with the scope of the SIP project which suggests that the presentation was not clear in the separation of what lead me to a conclusion what I would like to do for the SIP project (all of the above, as summarised below) and what SIP project will include (evaluation of the impact of the implementation of RASE Framework on students performance, based on collected data).

• background “research” in terms of engaging with NSS data, simplifying Unit structure (Curriculum Design Elective and its implementation) and creation of resources has already been done.
• The inspiration of Blend-It, AEM and other training provided by Digital Learning already have taken place, so it is more reflection on those and implementation of best practice
• The biggest practical workload is the creation of pre-recorded sessions and exploration of interactive activities on Moodle, however, this is a must for me due to blended delivery of my course and aiming as a whole team at maintaining the highest score and participation on the survey reports.

Feedback from my peers:

• Sheldon
  • Good video prepared ahead of time
  • Props for using and referencing DL tools (Blend-it)
  • Appreciates practicality of this project and its formal exploration of Digital Learning and RASE Framework
  • Suggested considering research into Constructive Alignment for Literature Review for conjunction with RASE Framework
    • Comment: This is something I will like to have a deeper look into
  • Methodology expanded by “User Acceptance Testing” that may not be possible due to time-frame chosen (this academic year)
  • As Game Design teacher Moodle attempts to Gamify User Experience like User Completion Reports
    • Comment: Alongside dashboards, I wanted to look into those reports, but need to better understand UALs data policies in regards to their collection and anonymisation for Research purposes
  • Referring to do a focus group with students and ethics approval form
    • Comment: Focus groups meant to be more an optional addition for constructive feedback from a students perspective
• Nathaniel
  • Wondering on data analysis, as enough good resource without need of focus groups
    • Comment: Yes the main focus of this SIP is data analysis on how the implementation of RASE framework will impact students performance in terms of grades obtained for the first term in relation to grades given out in previous 2-3 years
  • Due to presenter appearing to be technical minded there can be an interesting quantitive data analysis
    • I would have to look into how quantitive data analysis works and how, if at all, it could be used in the final presentation of my findings
• Petra
  • Great and interesting
  • A lot of ground covered
    • Comment: As mentioned in the presentation I would like to research term 1 as it is foundational in building students understanding for the whole 3 years of the course and must act quickly with the whole structure as it is happening Monday
  • It would be good to have a bit of lieu way if anything interesting comes in the process of developing the SIP, instead of having so much already planned
    • Comment: I totally agree that this project can be easily expanded into something much bigger and I hope that I would find some interesting findings that could be explored further in MA Academic Practice
• Richard
  • Cover quite a lot of ground
  • Sound ambitious
  • Recommending to reach out to Graham Barton, Academic Support-Co-ordinator
    • Comment: This can be very useful contact to help me better understand and operate with Dashboard data as well as Universities policies related to such data collection and usage.
• Katayoun
  • Compared to what I had in mind its a lot of stuff
• Iestyn
  • Found captions quite funny
  • A lot there for SIP project
  • Offer a lot less and deliver a lot more
  • When I start your SIP and this presentation remains the same and due matters beyond my control, I won’t be to deliver a quarter of what I have promised here, I will be marked down for offering this massive project that got people excited but done just basic research
    • Comment: I was perplexed by this feedback, as in my opinion, the SIP is very simple as it includes RASE framework implementation and its potential impact based on evaluation of the grade data
  • Reminds of a PhD (…) It is a starting point, it does not have to be a complete project if the SIP gets you in a position to be enabled to go further on, with another field of research that is enough.
    • Comment: I would hope that the findings of this SIP and potential benefits of RASE Framework within the blended mode of teaching, could help me to pitch to my Team to allow me to investigate this area further into a MA Academic Practice with a combination of Research through Practice and Technology Enhanced Learning, the same way as my findings from Curriculum Design have been used as the foundation for our updated 20/21 Handbook and Units.
  • SIPs change over time, after even 3 weeks of initial research, it is better to expand on the project rather than reduce it to be realistic and not overambitious.
  • SIP needs to be a research project that can answer only one question to take you on further
    • Comment: Can implementation of RASE Framework in BA (Hons) Games Design delivered in blended/online model help in supporting attainment and retention by reducing referrals and resubmissions? (Optionally) while simultaneously upkeeping students high overall satisfaction from the course?

My response feedback on the day seemed to be understood by and our tutor (Iestyn) and peers (who had no more questions) in which I have explained that the scope of this SIP is much smaller than understood by everyone involved.

• Scope:
  • Half of the presentation is an explanation of where I am coming from (as presented above in Initial Approach – practice, digital learning, curriculum design) and hot it builds up to the SIP
  • The biggest chunk of things like materials to be delivered (presentations & resources) that is already done (from past years) it is more about organisation and presentation
  • As per Sheldon suggestions, it is more about Constructive Alignment with Activities and Evaluation to be the focus of the SIP
• Methodology:
  • Totally agree with Nathaniel that observation and data analysis should be good enough (did student grades improved and are students more satisfied)
  • All focus groups are optional (as well as longer individual interviews) as I was unsure if I had too much or not enough, so I thought how I could possibly expand it
  • Feedback forms, throughout the duration of the course I had conversations with students as 1-2-1s in class how they find material and how they find materials, but due to COVID, I cannot use it as an adequate method

Closing thoughts

I would have to discuss with my tutor how I can possibly simplify message/scale of this SIP is based on the feedback gathered. It is not that I am not ambitious or adventerous enough to explore this project further but I would like to have it manageable and clearly understandable by my peers in what it is that I am working on and want to achieve.

Please see below my feedback to my peers’ presentations:

• Sheldon
  • I liked that presentation was to the point and presented in a contained and smooth way
  • Quotes provided on the screen, but with no time to read them, while presenter expands that point.
  • Using multiple colours to highlight elements of the presentation
• Nathaniel
  • Appears to be way more complex than my SIP.
  • Katayoun pointed out that it might be challenging not to disadvantage or disenfranchise any participants with which I totally agree
  • Referencing to AEM model as potential assistance, contacts and guidance.
• Katayoun
  • Confused/conflicted about the usage of opinions that are hard to implement in an academic piece which should be standardised and regulated
  • Comparison of non-traditional to traditional educations, just one subset, that at the end of the day, if anyone would like to provide a recognisable certification to be recognised outside of the organisation.

For this session, as a delivery method was flipped I also decided to take a flipped approach to my blog post, and rather than afterthoughts, choose it as a real-time note-taking activity.

Mini lecture 1 (Template Portfolio for Teaching & Learning):

• Prior to this material been published, I have already set up my workflow page and asked Lindsay and Iestyn for some guidance in terms of outstanding activities I had (online observation, case studies, self-initiated project). Despite this, I have watched it until the end, which resulted in being demonstrated an interesting alternative of presenting documents as PDFs that can be displayed on the page.
• The first Lecture indicates that Case Studies (one of my missing parts) are part of Mini Lecture 2 – so I am looking forward to this.
• In terms of upcoming SIP presentation apparently the core features are the project idea. Presented via images, notes, summary, feedback… We have only 2 weeks left for it.
• Elective Unit should be displayed as multiple blocks (URL or Download file) – I have run my Elective as a Trello board and the submission was across 7 different Word documents, thus I just left it as one Block with links and necessary Zip upload. But I added the final Timeline that works as a summary as separate PDF block.
• I have added secret links to my previous blog posts linking to the Workflow page and given access to both Iestyn and Lindsay.

Mini lecture 2 (Three Case Studies)

• The main focus of the three case studies is to cover all three areas of activity UK Professional Standards Framework
  • Planning & Design
  • Teaching & Supporting Learning
  • Students progressing through Assessment & Helping to understand
• We are meant to engage with policy through practice and scholarship
• We should have a reflective and evaluative approach, using a particular example.
  • How you do it?
  • Why you do it?
  • How does it work?
  • What is good and bad about it?
  • What opportunities are for doing it differently?
  • How you may approach it in different ways?
• Template leads through this with the questions and categories.
  • Be critical.
  • Why students like it?
  • How confident am I a teacher?
  • How you can evidence it?
• Flesh it out through engagement with the policy, practice and scholarship (literature from Moodle, tasks, strategies, different teaching formats, teaching online resources, everything you experienced as a learner of PGCert – NSS, TEF)
• Refer to at least 2-3 things per page.
• Duct tape between your feelings and practice.
• Assessment and Feedback are not about grading
  • It is about supporting students how they are doing
  • Helping them to understand where they are.
• Use Word Bank as well as Areas of Activities listed at the very bottom of Moodle page.

Mini Lecture 3 (Presentations 14th October)

The format of the presentation should be as follow:

• Presentation length:
  • 10 minutes max to present
  • 10 minutes to discuss, get questions, suggestions, ideas etc.
• This should be accessible via a link (not download) so use YouTube or Panopto.

Core elements of the presentation should include:

• Research: evaluation, feedback, assessing, what are the next steps
  • You will need to do scholarly work (interviews, focus groups, questionnaires, more creative visual methods) research.
• Action element to Research with theoretical and empirical aspects.
  • Action research – Can be an evaluation of something implemented into Term 1
    • Justify structure and evaluate it.
    • It should be small and contained, something you think about doing.
• Potentially implement mindmap
• To lookout beyond once practice into wider scholarship available

Live Q&A

The majority of the session was focused around questions related to the setup of Workflow page (which I already had done). And my only issue was in regards to the layout (as Workflow Update messed up the Colour Scheme of Dark Layout, which I was able to find after the session has finished).

As a result of Dr. Wongkaew question Lindsay expanded on practice and scholarship: Opportunities not to only reflect inwardly, but also look beyond to scholarship out there – teaching and learning journals and conferences. A rigorous evidence approach. Take oppurtunities to link to articles you have read, books, online resources, other people practice. TEF implications, Dashboard data and how NSS data impacts courses. Using the HEA structuring requirement meaningfully for your specific context.

Just before the end of the session (1:22:07), I managed to ask a question, based around my skeletal structure for the SIP project that was as follow:

“So if I have an idea that I would like to implement term 1 in my teaching as a consequence of reflection on my own practice through the lens of T&L and Elective units, SIP could be a critical evaluation of those new approaches and techniques in practice?”

To which Lindsay feedbacked:
“That sounds wonderful Thom, in fact that’s brilliant. A great way of wording it, indeed!”.

And thus the idea of “RAiSE the Game” has been moved from conceptual into planning stage.

As the Session focus ran by Lindsay was on getting us back in the room, the atmosphere was very friendly and supportive. People rather than focusing on rather casual tasks were more incline to discuss how they were coping with the COVID-19 pandemic and supporting each other morally which was a nice refresher. Despite that I do believe that session went well. The technologies used allowed for less formal interactions, like the ones had by our students, while exposing us to potential tools we could use in our own practice in months ahead, kind of as additional training session which is hard to book. I have given below some context on my approach to softwares and tools used as well as their individual breakdown.

Context

To focus on highest quality of teaching during Lockdown and into potential Online/Blended learning mode for academic year 2020/2021 since April 2020, I have closely consulted with LCC Digital Learning Team in testing materials for co-workers from Teacher/Student perspective using my priviledge position of being both within our educational environment. This has resulted in my participation in majority Digital Learning training sessions to compare various approaches to delivery of the same materials, and having the widest possible perspectives on peoples ideas, issues and worries with remote teaching. As such I have found variety of materials presented in Teaching online well thought-through and really well delivered.

Supporting community:

• Padlet is a digital version of sticky notes, which is quite handy in terms of student participation. I do believe this tool is great for in-session usage for short comments and thoughts
  • This is how we have used it during the session
  • It was supported by usage of breakout groups and several tasks (various size of teaching groups from 1-2-1 to 12+) supported by varied reading list
  • However for more in-depth planning and long-term projects I would recommend Trello and Microsoft Planner instead.
• myBlog can be used as a note taking tool, as well as a submission place (as in case of this blog as a whole) however I do find accessing it and searching for other materials quite confusing (as proved by necessity of having external listing of students blogs. Personally I do not use it in my practice and do not encourage non-technical pieces of writing (as they are not being recognised by anyone in the industry in my field)
• Microsoft Teams is a great tool to communicate with other colleagues across University as well as teaching delivery. Over Blackboard Collaborate it has:
  • Multiple advantages like:
    • The chat is being recorded, accessible and searcheable post session
    • You have access to the past conversations if you join late
    • You have multiple ways of arranging camera space (Gallery Mode, Class mode, pinning and fitting camera sources)
    • You can not only screenshare your computer/software but also give a remote access, that enables remote support.
    • It is more reliable in not kicking out people or capping the internet connection
  • As well as disadvantages:
    • The video recordings are time-limited
    • Audio quality can drop and become really muffled

Creating Educational Videos:

One of those sessions was Teaching with Video by Peter Beare that was very good presentation of multiple usages of video and detailed demonstration of Screencastomatic software. However despite our University decided to go instead with Panopto for their dedicated recording software, the presentation still enables to learn on high-concept principles and some behind the scenes tricks, which included microphone setup, lighting, space and so forth.

A great advantage of using software like Panopto is the fact that it can create automatic closed captions after analysing your video presentation which is a reasonable requirement in line with The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 which deadline passed on 23rd September 2020.

Designing and organising your course:

As I have used Collaborate Ultra both as a teacher in various contexts of workshop sessions within Term 3 of 2019/2020 that have happened during lockdown, as well as a manager of the real-time, interactive Graduation show for last year graduates – which enables us to host guests from Japan, India, Bahrain, Finland, Germany, Ghana, UK, Brasil and USA I have stressed test it to a huge level and learning to dislike its limitations:

• There can be only 20 Breakout Rooms
• Each users internet connection is capped to maximum of 0.5 MB per second which does not provide good audio or visual quality
• Despite working in rooms of small capacity (2-100, with limited of 250) the service can provide disconnections, drop of audio and video, as well as delays in processing of user lists and movements between rooms.
• Breakout rooms are not recorded (chat nor space) and lecturer leaving main room, breaks the recording in that space (thus a necessity to use two accounts one for recording as a guest, other one as active teacher attending various breakout rooms)
• Anyone attending the space late does not have access to any textual presentation provided prior.
• No easy communication to breakout rooms unless people are aware of multi-channel nature of chat (access to Everybody chat space) and have pop-up notifications active that can be posted by the host in the main channel.
• The session recording records what is being communicated through the Collaborate server to end users, thus any drops of quality that do not happen on the lecturers machine are being recorded (as evidenced in multiple places of the Inclusive Distance Teaching sesssion)
• Setting audio volume to 1% boosts it to 110% (it is louder than at 100% volume)

This results in me agreeing with the Core Practice recommendations of making session delivery and student activities as inclusive and engaging as possible via increase of asynchronous, low immediancy activities. This was a core of the Inclusive Distance Teaching recommened by Lindsay and explored within this PGCert course.

We have explored usage of those low immediacy activities in various areas of PGCert:

• Through regular email communications about upcoming activities, changes and reminders that were very beneficial (from both Teaching & Learning team, as well as my Elective Unit – Curriculum Design)
• Early on through a preparatory reading of Holmwood and Dall’Alba that I have commentend on in lenght in one of my early blog posts as well as provided some comments and summary of discussion and engaging interactions with other PGCerters during the session.
• Then various concepts hav ebeen presented to us via recommendation of Virna Rossi’s ‘Fast Switch’ video Tutorials that explore in much more practical way the same concepts as discussed in IDT session.
• Our July discussion task has been based around forums, and I have commented on it in separate blog post entry
• As well as we had possibility of exploring other colleagues blogs and having exchanges through comments as discussed in my previous post.
• All of the in-class as well as online sessions were despite sometimes longer schedules broken down to be shorter sessions, with variety of active participation moments created by variety of discussion activities, readings, collaborative tasks as well as breakout rooms and team work.
• We even had elements of Compassionate Pedagogy through implementation of Welcome back! survey which showed care and attempt at upkeeping healthy relation prior to stressful submission deadline period.

Neurodiversity

• All of PGCert sessions were neurodiverse friendly as there was only one visual speaker at a time, with other participants having their microphones and cameras switched off.
• All sessions were recorded and questions were read out.
• Session Notes were provided through Moodle
• None of the sessions was provided with closed captioning (this option does not exists in Blackboard Collab).

Future impact:

All of the above mentioned experiences have helped me in shaping idea for my Self-Initiated Project. I have already critically engaged with the curriculum content through the Curriculum Design elective, however that was focused on its decolonisation and simplification of assignment delivery. I would like to critically analyse, break down and improve via usage of RASE framework my teaching materials – presentations, exercises, handouts – as well as basically the whole delivery process as a much more concious and informed academic. This currently skeletal idea has been commented as interesting by Iestyn in our tutorial on 25th September regarding my progress through the Teaching & Learning unit.

October Update:

My Curriculum Design changes to year 1 units have been accepted by my course team as well as Moving Image and Digital Arts Unit Assignment Meeting.