New case study: Enhancing access, equity and student learning through the use of virtual microscopy

We've just made available another new case study. This time it comes from Dr Lucy Webster, who was awarded a Flexible Learning Institute Teaching Fellowship in 2010 to complete this project as part of BMS337 (Histopathology), and has this year been honoured with both CSU's Vice Chancellor's Award for Teaching Excellence, and an ALTC Citation for Outstanding Contributions to Student Learning for 'for creating flexible and engaging resources to enhance student learning in the Biomedical sciences'.  

One of the slides that Lucy used with her Histopathology students. Both internal
and distance students were given various samples in which they made an
initial diagnosis, followed by a virtual meeting where Lucy was able to
address any incorrect diagnoses through discussion and shared annotation
on the slide on the electronic whiteboard. Following the session,
students would write up a case study report on their final diagnosis and justifications

From the case study:

The teaching of microscopy-based subjects is currently severely hindered by issues surrounding infrastructure, access and equity. In particular, distance education and offshore students are largely restricted to viewing samples on glass-microscope slides during intense residential school periods where they are under immense stress and time pressures. In this case study, Dr Lucy Webster shares how she has used virtual microscopy to digitally reproduce glass slides for normal tissue histology and histopathology so that images can be viewed and manipulated at remote locations. 

This blended and flexible learning strategy has had positive impacts on student access, equity, learning outcomes and engagement. Feedback from students was extremely positive and students have requested that the technology be used in other microscopy-based subjects. Widespread implementation of this technology has the potential to transform the teaching and flexible delivery of all microscopy-based subjects within the Faculty of Science at CSU. 

In this video, Lucy talks about her project: 

You can read Lucy's full case study here.  

Lucy is currently working on a ALTC-funded project with Professor Geoff Meyer at the University of Western Australia on a project entitled “New paradigms for learning and teaching histology; changing focus from microscopy to 3D reconstructions and animations”.

New case study: Using simulations to help students recognise common patterns

For those of you who have seen our DVD, Exploring Good Practice in Blended and Flexible Learning: The Practitioner's Voice, you'll recognise Chris Bushell who teaches in the Associate Degree Policing Practice (ADPP) and had the 'last word' on that video about designing for BFL: "You're only limited by your imagination". 

Well, Chris had a lot more to say than just that when we interviewed him...as did all the other Fellows we interviewed. We're slowly pulling together that footage into short (10-12 min) video case studies, supported by a PebblePad webfolio that outlines the project in a bit more detail, and offers resources for those who might want to follow in their footsteps.

In his case study, Chris talks about Dahl's (1951) notions of observation as a key ingredient in policing. He'd previously completed some excellent work creating filmed scenarios of policing incidents, and the students also act out roles in a live scenario village called Rossiville. 

However, once students entered the final distance component of their course, the linkages between theory and practice weren't as strong. So Chris created a simulation to help the students, then probationary officers, gain a better understanding of the realities of policing and, in particular, responding to domestic violence situations. It helps them recognise and practice patterns of actions that successfully resolve both volatile and sometimes fatal policing incidents.

The simulation has had positive responses from students who appreciated the ability to learn in a safe environment which also allowed them to repeatedly practice the simulation to improve their skills.

Take a look! 

Digital storytelling: Hippedy, Hippedy...

Recently Miriam Edwards shared an update on the digital storybook project being run by Dr Noella Mackenzie as part of CSU's ESL201 – Literacy Studies in the Primary School. The project was part of a Border Mail story, and really caught my eye. This is the third year the project has run from the Albury, Dubbo & Bathurst campuses, and a quick look at the following video will leave you with no doubt about the benefits for our pre-service teachers...and their younger 'buddies'!

Digital storytelling involves 'combining narrative with digital content to create a short movie' (Educause, 2007). It's a perfect fit for a range of genres - instructional, persuasive, historical, reflective...or in this case, children's narratives!  

The students are tasked with helping K-2 children become confident readers and writers through the co-writing of a digital narrative. Noella specifically made it a digital narrative to build the students' digital literacy skills and prepare them for the digital classroom. This is how it happened...  

Pre-production 
Each pre-service teacher was ‘buddied’ up with a K-2 child, who they met beforehand to 'build rapport'. The students were prepared for the task ahead through a series of topics relating to the K-6 English Syllabus including Reading, Writing, Listening, Speaking, Viewing and Representing.

Some specific technology knowledge was needed as well, and so the students were prepped on how to use Microsoft's Photo Story to create a video (wmv) from digital photos and audio content (narration, music or other sounds). Several of the students used their phones to capture audio and allowed the children to narrate the stories. Along with a face-to-face workshop, the team provided the students with a tutorial on digital storytelling and a 'how to' video available on YouTube.

Production 
The students and their buddies both arrived with previously discussed props and costumes to spark the imagination, and were seen wandering around dressed as explorers, fairies and bats! The students had also come prepared with digital cameras and laptop computers, and they were kept busy taking photos, recording audio and writing notes. In many cases it was the CSU pre-service teachers’ first experience of teaching a young child.

In this video, Noella discusses the process:

Post production 

After lunch, the students and children worked on developing their stories, and by the end of the day, they had a rough draft to continue working with. The process was creative and quite open ended. Some of the students opted to create traditional illustrations which were later scanned, while others woriked with photo editing software. The final stories were shared on the subject site, as well as with the buddies (via CD/DVD).

The task does a wonderful job of leading students into their 20-day practicum. As Noella says, 'With the digital stories each student got to work one-on-one with a child. This gave them real insight into just how diverse the needs of young students can be.'

Miriam Edwards, who provided the educational design support for Noella and her team, says that she's 'very proud of this project because it not only speaks to several ideas within the Degree Initiative, it creates strong ties with local schools and makes kids happy.' Couldn't agree more. :)

Those from CSU can find the full learning design on the About ICTIntegration wiki (CSU login required).

But are digital stories only useful with pre-service teachers? 

Well, are pre-service teachers and K-2 children the only people to tell stories? Storytelling is an ancient art, and there have been many, many projects around the world that cement this as an excellent pedagogical technique to engage students in a wide range of issues, from community medicine and sustainability to history, culture and scientific research. Researching the story, distilling key concepts, developing a point of view and engaging the audience ... not to mention digital literacy...are just some of the skills that students can expect to develop through digital storytelling. >

Here's a few resources to explore:

• The educational uses of digital storytelling
• The many dimensions of digital storytelling in higher education (check the case studies) 
• University of Wollongong's digital storytelling site
• QUT's digital storytelling site

The International Conference on Digital Storytelling will be held in Valencia, Spain on March 21 - 23, 2012. 

The CSU Library - a university-wide BFL strategy!

While we have lots of activity related to developing BFL strategies at course level at the moment, whaat we often don't think about are the BFL strategies of those areas of our university that are engaging with much larger groups of students on a daily basis. Enter left stage, our CSU Library.

Our library has been using a wide range of strategies for sharing resources and interacting with both staff and students for some time. In this case study, they are with us how they use virtual and physical spaces to 'foster research, study and interaction in an environment where diversity and ideas are embraced and respected.' 

CSULibrary has developed a BFL case study to show how a university-wide division is using blended and flexible learning strategies to remain current with the changes to information-seeking behaviours of both staff and students.

The inspiration for this case study came from a conversation I had with Tabitha Merrill in Orange after the CSUDegree Bookclub event on Blended and Flexible Learning (archive available here, CSU login required). One of the topics that was discussed was multi-literacies, one of the five BFL perspectives that we're encouraging CSU Course Teams to consider their courses from when developing a comprehensive strategy. Of course, information literacy is a key skill our students are expected to master during their time at university, but it's clear that the times when this meant knowing how to look up a card catalogue are long gone.

As the library team notes in their case study, competition from search engines, the abundance of freely available electronic resources and time-poor staff and students has meant that information-seeking behaviour has changed dramatically. Resources and help options need to be available when and where they are needed, and there are significant challenges in developing library research skills online.

This case study looks at how the Library is engaging with staff and students - from access to thousands of eBook titles, subject and research skills support to Live Chat - how it's all working, and what they are working on for the future. If the development of your students' library research skills are important to you, it's definitely worth taking a look. Do you know all that is available to your students - are you making use of all that's available to you? What can you learn from the Library's lessons about what works for them on a large scale, and what doesn't?

Our many thanks to the team who developed the case study: Tabitha Merrell, Vanessa Salway and Carole Gerts, with help from the Library's new Information and Liaison Services Manager, Lars Rutz.

Congratulations to our new BFL Course Symposium recipients!

We were offering three, but somehow we ended up with, wait for it, nine blended and flexible learning (BFL) course symposium grant winners for our second round of offers in 2011! If you haven't heard of the BFL course symposium grants yet, here's a quick background from Assoc Prof Merilyn Childs:

Each proposal was incredibly worthy, and offered insights into how a course-based BFL strategy might be used to provide insights and solutions to a wide range of risks and challenges. Let's take a look at just some:

• In the Faculty of Arts, Brett van Heekeren and his team of Advertising academics will be evaluating their current approaches to BFL in light of their industry's movement towards digital, social and mobile communication strategies. Their aim is to develop a 'future-driven' BFL strategy for the course that maintains currency and continues to develop leading edge students in this world of change. In the same school, Sharon Schoenmaker and her team of Public Relations academics will be looking at, among other things, how to create equivalent experiences in the highly practical components of their course for distance students. And on the Wagga campus, Bill Anscombe and his team in Social Work will be focusing on their residential school program, and how they can enhance their practice to ensure maximum equivalence and engagement for their students.
• In the Faculty of Business, Jason Howarth and his team have been busy with the STAR project, and will now be looking at how a blended and flexible learning strategy might fit with (and extend) work already completed in relation to the first year experience.
• In the Faculty of Education, Wendy De Luca will look at how she and her team can develop a more coherent and consistent course experience for their students despite increasing casualisation of staff. Margaret Torode and her team in Human Movement will be looking at how good practice can be maintained in the changing nature of their courses, with more flexible movement into and between courses in the near future.
• In the Faculty of Science, Gayle Smyth, Janelle Wheat and their teams will be looking and how they can best engage their distance students in authentic learning experience, especially in clinically based subjects;
• Finally, the Robin Wills and his Study Link team will be evaluating their current BFL approach, and explore how they may best foster multi-literacies in a world where the required literacies are moving and changing with developments in the digital age.

The full list of recipients is listed here:

At the moment, each of the Course Directors/Leaders are busy planning their symposiums, with some happening in a matter of weeks, and others involving a series of pre-symposium activities to prepare staff before a face-to-face strategy meeting early next year. Over the next few weeks, we'll be adding the teams to the BFL Course Symposium webfolio, so you'll be able to check in with their plans and progress. The outcomes from each symposium will be a BFL course strategy/plan, a series of sharable learning 'objects' or designs and a School-based presentation on the process and outcomes of their work.

Congratulations once again to all the successful teams! If you missed out, more symposiums will be on offer next year. :)