This research presentation showcases the creation and implementation of a lightboard as a means of rapidly generating online learning resources. Lightboards are a video recording studio setup whereby a presenter can appear as if viewed through a whiteboard, writing in front of themselves. The presentation will cover the design, construction and use of the lightboard and explore analytics to give a detailed overview of student use of lightboard generated content as well as student survey responses to evaluate their preferences for this video type.
Lightboard technology first came into use in San Diego State University and has since spread to a number of institutions globally however, there are a number of technical challenges, mechanical and cinematographic, which must be overcome to implement this technology. The device consists of a large (60 kg) sheet of glass lit from inside. This presentation will provide an insight into successfully building a lightboard studio including a brief overview of some of the critical part specifications and sourcing the necessary parts in an Irish context.
There are substantial benefits to using a lightboard studio for online content creation. From a practitioner’s perspective, the process of creating online content is familiar since it is akin to using a whiteboard to teach. This familiarity, as well as no requirement for editing or post production, means videos can be produced in under 15 minutes without need for any specialist skills.
From the student perspective, lightboard generated content has a number of advantages. Literature examining student interaction with MOOCs demonstrates that videos where the lecturer is visible to students rather than slides alone and videos which show a level of personal interaction are favoured by students. In the lightboard format, it is possible to interact with the content in real time on video meeting both of these criteria, creating highly engaging content for students.
A prototype series of ten videos have been created using the lightboard and have been used as part of a first-year undergraduate course involving over 250 students. Analytics are available both through the video hosting platform and through the VLE which provides access to the videos for the students. It is clear from these that students make significant use of the lightboard videos with students choosing to view some videos repeatedly while a significant minority return to the content later in term as a means of revision.
Students were also surveyed as part of the module to assess their ease of interaction with the online content and the responses (n=256) were overwhelmingly positive. In addition, free response feedback included comments such as “the [lightboard] videos are extremely helpful” and “the videos put up are helpful so more of those” with many students requesting that more videos be made available.
In all, this presentation is a multi-perspective overview of the implementation of a cutting edge online content generation technology without prejudice to particular teaching styles or practices.
Topics: Innovations and Design in Online and Blended Learning , Topics: Learning Analytics: Research and Practice
