Create, Curate, Educate: Echo360 ANZ’s 12th Annual Conference

If you missed the 12^th Annual ANZ Echo360 conference, you will have missed the clear message that change continues to be afoot in the capture world.

Every year we gather to celebrate the hard work Echo360 users have put in to implementing the platform across their campuses. We eat, drink and are merry; we hear from each other about what’s working, what’s a struggle and what the Echo360 development team are working on. This year, more than ever, we heard from Echo360 users who have migrated to the cloud, have the technology and systems in place for a smooth capture experience and are focused on unwrapping the many other ways that using the technology can support learning and teaching.

Whether we are enjoying our annual updates from regular presenters who have generously shared their experiences implementing Echo360 over the years, hearing from technical leaders on the first-year experiences with the Echo360 active learning platform or welcoming new presenters such as James Oldfield from Unitec who focused our attention on learning spaces, there is a buzz of community and collegiality as we recognise our struggles and successes in the stories of others. We hear that we are not alone.

At this conference, we also like to walk the walk. All presenters use Echo360 during their session which allows both presenter and attendee to use the engagement tools that are increasing learning opportunities for the students at our institutions. Just one quick glance at the analytics from our 2017 conference gives us a picture of the participation and engagement during the conference.

With 24 presentations over 3 days, there was a lot to see, to learn and to discuss. Below is a small collection containing a video highlight from just a few of those presentations.

1. James Oldfield and Sarah Kirk, Unitec

James Oldfield and Sarah Kirk from Unitec decided to split their presentation with us so that we could focus on Echo360 in a Collaborative Space with James and then Blended Learning Professional Development with Sarah later in the week.

James Oldfield showed us the new teaching spaces that Unitec has created to facilitate collaborative learning and the ways in which they are looking at how the social learning tools and social learning theory can combine to support instruction. Using his own teaching experience as a base, he talked us through how using the Echo360 tools has helped to support student learning through ice-breakers, conversations, report back activities as well as the recording of both student and teacher presentations. I’ve captured just some of what James had to say in this video.

Starting off by reminding us that we become expert at something by having the space to make mistakes, Sarah Kirk took us through an authentic Unitec Active Learning experience and the importance of making the classes student-centric. Echo360 is used across all Professional Development where possible so that the technology is being modelled during the sessions and that the experience is positive for teachers. While I won’t share the whole presentation, here is how Sarah got us involved right from the beginning.

2. Leah Chandler, University of Tasmania

Ms. Chandler took us on their journey from first adopting Echo360 in 2011, the Age of Lecture Capture through the Age of the Flipped Classroom to the Age of Active Learning which started in 2014.

Leah shares some really interesting observations about the journey and the current state of technology such as the drop in the use of Personal Capture and the increase in content coming from outside the platform. Many of which support the top 10 that Bill Holding shared in his keynote address.

Leah also draws our attention to a common challenge with communication. When our teachers are overwhelmed by the sheer amount of communication they receive on a daily basis, how else can we share information about the technology that has been implemented to support them and their students in learning.

3. No list of our conference highlights would be complete without Martin Hill from Curtin University.

With his 9^th presentation Martin didn’t disappoint. He updated us on the way they have linked Echo360’s Personal Capture to the AV equipment in the clinics to enable capture of clinical recording for areas such as Psychology or Social Work.

The benefits of his bent toward automating the capture of lectures across campus was also on display with the auto tracking cameras using the new ismart camera.

4. For the first time ever, we were a little nervous about our conference dinner choice as we had a professional chef in our midst. (There was no cause for concern, both the venue and the dinner offerings were superb!)

Ready for dinner: the weather was perfect for our Echo360 ANZ conference dinner at the gallery of Modern Art in Brisbane.

George Clegg, from the Brisbane campus of TAFE Queensland is a true testament to the educator who knows what’s right for student learning and finds a way to get it done. In this video, you’ll hear how he fabricated his own camera stand to capture lessons and the word of mouth that spread among his students as they realised that watching the videos created before the class, resulted in greater learning of techniques and therefore, a better grade.

George as part of COTA (College of Tourism and Hospitality) where they deliver a large amount of certificate and diploma level certifications in Personal Services, Hospitality and Tourism.

By the time the students reach George’s classes (he teaches the second Semester of the Certificate 4 in Commercial Cookery), they have completed a lot of the basics including sauces, appetizers and health and safety. He starts them on the heavily practical units relating to producing a variety of dishes as well as creating ala carte menus with some budgeting.

He shares his successes and his challenges in his first 2 semesters of a pilot with Echo360.

5. I am a firm believer that if we want students to use the tools we provide for them to learn, we have to teach them how to use them. Just as we model the thinking and language of our particular discipline, we need to provide purpose and time to demonstrate the tools students can use to take more control of their own learning.

One of the Echo360 features that is often used is the quiz activities. In this session, I focussed on questions and active learning by using the other tools available. Here’s a glimpse into some of what we did.

6. Bill Holding, Echo360’s Executive Vice President of Product (21 mins)

There’s always anticipation when the US-based head of product development stands to give a Keynote and he did not disappoint as he recapped the changes we’ve made to the platform in the last 12 months, and the developments to come.

Bill’s recap of the lessons his team learned from Educause also caught my attention.

To find out more about how Echo360 is meeting the needs of faculty and students in 2017 https://echo360.com/educause-2017-recap/

The fantastic four: Patrick Stoddart (Senior Manager, Academic & Learning Systems Support, University of Melbourne), Jocasta Williams (General Manager, Echo360 APAC), Mikee Elliott (Senior Support Analyst, LaTrobe University) and Pierre Bleiker (Digital recording administrator, Macquarie University) have been to all 12 annual Echo360 ANZ user conferences.

Learn more about Echo360.