Engaging students with video

Faculty members from various colleges and universities recently gathered in Dallas, Texas at the Echo360 Active Learning Conference to network with peers, share their experiences and learn about best practices in the classroom.  We were lucky enough to hear a few of them speak on a panel about their experiences on the front lines of learning, using video and active learning strategies to improve student outcomes.  Here are some highlights from the discussion.

Using Video to Address Challenges of Teaching Multiple Sections

Dr. Nila Veerabathina, Assistant Professor of Practice in the Department of Physics at the University of Texas at Arlington teaches introductory astronomy to non-science majors. Her classes consist of multiple sections, with both online and face-to-face sections with a total enrollment of about 500 students per semester.

“Students in each section invariably ask different questions, says Dr. Veerabathina. “I review the Echo360 video and share these questions and answers across the sections in both my online and face-to-face classes. This helps me to synchronize material between the sections to make sure that I cover the necessary information.”

In coming semesters, Dr. Veerabathina plans to incorporate the polling features of Echo360, in particular graphic response questions, into her presentations, where students will be required to point out astronomical features in an image. To make it easier for students to review for exams, she plans to edit her classroom lectures into shorter segments as well as create short personal captures on specific topics.

Getting Students Engaged in the Humanities with Mobile Devices and Polling

Dr. Stephanie Cole teaches history at UT Arlington. She has been using Echo360 since 2015 and has had considerable success improving student performance by encouraging students to not only review recorded lectures after class, but also to bring their mobile devices to class to participate in polling activities, ask questions, follow along with the presentation and take contextual notes.

According to Dr. Cole, capturing the classroom lecture and activities along with her use of the Echo360 engagement tools is especially helpful for her international students, which comprise 25 percent of her class.

“American history is a required course in the state of Texas, but most of my international students have never studied it before,” says Dr. Cole. “The ability to review the classroom lectures and activities and listen multiple times is helpful to them. Without it, it would be very difficult for them to pass the course.”

Dr. Cole takes advantage of the mobile engagement tools within Echo360 to encourage student participation. She embeds four different types of questions or activities into each lecture.

  • Icebreaker questions
  • Application of Concepts
  • Opinion Polls
  • Fact-checking

“I always start class with some sort of ‘icebreaker’ question,” says Cole. “This takes a variety of forms, but I often ask students to reflect on something I presented in a prior class.”

Dr. Cole uses polling questions to facilitate in-class discussion and promote peer-to-peer learning.

“After I display the results of the poll to the class, I ask my students to turn to the person next to them and discuss their answers. I then re-poll the class, which I think is the central point of any use of engagement tools in the humanities. The beauty is that students talk to each other using their own words and language to describe the concepts we are learning. They can teach each other and apply it right there in front of me,” says Cole.

Sharing Engagement Data Improves Student Performance

Dr. Cole uses Echo360 analytics to improve student performance. After the first exam, she creates an engagement score by measuring the number of times students view the classroom videos, or ask and answer questions. Cole correlates the relationship between higher levels of engagement and grades and shares that information with her students.

“Generally, this allows me to create another 25% of highly engaged users and we see a corresponding increase in grades. I think that learning how to write engaging questions has helped me to become a much better teacher,” says Cole.

To learn more how you can use Echo360 to improve student participation, engagement and learning, watch the video from our Dallas Active Learning Conference.

 

Join us for our next Active Learning Conference, a chance for you to discover how institutions around the world use Echo360 to transform teaching and learning. https://echo360.com/connect/events/.