Delays in Live Streamed Video Can Cause Problems for Clicker Quizzes

Livia Lam, & Tom Worthington,
hosting the Govhack 2022 Trivia, 
still from livestream, 20 August 2022

For months I have been taking part in weekly video conferences, helping prepare Govhack 2022. During that time I managed to avoid taking on more roles that the one I volunteered for: Government & Education Liaison. But during the last meeting before the event my video link stopped, & when I reconnected I discovered I was the co-host, Livia Lam, for the streamed Trivia event. We did this from a classroom at Torrens University's Sydney CDB campus. The format was much as used for live classroom quizzes, as was the technology used. 

Myself and the co-host were on Zoom, which was relayed to a Facebook live stream. The participants used a QR code to get to the software asking the questions. One problem was the delay of several seconds between us speaking, and when we were heard. The application used for the questions did not have the delay, so the questions we were reading out were after the participants had already answered. The delay was longer than just with Zoom, as the video then had to go via Facebook's system. Perhaps the makers of the quiz system could build a delay into it. 

NZ Moodle video

As part of a course on instructional design, I had to review a video from HRDNZ on "Moodle Quiz Questions". I loved the New Zealand accent, but the automated Close Captions system had difficulty understanding what they were saying. For example "False" comes out as "Fells". ;-)

More seriously the video and sound were very clear and well structured. But it all whizzed past a bit quickly for me to keep up with. The background music is so loud that it may create difficulties for those with a hearing impairment. Also it was a little lacking in context, in that I was not sure what sort of students this was for, if it was part of a course and if there is a workbook somewhere. That might be on the title screen but it whizzed past so quickly I could not read it.

Obviously as this is a video it will not be suitable for those who can't see (or do not have enough bandwidth to get the video).

One problem I have with such instructional videos is that they tell you how to do something (in this case create a quiz) but not why. In Australian universities, the use of multiple choice tests is treated with suspicion, being seen as something which can only test very basic skills and which the students can easy cheat at.  Before this how video, there would need to be one on why it is a good idea.

Future Learn Climate Change MOOC

The University of Exeter are running a Climate Change MOOC as part of the Future Learn consortium headed by the UK Open University. The course is eight weeks long, shorter than the typical university course (and many MOOCs) but much longer than Open Universities Australia's four week "Open2Study" MOOCs. Future Learn has a minimalist web design, with a white background and light grey text. This seems to have been designed for smart phones and tablets but works okay on a desktop computer.

There is just one column of content and minimal use of ruled lines for layout. I found hypertext links hard to find due to the lack of any underlining or other highlighting of them. There is a calendar across the first page of the course, numbering the weeks and showing the dates. This is important to students who want to know where the course is up to.

As with other MOOCs there is an emphasis on video. While transcripts of the videos are available, they are in the form of PDF files which have to be separately downloaded. This is annoying and seems unnecessary, as the text of the transcript is short, it might as well be displayed on screen under where the video is accessed, to give the student a preview of what is in the video.

There are discussion forums which, like the rest of the site, are very minimalist, but usable. I had some difficulty with the weekly multiple choice quiz, as after selecting an option and being told I was wrong and offered a second chance, all the options were shown ticked and I could not see how to change it. Also many of the questions seemed to be simply testing of memory, such as what "IPPC" stands for (which is not at all important to the topic of climate change).

As with other MOOCS, I wonder who the course is aimed at and why University of Exeter is providing this service. Is this intended to be a replacement for courses offered at the university, which seems unlikely given the very elementary nature of the material (more like a school course than a university one)? Is this a university extension course to provide entertainment and education for the general public? Is it a way to promote the university’s expertise and real for-fee courses? I am not sure what is more worrying, that  universities are investing resources in MOOCs and refusing to say why they are doing it, or that they don't know why they are doing MOOCs and have no way to measure if these are successful.

Using the Quiz tool to help facilitate learning

Coralie Daniels, Canberra Institute of Technology, will present a free webinar on "Using the Quiz tool to help facilitate learning", 2pm, 29 October, hosted by the National VET E-learning Strategy. Apart from the content of these VET webinars, they are a useful way for teachers to experience a well run on-line event.

Using the Quiz tool to help facilitate learning
When: Tuesday 29 October
Where: https://connect.ed.act.edu.au/actelearning/ (Online webinar)
Time: 2:00 - 3:00pm
Cost: Free
Register: http://flexiblelearning.net.au/news-and-events/calendar-of-events/ (On the calendar select the the day of the event and click on the actual event. In the popup window select the icon Sign up and register your information)

Presenter: Coralie Daniels
Using the Quiz tool to help facilitate learning
A quiz is often used as a form of assessment however Coralie Daniels decided a quiz would be the best way to help facilitate learning for staff. For the Bullying Awareness and Prevention Training Program the aim was not to test people’s knowledge but to help them to learn about Bullying Awareness and Prevention and CIT’s processes. By setting the right parameters on the Quiz tool it became possible to provide people with extra information and expand on current knowledge, going further and referencing original source documents. Various tactics were used to entice completion including incentives, ease of access and ease of completion as well as continuous feedback.