TUS Midlands hosts National Online Learning Conference
A national online conference was held at the Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) this week with the theme of "Lights, camera, action! Video: a tool for teaching and assessment."
The conference united speakers from TUS, Queen's University Belfast, University of Sussex, University of Manchester, King's College London and Washington State University to share their experiences of using video in teaching and assessment.
Over 100 people registered for the event which featured speakers from various disciplines, including dentistry, education, social science, food science, engineering, and nutrition.
Among the topics discussed was the use of video for the "flipped classroom", a contemporary teaching and learning approach which encourages students to engage with learning materials outside the classroom in preparation for dynamic classroom interactions, or as an alternative to a traditional written assessment.
Dr Geraldine Cuskelly, a lecturer in the Department of Sport and Health at TUS Midlands said “The use of video increased significantly in response to the requirement to go off campus during the pandemic. We all responded using many forms of digital technology, but some of the speakers at our conference had already been using video long before the pandemic hit."
TUS VP of Student Education and Experience, Frances O’Connell, opened the conference commenting, “At TUS, the student experience is paramount and there is ample evidence in the pedagogic literature that video can enhance the learning experience. Recent work within TUS is now capturing all the innovative methods and tools that can be and are being used by the TUS academic community across a wide range of disciplines to support student learning both in and outside of the classroom."
The event was initially planned to be in person but they decided to conduct it to facilitate the participation of more delegates.
Those interested in learning more about these teaching techniques can register to receive a recording of the national conference.