| |
|
|
Play
Acceptance Speech:
|
Catherine
Carolan
El Centro College
|
|
|
The
Program:
The Echocardiography program
at El Centro College in Dallas, Texas, includes both
technology-enhanced
classroom learning and distance learning to help address
the shortage of certified professionals in the field.
El Centro’s blended program combines face-to-face,
live online and on-demand elements to meet the convenience
needs and learning styles of a diverse group or learners.
Key reasons to adopt a live platform (Tegrity) for blended
delivery include: critical need to simulate on campus
experience
for remote
students; must have same program content; must require
same standards.
From the Nominator:
This
nomination is for one of Catherine Carolan's Q&A
sessions for in-class and online students simultaneously.
Prior
to this session, learners watched on-demand lectures
recorded automatically by Tegrity while Catherine teaches
inside the clinical lab setting. After this required
viewing, students must email their questions to Catherine,
including the specific time in the Tegrity lecture
index where they need clarification. Catherine then
schedules a live session to answer these questions
for the group.
On-campus students have a choice between coming to
class or watching remotely. The full-time distance
learners only participate online. A typical class size
is 7 students face-to-face and 3 remote students. Tegrity
software enables chat and voice over IP for questions
and discussion. Most importantly, it gives Catherine
the ability to illustrate her answers on-the-fly using
a virtual whiteboard to write, draw and point on, as
well as an integrated document camera for live video
and still captures. Echocardiography is a very visual
subject and includes various equipment, procedures,
readouts and even “bedside manner” that
is difficult to teach with words and pictures alone.
After live Q&A, learners are required to submit
videotapes that are individually critiqued by Catherine
in another live session. “It is critical that
our online learners get equal access to the same content
with the same standards for certification,” said
Carolan. “I also want them to have a front row
seat, perched on my shoulder, as I demonstrate and
explain critical hands-on activities. Some of my in-class
students even find they get a better ‘birds-eye’ view
when they watch online the second time around.”
What is truly impressive about this blended program
is that the instructor is doing it ALL BY HERSELF.
Creating rich media recordings during actual class
time, and demonstrating through a combination of hand-drawn
pictures, instructor video, close-up video, on-the-fly
snapshots and annotations. There are really three components
of her blended program of which this
submitted live session recording .
You need to watch both recorded and live sessions to
get the scope of what she does.
The first critical component is recording her in-class
teaching. An example of this can be found here. In
the recording one student is playing patient and another
administering the ultrasound while the instructor
coaches. The instructor uses the multiple video input
capture of Tegrity to switch from the instructor to
the actual output from the ultrasound machine. On-demand
viewers later get a clear view of the video in motion,
and Carolan occasionally grabs a snapshot with one
click so she can annotate using her LCD Tablet to create
diagrams and clarify certain points. Click on the index
button and jump around to see all the media and methods
she uses. Streaming video is critical in this kind
of online learning subject matter.
In the live
Q&A segment, she addresses student
questions from online or in class. Notice there is
no prepared PowerPoint. She just picks up the tablet
pen and starts drawing and pointing dynamically as
she goes. Cathy says, “Tegrity lets me do incredible
things to improve learning. Drawing freehand over the
top of captured images is critical for understanding
what they are supposed to be looking at.” Click
on the index button at the bottom of the Tegrity player
to get a sense of the different media and methods she
uses. She also does a great job of addressing the camera
so the online students feel they are getting the same
experience as the on-ground students. After this session,
the students go back to their clinics and practice
on their own ultrasound equipment, create a VHS (yes
VHS) videotape and snail mail it in. Cathy then takes
their video and runs it through the Tegrity Live software
to do one-on-one critique and record the session at
the same time. The student then has an immediately
available online record of what they learned, to be
used for review and study.
Carolan
uses Tegrity to put another twist on a traditional
method of critique, the video tape. First, distance
students are required to record and mail in videotapes
of themselves creating and interpreting a sonogram.
Carolan hooks up the VCR to her Tegrity setup, and
plays the student’s tape back to him in a live
session, commenting and literally drawing all over
it to reinforce points. This technique was so effective,
Carolan has decided to do it even with on-campus students,
giving them each a secure folder with their critiqued
recordings for personal access.
Carolan
requires distance learning students to attend a comprehensive
proctored exam at the end of the course
to ensure there is no cheating. Each student is monitored
by a webcam pointed at their face and body while they
take the test, and don’t know at which moment
the instructor is watching them. They must even show
their blank note paper to the camera prior to beginning. |
