The university has recently confirmed funding for the Panopto video recording and playback system, following the pilot in the first part of the year. During the pilot, we wanted to focus on four separate use scenarios: recording teaching in classrooms, using Panopto to support flipped learning approaches, providing audiovisual feedback to students and lastly using Panopto for recordings of and/or by students, used for reflection and feedback. It’s this last scenario that this post explores.
Panopto provides a relatively simple-to-use method for the key media functions of recording, storage and playback. Probably the most valuable function, though, is the commenting and note-taking that any lecturer or student can add, to be shared with others or used for ongoing reflection and feedback. This is where Panopto moves from simply being a media system to offering a more powerful opportunity for learning.
So what does “student recording” mean in this context? A rough definition is “capturing any kind of physical performance by students for reflection and feedback”. Examples of this could include:
- Presentations made by students to an audience, including mock interview presentations, business pitches and poetry readings
- Situations where students interact with someone else or a small group, such as patient care, counselling, coaching or teaching scenarios and role plays
- Aesthetic or athletic performances in dance, drama and sport
- Lab or workshop manual procedures
giving opportunities for students to observe, reflect on and receive feedback on their own and others:
- performance technique (use of space, body language, oratory, etc.)
- manual skills
- pronunciation and intonation
- interpersonal skills
Where these are most relevant for different disciplinary contexts.
Some features of Panopto seem particularly useful in this context; for example, the ability to record in high definition and at 60 frames per second (compared to the standard 25) might be particularly useful for recording engineering or other high precision manual processes, allowing them to be slowed down and retain detail during playback. The ability to upload media recorded outside Panopto, in just about any format, might prove valuable for disciplines in which media making is already well embedded or for recording field studies. Similarly, being able to record on iPhones and iPads through the Panopto apps (or to upload existing iPhone or iPad recordings through these), gives students a good deal of flexibility about where and when they make recordings.
Whilst we’re currently not able to share specific examples of practices at the University of Greenwich, Panopto themselves have gathered videos of different types of student uses on their website, which may give you some idea of the possibilities:
Inevitably there are some issues to consider when planning these activities. There’s a small amount of initial administration involved in setting up the storage area within Panopto and ensuring students have access to make and upload their recordings. The commenting and note-taking functions may also take a little while to become familiar, and getting access to spaces to carry out recordings may raise issues in some circumstances. These are all relatively minor issues, however, that can be easily met with a bit of planning and support.
This post has been developed out of a presentation and discussion I held recently with our colleagues in the Department of Language, Literature and Theatre. If you would like the Greenwich Connect team to come and explore ideas for great, meaningful uses of technology with your programme or department, get in touch via greenwichconnect@gre.ac.uk
Post header image adapted from “As You Like It #3” by Thompson Rivers University, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic licence; modified image distributed under the same licence