Mobile Learning Initiative update
18 mei 2015 Reacties uitgeschakeld voor Mobile Learning Initiative update
Amsterdams VUmc students welcome digital video as a new tool for learning
13 april 2015 Reacties uitgeschakeld voor Amsterdams VUmc students welcome digital video as a new tool for learning
VU University Medical Center is one of Amsterdam’s leading hospitals, with a reputation for excellence in clinical practice and innovative teaching and training programmes — including a growing focus on using digital video and media.
“In a one minute video you can fit more information than in many papers. There’s just more immersion — it works on a completely different level. People are curious and more engaged when they watch a video.” Explains ENT Surgeon and filmmaker Jochen Bretschneider, the driving force behind VUMC’s progressive use of video.
The Challenge
Jochen and his team have been producing quality video training materials for students for several years; clearly and visually educating students on clinical topics ranging from basic suturing to more advanced instruction for specialised medical practice.
VUMC has been making content available to students — and the public — through iTunes U since 2011. While iTunes U offers a seamless video and media experience to students using Apple devices, watching this video content using Windows or Android devices is much less user–friendly. “The ‘bring your own device’ policies adopted by many universities can turn out to be a disaster for content creators, because the viewing experience across different devices can range from ‘great’ to ‘impossible to use’.” Explains Jochen.
The Solution
After a glowing response from students, Jochen and his team set the ambitious goal of being able to offer all of their content digitally. The first step was to convert traditional course materials from PDFs and Microsoft Word documents to Apple’s iPad–optimized iBooks format. These are then distributed through iTunes U courses. Then, the team began to look at the simplest ways to integrate video for all users.
In 2013, the university began offering some course materials digitally, expanding from five to 19 courses after the first 12 months. “Today, students can access all of the materials for their school study for year 1 and 2 online in iTunes U, before the course even begins.”
Even with a large portion of students choosing to use some kind of Apple device, Jochen explains that they still deal with a high–percentage of students using non–Apple devices. He and his team knew that providing wider, platform–agnostic access to the university’s fast–growing library of digital media was crucial in ensuring long–term, widespread adoption.
To do this, they turned to MediaCore: Videos and media materials created to be distributed through iTunes U are now also uploaded to MediaCore for non–Apple users. “We have to make sure that everybody can watch our video content.” Jochen says, “MediaCore allows us to easily offer digital content to all platforms. Embedding a video from our MediaCore library into our iBooks guarantees the same great, ad–free playback experience for our students.”
The Benefits
Jochen is pleased that today, more of his colleagues and students than ever before are able to capture and edit video to a high level of quality. But, if it’s not easy to store, manage and share the best content, media can easily become scattered and lost.
“MediaCore provides an incredible backbone for us: One central location to curate content. Being able to store, share and re–structure our own educational content gives us the opportunity to create an ever–evolving library of high quality video.”
Centralising the storage and presentation of content has direct, additional benefits to learning, too “Three videos on one topic are far more valuable together, than apart. MediaCore easily shows viewers the link between content — presenting media doesn’t just look impressive, but adds educational value too.” Adds Jochen.
VUmc is also collaborating with the University of British Columbia — another school leading the way in high quality educational video production. A selection of UBC’s medical content is currently featured alongside the material created by Jochen and his team in VUmc’s MediaCore library. “This instance of international knowledge and content sharing is an example of non–profit, open education at its best.”
As the students have become increasingly comfortable with video, their appetite for creating their own content is growing, too. “Professors and other medical teachers will also be affected by the use of video amongst students. When just a few of them begin to showcase video explanations of practice, others will follow.” Explains Jochen, who anticipates that increased creation and sharing of this kind of content will lead to increased student engagement and higher quality work.
Despite now being able to offer 100% of course materials to students digitally, Jochen and his team have no plans of slowing down, “The next step is of course to integrate rich media and even apps into the course materials. There are so many possibilities — we’re just getting started.”
This blogpost is also public on http://www.mediacore.com/blog/vumc-case-study#sthash.zAcXv52Z.dpuf
iBooks in plaats van “studieklappers” voor 650 geneeskundestudenten
9 januari 2015 § Een reactie plaatsen
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Jochen Bretschneider / MLI VUmc
jh.bretschneider@vumc.nl
Grassroots projecten VU 2014-2015 