Update

Overview

The GLAADH initiative at UCE was divided into parts; one was an exploration of the exploitation of multi-media applications in the teaching of a L4 (1st year) course called Issues in World Art. This course represents either a gateway into further study in L5 (2nd year) or the only exposure students will have to such issues during their programme.

Feedback

I developed a number of strategies for the incorporation of multi media applications and these have been very successful according to student and staff feedback. Particularly useful have been voiceovers accompanying and annotating film stock and image/text combinations. As I suspected, such support materials have defeated the expectation that ancient material objects will sometimes be delivered in ancient pedagogy. The impact of the presentational style was notably successful with younger students (from A level). Mature students enjoyed the materials but coped perfectly well with more traditional styles of delivery.

Impact

Part of the success of the initiative is attested to by the selection of this course as one of the University's first 'batch' of courses to go (in part) online. I do not believe this on-line element is sufficient in itself and it is not designed to replace the full course. It will however offer in depth support materials and feature parts of lectures as aide memoir.

The experiments within this course have opened my School to the possibilities of multi-media exploitation. We have purchased four laptops to which staff have access for authoring if they wish.

I have investigated in detail the pros and cons of Powerpoint style programmes against DVD authoring and am currently favouring the latter. We have consequently invested in a machine with DVD writing capability. These DVDs are cheap, easily portable and cope well with high memory demands. I have successfully used them on our offshore franchise courses. We are shortly hosting an introductory/familiarisation session for staff, focussing on the authoring capabilities of the machines we own.

The second part of the project was the development of the Japanese Art Course. Mike Harrison has previously reported on this course, but I will make a few comments.

Feedback

Response to the course from students has been excellent. We run the course twice now and both sessions are over-subscribed. The important thing here is the GLAADH funding. Having time to write the course and money for support materials set this course up properly, sadly a luxury these days. The benefits in terms of learner experience were immediate and have shown themselves to be sustained.

We will possibly increase the delivery to three courses in the next academic year. Dissertations have always been varied, so the impact has really been to reinforce and encourage more variety. We have students from a wide variety of backgrounds and from many countries worldwide. The course supports other courses in our efforts to defeat any hierarchical expectations regarding areas of consideration.

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