A video featuring GCU’s Department of Fashion, Marketing and Retailing Fashion Brand Retailing course for S6 pupils, is now live on the Learning and Teaching Scotland website. The video, was produced as part of Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Education’s Journey to Excellence project. HMIe singled out the department’s work as an example of how universities should interact with other agencies and the community and for developing a culture of ambition and achievement in its students.
The video features the department’s work with school pupils, with pupil and staff interviews. It also includes input from the university’s Effective Learning Services on aspects of information literacy for the course research assignment, referencing, critical thinking / Literacy and Study Skills (Academic Literacies).
GCU Effective Learning Services works closely with the library and has a range of online guides for improving course work including:
- Note taking
- Essay writing
- Academic writing
- Effective reading including skimming and scanning plus SQ3R (speed reading)
- Citing & referencing
- Report writing
- Dissertations
- Research glossary
- Case study analysis
- Oral presentations
- Motivation
- Time management
- Plagiarism
Other support offered by Effective Learning Services are ‘ Vidcasts for the self directed learner’ by Angela Shapiro, Lecturer & Aidan Johnston, Learning Technologist, Academic Support and Employability, PASS).
A Vidcast or vodcast, contains audio and images, either moving or fixed. The impetus was research on students’ attitudes towards workshops by the ELS. The majority of responses rated the workshops high/very relevant. Nevertheless, it is impractical to expect that every student can attend the workshops or meet with ELS staff face to face and many students access the ELS materials on line (4,595 used support guides on line 2008/2009). Moreover, many students commented that they wanted to access workshop material at a later date.
Podcasting appeals to auditory learners and with the addition of visual prompts the vidcast can also support dyslexic students in retaining information. Alternatively, users with visual impairments will be able to select to listen solely to the audio element and can download the material on to their mobile device. Students can also choose when and where they wish to engage with the vidcasts and this approach enables students to revisit the material at their own pace, all contributing to self – directed learning opportunities. The PowerPoint slides are in chapters, supported by further links to specific areas of the ELS website to give additional information. Two formats were used: one for on line access embedded within a webpage using a flash based video player and one for students to download for use with their iPod/mobile video device.