Staff

inTEL Case study: Student engagement using ECHO360 confusion flag

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Starla Hagita
Echo360 ALP confusion flag feature
Thomas Moore Law School
LAWS204 Land law
Attendance
Bachelor of Laws
2nd-year students
64

Overview

In Semester 2, 2017 two units participated in a pilot project to investigate an unexplored feature available from the ECHO360 ALP platform.  The ‘confusion flag’ feature was explored towards engaging students in live lectures. One unit from the Thomas Moore Law School and one unit from the Peter Faber Business School, participated in the pilot over four weeks.

Highlights

  • Exploring the Confusion Flag in Echo360 ALP Platform
  • Using Technology to engage students in live lectures
  • Creating an opportunity for students to flag confusion anonymously

Starla Hagita describes her experience of participating in the pilot project.

ACU Case study: Engaging students using ECHO360 ALP confusion flag
Length: 7 mins.
This video was recorded using the Faculty of Law and Business Pop Up Studio. This footage was edited using Adobe Premiere Pro and branding animations created from the ACU Motion Pack using Adobe After Effects.

Confusion flag

During any part of the lecture, students can click on the confusion flag to mark any slides they don't understand.

This gives the lecturer immediate anonymous feedback, letting them know how many students are confused and on which slide content. Teaching staff are then able to  focus more time on these topics either in live lectures, or as follow-up in their next tutorial, workshop or seminar.

Rationale

As the confusion flag had not been explored before, a pilot was necessary for gathering information on fully understanding the process and in identifying resource gaps.

Intended project outcomes

  • Student engagement in live lectures
  • Identify technical requirements in using the tool
  • Identify resource gaps

Actual project outcomes

  • Student engagement in live lecture
  • Technical requirements now understood in using tool
  • Resource gaps identified

Lessons learned

This is what was learnt from participating in the pilot project:

  • Where possible have training before exploring any new technology in fully understanding the process from beginning to end
  • Where available having Faculty Ed design and e-technical support from beginning to end of pilot, was important to the success of the project
  • The importance of communicating the potential benefits to students in participating in the pilot and how it would assist their learning
  • Providing assurance to students for their anonymity

Evaluation

Advantages:

  • Appreciated the anonymity the tool provided
  • Suggested it would be helpful when students are too shy to ask questions
  • Suggested it would be helpful in large classes.

Disadvantages:

  • Prefer not to use confusion flag when they have an established and open relationship with the Lecturer.

Advantages:

  • Confusion Flag will be helpful with: key concepts, assessment and revision
  • Useful for large student numbers
  • Helpful for 1st-year students towards modelling behaviour.

Disadvantages:

  • Presentation view is different to slide view
  • If students don't bring a personal device in class they cannot participate
  • Could be seen as a potential barrier that removes open communication channels between lecturer and student which aids deeper discussion.

Plans for the future

  • Trial using the confusion flag in a first-year subject to assist in modelling behaviour before implementing in other years.

Resources

Acknowledgments

Although only one video is featured here, two units actively participated in this pilot project, both providing invaluable feedback.  We are equally grateful for the time and feedback, provided by Ms Ellen McBarron and Dr Sandra Beach from the Peter Faber Business School and would like to acknowledge their efforts.

Page last updated: 2018-09-10

Short url: https://staff.acu.edu.au/1347454