Testimonial – Dr Seán McGarraghy & Dr Annunziata Esposito Amideo

During the first lockdown, around March 2021, they had to move the second half of the course online. In that emergency setting, the decision was to have asynchronous lectures and synchronous tutorials. This time around, Seán and Nunzia expressed an interest in using the recording studio, with Collaborate Ultra and the Lightboard in order to deliver the module. Having worked with Business eLearning in the past on different projects, and with Nunzia in particular having had experience in using the other facilities in the Moore Creative Suite, they were happy to trial the approach for the module.

Using the recording studio with the Lightboard and Collaborate Ultra allowed Seán and Nunzia to retain elements of the face-to-face class for the students of Data Analysis for Decision Makers. Students had the opportunity to interact with Seán and Nunzia via the chat function of Collaborate Ultra and worked examples, that would have been displayed in class on the document camera, were available to students by using the Lightboard. This meant that student queries (mostly though not exclusively communicated through the chat facility) could be responded to on the spot, using the Lightboard to convey a sense of progressing through the answer, instead of the rather static effect of slides alone.

Seán felt that the opportunity to engage with students in real time greatly improved the sense of classroom experience, and believes that it fostered a sense of being part of a group having an ongoing engagement with the rest of the class, particularly important as a small sense of normality for students who might otherwise have felt isolated and disengaged.

Nunzia also felt the students to be more involved and willing to ask questions which have been answered showing different examples on the board rather than the slides, being it more effective.