Testimonials – Dr. Julie Byrne

In the move to emergency remote delivery, Julie began strategising on how best to deliver the module to such a large cohort at a distance. Initially she utilised the lecture capture system to live-stream her lecture to students who watched from home. The live stream system did not offer a natural communication exchange between Julie and the students.

After conversations with the Business eLearning team, Julie decided to trial delivering her class by using the Lightboard and recording studio, both of which are located in the Creator Suite in the Moore building. By using the Lightboard, Julie was able to deliver her lecture in Collaborate Ultra, displaying camera and slides. Using the Lightboard in the live session allowed work through problem sets and examples, just as she would in a face-to-face lecture when using the document camera. The additional advantage of the Lightboard is that instructors maintain eye contact with the students as they write on the board. This means that they retain engagement with the students whilst transcribing.

Using the virtual classroom tool in tandem with the Lightboard gave Julie a means to engage with students in the online class. Students had access to the chat function, which was moderated by the module tutor, so they had a mechanism to ask questions and interact in the classroom.

In order to confirm which method of delivery the students preferred Julie surveyed the students at the beginning of the module once they experience both styles of deliveries and asked them to choose which one they preferred. Students overwhelmingly opted for the delivery in the recording studio using the Lightboard and Collaborate Ultra.

Student opinion of this delivery method remained positive for the duration of the module.

From a teaching perspective I found this format worked very well for quantitative material.  The only downside is that it is slightly cumbersome to switch between the light board and lecture notes but the students seemed to accept this as a tolerable trade-off and, when presented with the choice of mode of delivery, the overwhelming majority found this method preferable.  I think it is extremely important choose an appropriate moderator for the live class.  My tutor acted as moderator for all lectures and was able to answer standard questions, gauge the pace of the lectures, let me know if there were technical difficulties and ask me to explain something again or in more detail if the students required it.  This proved to be invaluable for both me and the students.

Extracts from module feedback with respect to mode of delivery include:

The system used that allowed the lecturer to write on a screen that we could see. It was much better for when we were doing examples and questions.

The lecture delivery technique was excellent, definitely the most interactive and engaging of my online modules.

The lecturer presented the mathematical aspects of the module using a screen interface which allowed the student to see the lecturer and the calculations at the same time which were really helpful.

The lecture format helped to make what seemed to be daunting and complex characteristics of finance and the structure of markets very easy to follow and understand. The delivery of the lectures provided plenty of opportunities for students to come forward if they were struggling.