Dr Rajesh Tiwari, Teaching Fellow
School of Engineering
Science, Agriculture and Engineering
What did you do?
Produced flipped videos that students can engage with outside of a classroom setting.
Who is involved?
I mainly use these videos with 3rd year students studying Analogue Systems and Digital Signal Processing.
I’ve also used videos with MSc students.
How do you do it?
There are a few things I take into consideration when deciding which videos to make. If there is a new concept or idea, or if I want to give students information about practical skills, such as working in the lab, I find making a video works really well. I also listen to questions from students which helps me identify when they might benefit from an additional video resource.
I record the videos using ReCap personal capture (PCap) and have devised a web cam holder that enables me to easily manoeuvre the camera to film when I am drawing diagrams etc.
Once I’ve recorded the video I share this with students on Blackboard and include a link to a discussion board. Students do engage with the discussion board and I let them post anonymously, if they prefer, which I think encourages some students to contribute.
The majority of videos are about 10 or 15 minutes but I make sure not to go over 30 minutes.
Student Voice
“The flipped videos were really useful because they allowed the lecturer to show step-by-step how to tackle questions and provided a new method of revision.”
Kathryn Harder, Final year BEng student“I found flipped video to be a very useful tool when revising as it meant I could benefit from other people’s questions as well as receiving answers to my own.”
Jemima Kirk, Final year BEng student“I have found that the flipped videos are very useful when solving questions which could be tutorials or past exam papers. During times like that, when students have misunderstandings and send e-mails to the module leaders or lecturers, the response would most likely be in the form of a reply to the email which helps sometimes or makes the students even more confused and there’s only so much information that can be passed along in an email. This is where the flipped videos come in handy as the lecturer actually goes through the question step by step by hand and it feels like you have your very own personal tutor.”
Habiba Hulilu, MSc student
Why did you do it?
I’d heard about flipped classroom and knew that this was something that was popular in the US. I liked the idea of delivering content outside of the classroom and thought delivering videos initially focussing on a short introduction about the lab would work well.
For me, teaching and learning works best when you try to make use of a variety of methods so that students engage with you in different ways. I found that students were much more likely to have watched a video rather than read a 10 page booklet about working in the lab. I also want students to interact as much as possible with the material and linking the videos to the discussion board has proved a successful way of doing this.
An added benefit is being environmentally friendly. Printing resources for 90 plus students uses a lot of paper. Although the initial work of making the video takes time, I’ve now built up a good library of videos which I can use each year.
Does it work?
I can see first-hand that students are engaging with the videos by their contributions to the discussion board. I often get comments from students where they let me know they really enjoy having access to these videos.
Student feedback from these videos is really positive and I have been nominated for a TEA award as well as winning two best lecturer awards.
There are a couple of members of staff in the School including Martin Johnston, who have expressed an interest in doing something similar with their modules so I’m looking forward to hearing their feedback if they go ahead.
Interested in finding out more
You can find full guidance about using PCap here or if you would like to attend a training session you can have a look at dates and book here
Let us know if you have tried or are interested in trying something similar in your teaching by submitting a reply below.
Rajesh’s contact details
Dr. Rajesh Tiwari, Teaching Fellow, School of Engineering