1. Embedding interactive screencasts into the FE curriculum

2. Problem – grading criteria & use of research in a studio setting
Why? –
Lucy Chick the Pathway Leader for Fashion & Textiles in Further Education has spoken to myself and the learning development tutor about two problems her students were having with their final major project.
1. Her students didn’t engage with their assessment criteria when working towards their final major project, and as a consequence were in the dark over how well they were doing and what they could do to improve their grade as they worked through the project.
2. There was a lack of understanding of how they would incorporate research into a studio project. They tended to see research as something that happens when they have written work, but when on a studio unit when they produce a sketchbook and a final outcome they were unsure how to demonstrate and use their research

3. Collaboration – academic staff, learning development, librarian
Collaborating
I was only a small part of a larger project, there were many people involved and I think that is key to why I found it successful.
If I had tried to solve the issues myself it wouldn’t have been as effective, don’t have the expertise or understanding of the issues to produce something that was relevant for the students.
Myself – technical expertise, developing the resource on Camtasia, ensuring copyright forms were signed
Academic – selecting the work from past students, adding narration to describe the work
Learning Development Tutor – discussions over how the resource will work and how we incorporated the grading criteria
Digitisation unit at UCA – who digitised the sketchbooks

4. Academic staff as partners
Working with academic staff as partner in the creation of resource has meant that the resource has been provided as part of the course, rather than an add on that the library developed on its own. I’ve previously worked on resources that had no involvement from academics, they liked the work and were happy for us to promote it to the students but it wasn’t like this project where we had a launch in the studio with the academic
The academic was very busy and was given time by their course leader to work on it, as a consequence the course leader and their boss the head of school are aware of the work and have provided support and thanks for our efforts.
This has made it easier to carry on and do more, as our digitisation unit are happy to digitise more work and our department are happy to extend my Camtasia licence. The Course Leader and Head of School are keen for us to continue and create resources for all of the subjects within FE, so we are going to create 10 new resources this summer

5. Embedded onto the course
It has been embedded onto course in a number of ways:
1. It was introduced in studio to the students by the three of us
2. Tutor has advised individual students to use the resource when they felt necessary
3. It was embedded onto our VLE Blackboard as a SCORM package, which means that we can track who has used the resource, when they used the resource, how well they answered the questions, and the percentage of the resource they used

6. The future
So to the future we are currently developing a resource based on past essays for Fine Art students at UCA. This resource will highlight elements of the essay that are good, or that could be improved – such as the lack of a citation in the highlighted section.
The learning development tutor and myself focus a lot of our teaching on past student work as students find it very easy to become critical of other students work, and getting them into a mind-set where they are prepared to question something they appear more likely to take on board messages such as the value of good sources or citing correctly

7. Sketchbook resources
Coal mining
Grand palaces
Great Dixter
Grandparents