1. ‘Reaching’ your students: A multi-channel approach to teaching Chojenta, P University of Newcastle, Newcastle
The title of my presentation includes some marketing terms, and in universities ‘marketing’ can be a bit of a dirty word.

2. Most of us as educators, don’t like to think of our students as customers, we like to think of them as learners. And we don’t like to think of education as a product, we like to think of it as knowledge. But marketing is really about communicating. Trying to get a message across to an audience.

3. And we as educators have a message
And we as educators have a message. The content of our courses, of our lessons is our message. Our students therefore, are our audience, and we need to grab their attention to get our message across. So, traditionally we have used a very direct method of communicating with our audience, face-to-face.

4. And that can be extremely effect, but it has it’s limitations
And that can be extremely effect, but it has it’s limitations. The student needs to be present, physically, but they also need to be in a receptive frame of mind, otherwise the message gets lost or ignored. The other problem is that it’s a singular event, if a student misses the message, that’s it, one show only.

5. So, a basic concept in marketing is the multi-channel approach
So, a basic concept in marketing is the multi-channel approach. Trying to reach your audience through every possible means or medium. When a fast-food restaurant introduces a new burger, they don’t just run TV ads, they have ads on billboards and buses and radio and Facebook and Instagram.

6. If the audience misses one message, they’re bound to catch another
If the audience misses one message, they’re bound to catch another. If they don’t watch TV, they’ll see the billboard, if they miss the radio ad, they’ll see the Instagram post. So, in my course, Film Studies, I’ve been looking for all the different mediums I have at my disposal to ensure I ‘reach’ my audience.

7. So, the first one is simply face-to-face, lectures and tutorials
So, the first one is simply face-to-face, lectures and tutorials. My course is an on-campus course, and ideally I’d like students to attend class each week and take notes and engage in discussion, and many of them do. But, as we know, students live busy lives and our cohort of students in particular often face external challenges that can make attendance difficult. So, I also provide video content.

8. Now, lecture recordings are a start, but generally they are very long and not terribly engaging to watch on a screen. So, we produced a series of short videos, 5-10 minutes, that complement the weekly tutorials. They’re designed to be watched before class, so students arrive at the tutorial prepared with some background knowledge, in much the same way we would traditionally use readings.

9. Indeed, readings are another ‘channel’ that I utilise
Indeed, readings are another ‘channel’ that I utilise. But, to make them more accessible, I actually refer to them in the weekly videos, so they work in tandem. It’s much like a TV commercial that says “for more information, visit our website”, because, as we know, reading can be challenging and intimidating for many of our students.

10. That led me to thinking about podcasts, because they’re likely to be less intimidating to a reluctant reader. So, we’ve begun to produce a series of podcasts, round-table discussions (utilising various experts as weekly panellists), to further compliment the weekly tutorials. Here we’re trying to model what a robust tutorial discussion should sound like, while also providing a reference for students who missed their tutorial.

11. That covered print ads, TV, radio, door-to-door
That covered print ads, TV, radio, door-to-door. But what about billboards? How can we emulate them? So my next plan is to produce infographics. Essentially posters, with simple images and text, that cover key concepts of the course, that students can print and put on their wall, or just look at on their computer, as another resource.

12. Ultimately, all these resources are accessible online, so engaging students with the LMS (Blackboard) is critical. Of course, the greatest motivator is grades, so my course includes a weekly online assessment, a blog. It’s a small task (150 words), that’s submitted online, which ensures that students are logging on regularly. They also have to engage with a weekly discussion board, which introduces a collaborative element to their learning as well.

13. Indeed, running parallel to all this is the idea of ‘learning styles’, like the VARK model. Now learning styles theories have come under some criticism in recent years, but there can certainly be no harm in trying to cater to different ways of learning. So, having addressed the visual and aural, I’ve also tried to introduce the physical and collaborative, by designing interactive tutorial activities. We learn about set-design by re-arranging the classroom, we learn about framing by taking photographs.

14. Now, this might seem like I’m bombarding my students with a huge amount of content and different technologies that they need to engage with, but none of these resources is critical in isolation, they all work in tandem. If a student never listens to a podcast, or watches a video, that’s okay. Aside from readings, which they need to reference in their blogs, nothing is compulsory.

15. The idea is that all the different resources support each other
The idea is that all the different resources support each other. The videos are a guide to the readings, the readings are a guide to the tutorial activities, the podcasts are a guide to online discussion. Each element is valuable on it’s own, but also helps make the others more accessible. Students choose what is helpful to them, what makes sense to their minds.

16. Because we want our students to feel confident
Because we want our students to feel confident. So many of our students are anxious about their abilities. Am I doing this right? Do I really understand this? And anxiety is a massive barrier to success. So the more comfortable and familiar we can make learning the better.

17. Because education can be intimidating, especially for enabling students. And it’s not just the content that’s intimidating, it’s the environment. We take in a cohort of students who have faced educational challenges in the past, and expect them to learn new information and new skills, which we often present in a totally unfamiliar way.

18. We also need to be flexible
We also need to be flexible. While students sitting in front of us in a classroom is perhaps the ideal scenario, that doesn’t work for everyone. Students are time poor. If they can stay engaged by listening to a podcast on the train, or watching a video on their phone at the bus-stop, that’s something, that’s a hook.

19. And these resources are a repository, they’re an archive
And these resources are a repository, they’re an archive. If a student misses a week, or a month, or half the course, they can always go back and review the material, they can always catch up.

20. Because ultimately we want all our students to succeed, regardless of the hurdles they face. We all strive to minimise obstacles and to help our students when they do fall down, because we want them to reach the finish line.

21. So that marketing concept of ‘reach’, finding your audience, engaging them by whatever means you can, can perhaps be applied in our context, as a means of extending a helping hand to our students.