Handing over the key: students take ownership of the learning management system
Handing over the key: students take ownership of the learning management system to create their own learning
Marcus Pedersen
Over the last two decades learning management systems (LMS) have had thousands of tools developed to increase the interactive nature of online learning. One of these tools, H5P, is rapidly becoming the gold standard for authoring interactive videos. H5P is a free program available on most large LMS’. H5P allows the user to create an interactive video. An interactive video allows for questions, prompts and links to be layered over a video. Therefore when the viewer is watching the video they interact with the learning material as opposed to passively watching a video.
I decided to empower both teachers and students to use this tool to create an interactive resource for masters’ students studying ophthalmology at University College London.
Why this idea?
Video can overcome barriers to understanding by allowing for increased repetition of an activity which helps with task processing (Meyer & Land, 2006). This effect of unbridled access allows for developing one’s Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is where a student can achieve a task with assistance from a peer or facilitator (Wertsch, 1984). There is less literature supporting the use of interactive video, so I set about collecting data from a group of twenty masters students.
Initially I taught the course instructor how to create an interactive video of evisceration surgery as students were not able to come into the hospital due to the ongoing global pandemic.
The student feedback from the initial interactive surgery video was overwhelmingly positive with a 95% increase in confidence and understanding of the topic. This positive response is most likely because ‘Advanced preparation allows for engaging discussions around clinical applications and challenging topics, increased classroom efficiency, and a more thorough understanding of material as learning is both self-paced and focused’ (Bordes et al., 2021, p. 33).
The increased participation may increase the confidence and understanding of the students. Prober and Khan (2013) further support the idea of using video, for they believe by allowing students to learn in their own time (K1) you create a space where more learning can occur. These two aspects may have attributed to the incredible feedback from students.
The next step was to then give agency to the students so they could create their own interactive video (applying one of Diana Laurillard’s six learning types ‘production’). These videos would be used as formative assessment (instead of a PowerPoint presentation) and other students could use their peers’ work to revise (peer-to-peer teaching). H5P interactive video is designed to be as accessible as possible therefore the online resources developed can be used by students with specific learning needs. Acosta et al. (2020) guided my choice for they support the idea that video can make learning more accessible