Enhancing the curriculum: shareable multimedia learning objects Niall MacKenzie and Andrew Walsh Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK

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1 The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at Enhancing the : shareable multimedia learning objects Niall MacKenzie and Andrew Walsh Birmingham City University, Birmingham, UK Enhancing the 71 Abstract Purpose The purpose of this paper is to report on an action research initiative designed to facilitate the creation of shareable multimedia learning objects at a UK higher education institution. The use of multimedia learning objects in educational settings has been the subject of much interest in recent years. However, it has been suggested that a significant barrier to the uptake and use of these resources has been the lack of technical ability and support available to teachers. The Faculty of Health at Birmingham City University (BCU) was committed to the use of learning objects in the university s learning environment. However, creating innovative and exciting resources had been out of the reach of most lecturing staff due to time, financial and technical barriers. The Centre for Enhancing Learning and Teaching (CELT) at BCU collaborated with the Department of Community Health and Social Work in the Faculty of Health to produce a number of shareable learning objects to be used for enquiry-based learning. Design/methodology/approach The paper begins by discussing some theoretical background and existing studies before going on to outline the collaboration and the pedagogy that inspired the creation of the learning objects and the processes involved in creating the resources. Findings The paper discusses some preliminary research results and plans for future development. Originality/value The objective of this initiative was to explore ways in which we could overcome barriers to the creation of pedagogically sound learning objects. Keywords Learning methods, Multimedia, Curriculum development, United Kingdom Paper type Case study 1. Introduction The possibility of adopting computer-mediated learning and teaching resources has been around since at least the 1970s (Maddux et al., 1992) and it is now generally recognised that these resources are important educationally (Wiley, 2000). In the context of UK higher education the Dearing Report (Dearing, 1997) advocated their uptake while Slater (2005) has described e-learning developments as being akin to a revolution in progress. Despite this enthusiasm there have been suggestions that these resources are not being developed and used as widely as was expected. For example, Parrish (2004) describes the case of a large, well-staffed university instructional development centre s inability to produce instructional materials which are widely used. Similarly, Liber (2005) suggests that despite a vast amount of money having been spent on producing computerised resources, these often fail to find any use. Clearly, the production of successful learning objects is not an easy matter; Fallows and Bhanot (2005) make the point that simply adopting a new technology does not Journal of Systems and Information Technology Vol. 11 No. 1, 2009 pp q Emerald Group Publishing Limited DOI /

2 JSIT 11,1 72 guarantee its quality. Arguably, the term death by PowerPoint is now a familiar one to most teachers and students (Winn, 2003) and this suggests that people are reacting negatively to class-based overuse of technology. Some have argued that in places, e-learning initiatives may be simply using the internet as a means to distribute material such as PowerPoint slides and handouts while an assumption is made that the technology used will contribute to effective learning outcomes (Saunders and Pincas, 2003; Weller, 2004). Many commentators have suggested that a combination of institutional and individual barriers have hindered the production of effective e-learning objects, prominent amongst these obstacles are cost implications in terms of finance and staff time. While initially, reduced costs were seen as an important driver in the adoption of e-learning approaches (Weller, 2004), more recent suggestions are that e-learning object production is actually an expensive process in terms of resources (Parrish, 2004; Liber, 2005). Another commonly mentioned concern is a perceived lack of necessary technical expertise among teaching staff (Moisey et al., 2006). An important point is made by Fallows and Bhanot (2005), who have stated that it is not uncommon for academic staff to be provided with expensive IT equipment while little or no money is spent on training them to actually use it. Partly because of these perceived difficulties in making e-learning resources, many people have decided that the answer lies in stripping e-learning objects of their context so that these can be more easily shared in learning object repositories (Moisey et al., 2006). It is also advocated that these objects should be small enough to more easily facilitate shared use, (Cafolla, 2006; Nesbit et al., 2002). However, questions have been raised about shareable learning objects. Parrish (2004) states that an assumption has been made of a willingness to share and to borrow that may not exist and Friesen (2001) also points to suggestions that there is limited uptake of such resources. It is possible that many teachers work by configuring learning materials to better suit their own course content, this tendency might limit the sharing of resources if they are too difficult to adapt (Liber, 2005). In a discussion of moves to decontextualise learning objects, Wiley (2003) while recognising possible economic benefits, makes the claim that this may actually be counterproductive to student learning because current learning theorists stress the importance of social context in learning (i.e. Vygotsky, 1981, cited in Wiley, 2003). Wiley (2003) goes on to question the underlying assumptions of ideas surrounding e-learning resources which conceive these to be content chunks by making the point that there is an assumption that learners passively receive information transferred to them by an instructor. Similarly, Parrish (2004) is critical of learning which ignores the very subjective nature of learning. Theorists such as Boud (1985) have advocated a more active and problem-based approach to learning and this would seem to preclude the use of information transmission learning resources. 2. Methodology As a result of the student feedback and from reflection on discussion with colleagues, it was agreed to consider the following:

3 . What contribution can learning technology make to enquiry-based learning?. How might this apply to the pre registration mental health nursing course?. How might Birmingham City University s CELT initiative work in collaboration with the Faculty of Health to produce these resources? Discussing action research approaches, Denscombe (2003) describes an ongoing and cyclical process in which the research feeds back directly to practice. This approach, well suited to professional development, is also seen as part of an attempt to improve practice through a rolling programme of research and it is possible that initial enquiry can lead to further investigation of practice. The study described in this paper is at an intermediate stage where initial reflection has led to gathering of feedback and an initial response. It is intended that future evaluation will be conducted and practice development influenced by this. The study involved collaboration between the Mental Health division at the Faculty of Health and the Centre for enhancing learning and teaching, both at BCU. The impetus for the study came from reflection around a presentation at an earlier teaching and learning conference (Walsh, 2006) run by CELT at BCU. Discussion during and after this conference suggested that there was a need for further consideration of how we worked together in the University to create learning objects. In order to get some understanding of student views it was decided to conduct a brief evaluation survey of attitudes towards the use of existing e-learning resources therefore 142 pre-registration mental health nurses were surveyed between February and September Enhancing the 73 Enquiry-based learning The authors were interested in the potential use of e-learning approaches as a partial response to these problems, for example how might technology help to make learning more relevant? Could we move some aspects of knowledge delivery online whilst freeing up class time to work on areas of concern as discussed above? There has been much discussion about the potential for e-learning, in the UK, the Department of Health (DOH, 2004a) have suggested that it can play an important part in ongoing education for Health Service staff. However, there has also been justifiable criticism of assumptions that use of technology will automatically improve learning outcomes (Billings, 2000; Farrell, 2006; Stephenson, 2001) and the authors were keen to ensure that any developments had a sound theoretical underpinning. Work done by Biggs (1979) suggests that students tend to adopt approaches to learning that can be characterised as deep or shallow. Deep learners look for meaning in what they study and examine evidence critically, relating new knowledge to previous experiences. Surface learners are likely to rote learn and, according to Biggs (2001), attempt to make it look like the job has been done properly when it hasn t. Generally it is considered that a deep approach to learning is more likely to lead to a desirable outcome and the authors speculated about the extent to which surface learning might contribute to the theory/practice gap as well as some of the perceived shortcomings of newly graduated nursing staff discussed above. Boud (1985) advocates the use of a problem-solving approach to learning and suggested that these problems should be set in as realistic a context as possible.

4 JSIT 11,1 74 Information about the problem is given but learners are encouraged to work on solutions, ideally working co-operatively and in small groups, the tutor in this case having more of a role as a learning facilitator and less of a sage on the stage (Stinson and Milter, 1996). Many studies identify the need for students to work on problems which are seen by them as being relevant (Chickering and Gamson, 1991; Billings, 2000; Gibbs, 1992) and practice-oriented (Graveley and Fullerton, 1998; Maclellan, 2005), whilst others (Ramsden et al., 1997 cited in Prosser and Trigwell, 1999) have argued that workload and assessment which is seen as being inappropriate is very likely to encourage the adoption of surface approaches. Several previous studies have attempted to use multimedia and e-learning approaches to promote more realistic learning environments in Nurse training. Goodman (1996) used computer simulations and case studies finding that this approach both evaluated well while possibly improving mean test scores when teaching decision-making skills to nurses. DeAmicis (1997) conducted a study into the use of interactive video discs to help teach IV therapy skills to a group of nurses, finding no significant difference in knowledge between this group when compared to a group who had been taught normally. (The no significant difference finding when comparing e-learning to traditional approaches is a commonly occurring theme when research literature on this subject is examined, for a good example of this see www. nosignificantdifference.org/). In nursing courses there is evidence that students perceived a benefit from the ability to access course material at times that suited them (Graveley and Fullerton, 1998; Niederhauser et al., 1999; Ryan et al., 1999). Educational requirements and background to mental health nursing In the UK, the Nursing and Midwifery Council sets standards for educational outcomes that must be achieved before a person can be allowed to register as a nurse. The term fit to practice at the point of registration (NMC, 2001) is used with the implication that a person completing nurse training has achieved skills enabling them to work at a safe level. In mental health nursing there is an expectation (The Sainsbury Centre for Mental Health, 2001) that as well as having a basic knowledge framework people should be able to practise collaboratively with service users and their families. However, questions have been asked about the extent to which people are actually prepared for professional life when they graduate. A recent report (Association of Graduate Recruiters, 2007) highlighted the fact that employers believe that graduates generally lack essential abilities, especially the so called soft skills such as team working and the ability to negotiate with others. Within nurse training (as elsewhere) people have been expressing concern for many years about a perceived theory/practice gap which Rafferty (1996) has described as a chronic source of controversy. More recent research (Rungapadiachy, 2006) concluded that this issue remains a problem today which requires attention throughout the course of nursing education. In the UK, student nurse training is split between academic institutions and clinical placements and there has been recognition that this split (while having some benefits) has almost certainly contributed to the theory/practice gap. In mental health nursing a recent policy document (DOH, 2004b) has drawn attention to significant gaps in training which mean that people are not as

5 capable in essential skills needed when working with other people whether these are service users or other colleagues. Consideration of these points led the Mental Health Nursing Division and CELT to collaborate in the production of a range of e-learning resources. We agreed that we wanted to produce resources that fit the following criteria:. Resources should be used within the framework of a discursive and problem-based learning environment.. Problems set should be realistic. Enhancing the 75. Resources should be context specific to the area of mental health nursing. Student Agency for Learning and Teaching project The Student Agency for Learning and Teaching (SALT) project is situated in CELT at BCU. The idea behind the scheme is a simple one; to work with lecturing staff in all faculties and disciplines, creating advanced multimedia content that lecturers do not have the time, skills or equipment to create themselves and to pay the university s media students, largely from the Birmingham Institute of Art and Design, to produce the resources. This gives the students the opportunity to practice some of the skills they are learning on their courses, which could be at BA, MA or PhD level, and they will leave the university with a portfolio of work and range of work experience to go with their degree, hopefully giving them an edge in what is a very competitive field. Their part-time employment is also very relevant to their studies, rather than just being a means of income. The students also encouraged to share their skills, so that they leave the SALT project not only having enhanced the skills that they arrived with, but also having developed a broad range of additional skills that will make them very marketable in the work place. SALT projects work on a three-way communication between lecturer, student and the project coordinator, often using the university s virtual learning environment, Moodle, as a project management tool. This communication is vital and enlightening for all of the participants, as subject specialists work with media creation specialists over the areas of importance of specific learning resources. The lecturers often are not sure what the technology can offer them and it is the students and the project coordinator s responsibility to explain what is possible. However, the subject specialists have to guide the SALT team in where the emphasis needs to be situated to be an effective learning resource. For example, students may want to edit out pieces of film from an artistic perspective but the lecturer may insist on their inclusion, as they are vital to the area of study. The collaboration across the university is a strength of the project, as students from one faculty create resources for members of staff from very different areas of the university. It gives the students a perspective on the institution as an entity and makes them think about how to film, edit and create resources for which they have little subject knowledge a skill they are likely to need when they work in the media industry. Similarly, academics can learn multimedia creation skills that might help them to be self-sufficient in the future and will help them understand what the media is capable of offering to higher education. Hopefully, they may even disseminate that

6 JSIT 11,1 76 knowledge among their colleagues and become multimedia champions within their schools and faculties. Ideally, the next request the lecturer or their colleagues make will be an informed one, once they understand the media and hopefully new faculty-based media centres, based on the experiences of SALT, will be able to fulfill those requests. Criteria for SALT projects The initial negotiation process with the members of staff is crucial. Projects should help the SALT students practice existing techniques and stretch them to learn new skills. The project discourages producing simple video lectures which film a conventional lecture. The usefulness of the traditional lecture has been questioned by Biggs (1979) and Bligh (2000), so to film a lecture and then make it available online may merely exaggerate some of those weaknesses. Anecdotal evidence suggests the attention span for online resources seems to be even less than for those attending the actual lecture. From previous experience in creating online resources, feedback indicates that videos or presentations over 20 minutes are considered too long by many of their users. The learning objects created by the SALT project should be reusable and suitable to be used by a number of staff on a number of courses, hopefully in different faculties. It is only when resources are used multiple times that the expense taken to create them becomes justifiable. The SALT project also aims to work with enthusiastic staff who will use the multimedia resources thoughtfully, using sound pedagogical principles to fit in with, not replace, their existing teaching. For example, a recent project undertaken with the housing and planning departments was very specific in some areas, but large parts of the course could be used by many staff in various departments and areas of the university. A small video on the use of a theodolite is extremely shareable and reusable across a number of modules and courses. Because we are using students to create the resource, cost of production should be considerably lower than using an outside production company, as our students are paid at relatively low rates. The rates are higher than most part-time employment that students find but for what can often be highly skilled work the students are paid well below the rates they could expect when qualified and in full-time employment. Using multimedia resources as a medium for information transfer, especially for techniques that are difficult to demonstrate or communicate to large groups, hopefully avoids the need for a member of staff to go over old ground numerous times for those students with a poor view or who could not retain all of the instructions. Instead, staff can use face-to-face sessions more creatively with the job of information transfer having already been accomplished. This has some practical benefits for the teaching process but there are also pedagogical reasons behind the way the resources are developed. The linking of theory and practice is a gap that many students find difficult to bridge. For example, we have worked with staff in our Jewellery School to create resources combining stylised electronic notes (previously handwritten) with video to try to bridge the theory and practice gap (Rafferty, 1996) and cater for students various learning styles (Figure 1).

7 Enhancing the 77 Figure 1. Linking theory and practice If the gap between conceptualisation and experience can be bridged then this will allow staff and students more time to devote to experiential learning (Kolb, 1984), which is vital for students in very practical disciplines before they start working in the real world. Learning by understanding (Biggs and Entwistle, 1987 in Ramsden, 1992) is obviously fundamental for students in Health, Art and Design and the Conservatoire, for example, but SALT projects also seek to transfer those ideas to more academic faculties, such as humanities and education. A good example of the latter is a virtual company that is being developed with a lecturer from the Law School. The new UK Companies Act was proving to be a difficult subject for students to grasp. This takes the form of a virtual and interactive company (see Figure 2 which shows various roles within a company represented around the table). All of SALT s work tries to engender deep rather than surface learning (Marton and Saljo, 1976) so that the transfer of information is improved and enhanced, combined with an overall pedagogy that promotes deep learning and encourages students to draw together a range of subjects and concepts from their courses. This last point is important. We are not encouraging staff to replace their lectures or face-to-face teaching sessions with multimedia resources. We want them to use the technology to innovate and augment their current teaching and free up time that they can devote to group work, for example, rather than simple information transfer. Resources are provided in the university s central repository, Repository of Online Learning Objects (ROLO) where they can be linked to from within Moodle, enabling an efficient use of resources. One copy of the resource exists and can be edited, maintained and updated and used by any member of staff in the university to demonstrate common techniques. Embedding the resource into a course is simply done by copying and pasting a unique ROLO web address into a Moodle course or any online resource.

8 JSIT 11,1 78 Figure 2. The virtual company Although some of the resources are bespoke, at an early stage of the negotiation process, avenues are explored with the member of staff to see how reusable the resources can be and from then on other members of staff are often involved or at least made aware of their existence. This is where the amount of time and money spent on creating the resources becomes effective. The objects can be used over and over again by numerous staff from various departments and this has certainly been the case with the SALT project in mental health nursing. Learning objects The Faculty of Health at BCU Birmingham was already committed to the use of the Moodle and learning objects produced were introduced using this resource. Moodle use has increased dramatically at the author s institution over recent years. It has increased from 2,000 transactions per day in July 2005, to 50,000 in September 2006, through to a recent peak of 110,000 in October Figures collated from a recent evaluation show that a majority of students studying on the pre-registration mental health nursing course normally used Moodle resources to support their study as shown in Figure 3. However, when asked how well these resources helped to integrate the course content only 34 per cent answered that this was the case to a large extent (see Figure 4). Using a blended e-learning approach the course team produced videos portraying characters experiencing problems relevant to the content of the different course modules.

9 The SALT project filmed, edited and packaged the videos in various file formats and loaded them onto the repository where links were made to the videos from within Moodle. These videos and associated Moodle-based resources were intended for use by students online in private study time which allowed for some re-orientation of class-based sessions away from a didactic approach towards a more group-based and collaborative problem-solving approach. Session time was spent on group working and problem solving, involving students in thinking about how they might actually apply this learning. Initial feedback suggests that students valued this approach to their learning as it is clearly based within the framework of their clinical experiences but takes place in a safe environment in which a reflective and constructivist approach to learning is encouraged. The initial resources that were made for one module on the pre-registration mental health nursing course are now in the process of being expanded to the whole of the course. The intention is to use the e-learning resources produced so that as students progress through the course they encounter different aspects of mental health nursing linked by the narrative introduced in the characters lives. The filmed resources are also being supplemented by the use of branched scenarios which are relatively easily produced using proprietary software (Adobe, 2007). It is hoped that this will further enhance the available e-learning resources in that unlike traditional learning objects, students experience these as a non-linear process and progress depends on decisions made. The evaluation for this project is at an early stage as only initial pre-test feedback is currently available but it is hoped to eventually produce a fuller study evaluating the impact of these developments. Enhancing the 79 Figure 3. Moodle usage on mental health nursing modules Figure 4. Moodle feedback on mental health nursing modules

10 JSIT 11, Conclusion Implementation of these resources is still at an early stage but indications are that students have responded well to their introduction. As the resources and scenarios are completed, they will be integrated fully into the and combined with other learning objects to hopefully enhance the overall learning experience for students. The use of ROLO as a repository for the learning objects produced by SALT should help with the problems of reusable learning objects not being widely taken up by others. The resources are shareable throughout the university and there are also plans to make them available via national repositories, like JORUM. Resources are still not being used as much as hoped but with a university push towards flexible learning, it is expected that this will increase as staff see the benefit of integrating the shareable objects into their own courses. In most, if not all, collaborations, staff have redesigned their to include the resources and often completely rethought the way they teach. With information transfer often being achieved using the resources, face to face sessions have been redesigned to explore subject matter at a deeper level using, for example, problem-based or experiential learning. This should encourage a deeper understanding among students, help bridge the theory/practice gap and make the learning experience more enjoyable. In summary, the collaboration between the Health Faculty and CELT has been a successful one and this is now being replicated all over the university with various SALT projects in various faculties. Student feedback is positive and the resources appear to be enhancing the learning experience for the student and are transforming the in some areas of the university. SALT students have left the university with strong portfolios of work experience to go with their qualifications and have been successfully finding employment in a very competitive area. It is hoped that future research into the usability, accessibility and efficiency of the objects will show whether the amount of time, effort and money spent on their creation is justified. This future research will discover whether the model of share-ability is a workable one and attempt to disprove the notions that technology is not being widely adapted and integrated into the. The authors would recommend that resources are only developed and introduced after careful consideration of whether they significantly enhance the student experience and encourage deeper learning approaches that are interwoven with existing teaching practises. Is there a perceived need to develop multimedia resources? Is there a sound pedagogical reason for their introduction? Will the use of the objects be widespread enough to justify the expense? Will the resources be made widely available and can they be easily adapted by other subject disciplines to reach as wide an audience as possible? Given the rapid developments in the technology will the resources be reasonably future proof and have longevity? All of these questions need to be thought through very carefully before embarking on any rewrite of the and the significant expense involved in creating multimedia objects. This paper has addressed some or all of those issues and the authors hope to have shown that shareable multimedia objects can enhance and

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13 Weller, M. (2004), Learning objects and the e-learning cost dilemma, Open Learning, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp Wiley, D.A. (2007), Connecting learning objects to instructional design theory: a definition, a metaphor, and a taxonomy, in Wiley, D.A. (Ed.), The Instructional Use of Learning Objects: Online Version, available at: (accessed 20 April 2007). Wiley, D. (2003), Learning objects: difficulties and opportunities, available at: usu.edu/docs/lo_do.pdf. Winn, J. (2003), Avoiding death by PowerPoint, Journal of Professional Issues in Engineering Education and Practice, Vol. 129 No. 3, pp Enhancing the 83 Corresponding author Niall MacKenzie can be contacted at: niall.mackenzie@bcu.ac.uk To purchase reprints of this article please reprints@emeraldinsight.com Or visit our web site for further details: