Instructor User Guide The Australian National University Introductory Transitional Guide November 2017
Contents Introducing Echo360 Active Learning Platform (ALP)... 3 Changes to ALP Lecture rooms... 3 Getting Started in ALP... 3-4 Different interfaces... 4 The Lecturer Interface... 4-4 Using the lecturer interface... 5 Key Icons.6 Capture and presentation options 6-7 Switching off the Q and A..7-8 New Class... 8-9 New Group... 9-11 Student interface... 11 Seeing ALP from student view... 11-12 Three things to remember... 12 2
Introducing Echo360 Active Learning Platform (ALP) Echo ALP is a new version of Echo360. It records lectures automatically, in the same way Echo360 does, from lecture rooms where the equipment is installed, and saves them in a server that is integrated on Wattle. Despite the similarities, Echo ALP has some additional features that were not available with Echo360. These include interactive slides, a flagging option which enables students to flag any confusion they have at certain points of a video or presentation, and a Q & A function that can be used for a variety of teaching and learning purposes. Echo ALP can be used exactly as the previous Echo360 was used simply to record a lecture and make it available for students to watch later. In addition, you can also use the enhanced functionality and interactive tools to add value to your lectures. You will be able to add PowerPoint slides and create interactive presentations and quiz questions to go with your recordings. In this introductory guide we will introduce you to the most important features. Changes to ALP Lecture rooms There could be some changes within the control panel interface in the rooms that have ALP equipment in them. Please refer to our website for updated information: Ql.anu.edu.au/echo360 Getting Started in ALP For Summer and Semester 1, 2018, a link to ALP will be added into your Wattle course. ALP is accessed through your Wattle course site. Up until now, you have had an Echo Block on the side of your Wattle site. This block will no longer appear in 2018, as Echo360 ALP is an activity that you can add to your course in the same way you add other activities, such as a Turnitin assignment. The Echo ALP activity will appear in the course as a link, which students can select to take them to the ALP course recordings and any associated activities. To add an ALP link into your Wattle site: 1. Turn editing on 2. Click Add an activity or resource 3. Then select the Echo360 Activity Learning Platform activity and click add 4. The Echo ALP activity will appear in the section of your course where you added it: 3
Different interfaces One of the changes you will notice from the previous Echo360 system is that the interface is different. After clicking on the Echo ALP link in your Wattle course, you will be taken to this interface. The interface view is also different for different users, including student, lecturer and administrators. In this interface you will see the key icons for using ALP. In this Guide we will look at the main features and key icons of the lecturer interface, and show you ways to use the ALP system in a similar way to the previous Echo360 recording system. In addition, we will briefly refer to a couple of the new interactive features that will be available to students, and also look at the student interface. Some key words that you will see in this Guide from now on are: Capture another word for recording (i.e. video or audio). Class - each scheduled lecture capture is automatically entered into the list of Classes. Also, a class can be created manually by you to, to which you can manually upload your recordings and presentations. As the aim of this guide is to get you started and enable you to familiarise yourself with Echo ALP, The more advanced new features will be covered in subsequent guides. The Lecturer Interface The following image gives an overview of the interface and highlights some of the key icons you will see when entering ALP. We will be looking at these in more detail. 4
Using the lecturer interface Once you click on the link in Wattle, you will be taken to the view of scheduled recordings (classes/captures). This will show you which captures have been scheduled to be recorded. These are shown for that course and are in classes. You can see the date and time of when the recording is scheduled to be captured You will come to this screen if you simply wish to use ALP like the previous Echo360 system - that is, if you just need the captured recordings of your lectures to be available to your students without the bells and whistles. Your recorded lectures will be automatically available to students. 5
Key icons Greyed out video icon - this indicates that the capture has been scheduled to record but has not been recorded yet This will turn green once the recording has been captured indicating that the capture is completed and available for viewing Blue plus allows you to add video or a presentation to a class Green Presentation icon will appear once a presentation, such as a PowerPoint or pdf, have been added Clicking on the Q & A bubble will take you to all student questions or comments on that video or presentation. The number in the square next to this icon indicates how many questions or comments have been added. Edit pencil: This gives the impression that you can edit and change the times of scheduled recordings. This is not the case, times of scheduled recordings cannot be changed here as they are scheduled and managed through timetabling. We recommend that you do not touch this. To change scheduled recording, go through the Timetabling office as normal. Please note that in ALP, students can have some level of interaction. Even if lecturers are simply using ALP as a lecture capture system, students will have the capability to flag confusion on slides and in the recorded video. There is also a Q and A function that allows students to ask questions, or take part in discussions. Lecturers need to be aware of this and tell students if they will or will not be monitoring these. You can turn off the Q and A if you do not want your students to interact in this way. (See below). Capture and presentation options Clicking on the green capture or presentation icon also allows you to open up a drop down menu with more options for the capture or presentation. These include: Viewing Enables you to watch the capture 6
Create a copy Enables you to create a duplicate recording, which will then be available in your personal library in ALP Details and edit description Enables you to add a description and tags to the recording Edit video Provides you with the capacity to do simple edits within the video Download original Enables you to download the capture Availability settings To make the capture available or unavailable to students, click on the availability settings option in the drop down menu. A window appears where you can select an option for making the capture available or unavailable. If you select a specific date, you will be asked to put a date in and then click update. Drop down menu appears when you click on the icon Presentation is unavailable Recordings or presentations that have been made unavailable to students will appear as a darker grey, and those that are available will be green. Settings Tab Switching off the Q and A Clicking on the settings tab will take you to the on/off switch for the Q and A feature. If you do not wish to use this feature and have it available to students, take the following steps: 1. Click the settings tab 2. Click on the features link 3. Turn the green switch to off so that the tick no longer shows 7
New Class A course will have a list that contains a number of classes Classes house captures and presentations. Captures can include scheduled captures or video you have added. Presentations can be a PowerPoint or pdf you have uploaded or created into which you can add interactive slides if you choose to. The scheduled captures will appear automatically in a class based on the same current criteria of teaching activities. 8
If you would like to add more video or presentations outside the scheduled captures you can create a new class to house these. To do this: 1. Click on the new class button 2. Give the class a name 3. Click OK 4. You can then add a video or presentation to that class by clicking on the blue plus button *NB. Creating a new class does not create a scheduled recording. Please contact Timetabling to request a new scheduled recording. New Group You are able to group your classes into categories, these could be useful for grouping captures of the same topic together in a collection, for example anatomy or cardiology. *NB. This is different to groups used in Wattle. 1. Click on the New Group button as shown below. 9
2. Give the group a meaningful name that denotes the theme or topic of the collection you want to create 3. Selecting a date and description is optional 4. Click OK. 5. You will then return to the classes view 5. Click the Reorder button at the top left of the screen 6. You can then drag the classes you want to group together into this group. 7. Click the Save button 8. Click OK 10
Student interface The student interface is similar to the lecturer interface. When students go into ALP they see a similar interface to the one you see but some of their tabs are different. They will have classes, and these are the recordings listed in their courses. They will see the Q & A function, and can use this to ask questions or discuss with other students. The Study Guide is for their personal use only, for note-taking that might relate to a particular slide. They can ask questions and flag confusion in both the slides within a presentation and within a video. Seeing ALP from Student view Here we will show you how to see the interface from the student view. Switching your role to student is useful to test how activity slides and presentations appear to students. To do this you need to: 1. Return to the Wattle site, 2. Go to the profile drop down menu on the top right of screen 3. Select switch role to and select the student option 4. Click on the ALP link within the course To return to your normal lecturer role: 1. Close the ALP tab 2. Return to your Wattle site 11
3. Go to the profile drop down menu on the top right of screen 4. Click return to my normal role Three things to remember 1. Editing pencil does not update scheduled recording times. Contact Timetabling office to update your scheduled recording. 2. Student posts are not anonymous to lecturers you need to alert your students of this. 3. Do not touch the LMS unlink button. Your students will no longer be able to access recordings. 12