One of our recent goals at the Teaching and Learning Center has been to reach out to faculty and other agencies on campus in order to learn and establish new connections.  The more we’re in touch with people, the better we’ll be able to serve the educational needs of the University.

I’m really enjoying this opportunity.  I’m able to go out and meet some very intelligent people and learn what new techniques/strategies they’re using to support education.For example, Dr. Kendall Hartley ( http://ci.unlv.edu/faculty/hartley ) in the UNLV Curriculum & Instruction department showed me how he’s using audio/video screen capture combined with online video sharing to grade student assignments quickly and easily.

As I understand it, here’s how he’s accomplishing this:

1.  First, students send their assignments digitally to the instructor.  These could be research papers, presentations, graphic design projects, Web sites, photographs, etc.

2.  Next, the instructor opens the assignment in the native application (Word, PowerPoint, InDesign, Firefox, Photoshop, etc.).

3.  The instructor turns on his or her favorite video screen capture application (such as Camtasia Studio or the open source CamStudio), then provides verbal critique using a microphone.  Using a mouse to highlight a section or zooming in on an area, the educator can focus on specific parts of the assignment.4.  Lastly, the instructor saves the resulting video (with audio) to a favorite video sharing site such as YouTube or Vimeo and provides a link to the video back to the student (such as embedded in a private area of a Web site, in e-mail, etc.).  To provide privacy, a video sharing site can be password protected.

Naturally, this process would require some set up and practice, but after a few tries this method might be faster (and perhaps more enlightening) than scribbling marginal notes or using Word editing methods.  Turn on the microphone and screen capture software, provide sagely wisdom and send it on!

Dr. Hartley also makes creative use of wiki permissions to allow only specific students to see specific content.  I recent found a nice resource on wiki organization and access here.

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