Living Room, TV Studio or Lecture Theatre?

Presenter: Tim Squires and Kim Picozzi

Session Description

Academic year 2020 presented an opportunity. To explore imaginative and creative ways of delivering content and interacting with students. As we planned Forensic Investigation (an honours elective course within the Deanery of Biomedical Sciences) we wanted to push the boundary of what might be feasible. Screen sharing using Teams or similar? Other courses will be doing that. Can we deliver an alternative? That was our challenge. Or, as we saw it, our opportunity. An opportunity to offer students something slightly different. And, if we are honest, an opportunity for us to do something fun in a world of an increasing R value and worries about whether skiing would be an option this year. Neither of us have any talent in TV or film production (albeit one of us knew the difference between a codec and a chroma-key). We don’t have access to grips and gaffers, best boys or location scouts – certainly not make-up departments or audio engineers. But could we broadcast a live lecture “from a lecture theatre” from the comfort of our own living room? And – crucially – keep it interactive. Sourcing appropriate equipment was relatively easy. Training ourselves in the use of the equipment was essential and an investment of time watching online videos paid dividends. We also wanted to ask ourselves certain key questions: would it add anything to the course and what would students think of it? Is it simply an expression of creativity devoid of a defined pedagogical ambition? And what lessons might we learn as we meander into what might be a new teaching-normal within the University? Although the focus here was on this undergraduate course, we were also very much motivated by what might be applicable to the PG online environment. Let’s see what can be achieved…