EdViCon turned research into hybrid teaching training worldwide

Q:What is the EdViCon project?

“The EdViCon project is the short form of ‘Educational Video Conferencing’. It is an Erasmus+ funded Project. The project also includes interacting in an engaged way during live classrooms in hybrid sessions of higher education classrooms.

So, in this project, we were taking the point of departure from our experience in the COVID-19 problems. As teachers, that included various kinds of technological difficulties in choosing which video conferencing hardware to use, and which software to use for interaction. But also other factors: like people turn off their laptop cameras, and teachers tied into one screen and how to use blackboards or make a live with writing and drawing diagrams. Even the resolution of the cameras was not sufficient. These were problems to try and solve and to find different kinds of solutions to.

Online learning even requires differences in pedagogies. Because in a large lecture hall, the way we teach is different compared to an exercise session where we introduce different kinds of methods. For example, a foundation statistics course, where we introduce different kinds of methods during a lecture while demonstrating with step-by-step calculation while writing on the board, using power point slides, and python or R code, is different from teaching an entrepreneurship course, where we need to discuss and ideate a value proposition canvas. People were asking how do you make good online teaching and presentations.

So, the overall question was how do you engage students and conduct the teaching activities in hybrid classroom scenarios according to the signature pedagogies of the disciplines? And what are the additional hardware that might help us improve our interaction experience. And what are possible other software that can help us?

We know about Socrative, we know about Kahoot, we know about various other tools like Vevox, which is very popular in North America in engaging students in the classroom. But the question is, in a hybrid scenario, is it the same? Is it different? And the question is how many of our colleagues do really know them? We assume that they know them, but is it really true? And then there are many who are a bit skeptical about pedagogically, how to engage students because people have their differences.

Amidst these diverse pedagogical approaches, the question was: how can we communicate and provide training on the hardware and software solutions that address these challenges? This issue was the central focus of the Erasmus+ funded EdViCon project, which brought together seven university partners from seven different countries. The project utilized uQualio as the primary platform for hosting and sharing the video-based training materials. Serving both as a dissemination channel and as a means of ensuring the long-term sustainability of the project’s learning outcomes, uQualio provides the space through which the developed Video Conferencing Toolkits are distributed and made accessible for future use.”

Q: I forgot to ask you to explain who you are and what your background is?

“Right. So, I’m an associate professor at the Technical University of Denmark in the Department of Applied Mathematics and Computer Science. I’m heading a small center for research on digital learning technologies, which in short form is known as “LearnT.” We work on development of new technology, organizational integration, difficulties at individual level, subject matter level. And we also work on evaluation of technology and pedagogical environments from statistical and qualitative research perspectives.”

Q: Thank you. I kind of forgot that in the beginning. So how did you first discover uQualio?

“I searched around to find a Danish partner to work with. And then I approached Hatla. Basically, I think it was through EdTech Denmark, when Esben Tier was director. So, unless I am mistaken, he pointed to this potential option. This is what I can very lightly remember. I’m not entirely sure. I’m not very good at remembering how relationships started – except for my wife.”

Q: That’s also the main one. So today, the EdViCon project uses the uQualio platform. Can you tell me how you use it?

“Yes, right. So firstly, the pedagogical design of it, the content outline of it is of importance. So, I’ll start with telling that uQualio allows us to both communicate our video content from the platform hosting, and through our YouTube channels. We decided to post the videos on a YouTube channel and then use timestamps in uQualio to break the videos into microlearning. Which it makes it easier to see parts of the videos and therefore making it easier to follow. Sometimes we took the videos in less number of shots, and it was not as easy to see, you know.

In any way, uQualio is a way to reduce the editing time basically. So, we just took the videos from YouTube, with very lightweight editing, put the timestamp on in uQualio and turned them into toolbox courses. We made a little bit of outline on what is the purpose, just like any other course, what is the purpose of these short modules.

Systematically speaking, we started making ten different modules, and each module would communicate the different pedagogically or technologies, including hardware and software. Of these seven are made by the seven different partner institutions and three of those are covering pedagogies. And one video is a generic one to give a broader intro to the uQualio platform and what are the things that people can get in it.

In our environment, our target groups include our colleagues, all academics in higher education institutions, and students who are studying online, primarily the e-learning type of students. Often students ask, what are the tools that we should have available, and what might make our collaborative learning better? And there are quite a number of tools. We believe that these modules are helpful for our online students as well.

So this is for long term impact.”

Q: So, what was the problem you were hoping to solve with the EdConVid project? In short.

“Number one: showing the diverse types of hardware components that we can bring in our backpack, in addition to our laptop, for setting up a virtual hybrid teaching anywhere.

The second: keeping students engaged in the classroom. We explored various kinds of online interactive tools, so that as our colleagues can select one or two of those tools and then use those for engaging students.”

Q: So, what results did you get from the project?

“We identified that due to cultural differences, we have diverse kinds of problems among the partner institutions. In general, when we set up a hybrid scenario, the pattern seems to be relatively similar: getting tied to one screen. So, we ended up having two extended screens, like a wing, so there’ll be two different screens together with the laptop.

We also explored using Remarkable and Wacom Pen Tablet. If we teach from our pen tablet Wacom, the challenge is that the hand-eye coordination has to be developed. But in the case of Remarkable, it doesn’t have to be.

Our French colleagues went a little bit farther ahead, and smarter with a very cheap camera device. So, you set up another camera with your laptop. And you write anything on a paper and then just change the paper. Continue writing and you share the screen. The camera is also very cheap. Then later on scan those pages and send it to the students. In the case of Remarkable, it’s quite expensive, but works well, but in the case of that camera – it’s much cheaper.

Then there are other examples, like there were questions about… light makes a big difference. Some of our partners ended up buying some additional light for the face to be seen clearly. Because for them this interaction is important. The students find the bodily interaction to be very relevant and even their gestures, postures, expressions.

We also have ended up buying quite a number of different kinds of audio technologies for the hybrid setup. For example, we bought Jabra Speak that you could connect at least two for the use in a 30-student room size, to be used as a wireless microphone, so to be used both by the teacher and by the students in the classroom. So it can be used as a combination either only for the teacher with Jabra Speak or as a combination of both for the teacher and the students. That is a good alternative to the Meeting Owl, which is very expensive.”

Q: Yep.

“Which people use in companies as an alternative to that. We found that there are some AI cameras which are good, But then our Thai partner found a camera which follows you very nicely, and it’s not like an advanced expensive one. I think it’s less than 200 kroner, maybe even less. I’ll have to check, but it’s much cheaper to have that.

Yes. So, if we want to kind of summarize, then there are these channels of human interaction, handwriting for the students, the camera, the audio path.

And how luminous we are and then whether there is a matter of auto tracking or not. And in the end comes the cost issue.”

Q: And what results did you get from using uQualio?

“The convenience of using less time in the editing process. Also, we later on found that (because by the time we got to the end of the project generative AI was there) we could actually generate quite a lot of content. Create our quizzes very quickly, and I do not know if you have already integrated parts of it. It doesn’t matter whether you did or not because using any generative AI tool, we can relatively easily take the content, and also automated transcription allows us to take the content.

Sometimes when we talk and present with videos, our transcribed text might not look as informative when it is taken separately. But when you transcribe but use it in a bit of with generative AI because of the RNG [Random Number Generation], it improves the content and then you can make good quizzes. We could make certified quizzes for some of the colleagues; this was a motivation factor.

Although it is not a high-end thing, it makes a difference. It’s a motivation factor for some colleagues in some parts of the world.”

Q: So, if you could say, what exactly do you like the most about uQualio?

“Simplicity. It’s simple. There are not too many functionalities and less time for editing.”

Q: And is there anything that surprised you the most, or made you the happiest about getting uQualio?

“I should not state anything very exciting. Sometimes when a person lives quite a long time in a domain and uses a lot of different technologies, maybe his ability to be excited reduces. But, having that side point, what I felt – it’s not uQualio that is important as a platform. It is the attitude of the people who are behind uQualio and their engagement in making things possible. The optimism that is most important.”

Q: Thank you. So, what kind of feedback have you received about training through uQualio?

“We did not receive any criticism at all. That is the first point, and all the people were saying, OK, this is a very useful platform. And they were particularly critical about the quality of the videos.

So, since uQualio is rather a service platform, we have to be careful when we assess that when we have any kind of negative review. We have to critically see if our video content quality and our quiz quality and our certificate acceptance, etc. aspects are weak. Then it is our problem in designing. The platform in itself gives all the good possibilities for making a very professional, lightweight and time-saving approach. But if our learners are dissatisfied, then it is our pedagogical and content creation weakness, and not the weakness of the platform. I would rather give a critical reflection on that instead of saying… I do not think it is appropriate for us to evaluate uQualio as such.”

Q: If you were to recommend uQualio to somebody, what would you say?

“Yes. If people want to make professional micro training. And the convenience of video–based learning. Bite size, microlearning, whatever terminology people use. And if people want short quiz–based learning, just like … driver’s certification, right?”

Q: Yes.

“Training like that, and that each test and module will not be more than 10 to 15 minutes. They should target uQualio. It’s not that it cannot go beyond, but if people can make a modular structure like that, they can run even bigger courses for a whole education.

That would be my recommendation.”

Q: Thank you very much. What advice would you give to others that are looking to switch to a video learning platform for their training needs? Is there something you would say to them that they should be aware of?

“As I mentioned earlier, people should approach their own content, pedagogical structure. The learning objectives, their own content creation, content quality, the scripting of the content. [There should be] alignment of the questions and weigh the value of the certification first, before raising any criticism to the platform in itself.”

Q: Is there something I should have asked you that I haven’t asked you that you would like to say?

“Don’t go for the platform, select uQualio for the people. The EdViCon platform exists and it will exist for as long as uQualio exists so that people can go in there and check it out.”