Pilot teacher media training programme completed successfully
Many teachers would like to improve their teaching by making use of media that enhance their learnersâ experience, but fear that it might take a lot of time or not knowing which tools to use, can make it difficult to actually do so. At TU Delft, lecturers had the opportunity to join in a ten week programme that helped them to effectively embed media in activity and assessment. This pilot, called EdMedia ProtĂ©gĂ© (EMP) programme was made possible by 4TU.CEE and TU Delft Teaching and Learning Services. TU Delft was the first university in the Netherlands to pilot this development programme.
About EMP
The EMP programme is designed to support teachers who are interested in improving their capacity to design and deliver media assets â such as infographics, video, graphic organizers, etc. - as an embedded part of teaching and learning. During the programme teachers receive with one-on-one support from media and learning developers and learn to use free common tools and techniques. All material that is developed within the EMP programme is open source under the creative commons licence, so others can also benefit from it. Furthermore the EMP programme helps supporting an institution in why and how they embed media within their learnersâ experiences. Learning developer Lisa Oâ Neill actually designed and led the development of the programme, which had its first pilot in Vancouver in 2013. OâNeill: âTo be able to run the programme here at TU Delft I first had to customise the North American programme with aid of Sadaf Nadimi of TU Delftâ.
TU Delft pilot
After the programme was amended, OâNeill and media developer Nadimi started up the pilot. Five participants from TU Delft joined the programme after they were selected on the basis of their motivation and types of media they wanted to learn to develop. Monique van der Veen from the department of chemical engineering of the faculty of Applied Sciences was one of them. âI was really keen on joining the programme. In my courses it is sometimes complicated to show the big picture to students in a simplified way. For example in my course âSeparation Technologyâ when explaining how thermodynamic laws, different solution models, phase equilibria and separation processes are related to each other. I wanted to find out how the use of media could help me show the students how everything is connected. Of course I scan the internet to find media tools, but often the ones I am looking for donât exist. For example there are many YouTube movies that show a more intuitive conceptual understanding of entropy, but none of chemical potential. The programme offered one-on-one support from experts and that appealed to me greatlyâ. OâNeill and Nadimi mentored the participants on what works best, which saved them spending all this time figuring it out by themselves. Van der Veen: âLisa and Sadaf also helped me applying the tools. This resulted in a mind map, a video overview for learners to use the Prezi effectively during their studies, and a lesson plan that describes how to embed the media into teachingâ. Her peers were impressed. Monique even won the Peer Impact Award with her showcase at the end of the programme.
Impact
Van der Veen has not had the chance yet to test her new media skills. She hopes that her newly acquired skills will help her students get past challenging elements such as how equations are connected together. OâNeill: âIt is difficult to assess the impact of the use of media assets, since so many factors influence teaching and learning. But in general it can be said that the satisfaction of learners is higher. Teachers feel they have more tools at hand to help students tackle difficult issues and are amazed that developing media assets is actually quite easyâ. A re-run of the programme is now being planned for next year. Van der Veen: âI would definitely recommend my colleagues to join in this programme. I learned so much in only 10 weeksâ time and canât wait to see the effect on my teachingâ.
Would you like to offer this programme at your TU?
If you would like to offer this faculty development programme at your university you are in luck! The entire EdMedia ProtĂ©gĂ© (EMP) programme package is a creative commons licensed work. This allows the programme to be âplugged inâ to your institution with ease, and the authors permission.
Contact Lisa OâNeill for additional information on how to administer the EMP programme package.