JISC Service Case Study - British Universities Film & Video Council
Learners at Carshalton College have benefitted from the rich immediacy of the moving image and the services provided by the British Universities Film and Video Council have helped to make this happen.
Press record
‘It’s vital to be able to get topical material quickly’ Carshalton College is a medium-sized general further education college located on one site in south London. Courses offered to the 4000 or so learners attending the college range from pre-entry to degree level, but are focused predominately on vocational disciplines such as preparation for life and work, engineering, business, administration and law, and health, public services and care. In all cases, learners have been found to benefit from the rich immediacy of the moving image and the services provided by the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC) have helped to make this happen.
About the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC)
The BUFVC is a not-for-profit organisation that supports the enhancement of learning, teaching and research through the use of sound and the moving image. Membership of the BUFVC is open to higher and further education providers and other organisations with an interest in teaching and research. Members can subscribe to a range of benefits according to sector and level of service required.
As well as the services covered in this case study, the BUFVC offers its members discounts on training courses and workshops, copies of the quarterly journal, Viewfinder, access to a range of databases, special collections and catalogues and a number of publications, technical services and facilities relating to the moving image and sound.
Challenge
The importance of the moving image in learning and teaching cannot be overstated – many of today’s learners have a marked preference for visual material over the written word and there is a growing requirement for high-quality educational material in visual formats. However, locating content that is appropriate for the wide range of courses offered in a further education college is not easy – courses can require content as diverse as recent television programmes or film footage from the past, and all resources need to be obtained at reasonable cost.
Solution
Diane Wilson, e-learning librarian at Carshalton College has found the BUFVC offers a number of important benefits for the lecturers and learners she supports. Although Carshalton College has an Educational Recording Agency (ERA) licence enabling staff to record broadcast programmes off-air, it is easy to miss a programme that would bring a topic alive. The BUFVC’s television and radio recording service makes it possible for any college or university in the UK to request copies of broadcast programmes for educational purposes, provided that the institution holds an ERA licence and is a member of the BUFVC. The BUFVC recording service currently records all programmes broadcast on Radio 4 and the main terrestrial TV channels (and, in addition, the digital channels BBC 3 and BBC 4), and members can access these via the Television and Radio Index for Learning and Teaching (TRILT) – a members-only television and radio online listings service that Carshalton College has used to enable lecturers to bring topical resources into the classroom:
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‘We find that immediacy matters. If lecturers can use current television programmes to illustrate a point, it makes a difference. This is true at all levels – programmes such as 'Horizon' are as valuable to our foundation degree courses as more popular material such as 'You are what you eat' is to our PSHE courses.’
Diane Wilson (e-Learning librarian) |
Sometimes archived material cannot be located or there are queries about the reuse of items for educational purposes. In these cases, the BUFVC’s Information Service and Library can give assistance. The service answers enquiries concerning copyright and the use or production of audio-visual material and provides access to databases of audio-visual programmes – the BUFVC’s HERMES database, for example, provides details of over 32,000 audio-visual programmes in distribution throughout the UK, plus material that is of academic interest but is no longer in distribution.
Carshalton College has used the BUFVC Information Service to search for resources to match the range of courses offered by the college. Although it is not always possible to find what is needed, the service has always offered Diane prompt and helpful advice:
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‘Some topics, such as child development, appear more frequently in broadcast programmes than, say, electrical engineering, but the BUFVC has always been quick in responding to my enquiries and, if there’s a gap in what we provide, there is a good chance of filling it.’
Diane Wilson (e-Learning librarian) |
Impact on the learning provider
Carshalton College has found membership of the BUFVC good value for money. Firstly, the services the BUFVC provide come at a lower cost than might be spent on an equivalent range of commercially produced resources.
Replacing ageing VHS video stock with DVDs is a further benefit the college has enjoyed from membership of the BUFVC – now that DVD projectors and SMART™ Boards are being installed in classrooms at Carshalton College, lecturers need to use their favourite audio-visual resources in new formats. Depending on the level of membership selected, the BUFVC currently supplies its members with up to 100 copies of broadcast programmes on DVD which can help to transfer frequently used items on to DVD as well as adding new material to the college’s stock of learning resources:
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‘There are some items that are used over and over because they are relevant to a wide range of curriculum areas. These may need to be replaced by DVDs if they only exist on VHS, or because they become damaged or lost through regular use. Carshalton College normally subscribes to the Premier Services membership which means I can order up to 50 DVDs of backdated television programmes in one year. But last year I subscribed for a higher level of service in order to update most of our existing VHS stock to DVD.’
Diane Wilson (e-Learning librarian) |
Impact on the learner
Learners across the board enjoy the use of topical television programmes as aids to learning. Programmes such as documentaries, even soap opera storylines, can illustrate a wide range of issues including the care of the elderly and child development and so provide a springboard for classroom discussion. Nicola Laver, Curriculum Manager for Health and Social Care, Early Years and Dentistry at Carshalton College, finds that learners at all ages and levels of study are more focused and more involved in topics that have been covered by a television programme:
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‘Students get very involved in topics that have been explored or illustrated in a television programme. Students quite often tell us that something relevant to their course came up in the previous night’s programming. Using the BUFVC Off-air Recording Service can help us bring that programme into the classroom while it is still fresh in everyone’s minds.’
Nicola Laver (Curriculum manager for health and social care, early years and dentistry) |
Key messages
- Audio visual materials, in particular the moving image, make learning more accessible for a wider range of learners
- It’s vital to be able to get topical material quickly – for example, something screened last night on mainstream television needs to be available for the next week’s class. The Off-air Recording Service has been prompt in meeting such requests
- Courses in further education cover a wide spectrum of topics and it can be difficult to meet every need. The BUFVC databases offer one of the largest searchable archives to help staff find high-quality learning content that is applicable to the courses and learners they teach
Further information
BUFVC
Carshalton College