JISC Service Case Study - JISC Digital Media
Barony College's Learning Materials Development Unit produced a variety of visually rich learning and training materials with guidance from JISC Digital Media.
Sharpening up the image
'It’s good to know there is someone out there who knows the answers.’
Barony College, a further education provider in south west Scotland, specialises in vocational training and education for the land-based and animal care industries. In response to a college-wide drive to embed blended learning across the curriculum, the college’s Learning Materials Development Unit has produced a variety of visually rich learning and training materials with guidance from JISC Digital Media. Learners following campus- and work-based programmes of learning are now benefitting from these image-based resources.
About JISC Digital Media
JISC Digital Media (formerly known as TASI) provides guidance and training to further and higher education providers in the UK on topics such as:
- Creating digital media resources, specifically still images, moving images and sound resources
- Delivering digital media resources to users
- Using digital media resources to support teaching, learning and research
- Managing both small and large scale digitisation projects.
Guidance and community support is offered via the website in the form of advice documents, case studies and a blog. In addition, colleges have access to a helpdesk service and a mailing list hosted by JISCmail, and can designate staff to attend practical, hands-on workshops that meet specific training and advice needs.
Challenge
The role of Christine Dudgeon, the learning materials development unit manager at Barony College, is to support learning and teaching by creating or sourcing learning materials for use by learners and staff on a wide variety of courses. Many of the materials created by the unit entail use of digital images since content for land-based courses depends on clear instructional illustrations.
Images are likely to be required in different formats, for example in:
- Workbooks (used by students on college courses or in work-based training)
- PowerPoint® presentations (used by lecturers in class)
- Interactive learning resources (uploaded to the college’s Virtual Learning Environment, Moodle).
Knowing how to capture and format an image is an essential skill for the staff in the unit – the majority of the illustrations used in learning resources at Barony College are produced in house since image galleries rarely contain content appropriate for a land-based context. As a result, Christine needs to keep up to date with rapidly changing hardware and software.
Images need to be formatted in preparation for print or for the VLE and practical tips on how to combine images and graphics with written instructions is a further skill needed in the production of learning resources. Then, as a bank of images develops, management of the resources becomes important. An image might be usable in different contexts so it is also essential to know how to tag a resource with appropriate metadata.
A reliable service offering advice on a day-to-day basis as well as off-site training is important to meet needs such as these. Even when a commercially produced image or graphic is used, guidance may still be needed on the copyright and intellectual property rights associated with found images.
Solution
JISC Digital Media’s free Helpdesk Service gave expert information and guidance on issues such as these when Christine first took up her post as resource developer. Workshops delivered by JISC Digital Media, for example in Photoshop skills and image management, have been much valued by Christine – a day’s hands-on training opened up new insights as well as providing training in new techniques:
|
‘I found the day so useful, very intense, but very good. I understood things that had never struck me before, like why it might be better to use black and white images rather than colour in our workbooks. Colour can be a distraction when you are trying to illustrate something very detailed and specific. It’s also cheaper if you are going to print the document.’
Christine Dudgeon (Learning materials development unit manager) |
Immediate support for staff – such as that provided by the Helpdesk Service – is of equal importance. The opportunity to attend a training day arises infrequently, but the need for guidance on issues such as copyright and formatting for print can occur on a day-to-day basis. In this respect, the service provided by JISC Digital Media has been invaluable:
|
‘It’s good to know there is someone out there who knows the answers to most of your questions. Even if they don’t immediately have the answer, JISC Digital Media have always searched further and come back promptly with some assistance.’
Christine Dudgeon (Learning materials development unit manager) |
Impact on the learning provider
The work of the Learning Materials Development Unit has helped to realise the strategy for blended learning adopted at Barony College. The services offered by JISC Digital Media have enabled the unit to play its part in achieving the college’s vision:
- Increased knowledge and understanding about how to use digital images have helped Christine communicate better with college lecturers, with the staff she manages in her team and with the external designers and printers who produce course workbooks
- Experience and knowledge gained from training days can be cascaded on to others. Barony College is partnered with two local colleges – Dumfries and Galloway College and Borders College – in a project to embed blended learning and teaching in the curriculum. Christine’s role as a resource developer now includes staff development as the skills she has acquired from her contact with JISC Digital Media are passed on to staff in the three colleges
- The learning potential of all learners is increased by the availability of visual resources
|
‘Barony College has made a firm commitment to blended learning and the appropriate and effective use of digital images in learning and teaching plays an important part in this. The establishment of our Learning Materials Development Unit has been vital to realising our vision, as they lead and support the design and development process.’
Martyn Haynes (Depute principal) |
Impact on the learner
Learners following animal-related courses depend on images to help them learn complex and detailed information. Image-based self-assessment quizzes, for example, have proved an essential tool for learning to identify species and breeds, and can be especially important for learners studying at a distance:
|
‘Our animal care students depend on images to identify species and breeds. With the help of the Learning Materials Development Unit, we have developed flash cards and quizzes. The student attempts to identify the species depicted on the card before checking the answer. Uploaded to Moodle, image-based resources such as these help students check their recognition of less familiar species such as reptiles, birds and fish even when they are learning at a distance.’
Catriona Watson (Lecturer in animal care) |
Understanding how to make better use of digital images has given staff at Barony College the confidence to develop more such resources, and so enable learners of all ages to absorb information more efficiently – with image-based resources on a VLE, learning can take place at the learner’s own pace. Adding an element of interactivity, such as an online quiz, enables them also to test and correct their understanding with the support of immediate feedback.
Key messages
- Appropriate use of images can open up a new dimension to learning and teaching. Knowing where to find or how to produce digital images is an essential skill for a lecturer in further education
- A free source of guidance that can be accessed in various ways – for example, by phone, mailing list or blog – is much valued by staff needing to update their skills
- Copyright issues cannot be ignored, but neither should they stop the development of learning resources. The availability of expert advice at the point of need can give resource developers the confidence to handle copyright issues effectively
- It is never too soon to think about how you are going to store and manage your digital images. A collection grows very quickly and the discipline of adding metadata will reap its own rewards
Case Study Video
Further information
JISC Digital Media
Barony College