Drawing is often used by lecturers in live sessions to facilitate student understanding. Drawing can help students to visualise a problem, or walk them through complex processes. Whilst there are digital drawing tablets available, such as the Wacom, a piece of paper is sometimes the simplest solution!
Lecturer Terry Ng, came up with an ingenious idea to support her students in pharmaceutical calculations, utilising the Epoc Cam app . This app allows users to turn their iPhone into a web cam. Although only available for iPhone users, there are other options available for Android users.
Armed with elastic bands, brown tape and an overhead lamp, Terry used her iphone as a extra camera input during a live ZOOM session. Switching from the inbuilt camera to her iphone.
In true design fashion, her prototype evolved making use of a selfie stick and less tape:
Whilst she now has her eye on a more reliable phone tripod, it is important to test out ideas!
Student feedback
Teaching can be highly personalised and different subjects may require different approaches. Student’s felt that the pharmaceutical calculations particularly benefited from this type of visual modeling:
“it was really helpful for me when you went through the calculations question using your camera. It just felt more real and I was able to see the exact steps you were taking” ( a year 3 student).
It was also Terry’s commitment to improving her teaching and trying out new approaches, that students responded positively to:
“thank you for all the time and effort you put in to help us with our learning” (a year 3 student).
“Again, thank you for trying to make the online experience as best as it can be! Really appreciate the effort to help us out in any way you can” (a year 3 student).
Reflection
Terry remarked that:
“I don’t think that I am better than anyone else when it comes to learning technology, but I think I am just not afraid to play around.”
Playing around is a big part of developing skills and confidence. Whilst it can be nerve racking trying out new approaches for the first time, students often appreciate even small experimentations that might improve their understanding.
