The primary focus of this cycle of the research was understanding how students share and comment on video segments in order to apply what they have learned in a group presentation. To achieve this, the second version on the system was designed from two perspectives, the front end and the back end. The front end design was concerned with how the system would look and feel for the students and how interactions would take place. The back end was concerned with the internal mechanics of the system and how functionality could be designed and supported from a technical perspective. In order to clearly explain the unique features of the system, it is best to start with the back end, the technical features of the system and how these were incorporated.
The purpose of this version of the VRS, from a technical perspective, was facilitating students to share and comment on video segments which would later be used as a source of information for their presentations. From this perspective, the system had four distinct technical challenges that required tackling: facilitation of student groups; content sharing; commenting on individual video segments; group history.
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The technical process behind segment sharing and commenting
The first task was ensuring that students could share content with their group on the system. To achieve this, a number of options were discussed such as linking students’ log in details to their Facebook or Google accounts. However, the most practical approach was to use the existing class list and pre-assigned groups. Each student was allocated a unique individual ID and group ID and once they logged on to the system, all activity was recorded against these.
The next area for discussion was how students could share content with their fellow group members. A number of options were discussed such as the sharing of video timestamps across email or sharing of hyperlinks across a chat box style interface. However, the most efficient approach was the incorporation of a process whereby when a student wanted to share a video segment with the group, they simply had to click on a button after which this would be highlighted for other members of the group. This was perhaps the most technically challenging aspect as students individual ID and group ID needed to link directly to the exact video segment, which was then extracted out to be shared with the group (Fig. 5.2).
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Figure 5.2 - Sharing process
In order to facilitate students in commenting on video segments, a similar process was applied. To comment on a video segment, students’ individual and group ID were selected upon log in and then linked to a selected video segment. Student comments were then linked alongside their ID to the chosen segment to be shared with the group (Fig. 5.3).
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The final technical area was designing how group members could view and respond to shared video segments and comments made by other members of the group. Again, many options were considered such as email notifications and incorporating a separate discussion area on the screen. However, in order to keep all activity located on one system, it was decided to create a group section where students could easily keep track of what was happening on the system. To facilitate this from a technical perspective, all student shares and comments were tagged with their individual and group ID. Once a student logged into the system, they could view all shares and comments made by any other students with the same group ID (Fig. 5.4).
Figure 5.4 - Group process
The result of these technical features and linkages to individual and group IDs was that the group recommendations’ area would act as a history and repository of group activity where any member of the group could view, and perhaps most importantly, respond to comments made by other group members. Also it is important to note that comments and shares were linked directly to video segments, so group members could share these short segments of video rather than entire videos. Finally, in response to feedback from
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cycle 1, some technical implementation issues were addressed to improve the system’s stability and load times of videos.
The student user experience
The next area for consideration was the front end of the system, dealing with its look and feel. Some major changes were made to the system over cycle 1, many of which were made out of necessity to accommodate the new sharing and commenting features as outlined above. Much thought went into seamlessly integrating new features into the system so that students could easily use the features, while retaining their understanding of how to use the search functionality in the same way as they had done during cycle 1. Gefen & Straub (2000) emphasise the importance of retaining ease of use throughout the development of web based systems, especially when the “required information is embedded in the system and thus quality is directly related to ease of use” (p. 2). The first major change was the introduction of groups, and while this did pose a technical (outlined above) challenge, the impact on the user experience for students was kept to a minimum. Accessing their group simply required students to select their name from a drop-down menu, after which the system would automatically link the student to their corresponding assignment group.
The addition of the sharing and commenting features also took much preparation and discussion, both from a technical perspective as outlined above, and a user perspective. The objective of this was to seamlessly allow students to build on the work carried out during cycle 1, meaning that they could search for content and then share segments and comments with other group members. To do this, the sharing and commenting features were integrated within the same window. When a student found a relevant video segment for viewing, they could then share this with the group by clicking ‘submit’ or comment by typing text in the comments box and then clicking ‘submit’. Once
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completed, the segment and relevant comment were logged in the group area for later viewing by the group (Fig. 5.5).
Figure 5.5 - Commenting and sharing window
The final feature involved deciding on how each member of the group could access and view comments and shared video segments recommended by other members of the group. After much thought, the decision was made to make the process as easy as possible for students by having a ‘group recommendations’ section available directly after logging in to the VRS. Once a student logged in, they could view this section which contained a log of all group members’ shared segments and comments on video segments (Fig. 5.6).
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Figure 5.6 - Group recommendation section
One of the most important features of this section was that students could go directly to the video segments in question, removing the need to search again (Fig. 5.7).
Figure 5.7 - Group recommendation link
The final area for consideration was the implementation of the system, dealing with how the system was administered and maintained. Given that there were some issues during the previous cycle, a number of small changes were made. First, contact was made with the systems’ department and changes were made to the configuration of the server so
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that no more down time would be experienced. Second, the video collection was re- indexed to stabilise the retrieval process and improve video load times.
5.4 Implementation
During the implementation phase, the plans outlined above were put into action and students began working on their group presentations as a part of their overall assessment for the module. Cycle 2 went live in early November 2013 during lecture time. During this time students were given a demonstration of the new version of the VRS and the features that had been added, specifically the group log in, video segment sharing and commenting features. Students were also informed of the stability and other improvements that had been made as a result of their feedback. In addition to the guided demonstration of this version of the system, a narrated video was created and posted to the class Moodle (LMS) page which outlined how to use the video sharing and commenting features and to access comments and segments shared by other members of the group (Fig. 5.8).
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Students were given a total of ten weeks to complete the assignment. During this time, the remainder of module topics were covered with the class, along with additional workshops on using PowerPoint to design and create presentations. Similar to support carried out during cycle 1, video was used during lectures to demonstrate anchoring key themes of video and referencing content. A portion of these ten weeks included students’ Christmas break, when they were not required to be on campus. This was an ideal time to examine the use of the system features to support sharing and commenting on video segments online.
5.5 Impact of action
In this section, the impact of action is analysed and discussed for the reader. Themes and findings are drawn out to fully address the research questions:
R1. What impact do the features of the video retrieval system have on students’ ability to work with online video for use in assignments?
What is the impact of the video segment sharing and commenting features on students’ ability to share and comment around online video for a group assignment?
R2. What strategies can be employed to enable students’ digital literacy with online video?
What strategies support students’ use of online video in assignment work?
How can assignments be designed which enable the use of online video?
What impact does video have on students learning experience?
R3. How do students display digital literacy in practice when given the context and tools in which to do so?
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How do students use online video to inform the development of a group presentation?
In order to achieve the research questions, data was gathered from students in a number of ways. First, students were asked to submit an individual 500 word reflective document, outlining the benefits, drawbacks and potential improvements in using the features of the system in a group context, and how the information drawn from the video content contributed to the design, development and delivery of their presentations. Second, an online survey was distributed to students following completion of the assignment task. This survey gathered qualitative and quantitative data on students’ opinions of the various features of the system and their thoughts on how this version of the VRS compared to that in cycle 1. Student submissions were also analysed for the video references used and how these were linked to the development of the presentation. Out of the 70 students, a total of 56 reflective documents and 25 questionnaires were returned, giving a response rate of 80% and 36% respectively. Finally, group interactions that occurred on the system were analysed to ascertain the kinds of communication that took place.
5.6 Findings and discussions
Key themes and findings are now presented using data from questionnaires, reflective documents, assignment analysis and system interactions. As stated in the methodology section, data was analysed using the constant comparative method and as such will now be presented using propositional statements in an effort to portray the overall meaning of the data categories. This is followed by overall conclusions and recommendations that can be drawn from the data and used to inform future cycles. Student comments and references were first aligned to initial salient data categories before coming together as propositional statements under two key themes which helped to tell the story from the
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student data. The two key themes and corresponding propositional statements form the basis for the discussion of findings which follows.