Spotlight: Redesigning ACCY201

Hi, my name is Erin Twyford and I am from The Faculty of Business and Law, the School of Business and I am the coordinator for ACCY201: Financial Accounting 2B.

I took over ACCY201 after a colleague left in 2020 and I was really interested in trying to revamp the subject. It really hadn't changed that much since I took it as a student. So my thought process around the redesigning of the subject was really about trying to make the content more accessible to students, to make it more interesting, more interactive and more engaging. I really wanted to create something that was asynchronous and that students could work through step by step almost like a self-paced module. Overall decrease the stress for students and make sure that it was really easy to follow with the logical structure and ultimately just a resource that they could utilise again and again.

So the way that I planned and mapped the modules was really based off the lecture notes. So I created the lecture notes and then I worked through them slide by slide and thought about what would I say to the students in this instance and I would type that up. When the module was done, I would go through and highlight, well what elements am I going to speak to camera, what elements are going to be written, and what elements could I turn into an activity to kind of break up the text or the video for the student and also create a moment where they could interact and also gauge their own understanding of the content.

Writing out a whole script of what to expect and elements where I could input perhaps a picture as well or a pop culture reference just to make it that little bit more engaging for the student.

So initially I was using an activity called 'Lesson' on Moodle and that would enable the students to go through different questions as sort of a revision for the end of the topic for the week. And what I really needed was something that could do a broader function, so looking at incorporating videos, different types of activities instead of just questions. So I ended up talking to LTC and they said well, why don't you do a Moodle book? So I looked at Moodle book and it did seem to be able to incorporate more of the elements I was looking for then that lesson activity.

So I really wanted to include video because I didn't just want this to read like a textbook. I wanted it to really come from me, I wanted the students to hear from me, see from me, and so I knew that I wanted to incorporate different videos, not always of me speaking to camera but sometimes me demonstrating a problem. And that way the students were also having that interaction with me, even though it was sort of one-sided.

The videos of me demonstrating were there to provide what I would usually do in a lecture. So every lecture I would have a problem question, I'd put it on an overhead projector usually and I would fill it out for the students because I wanted them to systematically see how the problem was to be solved. So I wanted to recreate that and that was why I wanted to use demonstration videos and also to talk through some of the more complex elements. Sometimes if a student just sees a solution they may not know how that number was derived or how to get there. So I really wanted to break that down in the voiceover videos and show them exactly how to do it, so that they had an example.

Deciding which elements to be interactive was really difficult at first, you were trying to figure out well, first of all, what elements do I want to test their knowledge on, what is going to gauge their understanding at this point and then how best to test that understanding. So until I became a bit more familiar with things like H5P, it was really hard to know. I would just kind of leave notes for myself saying maybe this could be a drag and drop, maybe this is a multiple choice. So the process of determining where I would put those interactive elements really came down to that initial plan and me deciding well here is a point where I want to break up some of the text and the video, check for student understanding, and also give them an opportunity to have a little break themselves and have a go at a question.

Wherever possible with the H5P I would always put in a sample solution. So it might say 'See Erin's answer', So that students weren't just kind of testing their understanding into a vacuum. They were getting some sort of feedback, even though it wasn't individualized, they could see what an example answer would look like.

So the students were able to use the modules as part of their revision for their final exams because instead of trying to find the exact time mark of say a voice over lecture slides, they could actually see the different chapter headings in the modules and go okay, that's exactly what I need help with. Similarly, if they had a question they didn't know how to answer they could go to that element of the Moodle book and say well he's a really similar example and use that as almost a template for how to answer a question. So the feedback I got from students was they did find it a really helpful study resource. It was easier to find the information that they needed exactly, rather than waste time trying to filter through a lecture video that you know could be two hours long, to find the exact information that they're looking for.

In delivering the subject, I tried to take the stress off the students as much as I could because we're in the middle of a Covid lockdown, the second one, I knew a lot of students were fatigued and just generally very anxious. So what I tried to do was take away any sort of outside expectation of what they would do apart from the modules. So I said if nothing else this week, all I want you to do is look through the module. You don't have to understand it, you don't have to go over it many times, but if you look through it just once you will have enough information to come to the tutorial and at least be able to contribute something to the group work, to the individual work, so I really tried to set the expectation both in my welcome video and also in my tutorials that I expected the pre-work to get done. But in terms of reading the textbook looking at the lecture notes I also provided, that wasn't as important as just working your way methodically through the self-paced lecture module and just trying to get your head around it. As I said, you don't have to completely understand what is happening. Just so long as you have a basic understanding of what we're talking about that week, we can go from there in the tutorial.

So I was the coordinator for two subjects; one which used these Moodle books and the videos and another one that was just lecture over slides and I did find the students in the subject where I had those Moodle books were much more engaged. They interacted with each other more in the tutorials, they interacted more with me through email or the announcements or student communication forums. So overall it had that impact of making them really feel included in the classroom, like they belonged in the classroom and that they had some sort of link to me throughout the entire semester. I would not say all of them liked it at first and a lot of them did give feedback initially that this was something that they hadn't encountered before, they weren't sure how to approach it and could we please still have the lecture slides? I did end up providing the lecture slides because ultimately the same information is provided on there and if students are more comfortable that way I'll let them do it, but they did end up preferring the modules once they got used to it and a lot of them even commented that they were really excited about this being the new way that the lectures were being delivered. A few commented is so great that I can actually get up, have a break, come back and know exactly where I'm up to, or if there's something I want to check I know exactly where I can go to do so. So the overall feedback was really excellent and students even saying, you know, you put in the activities, the videos, the funny little pop culture references and we know that all of that takes time and we really appreciate you taking that time for us.

The students actually really liked the way the tutorials were delivered, in keeping with what I was trying to do with the lecture delivery. I also tried to include interactive elements, so the use of Slido, Padlet, things like that. So the students would feel a continuation of what had happened on the Moodle site through to the tutorials. And what I found was most of the students did complete the pre-work and so we were able to move through the tutorials without me having to teach or reteach the students the content. They were able to help each other with that content and then we could really focus on complex questions, so that when they got to the final exam it wasn't the first time they'd seen a really complex question. They'd been working on them the whole way through and overall students did achieve better this semester than in the previous one.

So it feels really nice to know that all the efforts were appreciated. Not just appreciated, but seen by the students they didn't just say, you know, I really enjoyed this, it was I can see that you care about us because you went to this effort and I think the greatest achievement has been that doing something like this has made the students feel like they're at a 21st century university. You know, they're doing blended learning, they are able to move through things by choice. It's that asynchronous delivery that the students appreciate where we're not telling them now you learn about this, now you learn about that. They can move through at their own pace, they can go over things again and they can really make it fit with their own work life balance. They're not attending a face-to-face lecture where they have to put everything else on hold. They can work this around their work responsibilities, around childcare or other care responsibilities. So I think that the modules have just provided a new way forward, certainly for me, but also for the students in how they learn at University.

So when I first had the plan to create these online Moodle books, I had very grand ambitions and I wanted everything done perfectly and we just don't have time to do that. And I also think it's a bit unrealistic to expect us to produce something perfectly the first time. So what I tried to do is really focus on the things that I had to get done well enough, so things like those introduction and summary videos, so the students saw me every Moodle book going through the more complex demonstration problems. Ones that I thought could be left to text, I did leave but my plan is to come back and to build on this as a sustainable resource and make it better every year by including more videos where I can, taking on student feedback, and incorporating that into the Moodle books as they continue for further iterations into the future.

My advice for anyone who would like to do something similar is to start early, make sure that you're doing lots of planning and preparation. Don't underestimate the amount of time it takes. Try and start small, don't be too ambitious, really focus on what is it that you want the students to get out of this and try to match with the videos, with the activities to what you think your students need and what you want them to achieve.

I would say don't be afraid to ask colleagues for help and support. It can sometimes feel like a very lonely journey as an academic, especially if you're the only person on a teaching team, but there are people out there willing to help. Your colleagues who may have done something similar, the team at LTC, everybody just wants to create the best learning environment for your students. So, please ask for help. Even if you just do little incremental things, they will matter to the students. So I encourage you if you can to just make small changes, to try and create the best learning experience possible.