Evaluation of H5P interactive videos in enhanced e-learning of an environmental engineering course during COVID-19 pandemic

CONTEXT In the autumn session of 2020, COVID-19 outbreak forced the transition of teaching and learning from face-to-face mode into remote delivery in Australian universities. Over this unplanned, unprepared, and rapid move to remote delivery for lecturers and online learning for students, many strategies, designs, and technologies were applied to replace conventional classes, tutorials, laboratory classes, project assignments, and assessments. PURPOSE OR GOAL This study investigated the design, use and impact of videos for lectures, tutorials, and laboratory experiments for a combined undergraduate and postgraduate Environmental Engineering course during the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. The course was delivered through both face-to-face and online delivery modes, which we employed conventional video recordings and H5P interactive videos to support e-learning on the Moodle platform. APPROACH OR METHODOLOGY/METHODS H5P interactive videos, slides and quizzes were also used to design the pre-lab and recorded lab experiments, as our labs were closed due to social distancing requirements. Students' performance was evaluated through their marks of weekly quizzes;and their engagement was analyzed using Moodle activity logs and anonymous surveys through teacher evaluation and polling in Zoom meetings. ACTUAL OR ANTICIPATED OUTCOMES The attendance to online Zoom lecture and tutorials ranged from 70-87%. These data collectively demonstrate a high level of student engagement and satisfaction under the COVID-19 impacted teaching and learning environment compared to rate of lecture attendance at traditional lectures. H5P interactive videos helped students to achieve higher marks, compared to conventional videos. Student has watched the video more than once to obtain enough information to write the lab class report. CONCLUSIONS/RECOMMENDATIONS/SUMMARY It was shown that H5P interactive videos had higher views than conventional videos, which subsequently led to higher marks in weekly quizzes. The tutorials were delivered using Zoom meetings, supplemented with pre-recorded videos which supported students who could not attend the tutorial or for their revisions. The virtual laboratory experiments enabled with H5P provided adequate data and information for students to write their lab reports comparable to the requirements of a real-life lab class. Different approaches of video design and their limitations and improvements are discussed for the future development of e-learning in the post-COVID era. Copyright © Guangming Jiang, Ashley Ansari, Muttucumaru Sivakumar, Timothy McCarthy, 2021.

Enhanced engagement through instructor-created interactive video assignments in a flipped electrical engineering classroom

Blended learning using flipped classroom has emerged as a remarkable model for bridging the digital divide between geographically- and socio-economically-disadvantaged students during the Covid pandemic, especially for those situated in remote locations with limited internet connectivity. This paper presents an investigation of a blended learning framework using flipped teaching through interactive video lectures for an Introduction to Electrical Engineering course held in online mode for a first-year batch of engineering students. The analysis includes observations from two sets of students who took this course over the last two academic years, referred to as control and treatment groups, respectively. The paper also reports a simple preliminary framework for utilizing the analytics available from interactive video assignments for identifying students with poor engagement and understanding so that the instructor may adopt timely measures and interventions to address the need of all students. The success of the video assignments are validated both qualitatively (through student feedback and performance) and quantitatively (using t-test). Results show that the flipped teaching model has both empirical approval and support of a majority of students, especially in the distance learning mode. Statistical analysis shows a significant difference in the performance of students with and without video-based flipped teaching in online mode. © 2022 IEEE.

Interactive Video Games as a Method to Increase Physical Activity Levels in Children Treated for Leukemia.

Despite the beneficial effect of exercise, children treated for cancer do not engage in sufficient physical activity. It is necessary to search for attractive forms of physical activity, including interactive video games (IVGs). The aim of this study was to verify the effectiveness of the rehabilitation model developed by the authors based on the use of IVGs in children undergoing leukemia treatment. The study included a group of 21 children aged 7-13 years (12 boys, 9 girls) undergoing treatment for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) (n = 13) and acute myeloid leukemia (AML) (n = 8). The children were randomly assigned to an intervention group and a control group. To assess the level of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF), each child participated in a Cardiopulmonary Exercise Test. Daily physical activity was assessed using the HBSC questionnaire. The study also used the Children's Effort Rating Table Scale (CERT) to assess the intensity of physical effort. The children in the intervention group participated in 12 sessions of. The study participants managed to complete all stages of a progressive training program, which confirmed the feasibility of such physical effort by patients with cancer. Pediatric patients reported that the IVG training required a light to moderate physical effort despite high values of energy expenditure (EE).

Me, Myself and I in Dystopia

The interactive video will demonstrate how an individual yearns to survive dystopia as he/she struggles to fight the solitude, control, and chaos of society. As each photo of myself is taken, it will also trigger a new sound file as a way to intensify the mood of being alone. This work was created by an interactive design prototype for Max-MSP software (programmer: Martin Ritter), whereby I design how people can talk to the microphone and affect the visuals to symbolize saving one another and humanity as a whole. While demonstrating this work alone, it also powerfully suggests what it means to adapt in the constantly evolving post- covid era. © 2021 Association for Computing Machinery.

Interactive Videos and”In-Class” Activities in a Flipped Remote Dynamics Class

Flipped classes are relatively common in the engineering education community. In a flipped class, the lecture content is typically delivered asynchronously via videos, and the in-class activities are ideally redesigned to be more active. Due to COVID-19, many classes have become entirely remote. With classes no longer meeting face-to-face, what should the “in-class” portion of a flipped class look like? In this paper, I will discuss a flipped, remote dynamics class. Videos of lectures and example problems were watched by the students before the class met synchronously via Blackboard Collaborate during the regularly scheduled class times. In particular, I will present ways to enhance the out-of-class videos using embedded questions and the strategies that were used to engage students during class including activities such as grading the completed homework assignment, concept questions, and breakout rooms to work on the next homework assignment. Assessment data on students' perceptions of the class and which activities were most beneficial in the flipped, remote environment will also be presented. © American Society for Engineering Education, 2021

Everybody Still Plays: Virtual Engagement without Webcams On

When learning is virtual and students' webcams are turned off, interaction between students and teachers compared to an in-person classroom can fall short. The reasons some students keep their webcams off are numerous and compelling from an equity lens perspective (Yu 2020a): The history of policing in the United States points to an increased use of cameras as surveillance tools (Lin and Purnell 2019), students are concerned about their appearance (Castelli and Savary 2021), and webcams may serve as mirrors that resurface trauma (Costa 2020), to name a few. Xi Yu who was a public high school mathematics teacher in a district near Boston, saw this as an opportunity for a new pedagogical challenge: How can teachers create a virtual classroom where "everybody plays" without requiring that students turn on their webcams? (Yu 2020b, 2021). The purpose of this article is to share some strategies that allowed her virtual classes to engage as a whole (solicit public and private chats, circle the room, and slideshow-and-tell) and in small groups (invite small talk, think on virtual whiteboards, and delegate group roles) with webcams off.

Interaction Design for the Next Billion Users

As the first pandemic wave of Covid-19 hit India and the Indian Government announced a nationwide lockdown in March 2020, [1] it left millions of interstate migrant workers/daily-wage earners without a source of livelihood. Many of them had to return to their hometowns, often hundreds of kilometers away, with many walking a major part or the entirety of the distance [2]. This situation called for a design that could empower migrant workers to thrive in the new normal. An app was designed to enable migrant workers to search for jobs, learn about micro-entrepreneurship, get mental health assistance and develop skills. In terms of usage and interaction, this app proposes several unique features - a result of researching about and understanding our target demographic. At the core of the interaction is a chatbot. It asks questions to the user through text and audio, but the user replies through clickable buttons only. This makes it easy, even for those who may not be literate. The keyboard has been removed from this app. Another unique feature is the usage of interactive videos to explain various things, such as micro-entrepreneurship, skill training, etc. These videos make use of buttons for the users to make choices. In this paper, we discuss these two new interactions that will introduce a visual input method and an interactive video interface which will be inclusive of those less-privileged in terms of literacy in our ever-expanding tech world. The contents of the paper are targeted toward helping the next billion users. However, some of the things proposed may go on to improve interactions for all. © 2021, Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Molecular Orbital Theory--Teaching a Difficult Chemistry Topic Using a CSCL Approach in a First-Year University Course

Collaboration is regarded as one of the core competences of the 21st century when it comes to complex problem solving. In response to high dropout rates among STEM students, we developed a digital-collaborative intervention on a difficult topic, MO theory, for first-year chemistry students. First, students work independently in a Digital Learning Environment (DLE). Afterwards, they collaborate in small groups and create Concept Maps on MO theory. We evaluate this intervention through knowledge tests, tests of attractiveness, cognitive load, and usability during the DLE and concept mapping process, as well as audio and screen recordings during the collaborative group processes. This paper presents the detailed study design together with results from a first study in January 2021, focusing on the practicability of the intervention and students' feedback. Overall, each small group succeeded in creating a Concept Map. Students rated all phases of the intervention as attractive, with high usability and low cognitive load, although the interactive videos scored better for attractiveness and usability than the concept mapping process. On that basis, first adjustments for a second cycle of the intervention, which will be conducted in January 2022, were derived.