I have been asked to provide two one-hour long Elluminate sessions for students resitting their S282 'Astronomy' exam.
I will follow my original proposal for the task. This was a skill based first session:
Revision skills
Exam technique
Maths skills
And a summary of key physical principles.
My intention was to build a discussion oriented session. As students may not have started revision I do not think quizzes are appropriate. However, some of the examples will lend themselves to asking students to spend a few minutes looking for information or solving problems.
I drafted an outline plan on a sheet of paper. then I started to work on PowerPoint, reusing an introductory screen on using Elluminate.
I used a pdf copy of a module book to extract one page and annotate that with my Tablet PC to illustrate the idea of using diagrams and annotating the module book. this was difficult to do - I had trouble extracting a copy of the page from the huge book. I found a copy of the appropriate chapter only, and managed to delete the other pages.
I also wanted to illustrate the use of spray diagrams. I used a chapter summary section to prepare a hand written spray diagram. I then scanned this in, rotated it and inserted it into the PowerPoint. The quality was poor. I tried to improve the legibility of the diagram but did not manage to find an appropriate tool. It would be too time-consuming to prepare the diagram electronically, so I decided to accept the slide as it stood.
I used an extract from an old exam question to create an exercise on writing. Simlarly for a maths skills example I used an old TMA question part, and the excellent example answer I had supplied to students.
To help me discuss the the revision period I took a hand-drawn diagram from an S282 handout I have often provided to students.
Then I prepared a list of key ideas (extending over four slides)by skimming through the book.
While working through the preparation I kept in mind the need to have dark colours and large text and images so maximise legibility in Elluminate.
I also adapted the first screen to place on the Elluminate site, in the hope that I can encourage students to use their mircophone.
All this work took about six hours.
[1 April 2013]