IDEAS

Spotlight

Guide to video streaming services in NUS
NUS Galleria? NUScast? NUS YouTube? All of them deal with streaming video, so why are there three different services? This guide features each service and highlights the most appropriate uses for each of them.
Continue reading

IVLE

Audio discussion forums with Wimba Voice Board
You can create threaded voice discussions in IVLE communities using Wimba Voice Board. Read this tutorial to find out how to do this.
Continue reading

E-Learning

Interactive Chemistry Laboratory Manual (ICLM)
Take a peek at how one academic tried to engage students while saving valuable laboratory time using courseware developed in conjunction with CIT.
Continue reading

Faculty Voice

Mr David Phang gets a (Second) Life
You have probably heard of Second Life, but how many educators have ventured into this brave new world? David Phang from the School of Computing certainly has as his students have selected tutorials in Second Life.
Continue reading

News

CIT Audio-Visual Awareness Roadshow
CIT conducted an Audio-Visual Awareness Roadshow on Tuesday, 14 October 2008. This roadshow, the first of its kind in NUS, was aimed at increasing the awareness of the use of audio-visual products and services in supporting teaching and learning.
Continue reading


CIT staff demonstrating a portable green screen solution used for backgrounds and effects.

CIT conducted an Audio-Visual Awareness Roadshow on Tuesday, 14 October 2008.

This roadshow, the first of its kind in NUS, was aimed at increasing the awareness of the use of audio-visual products and services in supporting teaching and learning.

Educators gathered at the University Hall auditorium to listen to other educators’ experience with using audio-visual technology in their lessons.

Dr Adrian Michael Lee, Department of Chemistry, and Dr Mohanan Karuvannur, Department of English Language & Literature shared how CIT produced videos for the Interactive Chemistry Laboratory Manual (ICLM) courseware and the Academic Knowledge & Inquiry eModule respectively. CIT created the videos which populate both e-Learning tools which help to disseminate important information efficiently to a large number of students.

Dr Jacqueline Chin and Mr Voo Teck Chuan, from the Yong Loo Lin School of Medicine, discussed how CIT produced biomedical ethics videos to help medical students prepare for their objective structured clinical examinations (OSCEs).

While CIT is better known for providing audio-visual production services, a little-known fact is that we also provide video production training. Mr John Ang, Department of Social Work, highlighted how CIT conducts a basic videography and editing course for his students. His students then make use of the skills to create a video as part of the course requirements for SW4202 Special Areas (Social Work and Mass Communication).

In between the talks, CIT staff and our vendors showed participants various parts of the video production process from pre to post-production.

Participants in the roadshow learnt the scope of CIT’s audio-visual services as well as what it takes to produce a full-fledged video.

Photo by Leong Mun Wai.

Chemistry practical work is integral to chemistry education. Laboratory sessions make chemical equations come alive, allowing students to see, and sometimes smell, taste or feel, the outcomes of these interactions.

Current technology cannot replicate this learning experience. However, online courseware can facilitate the conduct of practicals.

Dr Adrian Michael Lee, from the Department of Chemistry, noticed that chemistry students were generally unprepared for laboratory sessions. Students were not familiar with the techniques used as well as the skills the chemistry involved. Moreover, most depend entirely on the laboratory briefing instead of reading the practical sheet.

Having seen how Bristol University used an online solution to tackle similar problems, Dr Lee approached CIT to create online courseware which would make laboratory preparation interesting, interactive and thorough.

With Dr Lee’s input, CIT developed the Interactive Chemistry Laboratory Manual (ICLM), online courseware which provides students all the information and instructional resources to perform laboratory experiments. Dr Lee, the subject-matter expert, provided content. CIT designed the courseware, filmed the videos, took the photos and created various interactive elements.

Since the start of AY 2008/09, ICLM has been available online for chemistry students taking certain modules. Students can visit the site before the laboratory session to run through everything that they need to know about the experiment.

As laboratory time is precious, ICLM allows students to familiarize themselves with the experiments before the practical classes. ICLM covers all aspects of the experiments, from safety to preparation, from conducting to report-writing. Instructions, relevant information, data sheets and other materials cover the experiment before, during and after the laboratory session.

The materials are presented in different formats: video clips of laboratory techniques, simulations, virtual instruments, interactive materials, formative and summative tests on material and pre-laboratory safety assessments have all been combined to form a guide that chemistry students can use with ease.

With ICLM, students have one less excuse for not being prepared for chemistry practicals.