Narrated Visual Answers to FAQs: Leveraging Student Learning and Academic Productivity with Accessible Technology

Teaching larger, more diverse classes is an increasing challenge as globalisation increases and public funding of higher education contracts. Feedback and reflection are important components in improving the learning process yet are relatively under researched. When teaching such classes there are often insufficient resources to firstly diagnose individual learning difficulties and secondly to provide adequate and timely feedback to assist future learning. The motivation for this research was to develop learning resources that use inexpensive easy to use learning technologies that would not only improve academic productivity and the management of large diverse classes but also improve the quality of student learning. In this paper we report on the use of online narrated presentations called FLASH FAQs, produced using off-the-shelf software, to assist students to overcome common conceptual stumbling blocks. We found that their use both improved academic productivity and enhanced student learning while providing a means of formative self-assessment.