A summary of MMU's approach to enhancing the student experience and how it's recently added Kaltura to its Core+ VLE

1. Enhancing the Student Learning
Experience with Kaltura
London | Mar 2013
Professor Mark Stubbs
Head of Learning & Research Technologies
m.stubbs@mmu.ac.uk http://twitter.com/thestubbs
http://slideshare.net/markstubbs
Monday, March 18, 2013

2. Context | an interesting place to work!
• Large, popular, multi-campus university
– 36,000+ students | 1,000+ courses | consolidating from 7 sites
• Pursuing an ambitious transformation initiative
– New Buildings, New Curriculum, New Admin Processes & Systems,
New Learning & Mobile Tech, New Quality Processes…

3. Interconnected & important to get right!
League table rankings
A
Marketing &
Recruitment Reputation
Processes
C
B
Learning, Teaching, Assessment
Student Intake Student Retention
& Personal Development
(Aspirations, Attitude Success &
Processes, Facilities
& Abilities) Satisfaction
& Resources
Resource allocation
All Year Numbers
A Recruit to target B Improve satisfaction, retention & success C Inform decision-makers

4. Understanding how best to make a difference
Careful diagnosis of (diverse) learning experiences
• Recurrent messages
– Focus groups: consistent, easy to find info
– NSS analysis: course organisation determining Q22
– Mobile surveys: deadlines, timetables… (m-admin)
• Great (and not-so great) expectations
– “engaging, well-organised courses”
– “tutors who know me”

5. Coordinating our response
B Improve satisfaction, retention & success
Simplify Great Great Great
Unwieldy Online Experience Learning Spaces Teaching
Curriculum (Seamless, personalised)

6. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Engaging our learners: Core+ DVLE model
Learning technologies not isolated :
interaction with personal and
administrative systems and underlying
infrastructure are major determinants
of the quality of the overall experience
Recognised: watch & learn how staff
use tech
Recommended: staff set up & we train
to integrate
Arranged: we set up & train staff to
use
Core: we set up & train staff & tell
students it’ll be a consistent front door
http://lrt.mmu.ac.uk/ltreview

7. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
megamashup
mws
7

8. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Student ID
Timetable
Sync to
personal
device
8

9. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Student ID (+ Module code)
Hand-in dates / extensions / marks
Personalised submission sheet
9

10. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Module code
Resource list
Relevant resource
10

11. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Wrapping the institution around the learner
Module code
Past exam papers
Past exam paper
11

12. This work is licensed under a Attribution-
NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.0 licence
Behind the scenes, making it all work …
• Consistent tagging (so relevant data can be aggregated)
• Web services (to power the aggregation)
• Moodle block (to present personalised information)
– Every Moodle course area set up as Code_AcYear_Occurrence
– We know the Moodle authenticated user & course area id so we have
everything we need to query systems for relevant content…
UserID Code AcYear Occurrence
Announcements X X X X
Timetable X X X X
Deadlines X X X X
Reading list X X
Past papers X
12

13. Phase 2: build on Moodle’s success
inspire
research video ?
extend e-submission
train
e-portfolio
upgrade
1.9 2.4

14. Our video requirements
Cost effective, scalable solution to
• Replace our ageing Apple Podcast server
– Simple upload, transcoding, storage, RSS & playback
• Integrate with Moodle 1.9 and 2.4
– Simple upload & playback, ideally with auto-tagging
• Deliver multi-platform playback
– Every flavour of form factor & operating system
• Fit with our Core+ VLE architecture & philosophy
– Extensive open APIs, ideally access to source code
... from people who’d strengthen our group of strategic partners
?
=

15. Extending our Core+ VLE with Kaltura video
Authenticate
& Authorise
Upload/play Upload/showcase/search
from moodle from mmutube
(Kaltura plugin) (KMS)
Configure & Analyse
Transcoding/Storage
Play from mobile (KMC)
(Kaltura API)

16. MMU’s implementation (so far!)
KMC cloud, KMS on-premise + Moodle 1.9 & 2.x plugins
• Evaluation; Contract negotiated & signed
2012Q3
• Mentored KMC/KMS configuration &
2012Q4 Moodle 1.9 customisation & testing
• Moodle 1.9 live, Apple Emergency Migration
2013Q1 & Moodle 2.4 customisation & testing

17. Moodle 1.9 block | video course tools
Add a video resource
Or a video presentation
Or create a video assignment
“We have a video
submission running in
the business school!
Students love it!
Lecturers love it! …”

18. Moodle 1.9 plugin | auto-tagged uploads

19. Moodle 1.9 block | iTunes subscription
“Stop me & play KMC
one” YUI widget
auto-scrolls
through
thumbnails Custom
web
service
RSS feed
prefixed by itpc://
launches
iTunes
subscription

20. KMC config | upload once, use many
Authenticate
& Authorise
Upload/play Upload/showcase/search
from moodle from mmutube
(Kaltura plugin) (KMS)
MediaSpace
+ private << default for uploads
+ site
Transcoding/Storage + galleries
(KMC) + Public
+ MMU-only
+ MMU-campus

21. Kaltura KMS | mmutube.mmu.ac.uk
AD-auth and 3 Galleries: Public, MMU-only, MMU-campus

22. KMC API | Apple Emergency Migration
Major failure out of warranty
Emergency hard disk repair
Short window to extract 3+ years’ videos
RSS search videos by user
KMC
Custom
web
service Upload, set author, title,
tag & transcode
1,700+ video transferred in 2 days: each now available in
Moodle & mmutube for relevant tutor under “My Content”

23. Kaltura KMC | Analytics
2,100+ videos so far, 300 played 934 times in last 30 days

24. Moodle 2.4 package | Impressive!
Integrates with Moodle 2.4
repository
Includes screen recording
& usage stats
We’ve fixed & customised 2.3 code (to add auto-tagging)
Testing starts this month
Planning to contribute our code changes

25. Making a difference with Kaltura
B Improve satisfaction, retention & success
Simplify Great Great Great
Unwieldy Online Experience Learning Spaces Teaching
Curriculum (Seamless, personalised)