Lectopia at Murdoch

Making the most of lectures through Lectopia – Guidelines for students

"I love lectopia and never miss a lecture if it is available. I believe my learning is far deeper in units where lectopia is provided." ~ student

Murdoch University recognises that students of today lead busy lifestyles. The provision of flexible learning options is one way of helping you to achieve a high quality learning experience.

Lectopia has been made available to enable you to listen to recordings of lectures in your own time. Some students choose to use Lectopia as an additional learning tool to reinforce and review the lecture content.

Others use it as a lecture substitute if they are not able to attend. This may be for a variety of reasons - distance, work and family commitments, sickness or even timetable clashes. In this case Lectopia can help you to catch up on missed lectures so you don't fall behind in your studies. Using Lectopia can also help you to feel part of the class even though you are not physically present.

Lectures: to attend or not to attend?

"(If students are) using lectopia as a substitute to coming to the actual lecture, then they're actually missing out on that active learning." ~ lecturer

Even though your lecturers may have made Lectopia available, unless you are a distance student, they usually expect you to be physically present at lectures. There are sound educational reasons for this, for example:

The lecture contains copyright materials, video, annotations on slides or other multimedia materials which cannot be made available on Lectopia.
The lecture incorporates problem solving in small groups, discussions or other interactions that are difficult to capture on Lectopia.
Students can ask questions and receive answers.
The content of the lecture is needed for a follow-on tutorial, practical session or similar.
The lecture can be used to get to know you, gauge your progress, identify problems you are encountering and give you immediate feedback.

When deciding whether to attend or not, think about the educational advantages. Also think about:

The social advantages – you get to meet up with others in your unit, exchange ideas and make new friendships.

The convenience – attending lectures in a regular timeslot can help you to establish a routine for study. Some students find they don't get around to listening when they don't have an established routine.

Just ask – If you have the option of attending or not, and are unsure of what you should do, ask your lecturer why you need to attend and what you will be missing if you don't.

Why not do both? Remember - it is not an either / or decision. Attending lectures and using Lectopia as a study tool can help to maximise your learning.

Maximising your learning

"It is an extremely good service and a great way to supplement one's learning by being able to follow up on concepts raised in the lecture and being able to listen to lectures when one is sick and has not attended class." ~ student

If you are attending lectures, recorded lectures can be used to support your learning in a variety of ways. You can browse through the entire recording or choose particular segments to:

check what was said before approaching your lecturer for clarification of issues, ideas or misunderstandings
pick up on things that you missed when attending lectures or in tutorials
go back and take comprehensive notes after the lecture so that you can concentrate on what is happening in the lecture
revisit complex ideas and concepts
work at your own pace and place of convenience
revise for exams

If you can't attend lectures, it's good practice to:

establish a weekly routine for listening to the lectures
listen to the entire recording at least once, stopping or reviewing as required

As a student studying off-campus, Lectopia can help you to feel part of the group and provide you with different ways of communicating with your lecturer and others in the class.

You can feel part of the class by answering the questions the lecturer asks even though you are not there
You can discuss issues raised in the lecture on the online discussion forum

Beware:
It's easy to fall behind and hard to catch up. It is not a good idea to listen to several weeks of lectures at a time. The lecture is usually only one aspect of the entire course. Other learning activities often depend on an understanding of the lecture content. Try not to fall behind with the lectures - by doing so you will be placing the rest of your learning at risk.

Guidelines adapted from resources which are available at:
http://www.cpd.mq.edu.au/teaching/wblt/overview.htm

Support for this publication has been provided by the Australian Learning and Teaching Council (formerly known as The Carrick Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education Ltd), an initiative of the Australian Government Department of Education, Science and Training. The views expressed in this publication do not necessarily reflect the views of the Australian Learning and Teaching Council.

Technical

Your Unit Coordinator will tell you whether there are lecture recordings for your unit. The MyUnits Page will display links to your lecture recordings and they may also be available from within your online units.

The Lectopia link will open to the Lectures Recording List.

The setup for a unit will determine if recordings are visible from the date of the recording or from start of the teaching period. When a recording is available you will see the lecture listed with a drop down list of media formats.

If the lecture has been recorded as 'screen capture' you will see two screen capture streaming formats and two screen capture download formats as well as 4 'audio only' options.

Streaming

Select the recording by date. If you want to listen immediately to the streamed lecture, you need to select the appropriate bandwidth from the drop down menu. The play window will appear. Read the copyright notice then click 'Continue'.

Alternatively you may download the lecture as an MP3 file or subscribe as a podcast so you can listen later.

If a standard modem recording doesn't play well try a different format.

You can start the lecture by clicking on the start button.

The content for lectures which have been recorded as screen capture is viewed in the caster window.

If you want to listen to a later part of the lecture or go back to an earlier part, you can use the slider. You will need to allow Lectopia a little time to move to the part you need.

If your lecture has PowerPoint slides, you will need to use the links, arrows or scroll bar to move between slides because the presentation is not automatically synchronised.

PowerPoint slides can be downloaded. Select the drop down menu for slides/files and choose the format you want, select open, then select 'click to download'. You can then save or print the pdf file.

Downloading

MP3 files allow you to save lectures so you can listen to them on a portable device.

Open and save the lecture. The way the file is saved depends on the browser (Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox etc), whether you are on a Macintosh or PC, and upon the media player on your computer (Quicktime, Windows Media, iTunes). Lectopia provides some prompts.

Podcasts

Use your home computer to subscribe to Lectopia recordings as podcasts. Murdoch University does not support downloading podcasts on campus.