Teaching Week - no, Month - no, don't we do that all the time?

This is my attempt at live-blogging Teaching Month, which I keep referring to as Teaching Week and is actually two and a half weeks of events, so the term 'month' is loose to start with. I'm at the Vice-Chancellor's Invitational Lecture - I hadn't originally planned to come as I wasn't invited, but then I was informed that it was the Vice-Chancellor who was invited, and now I'm here it looks like the invitation was from the Vice Chancellor to a guest speaker - this year the speaker is A/Prof Geoff Meyer from Anatomy and Human Biol, who from the introduction sounds wonderful and very busy!

The lecture theatre we are in now was the site of Meyer's first lecture as an undergrad, and he emphasises the importance of inspirational teacher in his undergraduate and postgraduate experiences - that collegial examples can bring out the best in you - that support and partnerships are crucial in making visions happen

Meyer teaches histology (anatomy under the microscope) - we had a moment of audience participation, with Freddo Frogs as a reward (bribery with chocolate always seems like good practice in teaching to me!) - and he places this discipline in context of related disciplines and applications. Traditionally, histology was taught in laboratories and practical classes, using prepared slides and microscopes etc. As student numbers increased, the resources from this mode of teaching and learning were inadequate - though computers could be added to the resources, and Meyer agreed to take up the challenge of reformulating teaching to adapt to this situation - which required a visionary approach.  He, in partnership, developed a programme called The Human Body, evolving through student feedback. The programme has similar content to a textbook (though hyperlinked) and the ability for students to interact with the image through a simulated microscope, pointers to specific areas, a quiz for each section and other features. The benefits of the programme for students were that they could continually testthemselves and get feedback, which improved their final exam results. Students could also access the programme anywhere - thus freeing up lab space, staff time and resources.

Meyer teaches at UCLA as well as UWA, and there have been a range of partnerships between UWA and UCLA developing from and around this relationship.In a 2006 Teaching Fellowship, he examined the effect of replacing lab classes with just use of the programme and students were generally successfully able to identify slides - so there was both qualitative and quantitative evidence for the programme's value in producing learning outcomes.The programme/learning system came to be well known in the field and in demand, so how to let other people use it? A UWA Pathfinder Grant, help from the OII and consultants came up with the conclusion that the system could be marketed - both for its content with a publisher in the area, but also that the structure could be used in other image based areas. Thus Meyer's work fits into a broader shift to e-learning and electronic publishing. Meyer was offered a publishing contract - he flags issues about copyright control (author vs company - particularly given the image based nature of the work), rights, licensing - and so the need to get expert advice from university lawyers etc and make sure that corporate vision matches yours and so Meyer ended up creating his own publishing company (studying and supervising in business to gain knowledge and skills) called Histology-online.com Pty Ltd. To promote and market the company/resource, he's added blogging to the traditional strategies! (Yay for the teaching/research/blogging nexus). Google Analytics is a useful tool for tracking the reach and effectiveness of the site and identifying potential markets where students/colleges are looking at the site - so being proactive with marketing follow-up. The financial stuff about running your own business and sightly worrying tracking of users I'm afraid I tuned out on (one day I will get over my aversion to monetizing, but not anytime soon).

The future? Meyer is looking at new markets, such as India. This expansion can also promote the university - general awareness and as a postgraduate destination. Meeting customer needs through customising, and to develop instructor access to suit courses and specialisation, also uploading lecture notes and other resources - so also engaging with competitors such as textbook writers/publishers . This can also encourage collaborative teaching and learning. Moving away from lectures - other ways to convey information, prioritising interactivity (such as the histology monopoly games where you accumulate knowledge rather than real estate). Moving away from slide images to 3D images and animation to build new partnerships and new ways to experience learning.