ACG City Campus chose eTV because of its access to local content, particularly news and current affairs, and its ability to be a repository for its own videos, writes Debbie Williams. 

What are the benefits to using your own content?

The main advantage is that students are listening to a teacher from their school and so they know that the content is relevant to their course of study. It’s very difficult to find material on the internet for accounting that is the right level for our students, in terms of language (we teach international students) and also relevant content.

I have made videos of all of my PowerPoint presentations and uploaded them to the private ACG library on eTV, which saves storage space on our servers. At ACG we use the Blackboard Learn LMS. Students access videos through links on this or through e-texts we’ve produced. They can watch in their own time as part of the flipped classroom or for revision in class.

I’ve also used eTV to download videos from YouTube. Once it’s in our eTV library, we have it forever. Plus, it’s then available for clipping or downloading, so there are no copyright issues.

Are you using the new tool Zaption?

I’ve trialled Zaption by adding multiple choice and open response questions to videos that I normally get the class to watch and then we discussed their answers in class. I’ve also included text where there’s a word that students may not understand. In the future, I hope to clip videos and join them together to make tours on certain subjects.

What difference is this tool making?

It’s very early days but the students told me having the video stop when a question was given was very helpful. Previously they would have to read the question in their book, watch the video for the answer, and then write it down. When discussing the answers I showed the class their responses and this encouraged them to start writing a bit more. Zaption analytics provides great information, such as number of viewers, average duration time, percentage of questions answered, average number of skips, and how the students rated the tour.

What would be your advice to schools wanting to make best use of eTV?

Speak to eTV about how you can use all of the features. Many subject areas will find useful content in Curriculum Collections and TV Programmes. It’s very easy to learn using the eTV guide videos – or get Campbell to visit and inspire your teachers! Ultimately, just try it – it could meet many of your needs.  

Debbie Williams is the Faculty Co-ordinator for accounting for ACG NZIC (Academic Colleges Group – New Zealand International College).

eTV is a video service offering more than 35,000 TV and library recordings to schools. For more go to etv.org.nz