Philippine E-Journals

 Experimental Learning: The Use of Screencasts in Hospitality Tertiary Programmes

Susan Townshend

Discipline: Education

 

Abstract:

“University lecturing is changing as a result of increasing student populations, increasing diversity, and transformative technologies” (Pinder-Grover, Millunchick, & Bierwert, 2008). The use of screencasts, recordings that capture audio narration along with screen images, is now being incorporated into many educational programmes as a way of adapting content delivery to the new environment. This paper reports on a research project investigating the advantages and effectiveness of using screencasts to complement face to face hospitality programmes in tertiary institutions. Screencasts can be thought of as telling someone a story with sound and pictures and have been widely used for marketing (particularly software products) and for training. These presentations capture the feeling of personal connection that podcasts provide but have the added benefit of a visual presentation, an element that is important to today’s generation Y students. Coates, (2007) suggests that this generation prefer to learn in an environment that combines teamwork and technology. Once constructed a screencast can be shared, downloaded or emailed. This paper surveys the literature on the educational use of screencasts and reports on a research project investigating the advantages and effectiveness of using screencasts to supplement accounting lectures and to help students with revision.