We have worked closely with the University of Exeter’s College of Engineering, Mathematics and Physical Sciences to develop a highly successful e-learning platform for its Digital and Technology Solutions degree apprenticeship. We were initially brought in to produce a series of educational videos and, as the partnership developed, we were commissioned to project manage the e-learning production process.
The BSc Digital and Technology Solutions degree apprenticeship is delivered through a combination of residential courses, e-learning and work-based projects. The e-learning elements of the course, including lectures, seminars and online collaborative work, are undertaken through the university’s electronic learning environment.
With a large amount of course content to produce, the university was looking for a flexible and reliable partner who could deliver high-quality online materials to tight deadlines for apprentices across the country to access on demand. And with a large number of academics involved in delivering the modules, we needed to ensure all the online materials had a consistent look.
We filmed the course tutors delivering their lectures and seminars at our studio in Exeter, using our award-winning EasyStudio system. A green screen backdrop enabled us to add custom backgrounds and slides to illustrate the tutorials.
This was a new experience for many of the lecturers, so we provided coaching where necessary and worked with them to ensure their slides were of a consistent quality and style.
We project managed the production process to deliver the course materials on schedule and upload them to the university’s e-learning environment ready to be accessed by students.
Huw Evans, senior lecturer and programme lead, said: “e-learning is becoming ever more popular, and from a student point of view it goes down very well because they can study whenever it suits them.
“We produce some videos in-house, but in this instance the sophisticated e-learning experience we were aiming to create was beyond our core competencies, so we needed to find a provider to do that for us.
“Bitpod have been very good, very flexible and have designed a service which meets our needs. By working together and learning as we go, we have improved the production process. The feedback from staff and our degree apprentices has been very positive.”
Bitpod director Alex Wren said: “This has been a very interesting project for us to work on, and it demonstrates the growing popularity of e-learning in education and business. With a large amount of resources to produce for this degree apprenticeship, EasyStudio gave the university the quality level they were looking for in a way that was extremely cost effective.”
