An interactive, touch-screenvideo encyclopaedia in the

Companion Animal House linked to the delivery of animal

behaviour modules

Mark Rutter, Graham ScottMoira Harris, Henry Keil

Background

• BBC nature documentaries are a rich source of ‘animal behaviour’ teaching material

• Late in 2008 a DVD encyclopaedia was released

• Features several of the Attenborough ‘Life of …’ series,

• … along with a booklet that indexes the material

Background

• Lecturers can use the index to look up video clips that illustrate the point e.g.– A particular (unusual) animal species e.g. the duck

billed platypus– A particular behaviour category e.g. social

dominance in sparrows• Use the video clip in a lecture (play the DVD)

The problem…

• We could not (when the project began*) put these video clips on the VLE, meaning students cannot access the material outside the lecture

• *The University College has now upgraded our licence so that we can put video clips on the VLE

• We also wanted to promote use of the Companion Animal House (CAH) by students

• The CAH houses a collection of pet animal species (rats, gerbils, rabbits, exotics etc)

CompanionAnimal House

A proposed solution

• Make the video clips available on a large, touch-screen panel in the CAH

• The clips will be indexed and can be accessed:– By module (session title/number)– By behaviour– By animal species

• The complete documentaries will also be available (so the students can watch the rest of the programme/series the clip is taken from)

An Aspire Project

• Received Aspire funding to set all this up• Main features:– A 40 inch LCD TV + stand etc.– Touch screen interface– Multimedia PC and speakers– E-Learning team to write the interface– Aim was to have some material on before

Christmas 2009

Copyright issues!

• Although we can have a copy of the DVD encyclopaedia in the library for the students to borrow (letting them copy it illegally!)…

• … we could not use the material on a closed PC system and use it the way we intended

• Although the documentaries were made by the BBC, the DVDs are produced by a third-party, so not covered by any copyright agreement that covers BBC material!

Copyright solution

• Kathryn came up with the solution• We get copies of all the documentaries (as

originally broadcast) from the British Universities Film and Video Council (BUFVC)

• Our BUFVC licence allows use of this material in any way we want (pretty much)

• i.e. we can covert the DVDs to computer video files that can be used with the touch screen

Progress to date…

• ‘Copyright solution’ took a while to work out• The BUFVC licence upgrade then took a while• Meanwhile the hardware was purchased and

installed• Stephen is busy encoding all the videos• Should have material on the system by the

start of term, and it will be updated as the academic year progresses

• Gather student feedback in 2010/11

Home

How to use this video collection 3 min

Browse this video collection by: Module Animal behaviour Animal species Documentary series Companion Animal House Animal

BehaviourVideoCollection

Home Module

Adaptive Biology Applied Animal Behaviour Behavioural Methodology Companion Animal Management Introduction to Behaviour and Welfare Principles of Animal Behaviour

AnimalBehaviourVideoCollection

Home Module Adaptive Biology

AnimalBehaviourVideoCollection

Session 2: Galapagos tortoises 2 min

Session 2: Galapagos documentary 58 min

Session 3: ‘Darwin’s Beetle’ 4 min

Session 3: ‘1860 Evolution debate’ 3 min

Session 3: ‘Did Darwin Kill God?’ 5 min

Session 5: Human evolution documentary 57 min

Sessions 6-25