Live, interactive fieldcasts: How flexible and robust is our technology and teaching design to multiple changes?

For the last four years, second level Environmental Science (S206/SXF206) students have participated in a one-week field investigation undertaken by three lecturers at an ecology field site on the OU campus, using the KMi developed platform Stadium Live. This involves two field broadcasts and one lab broadcast lasting around 30 minutes each. During the ‘fieldcasts’ students use the widgets to identify potential things to investigate; select the form of investigation, hypothesis, sampling method and analysis method; and decide the interpretation of the results. The aims of the fieldcast activity are to model the scientific method applied in the context of field investigations, to introduce students (and widen access) to practical fieldwork and demonstrate the practical application of environmental science. Over the four years, the fieldcasts have been subjected to several changes: they have become a compulsory part of the module, the broadcast date has moved from mid spring to late winter, the site has changed, the presenters have changed, and technology has developed. In this presentation we will discuss how these changes have affected the production process, staff and student experiences, and the robustness, flexibility and accessibility of the technology and teaching design.