Sarah (second from right) with the Champions group in Melbourne
From dozens of applications from interested people across New Zealand and Australia, Sarah Kirk has been selected as one of 12 Champions of the Echo360 learning platform. It’s a big win for Unitec – Sarah was one of only two Champions selected from New Zealand tertiary institutions, and will share her expertise with our teachers, to help them to use this exciting platform.
Sarah, Academic Advisor E-Learning, has been supporting teachers with Echo360 for the past couple of years. The grant and extra training she’s received allows her to provide further support and work alongside teachers to get the most out of the platform. She’s currently working with teachers in Nursing, Environmental Animal Health Sciences and Business.
So what is Echo360?
It’s a learning platform that combines three components:
- Capturing video and audio of a lecture so students can view it later
- The use of videos recorded in class or from external sources that are managed in the system, for use during or after a lecture
- Active learning such as polls, rankings and other activities to engage students and receive immediate feedback and analytics
Sarah at the Echo360 workshop in Melbourne
Sarah says there are so many great aspects to Echo360 but her personal favourites are that students can use it to anonymously ask questions during class and that the poll-type questions are incredibly versatile. The polls allow teachers an accurate view of every single student on a particular question rather than just those confident enough to answer in class.
“Instead of asking students if they understand, you actually know if they do or not. It is a fantastic tool for surfacing misconceptions” said Sarah.
A workshop of champions
Sarah recently attended an Echo360 Champions workshop in Melbourne. With the broad mix of people involved, Sarah gained a lot from everyone’s thinking and perspectives. She’ll attend a monthly online meeting with the Champions, to share ideas and knowledge and support each other.
If you want to know more about Echo360, contact the expert: Sarah Kirk!
Woooohoooo, big congratulations Sarah!
Fantastic recognition, well done Sarah (that’s a good photo of your fine whiteboard technique as well!)
That is fantastic, well done! Echo360 is a valuable tool for our students with impairments and this is one aspect Sarah has been championing on behalf of Access4Success and our students. Congratulations Sarah!
Awesome news Sarah and well deserved recognition for your amazing work!
What they said!! Wonderful recognition – you are awesome!
Already knew you were a champion Sarah, congratulations.
Well done Sarah! Awesome stuff.
Nice work and congratulations!
Congrats Sarah!
Well deserved, Sarah!
Congratulations Sarah. This is brilliant! It will be so useful
Amazing news Sarah- very well done! Am I surprised? Not at all, you are awesome 🙂
Fantastic work from you Sarah! It is a great group to be involved in and I know they are learning as much from you as you are from them!
What a fantastic selection that was! Sarah’s enthusiasm and passion for Digital Learning and developing it to best meet our students’ needs is truly infectious. Can’t wait to do work with you more on this!!