by Lesley Brook

Head for heights

Video-based learning can help students acquire skills so they can move more quickly into practical work.

In our Outdoor and Adventure Education programme students learn rock climbing. There is a strong science component because of the number of forces at play to keep climbers safe at height. Safety is particularly important due to the real risk of catastrophic accident or death if skills are missing or misapplied. Video resources can help to demonstrate correct systems and knots. Such resources can be accessed by learners at a time and pace that suits them, and their learning then cemented in class time.

Stefan Austin has been researching the connection between student pre-class learning and the practical skill implementation of rock climbing systems and the student perspective. Stefan is one of the Lecturers based at our Central Otago campus. He interviewed students to explore their perspectives on the effectiveness of using Video Based Learning to develop rock climbing concepts before practical teaching sessions. Three themes emerged, concept development, reinforced learning, and motivation.

This research has identified that videos for pre-class learning is an extremely powerful teaching and learning tool that is well received by learners and improves their knowledge cognition and skill acquisition. The use of Video Based Learning gives learners the required skills against their course outline and assessments but also gives them confidence as students to learn and expand new skill sets and take positivity into their everyday lives.