March 4, 2024, by Ben Atkinson

An Introduction to Engage

The Engage Platform, delivered by Echo360, contributes to active learning within the University. Not only does it make audio and visual recordings of teaching sessions, it also offers engagement tools, learning analytics and the ability to live stream.
Engage does much more than just record lectures.

There are several good reasons for using Engage. One of the main motivations is inclusivity. For students, who for whatever reason (disability, absence through illness, non-native English speaker) are unable either to attend or to take full advantage of live teaching sessions, the opportunity to view recordings online, free from time and space constraints, provides exposure to content that might otherwise be missed.

One of the most often cited advantages for students is the opportunity to use recordings to go back over concepts addressed in lectures or to prepare for exams and/or coursework assignments.

Importantly, the accompanying tools can be used for more active forms of learning. Quizzes and polls, for example, can be used to trigger reflection or to check student understanding of key concepts.

How does Engage work?

Module sites on Moodle come equipped with a folder on Engage which can be used to upload video resources or record live teaching sessions. These videos then appear directly inside your module, either in the Engage folder or as a direct link class link.

Here are some of the things you can achieve using Engage (Echo360):

• Staff can access Engage in all centrally managed teaching rooms (use the Echo360 icon) which can also be installed on desktop computers or laptops
• Record your lecture audio and visuals either in a teaching room, your office or from home
• Live stream your lectures from whichever location you are comfortable teaching from
• Add interactivity into your presentations for use in your recording or live stream
• Post live questions whilst teaching or onto the recording afterwards to encourage student conversation around the materials
• Create interactive videos using quizzes and polls in pre-recorded videos
• Edit videos into chunks or remove unwanted sections for use as new teaching materials

Find out more about Engage (Echo360)

There are lots of resources available to support staff with their use of Engage (Echo360) including the main SharePoint site and Moodle training modules for both staff and students. If you’d like to hear more from the team at Echo360 check out the echocast in conversation videos on our SharePoint site.

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