Posts by: epalmer
In this video James talks through the ways that he has changed his use of NILE to make learning more interactive and to ensure students are better prepared for class.
In this video Sylvie talks about how she has been changing the delivery of academic skills to develop the the level of integration between generic academic skills and subject specific skills. In addition, she explains the process of integrating blended approaches into CfAP’s (Centre for Achievement and Performance) delivery.
In this video Tanya and Claire talk about their work developing e-tivities for their education students in order to provide a pre-sessional activity and inter-sessional activity and a post-sessional activity for students. They share the strengths of the approach including flexibility and accessibility for the students, sharing of staff expertise and the things they have learnt about best practice.
I used to teach Contextual Studies at the Carmarthenshire School of the Arts. I found a fairly simple way to utilise TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) through working with Pinterest* as a 21st century equivalent of a visual diary/reflective journal/ sketchbook. In a Level 4 Visual and Material Culture module for Contextual Studies I teamed up with the tutors leading practical modules to create a joint task. Each tutor (theoretical and practical) set up a Pinterest account that demonstrated their aesthetic interests.
Stage one of the tasks was that students reviewed staff sites in order to identify contemporary trends and to evaluate the components of each staff member’s aesthetic (formal elements such as colour palette and conceptual concerns).
Stage two was to create their own boards relating to their own concerns and at least two elements from the lecture programme. The title function on the image can be used to capture short, critical and reflective writing on their selections.
Throughout the module students were expected to share pins and form a ‘visual dialogue’ with each other. They also had to write a short reflection on the development of their aesthetic across the term. The boards, pins, notes, visual dialogue and reflective account then became part of their assessment at the end of the module*1
What is nice about Pinterest is that you can Pin any 2D or moving image so I have also used this in an education context because you can create snapshots of texts, review books, share video case studies etc and comment on them.
*Please note that Pinterest is not a University supported tool and so no targetted staff development training is available. However, it has an extremely user friendly interface and is easy to self-teach.
*1 Due to the fact that Pinterest is an external provider you cannot put students in a position where they would be disadvantaged if they did not use it. My way round this was to allow alternative modes of responding to the task (e.g. the more traditional sketchbook or reflective journal)
Undergraduates on the Film and Screen Studies degree course are now enjoying seminars and screenings at the Errol Flynn Filmhouse, in Northampton, allowing them to see movies as directors intended – on the giant screen.
“This is an exciting opportunity for students, enabling them to study films within the environment of their reception, while also providing them with an invaluable insight into industry practices,” said Dr Michael Starr, Lecturer in Film and Screen Studies.
Watch the film here: Errol Flynn Cinema screenings for UN students as part of Film and Screen Studies Lectures
Source: University of Northampton. 2015. University of Northampton students get their lecture kicks at the flicks. [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.northampton.ac.uk/news/university-of-northampton-students-get-their-lecture-kicks-at-the-flicks. [Accessed 30 November 15].
[Posted on behalf of Elizabeth Palmer]
When starting to make online activities for blended learning there is a temptation to take content that is currently being delivered face-to-face in lectures (through software such as Powerpoint) and moving that content into an online format where the students are ‘digitally page turning’ through material: read or watch x, y and z before class.
The learning and teaching plan for blended learning is that we are creating interactive activities that support students towards developing their own knowledge, understanding and creating outputs that can then be used in class. In other words we are trying to flip the focus away from tutor created content that the student must passively absorb, to student-led interactive and created content.
Any content provided to students should be done in an interactive, discovery based way i.e. rather than telling them the answer we allow them to discover the answer through questioning, testing, trialling, problem solving etc. online and then reinforce and develop this face to face. If you are trying out e-tivities for the first time Xerte can be a useful package to start this process. Have a look at these two examples of using Xerte to make interactive activities on academic skills: here and here. Whilst they are not necessarily perfect, they demonstrate how you can use Xerte’s functionality to create knowledge checking, interactive exercises that you could then build on in class or use as a basis for students to undertake a more complex task.
The following presentation by Dr. Rachel Maunder entitled “Watering down Waterside” provides a summary of a similar presentation delivered at the School of Social Sciences Learning and Teaching event in February 2016.
Incorporating the Institute of Learning and Teaching’s (ILT) Direction of Travel video, the presentation provides advice and strategies for programme teams when thinking about the design of their modules and programmes for delivery now, and in preparation for Waterside, linking the use of NILE and the NILE benchmarks, describing blended learning and flipped learning approaches (with examples such as the module PSY1006 – Becoming a Psychologist), and introducing elements of the CAIeRO process.
