Posts by: robhowe
Online workshop: Introduction to Effective Distance Learning – Monday 11 April
by Helen Walmsley – Thursday, 17 March 2011, 04:04 PM
Online workshop: Introduction to Effective Online Distance Learning
Monday 11 April 09:00am – 17:00pm (BST) See your time here
Are you planning or reviewing your online distance learning provision? Would you like to explore ways of planning and designing the learning to save time, engage your students and be more effective? Would you like to reflect on a range of varied case studies and discuss them with other distance learning designers and tutors? There will also be chance to explore VLEs, social media tools, mobile technologies and test them out. This one-day workshop will include 3 sessions:
- Introduction to Online Distance Learning – models and issues
- Distance Learning case studies – a variety to explore, compare and review
- Tools for Distance Learning – delivery, communication, assessment and collaboration tools
Each session will be delivered with a combination of live web-conferences, forum discussions, group tasks and experimentation.
This workshop is aimed at practitioners new to, or with limited experience of delivering distance learning online. There will be an e-buddy system and plenty of support over the day. The facilitators are experienced designers and deliverers of distance learning.
If you would like to book a place, please email Gill Marino ldiadmin@staffs.ac.uk. The fee is £50 (free places available for staff and SURF associates)
Open Educational Resources 2011 (OER11)
Manchester Conference Centre
11 – 13 May 2011
http://www.ucel.ac.uk/oer11/
* * * Early bird bookings close Friday 25 March 2011* * *
OER11 takes place at the Manchester Conference Centre, in central
Manchester. Building on the success of OER10, the programme will consist
of a stimulating and engaging mix of over 70 refereed papers, workshops,
symposiums and demos all exploring and reflecting on the impact of OER on
HE within the conference themes.
Confirmed keynote speakers are: Martin Hall, Vice-Chancellor, University
of Salford; Diana Laurillard, Professor of Learning, London Knowledge Lab,
Institute of Education; and Bob Strunz, Chief Technical Architect, Irish
National Digital Learning Resources service.
Gordon Joyes and Angela Smallwood from University of Nottingham will be leading a discussion on the JISC funded e-portfolio implementation (ePI) study within the E-Portfolio Community of Practice in Cloudworks http://cloudworks.ac.uk/cloudscape/view/2201 on the 5th and 6th April.
All those who have an interest in e-portfolio implementation are encouraged to visit and contribute in Cloudworks during the 2 days. We will explore four key questions in relation to e-portfolio engagement within institutions that have arisen from the ePI study of large scale e-portfolio implementations. These are:
1. Why should we expect practitioners and their institutions to engage with e-portfolios?
2. Why is e-portfolio implementation not straightforward and why is it different to VLE implementation?
3. What are the key factors for success for practitioners and for large-scale engagement with e-portfolios within an institution?
4. How can the support of senior managers be gained?
Report on L&T experts group meeting 23rd March 2011 (#jiscexperts11)
Attended by Rob Howe
The main aims of the day were:
- To update the group on the findings from the Supporting Learners in a Digital Age (SLiDA) study
- To update and consult with the Experts on emerging findings from the Lifelong Learning and Workforce development programme
- To update and consult with the Experts on emerging findings from the e-Portfolio Implementations Study
Rhona Sharpe presented on the SLiDA project and interim findings. A number of breakout sessions allowed members to explore some key themes in more depth. I attended the session on ‘strategic emphasis on course design for blended learning.’ The group noted the importance of the correct departmental setup and good promotion of this. Robust technology should be available and staff need to be competent in its use — staff digital competence may need to be addressed (noted that there may be subject differences in enthusiasm and adoption). The use of the CAIeRO process at Northampton does help address a number of the previously mentioned issues. Case studies were noted as valuable but often difficult to obtain. Example from Winchester at wblb.wordpress.com
The group indicated that induction should not be an option and it does impact on retention.
Rhona concluded by indicating that the next digital literacy workshops are now advertised.
The next main block covered how technology is supporting lifelong learning and workforce development. Two points noted in the introduction were the need for flexible institutional policies and a policy on information sharing. Xcri was mentioned several times as a standard for sharing course information between sites. Other potential sites useful to follow up were the maturity toolkit and the Pineapple project. (Apel processes). The projects represented were:
- Workforce engagement in lifelong learning -maturity toolkit3 , Peter Chatterton, University of Bradford
- Partnership investigations into accredited prior/previous learning4, Neil Witt, University of Plymouth
- Middlesex University skills & education planning tool5 , George Dafoulas, Middlesex University
- e-Portfolio based pedagogy for SMEs6, Alison Felce, University of Wolverhampton
- Technology enhanced learning to support a welsh centre for workforce development and Building Capacity project7 , Loretta Newman-Ford, University of Wales Institute, Cardiff (UWIC)
- Culture Campus Liverpool Portal8, Trish Lunt, University of Liverpool
A detailed discussion on the e-portfolio implementation study followed. This raised a number of questions which may be of use for Northampton’s own strategy within this area.
The final 3 sessions covered :
Circuit Warz – virtual worlds within Moodle
Aston’s development of a CMS similar to BITE
Concept linkage through C-link. This is a search and concept map builder which searches for links between two concepts and builds a map of the relationship. This tool could have potential use within a number of subject areas at Northampton.
Other points of note during the day:
The Jisc on air radio show – JISC’s L:earning and Teaching Radio show
Poss future call for digital literacy development site wide
Do you have a passion for mobile learning?
Come and join educators from across the county to raise awareness, share practice and build a community
Educators at all levels are taking advantage of the increasing ubiquity and capabilities of mobile devices and the opportunities they can create for student engagement and flexible, personalised and contextual learning. Devices like smartphones, tablets and handheld video cameras are being used in creative ways to open up the classroom and lecture theatre, as well as enabling staff development and research.
The Northants Mobile Conference is being hosted by the University, in partnership with Northampton College, MoleNET and the Northants Better Learning using Technologies (BLT) network. The event will include contributions from staff implementing mobile learning at all levels, from primary to higher education. If you have experience of using mobile technology for learning and teaching and you’d like to share your ideas, let us know on the sign-up form.
- When: 26 May 2011, 2-6 pm
- Where: The University of Northampton, Boughton Green Road
The E4L Project (e-Learning for Learners) gathered a series of themed and categorised video clips of learners talking about their experiences of using technology when they learn.
The case studies represent learners from adult and community learning, further and higher education undertaking a variety of different courses from various subjects. These clips last anything from 20 seconds to 3 minutes and provide short, sharp and sweet experiences and opinions from the learners that can be used educate and inspire other learners, tutors, developers, management, etc. For each of the clips there is the opportunity to leave comments and reflections and read those left by others.
The TIGER project (Transforming Interprofessional Groups through Educational Resources) will innovate by collecting, developing and sharing reusable, customisable Open Educational Resources (OERs) designed for Interprofessional Education (IPE) in Health and Social Care between the three institutions, academics, their existing communities of practice, employers and the wider community in line with expressed sector requirements.
Keep up to date with TIGER by following the blog at : http://tigeroer.wordpress.com
The Learning Future Festival will be taking place from the 13-15 April. This will be a 48 hour non-stop conference over three time zones. The TIGER project will be contributing on Thursday 14th April.
You may or may not be aware that there were issues with pasting text directly from Microsoft Word into text areas within NILE (including Announcements, and Items). Generally most formatting and font sizes were transferred over incorrectly, resulting in your content looking messy.
You can now paste directly from Word using the MashUp feature within any text editor in NILE!
Rather than using the usual button from the tool bar to paste text, click on the MashUps button and select ‘Paste from Word’.
On the next screen press Ctrl + V on your keyboard to paste the text. You may still need to adjust line spacing, but font sizes and types will be consistent throughout the text.
Click ‘Submit’ once you are happy with the text. You can then choose all the usual options for the Announcement or Item and Submit that too.
There have also been issues with embedding YouTube clips into your modules on NILE. These have now been resolved: the procedure has not changed. If you think this would be useful and want to know how, have a look at the Embedding External Content into NILE guide.
