This case study looks at the recent use of the Turnitin tool within an Occupational Therapy course.
16th June (Association for Learning)
A day of presentation from institutions sharing their experiences in trialling and rolling out Lecture Capture projects. Invaluable lessons learnt and offers of shared best practice from high profile Universities:
- JISC funded project “ELTAC” – Support for Lecture Capture http://cuba.coventry.ac.uk/lecturecapture
- Legal Issues (plus general lecture capture support) – material made available from University of Sheffield http://www.shef.ac.uk/cics/myecho
- Example of an Institute that has embraced lecture capture (their aim is to make science available to others especially developing countries) http://ictp.tv/ This institute uses a freely available webcast technology running on Linux Ubuntu – further details from web site – http://www.openeya.org/
- ViTAL – Video in Education http://vital-sig.ning.com/
- Media Enhanced Learning (MELSIG) http://melsig.com/
Contact Rob Davis – Learning Technologist for more details (01604 893531 rob.davis@northampton.ac.uk)
Rob, Julie and Adel were lucky enough to go to Amsterdam to have a tour of the Blackboard (the product underpinning NILE) offices and data centre where our servers are housed.
The trip involved a morning of meetings with Blackboard staff and representatives from Bath Spa, and Birmingham University at the the Blackboard offices which are based near Dam Square the in the heart of Amsterdam. Jan-Willem Van der Zalm (Director EMEA, Managed Hosting at Blackboard) lead the discussion where we talked about the service they provide and where their roadmap will be taking the service in the future.
The meeting confirmed many of the reasons why we pay Blackboard to provide this service. It includes everything from systems monitoring, security and backups to front line support, project planning, and handling of upgrades. With all of this handled by Blackboards team of experts, and service level agreements in place guaranteeing 99.9% uptime, we can concentrate on supporting staff and students in using technology to enhance their teaching and learning practice.
The Blackboard servers are housed in an Equinix Data Centre where the security just to get in was like something out of ’24’, requiring passports, pre-booking and a registered user whose finger prints are recorded. We had a tour of the facility including a room containing 5 generators which can keep power going into the centre for 51 hours without needing a fuel top up. The Data Centre is a sophisticated building with millions being invested in the continued maintenance, security provision and safety of the equipment and data held within its walls.
We finished the tour by going into the Blackboard ‘cage’. Some of the Blackboard servers are run from this relatively new area where there is a lot of space available for expansion. There are other Data Centres containing Blackboard servers in Virginia, USA and Sydney, Australia. The Blackboard Data Centre/Infrastructure engineer gave us an enthusiastic overview of the set up within the cage demonstrating the physical structure of an otherwise virtual system.
The whole visit gave us a clearer understanding and appreciation of the work that goes on behind the scenes to support and maintain NILE. Pretty good value as far as we’re concerned.
Since NILE was formally established in 2002, the system has developed organically based on staff and student feedback. To date NILE has not been linked with other institutional systems, and this has sometimes caused confusion both at module and user level – modules listed on this system often did not have the same name or code as that held elsewhere within the University, and passwords and email addresses used for NILE have not been consistent with those used for other systems. The Learning Technology team have been monitoring these issues, and QNIG (QLS / NILE Integration Group) was set up to address them, and starting this summer, a programme of improvements will begin.
Feedback received
A number of comments have been received based around the following points:
- Some users have reported issues with logging into NILE because their password is different to that used on other systems.
- Some users have reported that they have not received communications being sent out by NILE via email, because of a mismatch in email address. Some users also report that they have received information from courses and modules which they are no longer taking, because they are not automatically removed from NILE sites.
- Students often have problems finding their correct modules on NILE, as the site may not have the name they were expecting or is listed inside another course site. Students appreciate being added in advance to the sites they need on NILE, so that they don’t need to search for them, but for staff, adding students to sites can be a long task.
- Staff sometimes need sites at the field or course level rather than just at the module level, and sometimes sites which do not fit with any of the course, field or module descriptions (for example: a site for particular project activity).
- Students are currently removed from NILE sites each year which means that they will lose access to previously used materials unless they are separately saved. Again, the process of removing students from sites is time consuming for staff.
- Staff would like to make better use of the information held in the Grade Centre in NILE, as some of this contains information which also needs to be located on the student record system.
Future Planning
As a result of the feedback above, a number of actions are now being taken forward in a phased process:
Phase 1 (2 / 3 August 2011)
The usernames, passwords and email addresses held in NILE will be linked to the central identity management system. When a user changes their centrally held password or email address then this will be automatically updated on NILE.
Phase 2 (piloting Jun – Dec 2011)
New sites on NILE will be named with a specific ID which matches exactly with that held on the student record system. The ID will define the module, field or course; the cohort (e.g. Autumn, Spring or Summer); and the year of activity.
Any requested site which is not specifically related to a module, field or course will be set up on an ad hoc basis by the Learning Technology team, and normally listed under the Organisation section of NILE rather than within the Module tab.
Once the pilot is complete and any issues have been addressed, this will be rolled out for all NILE sites. Existing course and module sites will be recreated with new codes, and sites not related to taught courses or modules will be moved to organisations. Once this is done we should be able to proceed to automatically enrol students onto the course and module sites they need.
The specific setup of the sites will also mean that a new site will be created for each different cohort and each new year. The implications for this on storage are currently being assessed but this should mean that students could have access to previously taken modules and courses. The setup of new sites will mean that there is no need for staff to manage site enrolments, and communication to specific cohorts will be easier.
Phase 3 (2012 onwards)
Pilots will be undertaken to look at how Grade Centre data from NILE may be passed directly into the student record system. This will potentially speed up student access to grades and reduce administration.
Further Information
If you have any comments or questions on the above then please email Rob.Howe@northampton.ac.uk
What is it? Well, it’s not a county-sized bacon sandwich…
If you haven’t already heard of it, BLT actually stands for Better Learning using Technologies, a ‘grass-roots’ network of teachers and educators from the county, focusing on how technology can enhance learning. They’re an inspirational group of individuals, mostly from the schools sector, who freely share their ideas and practice, with a view to identifying successful ‘pockets’ of innovation in teaching and learning and helping to make them part of common practice.
Green screen filming setup at the REAL centre
The group report regularly on projects and case studies – if you’re interested in knowing more about what they and their kids are doing with technology, check out the blogs (which are all collected on the website), twitter (search #NorthantsBLT) or attend one of the group meetings (think TeachMeet but with a specific technology slant).
I attended one of these meetings on Tuesday, held at the RM REAL Centre (Rethinking Education and Learning). The Centre has lots of examples of technology that can be used in schools, and really gave me an insight into the kinds of technologies kids will already be using, often as a matter of course, long before they arrive at university.
Creating animation using webcams and software
Imagine your kids using green screen filming to report ‘on location’, at the Houses of Parliament or the top of a volcano; using an iPod Touch to answer multiple choice questions in class, or to go out and take pictures which can be instantly shared on the whiteboard; using drag-and-drop software to program robots to perform tasks, or simple webcams to create animations…
The day was a lot of fun (as I’m sure you can imagine!) but it wasn’t just about play – this kit can help kids get to grips with the concepts or skills they need, and the NorthantsBLT network is busy making that happen.
Sign up for the following session at www.northampton.ac.uk/it-training
- Creating Large documents
- Remote Working
- Refworks
- PowerPoint
Join the Learning Technology Team on the 7th July for a showcase event where staff will be talking about their experiences with using technology in their teaching.
Sign up at: http://www.eventbrite.com/event/1759108541
The Learning Technology team have successfully supported a live radio streaming event for The School of the Arts at the University.
Richard Hollingum (Principal Lecturer – Arts – Media, English & Culture) created a unique opportunity for students to broadcast a live radio programe from The School of the Arts Radio Broadcasting suite at Avenue Campus.
The broadcast was routed through the Helix Streaming Server at the University and was subsequently made available to the World Wide Web via an embedded link to a “Real” player within the School of the Arts University web page.
The broadcast period lasted three days (8th – 10th June 2011).
Further details can be obtained from Rob Davis – Learning Technologist – 01604 893531)
The Learning Technology team have successfully supported the Northampton Busines School lecturers KathyMortimer and Sally Laurie in Skyping into a Marketing conference in Australia alongside a team from the USA.
Kathy and Sally have facilited a team of marketing students to present to a Marketing Conference in Australia via a Skype link which also allowed a student team from a University in the USA to also present. The event meant a late start as the time difference in Australia resulted in the Northampton team presenting at 01.00am in the morning!
All went well, with only the occassional connection drop-out with Skype. The event was held in the Avenue CTC room (Creative Teaching Centre) which allowed for dedicated large screen visual and enhanced audio provision to make the students feel like they were really at the Conference in Australia. “…..a great experience that went well. Our student did a great job.” -( Sally Laurie)
For further information contact Rob Davis – Learning Technologist 01604 893531
Kirsty Mason used the Flipcams during a simulated Child Protection conference, which had a big positive impact on the students and the tutors. Read more by following the link.]
