intouch the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands
Spring 2009 Volume 7: Issue 2
Contents 1 2 2 2 3 3 4 4
e-learning in new Ofsted handbook The Ofsted Handbook for inspecting colleges was updated in September 2008 to incorporate guidance on the Framework for Excellence. Whilst references to the use of technology have been made in previous versions of the handbook there is now more explicit guidance on what inspectors will expect to see. In sections 257 and 258, headed E-learning, a clear explanation is given as to what is understood by the term e-learning, namely “learning facilitated and supported through the use of technology.” It gives specific examples of what the learning may involve including the use of technologies such as discussion boards, digital cameras, interactive whiteboards and video conferencing. Such a clear definition dispels the ‘myth’ that e-learning can relate in the classroom to simply using a PowerPoint presentation and projector. It is now a much more inclusive use of the technologies that are currently available. The handbook goes on to explain that “e-learning should form part of the overall teaching and learning strategy for courses” and that “there should be appropriate references to e-learning in schemes of work, lesson plans, assignments, course reviews and staff development plans.” It clearly sets out the responsibility of all those involved in the planning and delivering teaching and learning to consider the use of e-learning to
enhance delivery by improving understanding and “skills and knowledge of the technology” to enrich learning and maintain learner interest. It states that inspectors will use a number of criteria to make judgements including the adequacy of resources, the monitoring of the quality and effectiveness of e-learning and points to the expectation that learners will have opportunities “to use e-learning facilities outside scheduled lessons.” This is the explicit reference to e-learning; however there are many other references to the use of technology throughout the handbook. Inspectors will make judgements on teaching, learning and assessment and make graded comments as they have done previously. However included in these will be references on how well learning resources, such as technology, are used by teaching/training staff as well as the learners.
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e-learning and inspection Regional News Future gazing e-fair 2009 update Embedding mobile learning What is an eeePC? The mobile classroom What’s it like for the learner? Best practice around the UK Resource Corner Hints & Tips Communications overview Focus On: Moodle Review Service JISC news Gaining Informational Skills Survey prize winner
Embedding e-learning In this issue of intouch we have several articles that look at how you embed e-learning across your organisation. Learners and staff need the right skills, appropriate uses of new technologies need to be applied and you need to be ready for what’s on the horizon. The way in which you’ll be inspected now explicitly references e-learning, so there’s more incentive then ever to look to see if you’ve successfully embedded it.
What is also clear from the revised document is that inspectors will expect to see that there is an overall strategy for e-learning which is supported by the learning provider’s senior managers. If you are keen to find out more about e-learning and inspection then why not attend the RSC-organised event on the 9th February in Nottingham. More details available on www.rsc-em.ac.uk
Stimulating and supporting innovation in learning
Regional News Featuring the latest news on e-learning around the region from the Learning Providers that the East Midlands RSC supports.
More mobile learning success A consortium of East Midlands colleges has been awarded project funding of approximately £250,000 as part of the second round of MoleNet, the mobile learning development programme managed by the Learning and Skills Network (LSN). Moulton College, Northampton College and Tresham Institute submitted a successful bid to look at “Open Access Key Skills”. The project will explore the delivery and support of Key/Functional skills using mobile technology, focussing on Skills for Life and ESOL. 14-19 and NEET (Not in Education, Employment or Training) learners will also be involved.
Crystal ball time It’s our job in the RSC to keep up to date with technology – but we are from time to time asked to foresee the future, which is a bit more of a challenge! We have run a number of workshops on what learning will be like in five years time and in November Gordon Millner, Advisor for Technical Infrastructure, contributed a picture of technology beyond 2015 to the West Nottinghamshire College Management Conference on environmental scanning. Tim Grant, Deputy Principal, thanked Gordon for his “excellent contribution.” Whilst he was in stargazing mode, Gordon made a note of some technologies which may not be so far away. What is their potential as learning tools? How about: • Your fridge – automatically monitoring contents use and re-ordering; checking use-by dates? • Your bathroom mirror being interactive; checking your diary; telling you your appointments for the day?
Project outputs are due to be reported in September 2009 and the RSC will be helping with the dissemination of these, as well as providing support for the project where required. This is a significant project for the region and we would like to congratulate the project team on their success in securing funding. Andrew Bailey, Learning Technologies Manager and MoleNet Project Manager at Moulton College, expressed his delight that they were “leading on this innovative study into the use of mobile technology in Further Education. We are looking forward to exploring how mobile access will impact on our learners’ experience.” For more information on MoleNet, including access to Mobile Learning advice and resources, visit the MoleNet website www.molenet.org.uk.
EMFEC to host Reflect event The introduction of Reflect, the Institute for Learning’s (IfL’s) on-line CPD recording tool, poses a problem for staff development managers – how does it relate to existing ways of recording and evaluating staff development activities? Does it inevitably cause duplication? Do you need two systems? Can they be complementary? The RSC is supporting the EMFEC Staff Development Conference on Wednesday 4th February where the use of Reflect will be a major theme for the day. Michelle Jennings will contribute an IfL perspective and it’s a good chance to find out what other regional providers are doing. For more information go to www.emfec.co.uk 2
• A PC as small as a mobile phone that just docks into a wall-mounted Touch Screen? • “Minority Report” surfaces? • LED wallpaper signage – can adapt as the space changes its purpose; can guide visitors; and give audio/visual cues for the disabled?
• Flexible large LCD touch screens and “curtains” curving around walls – for signage; learning space interaction; or advertising? • Bluetooth sensors that detect nearby mobile phones and provide greetings, messages, assignment deadlines, adverts dependant on whose phone it is? • A combined PC and projector that’s as small as a pen? • Web 4.0 providing the “learning web”, able to make decisions and learn from all the different sensors that will be connected to the Web?
e-fair 2009 news The main event in the RSC calendar is the e-fair, which will take place at The Walkers Stadium in Leicester for the second year running on Tuesday 23rd June. There will be the usual wealth of content in relation to e-learning and the event is free to all supported learning providers. We’re pleased to announce that Chris Batt OBE will be delivering the keynote presentation, looking at the strategic vision for the future and what part technology will play in it. Chris was formerly the Chief Executive of the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council and was awarded the Sunday Times Internet Guru of the Year in 2003. The event will feature a series of workshops, mini-presentations, a try-itfor-yourself zone and a general exhibition area. The themed area for this year will be looking at Accessibility and Inclusion.
Bookings for the e-fair will open via the RSC website at www.rsc-em.ac.uk on the 23rd April on a first-come, firstserved basis.
Embedding mobile learning into the ACL sector During the summer of last year RSC East Midlands purchased a set of ultra-mobile laptops to distribute on long-term loan to the Adult and Community Learning (ACL) sector. Representatives from providers across the region met with RSC staff for a handover session and introduction to the kit at the end of September. Each provider chose a recipient from the most appropriate area of their service, with the exception of one authority which decided to run a competition for its staff. The entry with the most innovative idea was chosen to use the laptop. Providers are expected to report back on the use of the technology and a forum
and wiki have been set up on the RSC Moodle for this purpose. To date the laptops have been used to: record student progress using photographic evidence; demonstrate sports techniques using video (a great hit with students); completion of electronic Information, Advice & Guidance (IAG) documents in clients’ homes. The project will run until the summer of 2009 when a summary of users’ experiences will be produced.
What is an ASUS eeePC? The eeePC is an ultra-mobile laptop. The ASUS 900 model is one of a range weighing less than 1 kg with a 23 cm screen. It comes with the Linux operating system but can have Windows XP installed as an alternative. It has a 1.3M pixels inbuilt webcam, an SD/MMC card slot and microphone and headphone ports. Applications installed include: MS Works, Moviemaker, Acrobat Reader 8, Skype, MS Media Player and IE v6. MS Office does not come as standard, although, there is PowerPoint viewer.
The eeePC in action The new devices have helped Nottinghamshire County Council’s Adult and Community Learning Service (ACLS) working in partnership with North Nottinghamshire College (NNC), incorporate Information Learning Technology into settings where it has often been lacking historically. Melanie Hancock, Community Manager at NNC has been using the eeePC in a number of different ways, both in and out of the classroom.
The ultra-mobile ASUS eeePC can be used in lots of locations
The eeePC has a 4 GB Solid State Disk (SSD) making it a robust piece of kit with a fast boot up time. It is virtually shock proof and gives out very little noise.
• Preloading the eeePC with content such as images and film clips • Capturing images of the class during its duration • Capturing film during the class and playing it back for learners to see • Showing learners who missed a class what was done in previous weeks • Having resources and schemes of work easily available to the tutor Outside of the classroom, Melanie has been using the eeePC on-the-go for general purposes, for meetings and for events. For example in team meetings Melanie has been able to show other staff in her team how she has been using the device. This has generated discussion on how else it could be used and the team are constantly coming up with new ideas. Melanie has found several advantages with the device. “The size is great. I can even fit it into my handbag! I feel safer with the eeePC, as when you’re carrying a laptop everyone can see it – which can be worrying when you are out at remote locations in the evenings.
RSC Advisor, Kathryn Robinson (centre) with Alan Clark and Melanie Hancock seeing how the eeePC had been used in the classroom
“Also in the ACL sector there is little technical support when you’re out and about, so the simplicity of the device helps build confidence with staff.” Alan Clark at ACLS was so impressed by the progress made by Melanie and her team that he investigated getting more devices for other tutors. “The eeePC was sparking lots of ideas and everyone was wanting one, so in addition to the one device on loan we found a budget to purchase more from the service’s own money, as we could clearly see the impact they were having.” More details on how the device is being used are available via a case study on the Excellence Gateway at http://excellence.qia.org.uk.
Using a dongle, a USB plug-in to connect to the internet, allows use in any location without the need for wireless network access. However the laptop is Wi-Fi enabled and has an Ethernet port. As with many pieces of kit there are restrictions too. The keyboard is only 20.5 cm across compared with a standard one of about 28 cm. It should be used as a secondary device rather than for prolonged periods. Battery life is limited offering a maximum of 2 hours continued use and opening multiple browser tabs may affect performance.
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The ‘mobile classroom’ Bruce Sheeran from Care Training East Midlands recently used his experience from a previous career to develop an innovative approach to a long standing problem for work-based providers – namely how to provide tutors with the facilities and resources they would have ‘back at the ranch’.
What is it like for the learner? What do your learners think of the technology you use with them? Is it effective? How does the learner experience differ from what you think it is? What access to personal technology do they have? What can they access at home? Where could technology help learning?
Although you wouldn’t guess it, Bruce is a commercial airline pilot who, until a few years ago, flew regularly on long haul flights. In this role he became accustomed to carrying his world in a pilot bag. So when the challenge of how to best equip his tutors came up, the idea was born – if you can live out of a pilot bag, surely you can deliver training in the same way?
Contents of the Mobile Classroom
Bruce applied himself to the problem and began to source equipment that was both portable and small. He finished up with a laptop, data projector, e-beam (which creates an interactive whiteboard on any wall), printer, scanner, remote mouse and speakers – and they all fit into a standard pilot bag. The approximate cost of these is £2,000 to £2,500. The system has been field-tested by staff at Care Training and the response has been very positive. Bruce is now in the process of putting together additional sets.
A demonstration of the e-beam, which creates an interactive whiteboard on any wall.
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As part of our continuing development of new services, your RSC can now survey the experience of technology you offer your learners. We tailor the Survey to your needs, deliver it, analyse the data and report the findings with recommendations. The purpose of the Survey is to enable continued improvement. It reports on learner perceptions, which do not always reflect what is actually the case. However, learner perceptions also influence attitudes to learning and hence success and retention. The Survey has been piloted at South Nottingham College. Elaine Martin, in charge of Strategic Development: Teaching & Learning at the College, made a special point of getting back to the RSC to say, “We are so pleased. This is of massive value in enabling us to move forward and plan what to do.” In particular it was “the weight of informed, independent opinion brought by the JISC RSC that enabled the findings to be viewed with confidence”. As we at the RSC would expect, the Survey identified positive attitudes amongst the respondents to the use of technology as a learning tool. It also identified a number of definite opportunities for spreading practice valued by the learners in one area across the whole organisation.
The College has built on the Survey outcomes in a number of ways. The report has been used by both the Senior Management Team and the Excellence Team to inform action. Quotes are included in Self Assessment Reports, especially in relation to learner voice and entitlement. It provides evidence to strengthen – and to question – current plans. Elaine is considering repeating the Survey annually to give a measure of progress. As the RSC carries out more surveys in different learning providers, it will be possible to benchmark against other providers. The main mode of delivery of the questionnaire is on-line, but that would bias it against those learners who do not use technology, so the South Nottingham survey was available on paper too, with the data inputted by the College. Learner Responsiveness is one of the three key dimensions of the Framework for Excellence. The Learner Questionnaire gives information on one key element of the learner experience, complementary to the Learning & Skills Council (LSC) Learner Views Survey. If you are interested in this service, please get intouch.
Best practice around the UK In this edition of intouch our example of best practice follows the theme of embedding e-learning by showcasing one of the case studies on that topic from the Excellence Gateway website. Burnley College: The e-Star programme – shining bright for staff ILT training The challenge facing the College was to give far greater prominence to Information Learning Technology (ILT), which had previously been seen more as an add-on to teaching, so that it would become a key and integral part of teaching activity.
The outcomes Whilst all the training materials for the e-Star programme are available online for College staff through the Learning Platform, all the training is delivered faceto-face. Details of the training that has been undertaken are also tracked through a database.
They wanted to ensure that staff were upskilled/re-skilled to take full advantage of ILT but also to ensure that the emphasis on curriculum and improving teaching and learning remained. The activity Proposals went to the College’s ILT committee to ensure buy-in and support at a senior level but were also taken to staff for consultation. This included a proposal for some mandatory elements to the training to ensure that teaching staff met ILT skills competencies which were considered essential for providing quality teaching. To make the training relevant and meaningful to staff, their managers and the trainers, an audit for staff to measure their skills and competencies was developed, therefore enabling them to also see their ‘distance travelled’ having undertaken training. At same time, the ‘e-learning star’ was developed, a visual representation of the training programme to make it easier for staff to understand its various elements and the increasing levels of competency attached to these, and to give them something to ‘hang’ their ILT training on. The training is designed to move staff from a basic ILT competency through to the complexity of supporting and enabling their students in peer supported online interaction. Importantly the training is designed to not only provide staff with relevant ILT skills, but to also get them to consider the application of these in their particular teaching context.
Resource Corner New Multimedia Resource EDINA is a JISC-funded service that provides access to high quality online resources to support learning and teaching in UK further and higher education. It has recently launched a new service: NewsFilm Online, which is FREE to subscribers until July 2012.
NewsFilm Online is a collection of over 3,000 hours of television news and cinema newsreels taken from the ITN/Reuters archive, covering the years 1910-2007 and including significant historical events such as the Crystal Palace fire, the first interview with Nelson Mandela, and the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. In addition to the video clips, resources such as running orders and scripts, images, background on news footage, and learning and teaching tools are available. For more information on NewsFilm Online and how to subscribe, go to www.nfo.ac.uk/description
Creating Learning Resources Using Free Tools
The e-learning Star used for staff ILT training
Managers are encouraged to attend training sessions, not only because they have teaching responsibilities, but because it also gives them a better understanding of how their staff are developing and it helps them make more informed decisions about which elements of the e-Star programme are relevant for their staff. The impact The e-Star programme has become an embedded part of staff training within the College over the three years it has been running, with over 2,000 individual training opportunities delivered. The programme continues to develop, with new elements introduced, or made mandatory, as requirements have changed. We hope that this might give you some inspiration about how to embed e-learning in your organisation. Our thanks go to the Excellence Gateway website and RSC North West for allowing the reproduction of this case study. To view the full version of this case study and find links to other resources on this topic we recommend that you visit http://excellence.qia.org.uk.
RSC East Midlands recently ran a well-received workshop on Creating Learning Resources Using Free Tools. From the vast array of freely available software, we focussed on just 6 of the applications that are currently proving popular in education. Delegates found that all 6 of the packages covered were easy to use and had many possible applications. Interestingly, the simplest one, Snippy, proved one of the most popular.
Snippy is a very simple tool that enables you to draw round anything displayed on your screen. It copies whatever you have selected straight to the clipboard. You can then paste the image into documents and presentations. You can find out more about the different tools, including where to download them and how to use them, on our Learning Platform, Moodle at http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk – navigate to the relevant Events course. 5
Hints & Tips: Quick & Easy Video Video has many great uses in education, from producing engaging learning materials to capturing rich evidence of achievement. Until recently, however, the time and skills needed to produce and edit your own video has been a barrier to many. Another problem has been that video files can become very large – not ideal for use online. The recent arrival of cheap USB camcorders is changing this. Starting at around £30 each, these camcorders are robust, very simple to use and make transferring your recordings to a computer as easy as using a memory stick. Once transferred, your video clips can be edited using Windows Movie Maker or similar easy video editing software. The quality is not as good as a conventional camcorder but the file sizes produced are much smaller, so clips can be made available online more easily. RSC East Midlands have been using the Busbi/Disgo camcorder at recent video workshops where our learning providers have found them very easy to use and have been inspired to start using video in a range of interesting ways. • • • • • • • •
Evidence capture Assessment E-portfolio Group project work Skills demonstrations Video journal/diary Making more accessible resources Differentiating between preferred learning styles
For more information on working with video visit our Moodle site at http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk and look at the Quick & Easy Video Production resources. If you want to experience this first-hand, our Spring event is already fully booked but there are places available on the workshop on April 22nd in Leicester.
Delegates at the first Quick & Easy Video Production workshop finding out how easy it is to use USB camcorders
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In the know The RSC has several different ways of communicating with colleagues in the post-16 education and training sector. This is to raise awareness of the RSC and what we can offer you; to disseminate relevant information; and to encourage greater participation and collaboration in the region. Regional Forums & User Groups The RSC facilitates a series of these in the region as a way for people to share ideas with peers, build links to colleagues with similar roles in other providers, explore issues of common concern, keep up-to-date with developments in the field, and draw on the knowledge and expertise of the network. Each forum or user group has a different structure but they generally meet at least three times a year. Whilst we will continue to have face-to-face meetings we plan to hold some online versions using new technologies. Most of these forums/user groups have a dedicated email distribution list to support them. Forums are a great way to find out what’s happening in the region
Upcoming Forums: Accessibility and Inclusion 2nd February Adult and Community Learning (ACL) 20th February East Midlands Information Skills (EMIS) 26th February E-guides TBA Information Learning Technology (ILT) 31st March Heads of IT 29th January Learning Resources 26th February Moodle Users Group 27th March New Build 25th February SharePoint Summer term Specialist Colleges 2nd February Technical 10th March Work Based Learning (WBL) 20th February
JISC mailing lists We facilitate a series of email mailing lists in the region in order to encourage knowledge sharing within the academic community. To send messages (or posts) to the mailing list you must be a member of the list. Once you’ve become a member as well as receiving emails into your inbox, all the messages sent are available to view via the web at www.jiscmail.ac.uk and by logging into subscriber’s corner. These mailing lists are a good way to pose questions and get feedback from colleagues in other learning providers. RSC advisors will also send news, resources and requests to the lists. There are also e-newsletters or e-bulletins that are sent out on a monthly basis to some of these lists by RSC advisors. Details of the lists available are on our website. Website Our website at www.rsc-em.ac.uk is a good place to find out information about what’s happening in the RSC and as a channel to the various JISC services. There is also a news service, and in early 2009 this feature will be expanded and a new RSS feed made live.
Moodle There are various courses on our Moodle, http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk, as starting points to find out more about e-learning related topics. Our learning platform is also the place to find resources relating to the different events that we run and the forums that we facilitate. For some projects such as the eeePC project (featured on page 3) we use the forum function within Moodle as a communication tool. RSC Newsletter This edition of intouch is one of the three that we produce every year at the beginning of each academic term offering a mixture of news and features. It is available in both paper and electronic formats.
intouch the term ly newslet ter pro duced by RSC
East Mid lands
Autumn 2008
Volume 7: Issue
Content s
1 Bigg est e-fai r yet 2 Regi onal New 2 RSC s scores highly 2 Tech nical the regio support in n 3 WBL forum up and running 3 Build ing conn 3 Adul ections t learn ing goes mobile 4 Mole Net upda 4 e-lea te rning begin 5 Best s at home practice around 5 Reso the UK urce Corn 6 Hints er & 6 Using Tips mobile devices in e-po rtfolios 7 Focu s On: supp teacher ort for training 7 JISC News 8 Shar ing expe rtise 8 Need a hand in promoting e-learning 8 Top 10 mob ? ile internet sites
Biggest e-fair ye t
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Mobile Learnin g
Stimulating innovationand supporting in learn ing
If you have any comments or suggestions on our communications please get intouch.
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Focus On: Moodle Review Service Is Moodle living up to your expectations? If not, the RSC can help you review its use and identify ways to get more benefit from it. be patchy, with extensive use by some tutors and very little by others.
Moodle has now become the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) of choice for many learning providers. Its flexibility, relative ease of use and open source licence has made it an attractive option for supporting teaching and learning online. Many organisations are finding, however, that their Moodle is primarily used as a repository for learning materials and that these materials are often rather “flat”, consisting mainly of Word documents, PowerPoint presentations and web links. Whilst this can prove very useful, Moodle, as a Virtual Learning Environment, is designed to support a much richer social form of learning. Another issue for some learning providers is that their Moodle has been introduced in a rather ad-hoc way, without much formal planning. It is not uncommon to find a Moodle that has become fairly heavily used but which is still managed and supported by one or two enthusiasts. Moodle use can also
With these issues in mind, the East Midlands RSC has now introduced a Moodle review service. This service is intended to help you take stock of where you have got to with Moodle and identify opportunities to make more effective use of the platform. The review normally takes half a day and results in a short written report, summarizing the findings and offering suggestions and recommendations. The review process involves a combination of user (including learner) surveys, interviews with relevant staff and a look at your current Moodle installation. The platform is considered in the context of your organisation as a whole, to ensure that any recommendations made reflect your circumstances, in terms of issues such as: fit with your other online systems; staff availability for support and development; technical support and staff development time. The review is not judgmental, but is offered as a supportive independent snapshot, to help you identify areas of opportunity and need. A number of learning providers in the East Midlands have already used this service and found it to be of value in helping them to increase the use and effectiveness of their Moodles. This has included Further Education (FE) colleges, Adult and Community Learning (ACL) providers and the Leadership & Management Training part of an FE college. This Moodle review service is part of our advice and guidance on embedding a VLE. This wider service is available to all learning providers with a VLE, whether it is Moodle or one of the many other alternative VLEs.
The Moodle review service can be part of our advice and guidance on how to embed a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). For further information please download an Information Sheet (no.11) from our website at www.rsc-em.ac.uk
If you’d like to find out more about this service then please get intouch with Ben Williams on 01509 618116 or ben.williams@rsc-em.ac.uk.
JISC news Free Online Accessibility Self Evaluation service Growing out of a series of pilots and online discussions with RSCs, JISC TechDis now have six role-related online self evaluations suitable for a wide range of teaching institutions and learning providers. For each role, the self evaluations allow managers to explore the ways accessibility/inclusion can be integrated into mainstream teaching, learning and institutional processes. The self evaluations are a very quick way of getting a measure of the extent to which good practice and reasonable adjustments have permeated an organisation. Being role-focused it can give specific practical suggestions to the people with the responsibility and authority to make things happen. Throughout the first half of 2009, JISC TechDis is holding a series of online events. To sign up for any of the national events go to http://tinyurl.com/td-signup. The events should prove very useful to FE and HE but a couple of the sessions will be less relevant to ACL and WBL where the infrastructure is different.
Organisational changes to JISC JISC and the Advisory Services have been looking at ways to be more agile and flexible to respond to the changing needs and demands of the further and higher education communities. The outcome of this review is to create a new company called JISC Services. JISC infoNet, JISC Legal, JISC TechDis, Netskills, Procureweb and TASI are coming together to create JISC Services which will formally come into existence on 1st August 2009. You will still be able to access all of the services you currently value via the usual channels and over the next few months the services will increasingly join together at events, on projects and in producing resources.
Learner responsiveness JISC is currently running a series of projects investigating learners’ experiences of e-learning. Learner views are identified as a key performance indicator in the Responsiveness dimension of the LSC’s Framework for Excellence (sorry for the terminology!), so these projects can give valuable pointers to ways of finding out what learners think. One of the projects is in the East Midlands – the e4L project, run by a partnership of the University of Northampton, Northamptonshire Adult and Community Learning and Northampton College. Further details and resources are at https://mw.brookes.ac.uk/display/JISCle2. Find out how the RSC can help you by utilising our learner questionnaire service (see page 4).
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Forthcoming Events January 16th (full day)
Shaping your SharePoint
20th (full day)
e-Resources Discovery day
22nd (am)
e-Learning and e-Safety
26th (full day)
Quick and Easy Video
February 6th (full day)
Blogs, wikis and social networking
9th (full day)
e-Learning and inspection
12th (full day)
Top Tips for Teachers: Blended learning
18th (full day)
Intermediate Video Production
March 3rd (am)
e-Testing
5th (full day)
Collaborative web tools for BCE
13th (full day)
Everything you wanted to know about technology but were afraid to ask…
17th (full day)
Assistive Technologies
25th (full day)
e-Assessment – can it work for you?
More details about these events are available in the Spring 2009 Programme. As we’ve got so many events on in the Spring term, we’ve had to move the dates of our forums and user groups to Page 6!
Embedding Information Skills Northampton College have offered a structured Information Skills programme in selected courses of study that have seen the skill levels rise of those learners. For example one review concluded that grades had risen by 5% on a module that relied solely on assessment by essay. Various pieces of research have highlighted that Information Skills are an important skill set that learners require and the national picture shows that they are currently in short supply. One such report, commissioned by JISC and the British Library, counters the common assumption that the ‘Google Generation’ – young people born or brought up in the Internet age – is the most adept at using the web. Their research showed that, although young people demonstrated an ease and familiarity with computers, they relied on the most basic search tools and did not possess the critical and analytical skills to assess the information that they found on the web.
Stimulating and supporting innovation in learning
Events Programme – Spring 2009
• Training Workshops • Showcase Events • Forums and User Groups
Get intouch JISC RSC East Midlands Loughborough College Radmoor Road Loughborough Leicestershire LE11 3BT Tel: 01509 618110 Email: support@rsc-em.ac.uk Web: www.rsc-em.ac.uk http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk
Northampton College have successfully embedded information skills with learners
The Learning Resources team at Northampton College decided to take a more pro-active approach to this challenge and developed a structured programme of six sessions covering Information Skills. An important element of the course was that where possible the sessions were delivered not just by a
member of the LRC team, but in conjunction with a member of the relevant curriculum team. Learners on Access and HND programmes are now more prepared for progressing on to Higher Education programmes and learners on other programmes have also gained valuable skills. Staff in the curriculum teams have praised the new approach taken by the Learning Resource Centre team and are working closely together to improve the learner experience. Grazyna Kuczera and Mas Mistry from the Learning Resources team shared their experiences with their counterparts at the autumn East Midlands Information Skills (EMIS) meeting. Whilst supported by the RSC, the EMIS group runs itself and is an excellent example of like-minded people collaborating in the region. Lynne Spicer from Loughborough College, chair of the group, says that “the EMIS group aims to foster good practice in producing, sharing and developing information skills materials. Members of the group support each other in developing materials for the learning community as a whole that allows each other to use, re-purpose and share the materials.” For more resources relating to Information Skills visit http://moodle.rsc-em.ac.uk and go to the Forums & User Groups section or alternatively you can join them on the 26th February in Nottingham.
Survey prize winner In the last issue of intouch we reported on the findings of the annual Customer Satisfaction Survey.
Lyn Lall receives £100 voucher from Ben Williams – RSC link advisor to Castle College
As a thank you to all those who sent in their feedback, they were entered into a draw for £100 of Amazon vouchers. The lucky recipient drawn out was Lyn Lall from Castle College.
8 This publication is printed on paper from sustainable sources. In the interests of the environment, please pass on to a colleague when you’ve finished with it or recycle it. It is also available online at www.rsc-em.ac.uk.