RSC East Midlands newsletter "intouch" - Summer 2002

intouch

the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands

Forthcoming

EVENTS

COLLEGE

FOCUS

April

Loughborough College and are still using it to deliver on-line learning to students as far away as Greece. We have mainly delivered the European Computer Driving Licence, and NEBs Management Modules on-line.

Greetings to all from Loughborough College. I’m Clare Holden and I am the Learning Resources Manager at the College. In addition to managing the Learning Resource

May 21st

Centre, I am also responsible for Computer Services, AV & IT support and am actively involved in encouraging the uptake of ILT across the College.

Loughborough College is pleased that the Regional Support Centre is based here as it gives us the

Netskills Internet Training Skills Workshop (this is a repeat of 24th April training) Technical Forum

opportunity to share best practice.

June

Intranet and are piloting it in curriculum areas that include Sports Science, Accounting, Science and

Our aim, through this newsletter, is to provide you with useful information on ILT related issues

Computing.

and to inform you of any relevant events taking place both within our region and nationally.

Our Staff Intranet is developing rapidly - at the last count

The College Website contains over 350 pages with the

the exchange of ideas and best practice between colleges within the region. To help us to

prospectus

do this we would very much like feedback from you on this edition and your contributions

switched 100 Mbit connection to every computer.

All support and teaching staff are encouraged to apply

July

following which they are given an e-mail address. This has resulted in a move away from the circulation of communication is now electronic.

using

ASP

technology

dynamically

to

updateable

hold

College

using

ASP.

(http://www.loucoll.ac.uk)

for future editions would be most welcome. Email us at support@rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk.

Our ILT Champion, Dave Foord has a 0.5 post, to date his main focus has been to help curriculum teams

e-mail address when they register with the Learning Resources Service at the beginning of their course. This

developing Learning Materials and in setting up software

T

I

P

S

hyperlinks in a PowerPoint presentation

Did you know that you can make PowerPoint presentations interactive by using hyperlinks?

You have decided on the type of link - what now?

• • • •

• Simply select a file, slide or web page from the displayed list or type in an email address and press ‘OK’ on the Insert Hyperlink window.

Files on the Internet Files on your local computer Slides within your PowerPoint presentation An email address

How do you create a link?

• • • • •

Highlight the text you want to use as your hyperlink Go to Insert on the menu bar Scroll down the list and click Hyperlink This will open the Insert Hyperlink window From the menu bar on the left select the type of link you require

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User Group Forums College Visits JISC Services: What’s on offer?

Netskills Training Materials Quia: Making your learning materials

FORUMS

The RSC has arranged a number of User Group

Officers, thus extending the opportunity for staff to

forums to encourage Teaching, Learning Resources

participate fully and have the opportunity to

and IT Staff to discuss common problems and share

exchange ideas and share good practice on a regular

best practice. There will be three forums per year

basis. So if you haven’t made it to any of the forums

(one per term) for each of the three groups. The

yet, make sure you don’t miss out on the next round

inaugural meetings of the Learning Resources,

due to take place during the summer term.

College Focus: Loughborough College Forthcoming events Hints & Tips: Hyperlinks

Loughborough College

ADSL Links.

What can you link to?

USER GROUP

Clare Holden, Learning Resources Manager,

the college system by a mixture of Radio, Laser and

&

Welcome

University for Industry (Ufi)

with the ILT Champion and Curriculum Teams in

outreach centres - all of which are connected back into

S

THIS ISSUE

Materials Development Technician who works closely

includes students who study at one of the four college

T

INSIDE

more interactive

Judi Millage, ILT Advisor

develop their ILT skills. We also have a Learning

on the network that teams can use in delivery.

All students are given user names and passwords and an

For further details see our website www.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk

However, we hope that future editions will contain news and articles from you, the staff working in the colleges within our region. We would also like you to use it as a forum for

summer and are currently working towards providing a

ILT Fair (date to be confirmed)

The majority of the articles in this first issue have been written by the staff of the RSC EM.

documentation and guides for staff.

computers. We upgraded the backbone to a gigabit last

Put

have designed discussion areas and forums for our

Welcome to the first edition of the termly newsletter from the JISC Regional Support Centre in the East Midlands.

many

paper-based memos and reports as most internal college

How to:

purchase as the Intranet and templates work well. We

SuperJanet via a 10Mbit fibre optic cable that provides Internet connections for 450 student and 300 staff

N

college and are still undecided about which MLE/VLE to

Welcomefrom the Editor

Loughborough College has a fast connection to

for a user name and password to the computer network,

I

We are using the Student Intranet to deliver ILT within

there were 1500 pages and over 1000 documents -

13th LRC Forum Web Developers Forum (date to be confirmed)

H

Volume 1 • Issue 1

We purchased Lotus LearningSpace as a VLE in 1998

23rd Netskills: Using the Internet for Learning and Teaching in FE 24th Netskills Internet Training Skills Workshop 24th Inclusive Learning and the SEND Act 30th Successful Strategic Development

8th

Summer 2002

Technical and ILT Curriculum Forums took place at Leicester, Loughborough and Chesterfield Colleges respectively and their success was followed up by three further events at Mackworth, West Notts and Daventry Colleges during the Spring Term.

Feedback from all the events has been very positive: ‘A very good meeting, I look forward to future events’ ‘Continue with the Forums’ ‘Excellent initiative,

• Now run the Slide Show to test your link

Keep an eye on the ‘Local Events’ section of our website www.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk for details about the forums and other events taking place in the region.

Judi Millage, ILT Advisor

COLLEGE VISITS During this academic year staff from the JISC RSC East Midlands have been visiting all the colleges in the region to inform staff about JISC Services and provide staff with support and advice as they work towards integrating ILT into the Curriculum.

well worth coming to’ You have now produced a fully interactive PowerPoint presentation in which you can move effortlessly between slides or between your presentation and the Internet.

If you have not heard from us yet and

were just some of the comments we received.

would like us to visit you, please call us

In view of the success of these events we are now in

on 01509 618110 or email us at

Sam Eliyas, ILT Development Technician.

the process of setting up User Group Forums for

support@rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk to set

College Web/Intranet Developers and Inclusivity

up a meeting.

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intouch

?

JISC Services:

intouch

QUIA:

What’s on offer

TRAINING M AT E R I A L S Just to remind you that the RSC, East Midlands has purchased a Netskills ‘Gold Scheme Licence’ for all colleges in the region for a twelve month period commencing 1 August 2001.

Netskills provides high quality Internet training services to promote effective use of the Internet and associated technologies. The gold licence entitles you to access all the modules currently available and any new materials that are released throughout the twelve month period.

If, like me, you are confused about the array of JISC Services on offer and wonder exactly what each service actually provides, then read on. One by one I will try to explain each one in successive newsletters.

(Technologies for Disabilities Information Service).

Did you know that under the Special Needs

your ICT facilities conform to the requirements

contains access to a directory of thousands of activities categorised demonstrations on their web site. http://www.quia.com/findout.html

become unlawful for colleges to discriminate

improve and enhance access to teaching and

Perhaps what makes this site an even more useful resource is that

against disabled students?

learning, research and administration for those

tutors can follow up practice activities with quizzes and tests. The

with learning difficulties and/or disabilities,

system allows the tutor to choose from a variety of different types of

through

the

use

of

information

and

Allow disabled students more than the usual

•

• Go to the Netskills home page www.netskills.ac.uk

If you experience any difficulties with this process or require further information, please do not hesitate to contact me.

•

all staff within both HE and FE. It can advise on

correct and short answers. The system has various options for grading - either the system can grade and record automatically, the tutor can grade everything or you can have a combination of both. The system is very simple to use, students log into a session, complete the quiz,

where you can post messages to your students and let them know about the different activities you would like them to complete. The system also has a facility that will allow you to send e-mails to a list of students so that you can inform them about new activities, changes to your class pages or new quiz sessions you would like them to take part in.

Up until fairly recently this was a free service, however, Quia has now introduced

the accessibility of current technologies with

quickly and easily not only see which students have completed the

a subscription system. It is my understanding that site licenses are available and

regard to the needs of learners with disabilities

test, but when they completed it, how long it took them, details of

and aims to ensure a co-ordinated and

their scores, and view individual student test papers. This information

The usual charge for access to the college

coherent UK wide approach to enhancing the

can then be printed out along with the question paper as evidence of

intranet from students’ home computers

use of technology to support students and staff

can be waived for disabled students who

with disabilities.

Allow disabled students to use computers

need it.

•

TechDis services and resources are available to

questions including multi-choice, fill the gap, true/false, multiple

There is another section in Quia that allows you to set up class pages

their names and scores are then recorded and analysed. Tutors can see

for examinations.

You should then be able to access the materials directly.

with very limited IT Skills can very quickly design interactive materials.

provide advice and guidance to colleges on how to

•

• Register your own username and password.

examples of the different kinds of materials that can be created. The

into effect from 1st September 2002, it will

computers.

• Select your college name from the List of Registered Institutions

informational Web pages. The site is well laid out and contains many

into 40 subject areas. You can find out lots more details as well as

‘one hour at a time’ access to college

• Select Register

online learning activities, exercises, and quizzes, as well as

TechDis is a JISC service, which has been set up to

•

• Select Use materials

http://www.quia.com offers a variety of services, including easy-to-use templates specifically designed for educators at all levels to create

As well as providing templates for a range of activities, their site

of the Act, then TechDis can help you.

communications technology (ICT).

• Select Materials

Looking for ways to make your materials more interactive?

and Disability Act, which will begin to come

required to change policies and practices to:

To access the materials you must first register. To do this:

interactive

activities themselves are simple and easy to generate and even those

So, for example, from 2002 institutions will be

This service, which would normally cost colleges £1400 per annum, is now available free of charge in your college until 31 July 2002 and I would urge you to make full use of the materials for the remaining period of the licence, after which time normal charges will apply.

your learning materials

Making more

To help bring people up to speed with the new

completed work.

the cost is not prohibitive. The RSC has developed a half day training workshop on Quia, if you would like more information about this, please contact Judi Millage on 01509 618110 or e-mail support@rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk Lesley Price, RSC Manager.

for industry

Make disabled students wait no longer

legislation, we are holding an event on the

than other users to get their computers

24th April, in association with TechDis and the

UNIVERSITY

fixed by technical support staff.

Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).

Last September, the East Midlands RSC started a

Ian Houseman, point of contact for the pilot , has

existing technical knowledge. In fact the project

six-month pilot project to widen its remit to

been busy visiting the hubs in the region raising

has been so successful, that it has been extended

provide technical, network and connectivity

awareness of the RSC and how they can assist

for another six months. If you would like more

advice and guidance to 6 Ufi hubs across the

hubs in working towards ICT strategies. Early

information about this service, please contact Ian.

region. Working closely with hub managers and

contact has proved positive with those involved

technical staff this ‘one-stop’ support extends to all

being very keen to work with the RSC and

learndirect Learning Centres and Access Points

welcoming the support as a complement to

Introduce a policy of checking all new electronic courseware to ensure it is accessible to disabled students.

These are just some of the requirements of the Act. Additional responsibilities will come into force in 2003 and 2005.

If you are concerned about how the Act will

You can get more information about this event by looking at the local events section of our website or by telephoning our office.

To find out more about TechDis go to www.techdis.ac.uk/

Ian Houseman, Ufi Technical Support Officer.

contained within the hubs.

Gwen Callaghan, Administration & Events Co-ordinator.

affect your college, or you would simply like some advice and assistance on how to make

Judi Millage, ILT Advisor.

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