RSC East Midlands newsletter "intouch" - Summer 2005

intouch

the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands

Forthcoming

EVENTS April 7th

The Learning Journey

13th

Using ILT in Modern Foreign Languages

14th

Getting started with MS Producer

14th

Learner Centred Process Review

21st

Going further with ILT

26th

Learner Centred Process Review

26th

Assessment and Communications for e-Learning

May 3rd 26th

17th Making Moving Images Work ILT in teacher Training

June 23rd

For further details see our website

www.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk

and

ON...

Science Learning Centre East Midlands As part of the national network of Science Learning Centres, the Science Learning Centre East Midlands has been providing a programme of innovative CPD for all those involved in science education, at all levels. We have provided courses for all those involved in science education, from colleagues teaching early years, primary and secondary to FE. Our courses also support technicians and classroom assistants.

Science Learning Centre courses have evolved and developed from focus group meetings, discussion at events and meetings with individual schools & colleges. We are able to be both reactive and proactive, focussing on the needs of colleagues across the region. Reaction to our courses has been extremely positive: ‘I have really enjoyed the course. I am taking some excellent ideas away with me.

One of the best courses I’ve been on. The style and presentation was excellent. A very valuable day.’

‘As an NQT, I find these sessions very helpful for building on my current subject knowledge and ways of teaching. As a supply teacher it also keeps me in touch with current issues?’

e-Fair

Hints

FOCUS

‘I will be teaching spectroscopy from September 2005 so this will be a good starting point for resources and teaching A2. A most enjoyable day, thank you.’

In addition to our courses we have collaborated with the DfES on a ‘Science Teaching Rave!’ aimed at KS4 and post-16 teachers in schools & colleges. We are also providing a day’s event ‘Chemistry: Hands Free & Hands-On’ for teachers and students of post-16 chemistry as part of the Aimhigher project ‘Chemistry: The Next Generation’.

Throughout 2005 we will be hosting events for LEAs, the Association for Science Education, Royal Society of Chemistry and the examination group OCR. Our publicity is sent to schools & colleges across the region at the beginning of each term. Look out for the brochure and book early!

Drop-in Every Tuesday evening from 4pm until 6pm we have an informal drop-in session based at the Centre at the University of Leicester. These sessions are FREE - all we ask is that you call us to let us know you are coming! Come and view the latest science resources, try out software or refine your ICT skills with support from our ICT specialist.

To contact us about any aspect of science education and how we can help in your professional development, email emslc@le.ac.uk, or visit our website at www.le.ac.uk/slcem Sue Bull, Science Learning Centre East Midlands

Tips: Creating online quizzes

Many of you who have attended our ILT subject days have experienced how easy it is to create an online quiz. For those of you who haven’t, here are some tips to get you started:

charge. If you password-protect your exercises or distribute them only on an Intranet, you will need to buy a licence.

There are lots of packages available to help you build your quiz. By using the action buttons option in PowerPoint you can create a simple interactive quiz that can be placed on your Intranet and used as a self assessment tool. More advanced quizzes and exams can be created by using specialised software packages, such as Quia, TOIA and Hot Potatoes.

Creating an exercise using Hot Potatoes takes 3 steps:

With Quia, you can create 16 types of educational games and activities, quizzes with eight different question types, surveys and web pages. There are also around 2 million shared activities on the site, which can be used directly or modified to suit your own needs. Quia does require subscription (from US $49 - approximately £25 - for an individual licence). http://www.quia.com TOIA is an advanced online assessment management system, funded by the JISC Exchange for Learning (X4L) programme. TOIA can be used to create and share 9 different types of questions, including essay questions. TOIA is freely available to all UK FE and HE institutions until August. http://www.toia.ac.uk Hot Potatoes is a suite of six authoring tools, which can be used to create web-based exercises of several types, including multiple choice questions, crosswords and gap-fill exercises. If you work in a non-profit making educational organisation, and are prepared to share your exercises by making them publicly accessible, then you can use the software free of

http://www.halfbakedsoftware.com 1. Entering the data (questions, answers etc.)

2. Configuring the output (instructions, button captions, appearance etc.)

3. Creating web pages (compiling your quiz into HTML pages) For example, to create a crossword exercise using Hot Potatoes, simply: Open the JCross program and give your crossword a title Enter your letters in the grid by clicking on a square and typing a letter Click the ‘Add clues’ button Select an answer, type in a clue and click ‘OK’ Configure the output. Click Options>Configure output. The dialogue box enables you to add subtitles, feedback etc, and change the appearance of your quiz • Save your quiz • Create your web page. Click File>Create web page>Web page for v6 browsers, and your crossword is complete!

• • • • •

All of these packages come with detailed tutorials to guide you through the creation of your quiz, so take a few minutes to read through and look at some example exercises. In no time at all you’ll have made your first online quiz!

Rachael Stacey e-Learning Adviser (HE)

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Volume 3 • Issue 3

Summer 2005

Welcome from the Editor I N S I D E RSC East Midlands e-fair.

This issue

In this edition of In touch, Chris Hill, the RSC Manager divulges more information on the

Welcome

Here at the RSC, we’re busy getting ready for the largest event we’ve held to date, the first

be contributing.

Course Genie: Issues arising from creating your own e-learning materials. Part one.

This month’s newsletter also includes articles from the DfES, UKERNA, the Higher

Support for E-Guides in the East Midlands

Education Academy and the East Midlands Science Learning Centre, as well as the regular

All the fun of the e-fair

contributions from RSC staff. So, put the kettle on, sit back, and take a few minutes out to

DFES e-Strategy

e-fair, including details of the Keynote speakers, and some of the organisations who’ll

catch up with this term’s ILT news for the East Midlands.

JANET Network Reliability Study

Rachael Stacey, e-Learning Advisor (HE)

The Higher Education Academy Forthcoming events

Course Genie: What Issues Arise from giving Subject Specialists the Tools to Create their own E-Learning Materials?

Introduction The biggest change in working practice brought about by the introduction of end-user content creation tools is that materials are developed by tutors, rather than being produced to order by a materials development team. CourseGenie is perhaps a more obvious choice of content creation tool, because it integrates with Microsoft Word by running a macro, and should in theory make life easier for teaching staff, because assuming they are familiar with Word, they don’t have to be particularly competent at web programming and content packaging. There are however, numerous issues outside the technical domain which are raised when central control of the production of learning material is delegated to those who own the content. This article will attempt to address some of the major benefits and potential problems that may arise for a college when attempting to do such a thing.

Issues One of the most pressing issues that could arise from such a development is that the materials team will lose the uniformity of their materials. The potential is there for tutors to create content which doesn’t reach the same standards as materials created for them. Although this is a problem it can be successfully addressed in a number of ways. Course Genie could be made a staff development priority: plan training sessions before tutors create their first chunk of material; outline a structure to work with; and, assist in the development of good practice. Practically speaking, we could

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Focus on: Science Learning Centre East Midlands

Part one...

Hints and Tips: Creating online quizzes

perhaps set up a structure on the colleges’ VLE whereby teaching staff would be expected to upload material in specific places. For instance, a course can be broken down into weekly chunks, and then further still into course specifics and even templates. Assistance could also be given in the use of metadata. If all course materials are correctly indexed they will be more easily used and adapted by other members of staff. Content will also integrate seamlessly with preexisting materials, and be more user-friendly to the student. It is important at this stage of planning, however, to be aware that if the production of materials is seen as being too rigid and structured staff may feel that they don’t have ownership over their content, and may even feel that what they upload ‘won’t be up to standard’.

To combat this, one suggestion is to promote the idea of subject specific working groups, so that creation of materials can be shared across a department. Often content creation flounders when development within a subject is patchy, in that one or two enthusiasts within a department create all the materials and so become reluctant to share resources. This is undesirable when we consider that sharing is one of the most important ethoses underpinning e-learning. The technology behind Course Genie can go a long way to resolving this issue, because teaching staff have the opportunity to convert existing electronic materials into interactive documents, and most will have something that they can publish. This brings with a whole new set of issues which we will explore in the next RSC newsletter.

Chris Bell, Specialist Colleges Advisor

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Support for E-Guides in the East Midlands Since last Summer NIACE have been running the E-Guides

Additional training days for E-Guides

staff development programme. This has been designed to

As well as the full E-Guides training programme NIACE in conjunction with all Regional Support Centres across England are organising 3 additional days of training for E-Guides. Each day will cover 3 topics:

support Adult and Community Learning staff in embedding the use of e-learning across the curriculum with an overall aim to “increase the use of e-Learning across the adult and community learning curriculum through developing the skills

1. Exploring Equipment 2. Creating interactive Content 3. Delivering the cascade training and sharing good practice

and knowledge of E-Guides to support colleagues in their use of technology in teaching and learning.”

What support is available to E-Guides in the East Midlands?

As the E-Guides take on this significant task of cascading their skills and knowledge within their organisations support will be vital. The RSC East Midlands will be working to support E-Guides in a range of ways: • • • • • • •

Advice and support with cascade plans Staff development Training and workshops Advice and guidance Help desk Forums Meeting senior managers to discuss ILT and e-Learning

At the moment only 2 dates have been confirmed for the East Midlands and they are April 5th and April 22nd. Details of the venues and booking forms can be found at the Community Resource Website, www.aclearn.net

Dates for the next round of E-Guide training There are 2 more dates for the full E-Guide training programme in the East Midlands so now might be the time to book your places and they are: 9th and 10th May

Leicester

8th and 9th June

Derby

4th July

Regional day for both above events Nottingham

We look forward to hearing from E-Guides in the East Midlands and working with you to implement your cascade plans.

Sharon Hutchings ILT Adviser (ACL)

All the fun of the Plans are now well advanced for the first East Midlands e-fair organised by the Regional Support Centre.

The ten East Midlands LSDA Q projects, which focus on developing staff skills, will be disseminating at the e-fair. Amongst the other projects you can learn about are the Northampton Transformation project, the Tresham Exchange for Learning project and the ACL learning platform projects, as well as developments in specialist colleges. You will be able to network with colleagues from other learning providers, find out what works for them and learn from their experience.

It will be held at the main Kedleston Road site of the University of Derby on June 23rd 2005, starting at 10.00am. The theme is making Information Learning Technology (ILT) normal - not an optional add on for enthusiasts, but a valuable tool for everyone.

Keynote speakers include Sal Cooke, Head of Techdis, and Alan Noble MBE, Head of Adult and Community Learning for Buckinghamshire. There will be workshops, seminars and an exhibition, with something for every role - teaching and learning, management, staff development, technical and business support - and every sector the RSC supports - FE, Specialist and Sixth Form colleges, Adult and Community Learning and aspects of HE. Contributors include the biggest collection of acronyms and initialisms ever assembled in the history of new technologies in the East Midlands including: -

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Keynote Speaker Sal Cooke

Alan Noble MBE

• regional organisations such as EMMAN and EMBC • JISC services such as UKERNA, Netskills, TechDis, OSSwatch, Techwatch, JISC Collections, Resource Discovery Network, TASI and JORUM • national organisations such as NILTA/AoC, LSDA, FENC, the DfES Standards Unit, National Learning Network materials and the Microsoft Education Support Centre You will be able to find out what other learning providers in the region are doing.

All this - and it’s free. To book your place at the e-fair, visit the RSC website at www.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk where you will find more information. There is a guide to what the acronyms mean and the useful things the organisations do!

Although we may not shout about it, there are many exciting developments taking place in East Midlands learning providers as the benefits of new technology are increasingly realised. We have much to learn from each other. The e-fair is an ideal opportunity to do just that. Don’t miss it!

The DfES e-strategy On 15 March 2005, the Department for Education and Skills published the e-Strategy ‘Harnessing Technology: Transforming learning and children’s services’.

This strategy describes the use of digital and interactive technologies to achieve a more personalised approach within all areas of education. It is an ambitious strategy covering all sectors for the next five years and beyond.

The aim in five years time is to build the common ground that brings education to the critical baseline of being able to use the technology effectively. In ten years, building on the newfound capabilities of our workforces, our newly skilled graduates, and our new appetite for innovation, we could be anywhere - if we have the ambition and the imagination to go there.

The strategy sets out to achieve four overarching objectives: • transforming teaching, learning and child development, enabling children and learners of all ages to meet their highest expectations • connecting with hard to reach groups in new ways • opening up education to partnerships with other organisations • moving to a new level of efficiency and effectiveness in our delivery.

It is designed to harness technology to the needs of children, learners, parents, teachers, carers, employers and all our stakeholders. We are only able to do this if we are clear about what we want as well what we need, and how by using ICT this will be achieved.

The e-Strategy also has the following six priorities: • • • • •

an integrated online information service for all citizens integrated online personal support for children and learners a collaborative approach to transforming teaching and learning a good quality training and support package for practitioners a leadership and development package for organisational capability in ICT • a common digital infrastructure to support transformation and reform To find out more about the DfES e-strategy, see the summary on the RSC website, or download the full document from http://www.dfes.gov.uk/publications/e-strategy/ Courtesy of the DfES website © Crown Copyright 1995 - 2005

JANET Network Reliability Study UKERNA has launched a six month study into network reliability, aiming to provide practical advice on network infrastructure reliability for JANET connected organisations.

The study is set against a backdrop of increasing dependency on network connectivity, as seen by JANET organisations.

It will seek to help organisations identify and understand the risks facing their networks and their connection(s) to JANET. Results from the SuperJANET5 requirements analysis highlighted JANET reliability as an area of growing importance, and whilst JANET does provide good reliability there is always room for improvement. UKERNA is continually striving to improve the reliability of the SuperJANET backbone and Regional Networks: one of the aims of SuperJANET5 is to reduce the number of single points of failure within regional networks and their connectivity to the SuperJANET backbone.

This study focuses on the edge of the network as the final part of the delivery chain of services to end users.

The study will initially seek to conduct interviews with key staff from a range of JANET connected organisations, in order to identify and characterise the key areas of dependency that organisations have on their local network infrastructure and their connection(s) to JANET. This information will help generate a wider survey of JANET connected organisations. The information gathered from interviews and the survey will be analysed to provide a summary of the approaches taken to risk management and strategies currently in use to mitigate these risks.

Detailed work will be undertaken with JANET connected organisations and Regional Networks

to assess the effectiveness of current risk mitigation measures. Practical advice on the range of strategies for risk mitigation, including a number of case studies will be produced.

If any organisations would like to take an active part in the interviews, survey or discussions, please contact the author. If you receive a request to take part in the study, UKERNA hopes you feel able to participate. © JNT Association 2005 Henry Hughes SuperJANET Development Programme Manager H.Hughes@ukerna.ac.uk

The Higher Education Academy The Higher Education Academy is a UK-wide organisation set up to support quality enhancement in teaching and the student experience in higher education.

It was formed from a merger of the Institute for Learning and Teaching in Higher Education (ILTHE), the Learning and Teaching Support Network (LTSN), and the Teaching Quality Enhancement Fund National Co-ordination Team (NCT). The Academy was launched on the 14th October 2004.

The creation of the organisation has provided an opportunity to explore new partnerships and working methods. The Academy aims to foster closer collaboration with the JISC as part of a strategic alliance between the two organisations. JISC and the Academy have been initiating a number of joint activities to ensure effective networking, collaboration and capacity building in the Higher Education sector. Currently the JISC are funding a series of Subject Centre projects to explore the issues around the sharing of resources within and between disciplines.

The Academy is also looking specifically at ways to support staff involved in HE in FE programmes. The Academy subject centres are currently looking for case studies that illustrate good, innovative practice in the delivery of HE in FE using e-learning. This will involve working through both the Academy Subject Centres and the Regional Support Centres.

For more information please visit www.heacademy.ac.uk. For support on any aspect of HE provision and e-Learning, including the aforementioned case studies, please contact Rachael Stacey, the eLearning adviser for HE at the JISC RSC for the East Midlands.

Liz Pearce Projects Officer - e-Learning Higher Education Academy

Chris Hill, RSC Manager

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