R S C Newsletter
a bi-annual update from the Regional Support Centre West Midlands
Issue 7 – Autumn/Winter 2011
Contents
What’s New for 2011-12 As another academic year gets underway, the RSC West Midlands is pleased to announce that our funding has been extended to August 2012. Over the next year, a number of changes to RSC operations will enable us to operate more effectively and efficiently as a unified service across the UK. Practical measures such as improved customer relationship management systems, a new website (find out more on page 8) and marketing and communications procedures will be implemented from Autumn 2011. Looking at the bigger picture, outcomes of the recent HEFCE review of the JISC will start to emerge over the next few months. The implications of which are unlikely to have a major impact on RSC services until Summer 2012. Naturally, we will keep learning providers up to date as things develop.
These are in addition to national priorities which, working in tandem with other JISC Advance services, will enable us to provide support for Business Processes, Shared Services, Procurement, Network Management, Digital Literacy and Staff Development.
The RSC team have been busy over the summer, completing operational planning. A number of key objectives are detailed in this newsletter.
Additionally, we will run our annual events programme and continue to provide advice and guidance.
Our regional priorities for 201112 are E-safety, Learner Voice, Strategic Development and Technology for Learning.
A number of learning providers have benefitted from our e-learning progress review service, which helps to evaluate your organisation’s e-learning maturity. This year, we are also offering individual components of the service. For example, if your organisation would like assistance in evaluating its use of mobile devices in teaching and learning or guidance in developing an e-safety policy, we can arrange to discuss this with appropriate staff and provide a short report. More details of this service can be found on page 3.
We look forward to supporting you during this academic year. Greg Vivash RSC West Midlands Manager
1. What’s new for 2011-12 2. Good Practice From Our Region - Excellence Gateway Case Studies Show Impact 3. Case Study: Plaigiarism Detection and Deterrence - Mini Reviews to Improve Organisational Efficiency 4. RSC Equipment Loan Update - New Service - RSC Assist 5.RSC WM Launches Tablet Project - Totara Open Source Distribution of Moodle 6. Microsoft Sharepoint on a Budget - Improve your Videos in 4 Easy Steps 7. Useful Apps for Education - Education’s Bright New GeM 8. Forthcoming Events - Assessing Your LRC’s Impact - New Look RSC Website
Latest e-Learning Good Practice from Our Region
Excellence Gateway Case Studies Show Impact of Technology RSC E-learning adviser Allen Crawford-Thomas says, “Measuring impact is something that we are increasingly asked to advise on by our learning providers. Due to the current economic climate, learning providers are required to demonstrate value for money and show what difference technology has made to their organisation.” There are numerous ways to measure the impact that technology has had on teaching and learning and organisational effectiveness;
Since the last issue of our newsletter, a further 3 case studies from the region have been published on the Excellence Gateway: Solihull College: Using technology to support the detection and deterrence of plagiarism Burton and South Derbyshire College: Independent ILT review changes attitudes and drives progress South Worcestershire College: Custom built e-ILP gets staff and learners on track. To read these case studies in full, and view more examples from our region, visit http://qurl.com/n32mj Do you have an e-learning project that has made an impact on your staff, learners, or your organisation? If so, we want to hear from you. Please contact Kirsty Hill Information Officer by e-mail: kirsty.hill@rsc-wm.ac.uk
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The Excellence Gateway currently contains over 320 examples of good practice in e-learning from across England. Recently, you may have noticed some subtle changes to the latest case studies that have been published. One of the key aims of the case studies is to equip other learning providers with sufficient information to inspire their own practice, and help them to replicate the practice in their own organisation. Each case study now includes a section entitled ‘lessons learned’ which outlines the successes and difficulties encountered, the sustainability and the transferability of the project. E-learning case studies also now focus more on the impact that the technology has had on the organisation and specifically, include evidence that demonstrates impact. Typical examples of evidence include quantitative data such as statistics and/or qualitative information such as quotes from staff and students and inspection results.
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Course retention rates has there been a significant increase since the adoption of technology? Assignment quality - has the students’ work improved? Cost savings - how has the technology helped to save the organisation money? Time savings - has there been a reduction in the number of hours spent on a particular task? Satisfaction levels - are staff and students happier/more confident? How can this be quantified?
Allen adds, “There are tools available to help you measure impact - for example, the statistics within your VLE will show how many visitors each course area receives. You could also look at student satisfaction surveys, college SAR information or even consider a data dashboard which retrieves information from your existing systems and displays the data in a visual, easy to read format.” For more information on how the RSC can help you measure the impact of technology in your organisation, contact Allen by e-mail: a.crawford-thomas@rsc-wm.ac.uk
Case study: Using technology to support the detection and deterrence of plagiarism
Mini Reviews to Improve Organisational Efficiency
The emphasis for online learning
has never been greater. With electronic resources readily accessible at the touch of a button, students sometimes rely too heavily on such materials resulting in plagiarised or incorrectly referenced assignments. Instances of plaigiarism had become more frequent at Solihull College. To address this, the college took a blended approach. Firstly, by purchasing a license for Turnitin, an internet-based plagiarism detection service. It features a comprehensive bank of webpages, student papers and publications which tutors can compare against their own students’ submitted assignments for suspected instances of plagiarism. Turnitin was integrated with the college’s VLE, Moodle, to give the students a greater sense of ownership and to feel more engaged in the process of uploading their own work. Turnitin proved a useful tool for exposing poor information management skills amongst some students early on in draft submission situations. This enabled the students to reflect on their research practice and, with tutor support, apply the appropriate referencing conventions. Using Turnitin was just part of the approach however that the college took. Paul Dyson, ILT Development Manager at the college says,“We wanted to educate the students by showing them how to correctly reference their assignments and improve their citation skills, which we hoped would lessen our concerns. The College’s Library team, led by Graeme Muirhead, was instrumental in resolving this by offering library-led research skills sessions as a standard entitlement for all full-time and significant part-time students.” As part of the Turnitin submission process, both the tutors and the students see an ‘originality report’ which exposes instances of non original work. This shocked some
of the students when they recieved assignment feedback and helped them to understand the issues with plaigiarism. It gave tutors the opportunity to advise students on how to correctly reference their work. Since adopting Turnitin, the tutors involved in the pilot have noticed significant improvements in their learners’ citation and referencing skills. It has also resulted in a quicker marking process. After six months of using Turnitin, students reported the impact that Turnitin had on their studies through a wider Moodle impact survey. When asked the question, “Has your use of the e-library and Turnitin within Moodle improved your ability to find, filter and reference information?” 50% of respondents claimed that it had made a difference. Staff have reported that they have seen stark changes in learner practices. Paul advises other learning providers who may be considering Turnitin or a similar plagiarism detection tool: “Turnitin is a really useful tool for detecting plagiarism, however, it can’t be used in isolation. It must be used alongside a research/information skills support programme. It’s important to applaud what has been done but also ensure the learners know what they need to do in order to improve.” To read the full case study, visit http://bit.ly/oOZus3 For more information about plagiarism detection and support from the Regional Support Centre, contact Christa Appleton, our HE Co-ordinator: christa.Appleton@rsc-wm.ac.uk
RSC West Midlands is offering a new series of reviews to help learning providers assess their organisational effectiveness in a number of key areas. In addition to the e-Learning Progress Review, we now offer mini reviews in the following areas; • E-safety • Green IT • Accessibility • Helpdesk • Learning Spaces • Teaching and Learning The reviews are an independent, impartial evaluation by members of the RSC team of the progress made in any of the areas above. The review helps to compare progress relative to other learning providers and focus RSC support in the right areas. Learning providers will benefit from the expertise and experience of the RSC e-learning advisers who will, as an outcome of the review, create an action plan to help move your organisation forward. To find out more and to arrange a mini review in any of the areas listed above, e-mail support@rsc-wm.ac.uk
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RSC Equipment Loan Service Update
New Service - RSC Assist
This year, we have added 3 new pieces of equipment to our Equipment Loan Service Have you registered with bags; an Apple the Gateway? iPad, a Sanyo Xacti Dual Camera and a LiveScribe Pulse Pen. The iPad adds versatility for learners through the numerous apps available and accessibility options such as voice over and screen magnification. The touch screen also aids navigation for learners with mobility and dexterity issues. Sticky keys, slow keys and mouse keys options are also available if touch screen navigation becomes difficult. The Sanyo Xacti provides the best of both worlds - a 10 megapixel camera and 720 HD video camera in one device. It is easy to use with only 3 simple buttons to operate. The Livescribe Pulse has the look and feel of a normal ball point pen but allows you to write and record audio notes at the same time. Hand written notes are synchronised with the audio allowing you to tap on a word and listen to the audio from that point. The Pen also has extras like a calculator and a translator. Storage space is 2 GB and the battery has a long life The kit loan service has proved very popular with our learning providers. We have put together a summary report which outlines how our learning providers have benefitted from this service. If you would like to borrow one of our kit bags, please contact Alison Wootton by e-mail@ a.wootton@rsc-wm.ac.uk 4
This year, RSC West Midlands is giving learning providers the opportunity to apply for free, extended support in an area of their choice, through the RSC Assist project. What are the benefits? RSC Assist enables you to work with a member of the RSC team for up to a day in planning your project and benefitting from advice and expertise, as well as a limited amount of training, if applicable. You retain control of the task in hand, but will be able to call on the support of your nominated advisor throughout. On completion, you will work with your RSC advisor to produce a brief case study or best practice guide, which outlines the outcomes and any lessons learned, for the benefit of other learning providers. Choosing your project The project should be a priority for your organisation and be achievable within a 3 month period, with a measurable, tangible outcome. Applications will be assessed against their relevance to the RSC remit, wider interest in the topic and available RSC staff expertise.
These are the priority support areas of the RSC in 2011/12: - E-safety - Learner Voice - Technology for Learning - Business Processes - Network Management - Shared Services - Staff Development - Strategic Development - Digital Literacy - Procurement How to apply If you’d like to take part in the RSC Assist project, please complete the application form, which is available online at: http://bit.ly/o0LKyt You can also discuss your project idea with a member of the RSC team, prior to applying – please get in touch. Once your application has been submitted, we will contact you with a decision, based on current workload and the suitability of the topic for the project.
RSC WM Launches Tablet Project As many learning providers continue to experience budget cuts, the evaluation and acquisition of new technologies can sometimes fall by the wayside. If only there was a way that learning providers could access cutting-edge pieces of technology to evaluate their relevance and suitability to support their business objectives, for free? This is precisely the objective of our latest Tablet Project, launched in September of this year. This new project follows on from the recent success of our mobile technologies project which partly explored the use of tablet devices in the work based learning sector. The findings from that initial project showed the potential of these devices for education and training and led to us follow up with this tablet specific project opportunity. For this project, we have engaged with a number of additional learning providers who wish to explore a variety of the most popular tablet devices and to see how these might benefit their own organisation. Eight types of devices have been made available for loan, each with differing features and specifications. This offers providers the opportunity to evaluate a number of sizes, specifications, and models. Learning providers loan a set of devices for a period of four weeks, during which time they are encouraged to use them with their staff and learners. At the end of this period these providers feedback their findings to us and the tablet devices are returned to us. At that stage providers are better informed as to their potential and perhaps in a position to make their own purchasing choices should you wish to do so.
Applications have been suspended at this stage as we have had unprecedented amount of demand already! However, those interested in the use of tablets can still benefit from the wiki page which has been created to summarise the findings and to share information relating to the use of tablets in education more widely. The wiki page also has more about the pros and cons of these devices, possible uses for education and more detailed aims of this particular project. This page will continue to be updated as findings from the current set of loans are summarised and shared. This can be accessed online at http://bit.ly/nfjw3U For more information about this tablet devices project please contact: Theresa Welch, eLearning Advisor Work Based Learning, Tel: 01902 518976 theresa.welch@rsc-wm.ac.uk Jason Curtis, Learning Technologies & Information Officer, Tel: 01902 518986 jason.curtis@rsc-wm.ac.uk
Totara Open Source Distribution of Moodle
Totara is an open source distribution of the Moodle learning platform. It is specifically focused on the workplace learning requirements of the corporate, industry and vocational training arena. In contrast to Moodle's standard educational approach, Totara's innovative features and design provide a presentation and learning space which enables learning providers and learns to manage and engage with: • competency management • role-based learning paths • personal development plans linked to performance appraisals • team learning management • accreditation management • sophisticated reporting against KPIs Totara allows learning providers to create individual learning plans based on role and competencies and through dashboards, learner progress can be tracked at all stages. As a Moodle distribution, Totara can be linked to the e-portfolio Mahara. For further information about Totara visit: www.totaralms.com/
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Microsoft SharePoint on a Budget Many learning providers have implemented or are planning to implement Microsoft SharePoint technologies to manage electronic documents, automate business processes or improve knowledge management. So what do learning providers need for a successful SharePoint project - external consultants? A team of skilled developers? We believe that, first and foremost, success depends on giving stakeholders “ownership” of the project by educating them on the benefits of using SharePoint and involving them in decisions on both the planning and implementation of the system. Once the stakeholders are on board, it is possible to implement an effective SharePoint solution without investing a lot of money or technical resources. For those learning providers who wish to implement SharePoint but do not have the financial resources to bring in external consultants or lack confidence in their inhouse technical and project management skills, the RSC West Midlands can do the following: • Give a presentation on the RSC West Midlands in-house SharePoint implementation to both technical and nontechnical staff to raise awareness of the benefits of using SharePoint. • Advise on the most appropriate project planning team, and deployment strategy. • Participate, if requested, in SharePoint project planning meetings. Contact our technical advisor, Colleen Romero: colleen.romero@rsc-wm.ac.uk for more information.
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Improve Your Videos in 4 Easy Steps
Creating videos for education provides numerous benefits. Often practitioners have to create quick and simple videos to capture evidence, for example. These tips provided by JISC Digital Media will help you to improve the quality of your videos. Lighting • Make sure there’s some light falling on your subject, preferably from the front (ie. from your side of the subject) and a bit to one side. This applies to artificial light as well as daylight - but beware of squinting subjects. • If you can’t get good lighting of your subject in the current location, move to a new one! Even if you can get good lighting in your location, be prepared to move both yourself and your subject around to find the best light. • People tend to have their desks next to the window whenever possible. Unfortunately, this means that when you shoot someone at your desk it’s very likely that there’ll be a window behind them. If this is the case, do not shoot them at their desk – or at least try to find an angle where the window isn’t behind them, because otherwise you are guaranteed to have a bad image.
• It is possible to get desktop tripods (not the best solution but still better than hand-holding) for as little as £3.
Stability
• Even a tiny amount of editing can improve the look of your video immensely. There are numerous free editing systems available which can provide you with the tools to perform basic editing such as ‘topping and tailing’ • If you want to get a bit more sophisticated than that you might edit further to remove mistakes. It is also possible to import slides into simple editing software. These can then be inserted where appropriate in the video.
• Get a tripod and use it religiously. It is not possible to hand-hold a camcorder of any size for a significant length of time without introducing some sort of shake or wobble into the image. This applies to pocket camcorders as well, because it is not the weight of the camcorder that’s the problem but rather the length of time you have to hold it still. • Make sure it is a video tripod, not one for a stills camera. The difference is in the tripod head: a proper video head will permit smooth camera motion (panning left and right and tilting up and down), something which is not possible on a stills tripod.
Sound • Use an external microphone such as a lapel mic which will give significantly better results than a built-in mic producing excellent sound without compromising on picture quality. There are camcorders available at all price ranges which take external mics: make this a requirement when purchasing one. • Try to shoot your video in a room which is not only quiet but also not too bright acoustically. The less noise there is on the audio part of your recording, the better the sounds you want will come out. Editing
JISC Digital Media is a JISC Advance service which provides advice about all aspects of digital media. To find out more, visit www.jiscdigitalmedia.ac.uk
Useful Apps for Education Useful Apps for
This year has seen significant growth in the use of tablet devices so it’s no surprise that we are now often being asked to recommend apps that might be useful for education.
Android Apps
Of course what’s useful depends on what particular device you are using, Apple or android; but the good news is both marketplaces are awash with both free and relatively cheap apps that support education extremely well. Below are just a handful of some of our free favourites: Apple Apps
• Dropbox - this offers a free and easy way for your learners to sync and share their files both online and across various tablet devices. • IQ Gym - a mathematical educational game in which the learner must solve mathematical questions within a time-limit. It’s great for testing numeracy (but can be challenging and quite addictive!). • Discover for iPad – this app lets your learners find, read and explore content from Wikipedia in a magazine-like interface. It makes the experience of using Wikipedia much more engaging. • Feedler – an RSS feed reader, which syncs with Google Reader. It could prove very useful to learners wishing to keep up to date with a particular topic. • Qrafter QR code reader and generator - learners can scan QR codes using this app to be taken off to resources on the Web, for example e-book versions of courses texts, further information on Moodle from a course hand out.
• Evernote – this app lets learners capture ideas, experiences, and inspirations as they happen, wherever they find themselves. Then easily search and find all their notes, even those created using Evernote on the desktop. • GDocs for Android - GDocs is a editor/viewer for your Google Documents. It is an Android application that allows learners to create, edit, view, import, export and send documents as well sync documents with their Google Docs account. • WordPress for Android - this app allows learners to quickly write new posts, edit content, and manage comments on their word press blogs. Great for reflective practice and capturing learner voice on the go! • Good Reads - this app allows learners to discover, share, and review books with their friends and others. They can read thousands of book reviews, keep a virtual bookshelf of what they have read, and build a to-read list as they discover great books on the app. • Read it later - save webpages to read later, even without an internet connection. When learners come across an article or a webpage that they would like to read but can't at that time, they can save it to their Read It Later list. These can then be read whenever they have a moment, practically anywhere.
Education’s Bright New GeM
Education’s Bright New GeM Designed by education sector experts, this new system, run by the JISC Procureweb Service, will provide HE and FE Procurement Departments Looking new resources to with freeforaccess to Amazonuse inlike teaching and learning? Try shopping facilities and of these free options: asome manageable contract data Designed by education sector repository making the buying URL of shortener - http://bit.ly/ . experts, this new system, run by day-to-day goods and Fed up with unwieldy web links? the JISC Procureweb Service, will services that much easier whilst provide Procurement SignHE up and for aFE free account to driving down costs. Departments with free access to create shorter web links, track the Through approved sector wide Amazon-like shopping facilities progress of your links and access as well as locally-negotiated and a manageable contractlinks. data all your shortened contracts, authorised staff repository making the buying of Screen capturing tool –array www. can access a vast day-to-day goods and services of screentoaster.com . Create your categories using the fast and that much easier whilst driving own videos of onscreen actions cient purchasing system downeffi costs. in onemanage simple click. for AND theirUseful contracts capturing screen casts and Through approved sector wide through the inbuilt repository demonstrating screen casts, as well as locally-negotiated that runs in parallel to the demonstrations, tutorials and contracts, authorised staff can e-Marketplace. Everyone accesscan a vast array of categories lectures. be confident that they using the fast and effi cient Visual search engines. If youdeals are are accessing the best purchasing system and manage looking for an alternative search negotiated by procurement their contracts through the try engine to aid visual learners, professionals whilst using a inbuilt repository that runs in these two options: system which is attractive and parallel to the e-Marketplace. intuitive, and simply Everyone can beaccessed confident that Middlespot.com seelog-on. your viaaccessing their institution they are the–best deals results as screenshots which negotiated by procurement Benefits you can andusing zoom like aup professionals whilst •FREE OF pan CHARGE to asign map. which Allowsisyou to create and system attractive and and use share a ‘workpad’ for saving and intuitive, and accessed simply viato •Value for Money – access theirnegotiated institution log-on. annotating searchcontracts results. sector promises lower costs on goods Benefi ts Search-cube.com –presents and services •FREE OF search CHARGE to sign up thumbnail results through •Time effi cient – can offer up and use a 3-D cubeininterface. to 90% reduction the order •Value for money – access to to purchase process negotiated sector contracts •Easy tolower use –costs a simple system promises on goods and services guides users through the •Time efficient – can offer process up to 90% reduction in the order to– can •Secure and manageable purchase process be restricted to authorised staff •Easy to use – a simple systemlike •Faster than old systems guides users through the process CuPID – offers a sleeker and •Secure and manageable – can quicker new platform be restricted to authorised staff For information on howlike to sign •Faster than old systems up to this new service CuPID – offers a sleeker and or for furthernew details, please visit the quicker platform GeM website www.gem.ac.uk For information how to sign on or contact JISConProcureweb up to this new service for 0333 029or2087 further details, please visit the GeM website www.gem.ac.uk or contact JISC Procureweb on 029 2087 0333
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Forthcoming Events
Assessing Your LRC’s Impact Delivered by Susanne Higgins, a management consultant, coach and associate lecturer at Lancaster University, with a background in both the public and further education sectors, the workshops will take you through the full cycle of impact evaluation including: identifying where you make an impact; measuring and evaluating impact; analysing and presenting results to influence stakeholders.
For full details, visit the events page at: www.rsc-wm.ac.uk. October • Heritage IV Training and Users Forum • Staff Development Managers Forum • Classroom Management with Impero • ACL Network • E-safety Online November • Mahara Training • Getting more from Moodle Stats • Learning Technologies Forum • RSC-WM & Microsoft Technology day • Accessibility & Inclusion Forum • IT Managers Forum • Moodle Users Forum December • Introduction to e-Learning • Digital Literacy • Assistive Technology Workshop • Promoting your LRC Service Online • Blackboard Users Forum (TBC) January • Xerte Online • Learning Resources Impact Event • Moodle eSafety course • Xerte Workshop • Virtual Worlds Forum
Contact us JISC RSC West Midlands Technology Centre Wolverhampton Science Park Glaisher Drive Wolverhampton WV10 9RU Tel: 01902 518982 E-mail: support@rsc-wm.ac.uk Web: www.rsc-wm.ac.uk
Is your library or LRC service making an impact? How can you measure its impact and use the results? These are just some of the questions to be addressed during a two day programme of workshops designed to help you effectively evaluate the impact of learning resources and library services.
The two day programme is subsidised by Cofhe West Midlands and is open to delegates from the RSC West and East Midlands regions, taking place on 16th January and 27th February 2012. To gain maximum benefit, delegates should attend both sessions. Visit the RSC website events page to make your booking at www.rsc-wm.ac.uk
New Look RSC Website During the Autumn, RSC West Midlands, along with the other 11 Regional Support Centres across the UK will benefit from a new, unified website. Currently, each RSC has its own website which means 12 separate URLs and hosting arrangements, duplication of content and possible limitations of access through regional division. The new website will unite all 12 RSCs into one single website. This will give learning providers access to general information across all of the Regional Support Centres, how they operate and the type of support on offer. Each region will have its own section in which you can find out more about specific support offered, news and events that are available to supported learning providers in that geographical area.
The site will also include an area of ‘key themes’ which features information and useful resources relating to the topics which each RSC provides covers including E-safety, Inclusivity, Business Processes, Infrastructure. How this affects you Links to our current website will no longer work however where possible, we will redirect. Some of our communication channels may change – we will notify you of proposed changes. You may need to update any bookmarks. How you will know when the new website is live We will send an e-mail out to all contacts on our database notifying you of the new website address. There will also be a redirect in place so if you visit our old website address by mistake, you will automatically be taken to the new site. Watch this space!
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