ELEVATE@UCS

The video (3 mins) is part of our In Discussion with Series. Which aims to share practice in how lecturers have been using appropriate technologies to enhance their teaching, assessment and the student learning experience.

This discussion is with Rachel Heathershaw (Senior Lecturer in the School of Nursing and Midwifery), around how she has been using Web Conferencing, using GoTo Meeting in her teaching. Rachel outlines how it has been used on a distance learning module. Two key message I took from this was;

• her students become comfortable with the technology so they could complete online synchronous learning activities and peer assessments
• the Elevate Team need to work out how to devolve more responsibility to allow her to record sessions

For more information on how you might use Clickers in your teaching and learning, please email the Elevate Team (elevate@ucs.ac.uk)

The Elevate Team have been helping course teams and lecturers answer the question, where to start when thinking about a distance learning course? We address this in a number of ways, however, the starting point is the coffee conversation where we’ll try to tease out some ideas around your vision, experience and the principles for an effective course. The image below summaries how we approach the first discussion. We also use this as the basis for the PGCHEP workshop we run on the topic.

If you are thinking of developing a distance learning course, module or CPD unit, we’d suggest you have a look at the questions and contact the Elevate Team (elevate@ucs.ac.uk) to start discussing your ideas. We’ll hopefully hear from you soon

The three teams within Learning Resources (Elevate, Learning Development and the Library) are redesigning their staff and student support package in line with the changing and growing needs of staff and students. The new approach will be based on problems or common scenarios which people encounter and would like help. For instance,

• how can I design an effective poster for an assignment or conference?
• how do I include multimedia in my presentations, reports and learning materials, and what should I consider when doing this?
• what are the possibilities of enhancing my teaching and assessment through the use of classroom technologies?
• how can I stay informed within my subject discipline? Harnessing Library searching and social media tools

The new workshop programme will replace the e-Skills programme which is currently available to staff.

We are keen to ensure we focus our workshop activities appropriately, therefore, it would be really useful to gather your needs, problems and common scenarios you face at work. We would really appreciate if members of staff at UCS would take 5 minutes to complete the following survey:

• http://bit.ly/ZT1tZv

We are in the process of putting the finishing touches to the UK wide Augmented Reality in Learning and Teaching Special Interest Group (http://moodle.rsc-eastern.ac.uk/course/view.php?id=216). This is aimed at all educational sectors and is a place to share ideas and experiences to help us all fathom out, what does augmented reality offer educators as a learning technology?

The aims of the SIG are:

• To develop a self-sustaining SIG and ‘community of practice’ for ‘Augmented Reality in Learning and Teaching’, that adds value, builds capacity, and stimulates partnerships and networks;
• To facilitate discussion and dissemination of the learning and teaching use, purposes and benefits of augmented reality, and to consider its future uses.
• To provide a staff development focal point for Augmented Reality practice, from ‘novice‘ to ‘expert’;
• To integrate ‘the student experience’ and ‘student views’ into these activities and deliberations;
• To be a resource for evaluation and investigation in the areas of educational augmented reality
• To coordinate a network of practitioners;
• To provide information and guidance on practice.

We’ll be launching on Friday 26th April, 11.00 to 12.00 (GMT). For more information registering for the launch, see:

• http://bit.ly/13UvV9t

We hope to see you there, the more the better

The following video was created by Aaron as part of a wider series which focusses on highlighting the enhanced tools we’ll be expecting in the LearnUCS Summer 2013 upgrade.

We think the inline feedback facility is a really important development as it allows staff to annotate a piece of student work through the web browser. Therefore, there is no need for you to download the student submission, add the feedback via track changes and upload it back to LearnUCS. This is now possible in the upgraded version to do this through the web browser

The linked video illustrates some of the ways you can annotate a submitted piece of work.

• http://www.screencast.com/t/SAZJVLrY4Z7

If you have any questions on this tool, please email the Elevate Team.

The expectation is we’ll upgrade LearnUCS during late July / Early August. The date has yet to be finalised.