Hi Ed and other colleagues,
On a quick skim of the Nottingham Trent material, I found
the academic content rather good - it certainly dealt with
the kind of issues students have raised with me.
But I found the early screens of this site lacked the light
touch I was expecting. In truth, I had expected the beagle
to provide the 'social interaction' with the students to
make them feel comfortable using the site. Shall I explain
further? I had expected a few screens where the beagle led
the students in a gently and non-threatening way into the
site, invited them to 'play' and then led them into
the grammar quiz, only then showing them the controls they
would use.
Compare the opening screens at the Nottingham Trent site
with those of the James Cook website
http://www.jcu.edu.au/studying/services/studyskills/writing/index.html
quoted earlier by Caroline Cash.
Were I a hesitant student wondering whether to enter the NT
site, I might be put off by the early screens. (Although,
once a student had scraped together their confidence and
dived into the site, the rest of it was non-threatening.)
We, at Heriot-Watt University, are just starting to pilot a
virtual learning environment in one of the schools. If
successful, a VLE will be rolled out across the University
in the next few years.
So, I'm particularly interested in the experience of others
of putting student support material, especially interactive
study advice material online.
Best wishes,
Isabelle
___________________________________________________
On Thu, 29 Jan 2004 10:50:04 -0000 "Foster, Ed"
<[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Hi all
>
> We're currently trying to develop some on-line materials
>
> We've hit a number of problems with the development of higher order
> skills, such as analysis or synthesis so we started with a grammar test
> in Questionmark Perception. We're aiming to develop a plagiarism test
> next and then try some more sophisticated writing stuff after that.
>
> http://www.ntu.ac.uk/sss/studysupport/tests/grammar_beagle.htm
>
> Enjoy :)
>
> (Feedback would of course be gratefully appreciated)
>
> Ed
>
>
>
> ______________________________
> Ed Foster
> Study Support Co-ordinator
> Student Support Services
> Nottingham Trent University
> T: 0115 848 2811
> F: 0115 848 6014
> W: http://www.ntu.ac.uk/sss
>
> I will be at City Monday and Friday available on 2811 and Clifton on
> Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday on 6346
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: H Kaur [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
> Sent: 28 January 2004 16:35
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Interactive Study Advice Materials
>
> Hello Everyone,
>
> We are developing some computer based interactive study advice
> materials. Is
> anyone else either:
>
> 1) Developing something similiar?
> 2) Aware of any existing materials they would recommend? or
> 3) Aware of easy to use software packages to write these materials?
>
> Best wishes,
>
> Harminder and Alec
> Study Advice Services
> University of Hull
--
Isabelle B Pottinger
Academic Counsellor
Heriot-Watt University
Room:3.30 Gibson-Craig Wing
Library Building
Tel: 0131 451 3062
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