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BLE-Bulletin
Rounding up e-learning news for the Bloomsbury Colleges
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Contents 3. Other News 6. Resources |
August 2008 Please forward to any colleagues who might find this
useful Your comments and contributions are invited. Please contact Sarah Sherman [log in to unmask] |
i) APT
STAIRS Update (by Caroline Bell, Project Officer)
Since the launch of
the APT STAIRS project in June, the project team has been working hard with
their various Google Docs projects. There are currently seven demonstrator
projects running across the Bloomsbury Colleges, with more on the way! The
projects are all using Google Docs, to enhance existing working practices
through the use of online collaboration tools. The projects vary from
using Google Docs to share suggestions on new college library books (through
embedding a form on the college intranet), to using Google Docs in the
classroom via IPod Touch devices. To find out more information about the
demonstrators projects please visit http://sites.google.com/a/jiscapt.net/project-plan/Home/project-developments
The APT STAIRS team would like to
thank everyone who completed the ‘Bloomsbury Survey of Web Use’,
which had an excellent response rate, reaching over 1100. The results have
provided the team with invaluable data for research.
Finally, the APT STAIRS website www.bloomsbury.ac.uk/apt is
frequently updated, so please visit regularly for current
information. New pages on the website include the Training page
(how to use and get help with Google Docs), Demonstrator Projects (on
the various project developments) and the APT Project Blog (for a weekly
digest on collaborative tools, Google Docs and the APT Project developments).
ii) 
RVC contributes a
chapter in “Podcasting for Learning in Universities”, edited by
Gilly Salmon and Palitha Edirisingha
Congratulations
to Brian Cox, Raymond Macharia, Nick Short and Kim Whittlestone at the RVC on
the publication of their chapter on Podcasts and Resources in “Podcasting
for Learning in Universities”.
Chapter
summary: Digital technologies offer a new way of bringing many older, but
not outdated, resources back into the 21st century, and a great opportunity for
students to integrate different parts of the curriculum into their learning.
This chapter describes use of a novel technique to develop mobile podcasts
consisting of digital animated videos of old anatomical specimen pots with an
accompanying audio commentary. The purpose was to transform museum specimens
into 3D video-podcasts to depict structures and tissues in a particular area of
the body. We coined the terms ‘potcast’ and
‘potcasting’ to describe these re-incarnated anatomy pots.
http://www.atimod.com/podcasting/index.shtml
iii) SOAS
secures HEFCE Funding to support e-learning
The Learning and Teaching Unit
at SOAS has recently successfully bid for HEFCE project capital to allow us to
enhance and develop the delivery of student-facing services via the Bloomsbury
Learning Environment (BLE). The project aims to enhance the quality and
management of student-facing services, both those currently covered by the BLE
and those which are currently operating via other means. We aim to roll
many enhancements of these student-facing services into a single, coherent and
co-ordinated project which will impact positively on the student
experience. The core activities we would look at redesigning would be
integration of the BLE with Unit-E, online submission of coursework, online
course evaluation, online tutorial signup, online attendance monitoring,
enhanced e-Resource provision, a much-expanded Podcasting project encompassing
content from Faculties, student-facing services such as Careers, the LTU, and
the Library, Marketing and Student Recruitment, as well as academic content for
both potential or prospective students (e.g. a pre-sessional lecture series
delivered online) and for current students, and student-generated
content. To co-ordinate these projects we will appoint a two-year
fixed-term Learning and Teaching Services Project Officer.
2. Blackboard News
i) Interactive
Guided Tour of Project NG
Project
NG is Blackboard’s multi-release effort to deliver the next generation of
Blackboard solutions. Blackboard has created an interactive guided
tour to access over the Web which walks you through some of Project
NG's new innovations. The videos are presented in short chapters so you can
skip around or view the full tour all at once.
http://www.blackboard.com/projectng/
i) DIUS higher education debate blog
launched on JISC platform
The Secretary of
State for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS), John Denham launched a
debate on Higher Education, in February 2008 when he announced the intention to
develop a framework for Higher Education for the next ten to fifteen years. A
number of individuals and organisations were invited to make personal
contributions to this debate on relevant themes, with a view to informing and
stimulating thinking on the future of higher education. "Social media
offers new opportunities to be innovative in how DIUS engages with people
interested in higher education issues in the UK." For further
information and to make your views known on the debate blog, please go to: http://hedebate.jiscinvolve.org/
iii) Survey:
Benefits of Investment in ICT Landscape Study
JISC has
commissioned a landscape study into the benefits of investment in ICT
(Information and Communication Technology). The study team is minimising
resource demand on UK institutions in terms of data collection by using as much
existing information as possible from published sources, however we do wish to
ensure that the work fairly represents FE and HE institutions in the UK and
takes your views into account. All survey respondents will be entered into
our draw to win an Amazon voucher for £150 – the winner will be notified
in September 2008.
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=bXsGGIKuDRE11ii085z5Aw_3d_3d
iii) Education and research
sectors prepare for access management transition
Nearly 500 institutions and
organisations will complete the transition to a new open standard SAML
compliant access management system and to the UK Access Management Federation.
The federation will be providing access to approximately 8 million users across
the UK. In the past three months, membership of the Access Management
Federation has risen dramatically as educational institutions and service
providers move to take advantage of the numerous benefits of joining. These
include improved services to users, easier compliance with regulatory requirements,
reduced support requirements and improved data security. Over 90% of HE
institutions and more than half of further education providers have joined the
Federation.
iv) Podcast: Supporting users
with disabilities – challenges and opportunities
Susan Smith is a learning support
officer for Leeds Metropolitan University and Isabel Arreola is one of the
students Susan supports. In this podcast interview, they talk to Philip Pothen
about the very different challenges they face – for Susan, in
mainstreaming support services for disabled students and staff, and for Isabel,
as a blind student, in accessing the resources she needs to ensure a level
playing-field with her classmates.
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/stories/2008/07/podcast50susansmithisabelarreola.aspx
v) Strategic issues Survey
Results Published
As part
of its 2-year JISC-funded Strategy Planning
& Implementation initiative JISC infoNet recently conducted a survey of
both further and higher education institutions to identify their most pressing
strategic issues and their underlying causes. The results make for fascinating
reading and suggest that issues relating to ‘organisational
infrastructure’ are considered the most pressing challenges faced by
institutions, even eclipsing financial concerns and the stresses of operating
within an increasingly competitive, market-driven sector.
www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/strategy-planning
vi) JISC infoNet/Cimtech
Electronic Records Management Survey
As part of JISC
infoNet's ongoing work in support of record and information management within
FE and HE, they are conducting a brief survey designed to reveal current
activity, particularly in relation to the management of electronic records.
This survey has been designed by Cimtech Ltd, part of the University of
Hertfordshire, who will also assist with some of the analysis of the results
obtained. The results will be used by JISC infoNet to ensure that they continue
to devote their resources to providing tools and guidance of relevance to those
working to address information and records management issues within colleges
and universities. In particular, the results will help inform the agenda for a
one day conference being hosted by JISC infoNet in March 2009 and the scope of
a new online resource planned for the autumn of 2009.
www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/records-management/erm-survey
vii) Central reserve to store
UK's research journals
HEFCE has announced
nearly £10 million of funding for a groundbreaking collaboration between higher
education (HE) libraries led by Imperial College London and the British Library
following a successful 18-month pilot1. The funding will enable the creation of
the UKRR. UKRR is an agreement between HE and the British Library whereby the
British Library will store low-use journals for the HE community and make them
accessible to researchers and others using state-of-the-art ordering and
delivery systems.
http://www.hefce.ac.uk/news/hefce/2008/journals.htm
viii) Higher
Education Academy calls for greater recognition for university teaching
Paul Ramsden, Chief Executive of the Higher Education Academy, has called
for greater recognition for teaching in universities throughout the UK. The
call came as the Academy published its new strategic plan. This is focused on
transforming the student experience through five aims: evidence-informed
practice, brokering knowledge, strategic change, influencing policy, and raising
the status of teaching.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/news/detail/academy_2008_13_strategicplan_24Jul08
ix) National
Subject Profiles Launched
The
Higher Education Academy has launched a landmark series of publications,
researched and written by the Academy’s Subject Centres. The series,
entitled National Subject Profiles, provides contemporary characterisations of
subjects and their provision in higher education. Informed by discipline
communities and practitioners, no other tool currently provides such a
multi-faceted view of a subject.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/news/detail/national_subject_profiles
x) New CLA HE Licence
for e-Books and e-Journals
From 1 August, the new Copyright
Licensing Agency Comprehensive HE licence will provide HE institutions with extended
rights for the use of digital material. The new licence includes photocopying,
scanning, and for the first time, copying from e-books and e-journals. This
enhanced licence means that HEI’s can make use of their paper and digital
holdings for teaching.
Further details can be found on
the CLA website at - http://www.cla.co.uk/news.php?id=60.
For the latest information about
the legal side of e-learning, including copyright and Intellectual Property
Rights, join the JISC Legal mailing list here: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?SUBED1=JISC-LEGAL-NEWS&A=1
4. Training &
Events
10-12/09/08 ALPSP International Conference
West London
09/09/08 Streaming, Downloading, Encoding: Building an
Accessible Moving Image Repository
London
www.arlis.org.uk
9-11/09/08 ALT-C 2008: Rethinking
the digital divide
Leeds
http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2008/
16/09/08 Online technologies and
effective learner support
Royal Holloway, University of London
www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/sdg/Events/2008/prof_skills_Sept_08.aspx
University of East Anglia
22/09/08 Web 2.0: Not So Virtual Liability - Your
Institution, Web 2.0 and the Law
Regent's College Conference Centre
http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/events/Web2/index.htm
London
www.bl.uk/ipres2008
8-10/10/08 mLearn08
University of Wolverhampton
13-15/10/08 Handheld Learning
2008
The Barbican, London
http://www.handheldlearning2008.com/
23/10/08
National Learning in Immersive Worlds Workshop 2008
Coventry
University
http://www.elu.sgul.ac.uk/preview/blog/?p=59
27/10/08 Web 2.0: Not So Virtual Liability - Your
Institution, Web 2.0 and the Law
Regent's College Conference Centre
http://www.jisclegal.ac.uk/events/Web2/index.htm
30/10/08 Distance
learning and the law
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies, University of
London
4-7/11/08
JISC Online International Conference – Innovating e-Learning
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearning_pedagogy/elpconference08.aspx
06/11/08
Making Connections: bringing together research on e-learning and student
retention
London
http://mancons2.middlesex.wikispaces.net/
20-21/11/08
ReLIVE08
Open
University
http://www.open.ac.uk/relive08
25-26/11/08
e-Assessment in Practice
Cranfield
University
http://www.cranfield.ac.uk/dcmt/symposia/eaip08.jsp
2-4/12/08
Online 2008
Olympia
http://www.online-information.co.uk/index.html
·
TASI
(JISC’s Technical Advisory Service for Images) has announced a number of
workshops from August to December: http://www.tasi.ac.uk/training/
·
The BUFVC (British
Universities Film & Video Council) presents a programme of courses: http://www.bufvc.ac.uk/courses/booking.html
·
One day JANET
Training Courses: http://www.ja.net/services/training/schedule/by-course.html
i) JISC
http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/futurecalls
ii)
The Higher Education Academy
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/elearning/elro
iii)
Higher Education Academy Subject Centres
http://www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/funding/tdf/
i) BLE Copyright guidance
SOAS has provided guidance on how to comply
with copyright when putting material on the virtual learning environment. The
information includes guidance on what can be digitised under the School’s
scanning licence with the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), and procedures for
staff who want to use the licence to scan book chapters, journal articles etc
for delivery to students via the VLE.
http://www.soas.ac.uk/infocomp/copyright/bledetailed/bloomsbury-learning-environment-copyright-guidance-for-soas-staff.html
ii) Search Facility for Technology-Supported
Assessment Resources
The HE Academy have launched
a prototype search facility which has been developed to help users search for
technology supported assessment resources from across the Academy/JISC
collaboration network.
http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/ourwork/learning/collaboration/technology_for_assessment
iii) Intute
Launches Exemplar Scheme for Integration of Resources
Find out how to integrate Intute resources into your own site or VLE or, if
you do so already, become an ‘exemplar’ institution. http://www.intute.ac.uk/integration/
Please send comments and
contributions for next month’s BLE-bulletin to:
Sarah Sherman, BLE Service
Manager, [log in to unmask],
07515 580 385.