Blackboard Course Sites

Posted on 10 June, 2011 by Ashley Wright

I have just signed up to experiment with the Blackboard (Bb) Course Sites feature. It allows you to create your own online course using Blackboard.
It offers a range of styles and technical features which will be of interest to those that are regular users of Bb. I like the broad range of CSS you can choose from, far more than are offered in the production systems offered in Learn and Organization. Will this be avialable in 9.1 later this year? I shall be having a look at this in depth this coming month.

XPERT – (Xerte Public E-learning ReposiTory)

Posted on 3 November, 2010 by Ashley Wright

XPERT – project is a JISC funded rapid innovation project (summer 2009) to explore the potential of delivering and supporting a distributed repository of e-learning resources.

It has a very useful search facility that allows you to attribute resources to the original creator. A great resource for finding and using images and video without fear of copyright infringement.

You can see what XPERT is about and why it is useful by watching this video clip:

Intro to E-Learning by JISC Digital Media

Posted on 27 September, 2010 by Ashley Wright

A useful introduction to e-Learning with links to several useful resources and other JISC services.

ALT-C 2010 Reflections

Posted on 14 September, 2010 by Ashley Wright

Socialising at the ALT-C Gala Dinner

My main thoughts about the 3 days last week are:

Open Educational Resources (OERs) are gaining in prominence and importance
Use of smart phones/mobile devices in teaching and learning will increase dramatically after xmas 2010
Lecture Captue is pushing forward in HE sector but Copyright still unresolved
Pressures politically for all HEIs to use learning technology more effectively, and/or start using it
Lectures – Is it the most useful and efficient method for reaching large student cohorts? In some instances, yes it is.

Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference 2010, Swansea, Wales

Posted on 21 April, 2010 by Ashley Wright

Swansea Marina as viewed from the Maritime Museum

The notes listed below are some of my own thoughts regarding the conference. Comments from visitors welcomed as always:
http://www.bbworld.com/2010/TeachingAndLearning/content.asp?id=1621

Detailed Programme: http://bb.blackboard.com/Swansea2010Schedule/

Day 1

Conference Keynote – Ray Henderson

At Bb sales conference in January the overwhelming message that they received was regarding the Durham Conference and the issues clients had who had migrated to 9.0 in the summer. This cannot happen again…
Tripled the resource involved with handling/resolving case issues (don’t know the absolute numbers)
An approach of consulting, receiving feedback and suggestions from clients was very much stressed by Ray. As an indicator of this Continue reading →

Durham Bb Users’ Conference – Thoughts

Posted on 11 January, 2010 by Ashley Wright

Durham Cathedral as viewed from Durham Castle 05.01.10

Hello all.

What a couple of snowy days this turned out to be! Although weather apart, I thought this was very well attended, even up to the very last session on the second day.

I find that of all the conferences, seminars or symposiums I have attended in the last few years this is without doubt the most useful and relevant to me in terms of my job role and day to day activities. The presenters are of a high standard and knowledgeable about what they do – which helps greatly as most of them are practitioners.

The main pointers I have gleened are:

Single sign on for multiple systems (external especially) is still a big issue
Institutional VLE regarded as the core tool and other tools/services added as required
If Blackboard make a mess of the release of 9.1 they are in big trouble with HEIs in the UK
Start promoting Bb 9 to staff asap
Students are not necessarily web 2.0 or more specifically web savvy/literate
Students are still students and we some times miss this issue in the web hyperbole

Many thanks to Malcolm Murray, the LT staff and Durham University for hosting a well run and professional event.

Durham is 10!

Posted on 23 November, 2009 by Ashley Wright

The Tenth Annual Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference will be held on Tuesday the 5th and Wednesday the 6th of January 2010.
http://www.dur.ac.uk/lt.team/blog/?page_id=405

Theme
We are inviting presentations at this conference which explore the opportunities and challenges that social networking tools offer to the more traditional (some might say ‘monolithic’) institutional online learning environments. The following examples are meant to be illustrative rather than definitive:

Now that social networking tools are legion, do we still need institutional VLEs? Should we all follow the lead of Michael Wesch, abandon Blackboard and run our classes using free web-based tools such as netvibes?
Do students want staff to get involved in their use of tools such as facebook, or is this the quickest way to kill it off? Are there educational applications for facebook?
If students want to learn using their mobile phone rather than their laptop, where does that leave Blackboard?
What can you teach someone in 140 characters? Is Twitter just for ‘Twits’ ? – That was the word David Cameron used, wasn’t it? :^)
If we embrace connectivism, should we be assessing who student’s know rather than just what they know? I’m not suggesting you grade people by the number of friends they have in facebook, but could/should we go further than the open book exam? How could we measure this?
Does it matter if student learning is occurring online in places we can’t access, audit or learn from ourselves?
Amid all the excitement, are we forgetting to ask who is excluded from the Web 2.0 world?
We will also consider proposals for Discussions or Papers on any other topics that you think the community would find of interest.

ALT-C 2009, Manchester, UK

Posted on 29 September, 2009 by Ashley Wright

Conference web site: http://www.alt.ac.uk/altc2009/

All keynote and invited speakers can be viewed here: http://alt-c.blip.tv/

I attended this conference with colleagues of mine and was involved with a wide range of workshops, presentations and seminars. The highlights for me were: Continue reading →

US Report – Online Learning as a Strategic Asset

Posted on 2 September, 2009 by Ashley Wright

The Association of Public and Land-grant Universities-Sloan National Commission on Online Learning have produced a report detailing the views of administartors and faculties regarding online learning.

The report comprises two volumes, Online Learning as a Strategic Asset, contains the results of 231 interviews conducted with administrators, faculty, and students at 45 public institutions across the United States and more than 10,700 responses from faculty across the spectrum of teaching positions.

The two volumes can be accessed here:

Volume I: A Resource for Campus Leaders

Volume II: The Paradox of Faculty Voices: Views and Experiences with Online Learning

ASKe

Posted on 9 June, 2009 by Ashley Wright

Assessment Standards Knowledge exchange (ASKe) – is the Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning based at Oxford Brookes University Business School. It was set up in summer 2005 with a £4.5 million award (spread over five years) from HEFCE in recognition of good practice based on pedagogic research into aspects of assessment carried out by staff in the Business School and the Oxford Centre for Staff and Learning Development.

ASKe runs a series of seminars and workshops that staff can attend. They are delivered and organised in a variety of ways – all information can be browsed on their website: http://www.brookes.ac.uk/aske/

Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference

Posted on 15 January, 2009 by Ashley Wright

I attended the ninth annual Durham Blackboard Users’ Conference on January 8th and 9th. This was my second attendance at the conference, however, this time I presented at one of the sessions along with my colleague.

We presented on a project I am involved with at work which is about lecture and event capture implementation and use (ReCap). From the feedback we’ve received it was a successful presentation, with several questions fielded afterwards. I think in the near future we will be welcoming several visits from other HEIs and FEs about our service.

Full details about the conference can be found here.

Here is the PowerPoint presentation of our talk.

Durham Bb Conf 2009 Lecture and Event Capture

View more presentations or upload your own. (tags: university newcastle)

The facilities offered by Durham University for the event were first class. The Calman Learning Centre was a great venue, well equiped, spacious and a great vista of Durham City with the Cathedral being the focal point. I look forward to the next one in January 2010.

The Times: UK Good University Guide 2009

Posted on 3 November, 2008 by Ashley Wright

http://extras.timesonline.co.uk/tol_gug/gooduniversityguide.php

As is usual with this list Oxbridge are at the top. Newcastle are placed in joint 20th spot alongside glasgow. Our nearby North East neighbours of the 1994 Group, Durham and York are 8th and 9th respectively.

Here is a link to a web page explaining how the tables are calculated:
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/education/good_university_guide/article2235223.ece

League tables are not ideal in my opinion at measuring how Universities perform. However, prospective students and their parents need some form of measure in order to make a comparison. Although if you look at some of the indices used the “older/traditional” universities are heavily favoured. For example look at the Services and Facilities spend, and Research Quality columns.

Free Courses Online at the Top 10 Universities

Posted on 14 July, 2008 by Ashley Wright

Top 10 Universities With Free Courses Online

#1 UC Berkeley

Berkeley offers podcasts and webcasts of professors lecturing. Each course has an RSS feed so you can track each new lecture. For printable assignments and notes you can check the professors homepage, which is usually given in the first lecture or google their name. Even though the notes, homework and tests are not directly printed in the berkeley website, as they are in MIT and other courseware sites, it’s not a problem to find them.

Visit: Berkeley Webcasts
Visit: Berkeley RSS Feeds
Visit: UC Berkeley on Google Video

#2 MIT Open Courseware

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology is ranked 7th nationally in the United States. Many of the courses do not have video lectures. Instead, they have notes in PDF format along with tests and homework.

Visit: MIT OpenCourseware Course Listings
Visit: MIT OpenCourseware Online Textbooks
Visit: MIT Courses With Video Lectures
Visit: MITWorld Public Videos
Visit: MIT Pocast: ZigZag

Getting the Most Out of MIT OCW

Since MIT OCW is heavily based on opening PDF files it’s recommended you download FoxIt Reader, a freeware PDF reader that’s many times faster than the bulky and slow adobe acrobat. Also Ghost Script in combination with GSView is able to read pdfs, and post scripts files.

Download: Foxit Reader

#3 Carnegie Mellon’s Open Learning Initiative

Carnegie Mellon is a private research university ranked equal with Berkeley. Though registration is not required they have a registered user mode that allows you to keep track of your scores and progress. The courses are basically ebooks in a frame-based easy to use navigation system with an occasional powerful interactive Java Applet for practice and testing.

Visit: Carnegie Mellon OLI

#4 Utah State OpenCourseWare

Utah State has a very familiar structure as MIT OCW with large available course listing.

Visit: Utah State Course Listings

#5 Tufts OpenCourseWare

Tufts University in Massachusetts has a very familiar structure as MIT OCW with large available course listing.

Visit: Utah State Course Listings

#6 Openlearn

Open University’s OpenLearn supported by The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation. Contains many online course and a different style content management system, powered by Moodle.

Visit: OpenLearn

#7 JHSPH OCW

Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health offers health based lecture notes and assigments. You’ll find the JHSPH OCW website uses the same familiar navigation structure as MIT OCW.

Visit: JHSPH OCW Course Listings
Visit: Johns Hopkins University Podcasts

#8 Connexions

CNX.org is an open-content library of course materials developed by Rice University. It has a huge database of content which is very useful for people who know what they’re looking for. It does have ebook style higher level courses courses you can choose from.

Visit: Connexions
Visit: Connexions Course List

#9 Sophia

Initiative is led by Foothill College which contains 8 free courses.

Visit: Sofia

#10 University of Washington Computer Science & Engineering

Contains posted lectures and classnotes. Some of the courses even contain video lectures.

http://www.cs.washington.edu/education/course-webs.html

Notre Dame OpenCourseware

http://ocw.nd.edu/

Wikiversity

From the creators of wikipedia, Wikiversity describes itself as being a community seeking to create and use learning materials and activities. Wikibooks is also incredibly powerful already containing everything from a detailed guide to learning French to Organic Chemistry and Nanotechnology.

Visit: Wikiversity
Visit: Wikibooks

Archive.org Education

Visit: Archive.org Education

Honorable Mention: Peoi.org

Visit: Peoi.org

Tangible Benefits of E-Learning in HE

Posted on 17 June, 2008 by Ashley Wright

JISC InfoNet Tangible e-Learning A series of case studies have been compiled by JISC infoNet, The Higher Education Academy and the Association for Learning Technology (ALT). The web page explaining the project, the publication and the list of case studies can be browsed to at this link .

Having read the publication it is interesting to see the wide range of tools being used across subjects and across the sector. Here are a few, to whet your appetite; e-assessment at Leeds Met (Applied Tech & Finance) and Nottingham Uni (Medical School), video-conferencing at Swansea Uni and e-portfolio system at Wolverhampton Uni (Nursing and midwifery).

Due to the nature of publications the case studies are about two to three years old. I think this document is intrinsically useful but also on a personal level gets you thinking creatively about how you would like to teach some topics yourself.

QA/QE in E-Learning

Posted on 11 June, 2008 by Ashley Wright

Qulity Street sweets On Monday I attended a one-day Workshop on “Effective application of quality assurance & enhancement procedures to courses using e-learning” @ the University of Teesside. The event was attended by practitioners in e-learning from across the HEI sector. It was a useful day for me to discover how other institutions view QA and what e-Learning projects are being undertaken on the Pathfinder projects.

The IoE delivered the workshop in a professional and engaging way.

Thanks for this quote from Bob Hunter at Birmingham Uni which is originally attributed to Lewis Elton @ UCL. The difference between QA and QE:

“QA is about doing things better and QE is about doing better things.”

Ashley's Online Journal

Musings on learning technology and running

Category Archives: Higher Education