Our institutional VLE Blackboard can be made to look more interesting. It’s down to you…
add images to items
think about what you can embed – Video, Slideshare, Polls and quizzes
Add links to discussion boards – and if you use these make sure you have time to contribute and set the tone (be a good cocktail party host at the start). Create an introductory post on each discussion board – it’s far too scary to be the first one who posts.
Signpost
Make the journey really clear on your course and use weekly emails/announcements to reinforce what’s to be done and reflect on what’s been good.
Information gathering: future demand for online exams and in course tests
The eAssessment and Feedback Steering Group are currently gathering information about potential demand for online exams and in course tests in the next 5 years.
We are asking all colleagues who are interested in introducing a new online exam (whether for a new module, or a change to assessment method in a current module) to complete a short online form for each potential new exam.
The information collected will be used to gauge demand and assist in planning future provision.
By Laura Delgaty, Senior Lecturer and Chair of NUTELA
Martin Weller, Professor of Educational Technology at the Open University gave us an excellent update on the digital scholar during a webinar held on 30 April 2018.
Attendees at The Digital Scholar Webinar
Using Boyer’s model of scholarship as a framework, he explained that digital scholarship increases student recruitment, engagement and research impact. By addressing scholarship and increasing open resources, we are able to attract different and larger audiences and this in itself can be a valuable research tool and method. He reviewed some valuable opportunities and threats and highlighted the value of digital scholarship for early career researchers, academics and encouraged collaboration for both staff and students.
Overall, fantastic presentation and great questions. You can find the recording here
Sonia Bussey and Dr Jo Matthan are the first successful recipients of the NUTELA Small Grants Fund. The fund was set up this academic year with the aim of helping colleagues explore and embed technology-enhanced practices into their learning and teaching.
Sonia will be using the funds to support her submission to the Three Rivers Conference where she will be delivering a ‘show and tell’ session to introduce delegates to Adobe Connect web-conferencing software as an innovative platform to support student learning at distance.
Joanna is going to be attending the International Conference AMEE to present the results of The Darkside of Technology Enhanced Learning in Medical Education.
“I am delighted to be one of the first applicants to receive a NUTELA small grant. It will allow me to explore technology-enhanced practices utilised elsewhere, disseminate some of the experiences we have gleaned from our project to a wider audience and help evaluate practices that I hope will enhance the overall student experience. The grant is an important statement to those of us on the shop-floor and, on a very practical level, illustrates that Newcastle University values even the small-scale projects we do to promote innovation in technology-enhanced learning and to evaluate the real implications of these innovations for staff and students.”
Newcastle University Technology Enhanced Learning Advocates (NUTELA) were busy in advance of this year’s Learning and Teaching Conference, reviewing all submissions relating to Technology Enhanced Learning.
Student engagement, transferability to other areas and innovation were all key in the decisions of the group.
Three fantastic winners were selected, each winning funds to further develop or disseminate their project.
From quizzing in the classroom to embedding quizzes in your recap recordings, our latest Pizza, Pop and Practice event covered them all (with a bit of a Christmas theme).
Our experts for this session were Marc Bennett (NUIT), Rebecca Gill (LTDS), Chris Graham (Mathematics, Statistics and Physics) and Carol Summerside (LTDS). They all provided a great overview of the different tools and the session ended with Laura Delgaty’s International Christmas Quiz with prizes for everyone.
The 2nd NUTELA Peer Recognition Awards took place on Friday. These awards are designed to recognise University staff who go above and beyond the call of duty to help their colleagues, schools and units to adopt forms of technology-enhanced learning (TEL).
Staff were asked to nominate someone who had helped them understand the purpose of a specific learning technology, or someone who has been instrumental in progressing TEL initiatives.
Congratulations to Jerry Hagon and Tracey Connell for winning the awards.
Both have both been integral to helping other staff to adopt innovative technologies in their teaching. The award was presented by Professor Philip Bradley, Chair of eLSI, and the winners will be invited to the Vice-Chancellor’s Celebrating Success event.
Full list of winners and nominees
Winner – Jerry Hagon – (School of Chemistry)
Winner – Tracey Connell – (FMS Graduate School)
Nominations:
Anthony Stafford
Graeme Tait
Ruth Valentine
Alex Inskip
John Moss
Nuala Davies*
Graeme Redshaw-Boxwell*
Marc Bennet*
* NUTELA Steering Group members are not eligible for prizes since they are involved in the judging process. However, some were nominated and they are recognised here.
At NUTELA (Newcastle University Technology Enhanced Learning Advocates) 3Ps workshop this week, we were learning about how to make really excellent resources for all of our students.
As both teachers and as researchers, we spend lots of time creating digital resources, how can we build in accessibility so that they can be used by the widest group of people?
For this session we explored a number of ideas:
Documents are best when they have text (not pictures of text), structure, and a sensible reading order.
– We explored this with a hands-on exercise looking at pdf accessibility.
Videos are much more accessible and useful when they have a transcript and subtitles.
– We had a look at how easy it is to add transcripts to YouTube.
Images can convey information powerfully, but how can we make these useful to people with little or no sight?
– We explored the use of images in a Sway.
You can read more about the sessions and learn how to make resources for all at the NUTELA blog.
For more information about NUTELA or to join our mailing list email us.
