Blackboard Student Survey 2011

Photo: Sharon and Lindsay at the iPod Touch prizegiving

Over 2,500 NUI Galway students completed the annual Blackboard Student Survey in April of this year. We hope to publish the findings shortly, but are very heartened that so many of students took the time to share their thoughts and suggestions about their experiences of using Blackboard as a student, at NUI Galway.

Congrats also to Lindsay (pictured above), the lucky winner of the draw for an iPod Touch!

Call for NDLR LInCS (Learning Innovation Community Support) Project Funding 2011

The call for applications to fund projects supporting the development of learning resources /materials for the NDLR Users is open. All material pertaining to the call is available from http://www.ndlr.ie/view/view.php?id=171

The deadline for applications is Friday 20th May 2011

We are issuing funds from 17th June to:
(a) Support projects that will create learning resources and
(b) Generate use and activity around these learning resources and the repository and portal.

The outputs of these projects will be showcased at the next NDLR FEST event in March 2012

Bids should focus on short, practical projects with clear identifiable outputs (i.e. resources and examples of use and reuse). The outputs of these projects should aim to actively progress and support the realisation of the new and dynamic streamlined SMART CoP model ( new CoPs and/or mergers between existing CoPs) over the next ten months.

Reviewers Rubrics and a screencast with details for completing these forms will be available on the NDLR portal ( http://www.ndlr.ie/view/view.php?id=171) over the coming days. If you have any queries about the application form or the process for completion, please do not hesitate to contact the NDLR team at helpdesk@ndlr.ie

Infection, Prevention and Control

I would like to highlight a fantastic project, titled Infection Prevention and Control, which was led by Liz Kingston, Nursing and Midwifery, University of Limerick in collaboration with NUI Galway and HSE West.

The project was supported by the NDLR and is a really brilliant reusable learning resource.

NDLR - Liz Kingston from NDLR on Vimeo.

Open Source doesn't just equal Moodle

I'm sure by now most of you will have heard of the new LMS/VLE (call it what you prefer) that is both offered as a cloud-based service or in an Open Source release that aims to challenge Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai and Desire2Learn. It's called Canvas and I took it for a 'test drive' (to use the cliche much loved of technology magazines!) recently and I have to admit that there is something pleasing about the simple, plain design. It cheered me up a little since I'd been seriously disappointed in the over-hyped but really naff Moodle 2.o. Indeed, plenty of others have commented that they have a cheek using '2.0' for software that looks as if it was designed in the 1990s. Maybe I expected too much.

Not that we have any plans to move from our official Blackboard system, but we always have kept an eye on other systems and have run test implementations of Moodle and Sakai. Moodle is also used for courses that span multiple institutions or other work that doesn't meet with Blackboard licensing requirements (ie with external organisations).

Canvas is very new and it may well get a good real world testing in Utah (where the company is based) where it has been adopted as the state-wide LMS. It has as you might expect of a new entity very basic features (and certainly nowhere near the capabilities of Blackboard in terms of assessment for example, etc), but if it can grow via Open Source, things will no doubt improve, though it does need progammers with some penchant for Ruby (Google it if this makes no sense!).

Anyway, you too can have a free course set up on their website and see what you think.

Module in Learning Technologies - Project Symposium (Part 2)

Last Monday (31st Jan) we hosted the second Project Symposium associate with our PG Diploma module in Learning Technologies. In my last post, I gave the background to the module and the expectations around the project. As before, we were treated to a range of projects, at various stages of development.

Gary (@GaryGillanders) spoke about how he is developing video material to supplement laboratory manuals in Physics. He is using short video clips, accessible via the VLE (Blackboard) to replicate in-lab demonstrations of equipment, software and procedures. So far, he has used Jing for screencasts of software demonstrations, and also recorded some equipment demos and put them up on blip.tv. Although it is still too early to evaluate the usefulness of the videos, initial feedback from students in positive.

Anne (@annecegan) told us of her plans to use podcasts to support students of Family Law. She has a plan to match short podcasts with tutorial topics, summarising materials and pointing to additional reading. She has some concerns over the possibility of excluding some part-time, mature students.

Martina (@mkellygsac) spoke about using wikis for supporting first year programming students. She is hoping to promote active learning, improved collaboration and to improve the first year experience.

Mark (@MarkKelly7) gave a very entertaining talk called "..distracted from distraction by distraction.." (quoted from T.S. Elliot) where he describes his investigation of the contribution of various web 2.0 technologies to the learning space. He has been using podcasts for providing feedback on student work; he has developed a blog specifically for the module; students will be asked to blog as part of the assessment and Mark is developing a rubric for evaluating these; and an accompanying twitter account has been set up. Initial results are positive.

Finally, Una (@unafitz) described her development of a module on Scientific Writing for postgraduate students. She has started to use screencasts and described her frustrations around learning to use Camtasia to produce short videos. Ultimately, the module will be particularly useful as a shared resource, available to a range of postgraduate programmes via the VLE.

Now that our participants have presented their work to peers, and received some encouragement and feedback, I am looking forward to watching their projects develop. Project reports are due in now and, together with recordings from the presentations, will provide a fantastic record of the development of the use of learning technologies in Teaching and Learning at NUI Galway.

Module in Learning Technologies - Project Symposium (Part 1)

At NUI Galway, I co-ordinate a module in Learning Technologies (cel263) which is offered as part of our Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice. The module is taken by academic staff as part of a professional qualification in Teaching and Learning, mostly in NUIG but open to staff from other institutions. This year the module had 9 participants from across an array of disciplines in NUIG and three participants from the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology (GMIT).

Now in its third year, participants in the module have a range of experience with using technology in teaching, from "very little" to "vast". Some need a lot of support and encouragement, while others are willing to try anything. The module is organised as a series of 7 stand-alone workshops, each based on a particular technology, including guest lecturers, online resources, demonstrations, practical sessions, discussion, research and reflection. We try to focus on teaching & learning, showing how a technology might support these activities, rather than on the technology itself.


Each participant carries out a project as part of the module assessment, which should be integrated into their own teaching context. Our aim for the project is to move each staff member beyond the comfort zone, to try something new in their teaching in a supported environment. In the short time available, it is challenging to scope, plan, implement and evaluate a new initiative, on top of the busy hours already worked by this group of people.

I was very proud, therefore, to sit in at the first of a project symposium event yesterday, where six of our class presented on their project work. Each person has taken up the challenge and has moved beyond the comfort zone. Many of the initiatives are in early phases of development, but all have clear goals and plans for improving the learning experience through the use of technology in teaching.

Vincent (@VincentNUIG) shared his plans for using a social network in preparing students for a year abroad in the Erasmus programme. Students already abroad will share their experiences; students preparing students for the year abroad. He made a nice link between stepping out of his comfort zone (in technology) and helping students about to step out of theirs (by moving to another country).

Brendan (@brendanmflynn) launched his academic blog on Environmental policy + EU policies + other stuff, explaining why he blogs and how it can help to combine his teaching and research interests.

Mel (@MelOBoland), using a pecha kucha style for his presentation, talked about bilingual blogging with his students in a translation module, and how this might support collaborative learning. Although just introduced with his students, already it is proving popular with some positive initial outcomes.

Maureen (@maureenjmaloney) spoke about using social media to develop graduate networks. She spoke about her goals and some thoughts around using LinkenIn for graduates and Facebook for current and future students. Some nice examples already in her College are the School of Law (which I blogged about previously) and the J.E. Cairns School of Business and Economics facebook pages.

Noreen (@noreenhenry) discussed her ventures into podcasting, to deepen understanding and learning, and to link theory, case study and team project for her students. She has already produced 8 podcasts of about 5-6 minutes in length, and has made them available to students. Though take-up is low so far, she anticipates that students will make more use in the coming months as they start their projects. She made the interesting point that mature students in technology-based subjects may be less receptive to the introduction of technology in teaching, perhaps because there is less of a novelty factor for them.

Dara (@DaraCannon) has also started producing podcasts in a MSc programme, for giving individual feedback (audio) and also preparing demonstration videos. She is already noticing some advantages, adding her tone of voice and personality to individual feedback, as well as providing a useful record. But she wonders if it will actually save her time?

I really enjoyed the presentation yesterday and look forward to seeing these initiatives develop over time. Six more students present their work next week.

One final point that came up yesterday is that, in future, academics may have less time to embark on initiatives like this. Despite the potential enhancements to the student learning experience, activities of this nature aren't always seen to tick boxes on the academic workload model and are often unrecognised as productive use of time.

Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning 2011

The Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning has been awarded annually by the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) and Dublin City University (DCU) since 2009. The award recognises and rewards innovative practice in teaching and learning in Ireland.

Previous award winners are John O'Connor (DIT) for his work on the module "Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?" in 2010, and the Bridge to College Initiative from TCD in 2009.

Nominations are now invited for the 2011 Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, for an innovative idea which must have been implemented. Nominations should be submitted before Monday 7th February. Further details are available at the awards site.

NUI Galway School of Law on Facebook

A couple of weeks ago, I had a coffee with Michael Coyne (@MichealCoyne on twitter) of the NUI Galway School of Law. I was interested in finding out a little bit more about the School's presence on Facebook. The site currently has more than 400 fans and is a very nice example of using facebook to enhance the student experience.

Michael made some interesting points.

The site is mainly aimed at final year undergraduate students, but also targets recent graduates and prospective students. It offers some useful course-related information such as timetables and announcements, more general information about upcoming seminars and career advice and whatever is considered newsworthy or of interest to law students, past and present.

It’s also a good platform for current PhD students who actively blog on human rights and disability issues to highlight their work and perhaps make contact with like-minded people.

This is seen as a good way to reach students. Michael's perception is that just 60% of students read their university email on a regular basis, but they do use Facebook. Although no formal evaluation has taken place, anecdotal evidence shows improved interaction and an increase in seminar attendance.

This raises some issues around how Facebook can be used to replace/supplement use of the VLE (Blackboard 8 at NUI Galway). Blackboard also offers the facility of making announcements and providing information. Michael points out that Blackboard is not used consistently by staff in the Law School, a fact which might contribute to the popularity of the Facebook site.

One critical aspect to keeping the Facebook page current is that it must be updated and monitored regularly, there must be somebody responsible for the administration of the site. He particularly acknowledges the support of admin staff in the College of Business, Public Policy and Law.

The page is open to anyone, so it also serves as a useful marketing tool, particularly to potential students of Law. There is a deliberate attempt to include lots of pictures and videos, and the site is seen as a way of improving the web profile of the School.

Reflections on attending the JISC online conference

Last week, November 23-26, I "attended" the JISC online conference Innovating E-Learning 2010, Bringing innovation to life: from adversity comes opportunity.

This was the 5th JISC online conference, attracting 475 delegates from 11 countries. For a registration fee of about €60, I had access to a number of excellent keynote presentations and invited speakers, using Elluminate, discussion areas and other resources.

I didn't manage to get to all the sessions, which were arranged in two themes: Realising the Potential and Realising the Value. I participated in the following live sessions:

Theme 1
Learning to Live in Interesting Times - What are Educational Institutions for? Keri Facer
Transforming Assessment for Learning in a Digital Age David Boud
What do students really want? Usman Ali

Theme 2
Is the Future Mobile? Graham Browne-Martin
Sustaining OER Innovation through Collaboration and Partnership Simon Thomson and Andy Beggan

I missed a few sessions, but the great thing about the online conference is that these Elluminate sessions were recorded and I can go back and look at them any time. In fact, all the recordings will be publicly available on the JISC website sometime in 2011. A couple of people have already blogged about the sessions, including Doug Belshaw and Cath Marlowe. James Clay was the official conference blogger, but his excellent conference blog is not available to non-delegates.

All the live sessions took place within the Elluminate environment and were followed up with discussion opportunities on the conference site boards. During the live sessions, participants could use the interactive features within Elluminate, including chat and voting options. There was also a healthy twitter backchannel using the #jiscel10 hashtag.

So, what (for me) are the attractions of attending an online conference, and what are the disadvantages?

The main advantage is convenience. I get access to wonderful speakers without having to travel, without leaving my family for a couple of days, without having to stay in some horrible hotel in a city I don't know. I can still discuss themes with an international peer group, although the medium is different.

In fact, on day one of the conference, I was at home - sick with flu. I couldn't have gone to work, and I certainly couldn't have travelled anywhere. But I was able to "attend" three very worthwhile conference sessions, in my pyjamas, hot flu-busting drink beside me, and go back to bed in between! If the wifi had worked sufficiently well in the bedroom, I wouldn't even have had to leave my bed.

The second advantage, for me, is that I am much more likely to interact with other delegates in the online environment. In a face-to-face setting, I'm quite shy and likely to stand around at coffee breaks pretending to be very busy checking email on my Blackberry, unless there are people that I know. Online, I am still self-conscious, but no longer a lurker.

Despite comments by Graham Brown-Martin (@grahamBM) in his talk, I really liked the Elluminate platform and thought it worked quite well in the context of the conference. Academics at NUI Galway have used Elluminate in the past for teaching students in Clinical Education.

However, despite much investigation and complaining, I still cannot access Elluminate on my office machine over the fixed network. I have no problem at home, and no problem on the campus wifi network. So, I had to do a little forward planning and ensure I had a laptop set up in my office for the duration of the conference. Working on two machines side by side is not something that I find easy.

The other issue with an online conference is that you have to be very organised to participate fully. If you are travelling to a conference, you make time from your day-t0-day work and will not be distracted by phone calls, unimportant email and calls for coffee. To really participate, I should have stayed at home all week, away from the distractions in my office.

However, I did get a lot from the experience. I enjoyed the talks and will make time to follow up on the ones I missed (just not from my office desktop). Value for money? Certainly, especially when you factor in travel and accommodation expenses!

Tweet

PAISAGE: plurilingualism and cultural awareness in language learning

On Monday afternoon, the European Day of Languages, we were invited along to the launch of PAISAGE, an Irish/Spanish project for the teaching and learning of both languages. PAISAGE stands for Portal Audiovisual Intercultural sobre el Aprendizaje de Gaélico y Espanol. It is a NAIRTL-funded project aimed at linking linguistic and cultural learning in Irish and Spanish, carried out by Dorothy Ní Uigín (Acadamh na hOllscolaíochta Gaeilge) and Pilar Aldarete (Spanish), both academic staff members at NUI Galway.

Dorothy and Pilar have developed a range of resources including videos in both languages showing aspects of NUI Galway and its surrounds; interviews with Spanish students living in Ireland and Irish students living in Spain; interviews with professionals working in both languages and cultures; grammar explanations contrasting both languages; grammar exercises to accompany the videos. All resources are linked to the levels in the Common European Framework of Reference for Languages.

The videos are being made available on YouTube under the gaeilgespainnis channel. More videos are to be added, pending permission from the interviewees. The accompanying exercises are hosted on google docs, and you can contact Dorothy or Pilar for access to these.

In this video (level A1) Universidad de Galway, Pilar voices over a video showing the NUI Galway campus.



Tweet

Blogtalk Galway 2010 (Day 2)

It has now been 2 weeks since the second day of Blogtalk 2010, but some of the themes have been mulling around in my brain since then, even though I haven't had time to write about them. As before, most of my comments will be from a teaching and learning in Higher Education perspective.

Unfortunately, I missed a lot of day 2. But I was lucky to be present at the first keynote of the day, given by Stowe Boyd. This was the highlight of the conference for me.

Stowe Boyd (keynote) Social media blur: blogs, networks, streams
Stowe Boyd talked about the development of blogging and social media over the last 10 years and also gave us a glimpse of a possible future. The blog culture has changed and people are not blogging as much any more. How many blogs do you know where the most recent entry is 3 or 4 months ago and the message is "I must get back to blogging"? People like the immediacy of social networking and social conversations such as twitter. Where people are blogging, they are linking this into their "streams", directing people to blog posts. Boyd also pointed out that comments on blogs are not social conversations, but people are using social streams (like twitter) to comment on blogs.

I found this interesting from my own work perspective in two ways. First, my blogging habits have definitely slowed. When I do write, my posts are more thoughtful. Quick links and pointers I leave to my twitter persona.

My second observation, though, is that the use of social media in teaching and learning is a long way behind the trend indicated in Stowe Boyd's talk. In supporting academic staff use of learning technologies, we are still moving people along from discussion boards, to using student blogs for reflection and wikis for collaboration. For the majority of staff, these are new and exciting ways to engage students. The use of facebook or twitter in teaching and learning, while happening, is still unproven for the majority of teaching staff.

As for the future, I was relieved to hear that it is not facebook. In the future, the "like" button will be part of the operating system. The next generation of operating system will contain social interactions as primitive; users will take this as a given.

I missed most of the rest of the day, including the keynote by Deanna Lee from the New York Public Library. (Deanna Lee keynote) However, I did manage to get back in time for the afternoon panel session.


Panel Session on The rise of location-based media sharing and social networks
This was chaired by Mark Cahill (Social Bits), and involved Laurent Walter Goix (Telecom Italia), Fergus Hurley (Clixtr) and Ronan Skehill (Cauwill Technologies).

I'll be honest, I don't get location-based social networking. Maybe I'm too old - I'm certainly older than Fergus Hurley's sister! I hate to think of people being able to track my every movement. So, this was an interesting session for me. Mark Cahill gave a good case from the marketing point of view, but I don't want to be such an easy target.

Mark asked the questions "Why do people check-in? What is the value of a check-in?" I can see the use if you are a stranger in a foreign land looking for recommendations of where to go and what to do. There was some discussion about whether people would check-in (clock-in?) at work, or if it is because people want to be "seen" in a particular location. The consensus seemed to be that you check-in if there is some benefit for you, and Foursquare has not (yet) found the right application.

So, I'm wondering, what would entice a student to check-in to a lecture? We're having this discussion at the moment as we support the launch of a College of Science PRS "clicker" initiative. The focus of the initiative is to engage students, but there is a fear (among students) that the devices will be used to track attendance. Maybe we can introduce a reward scheme for lecture attendance, such as "Mayor of the O'Flaherty Theatre", or it could show up in their twitter feed "I'm at the Kirwan Theatre w/300 others". I don't think so.

I also got to hear talks from Gabriela Avram and Brian O'Donovan, Who am I: social identity in enterprise social networking, and Ted Vickey, Social media and LinkedIn for business. Both of these were interesting and enjoyable, though probably less relevant for T&L in HE.

Tweet

Blogtalk Galway 2010 (Day 1)

Last Thursday and Friday I attended some of Blogtalk 2010, taking place on the campus here at NUI Galway. Of course, attending a conference on campus means that you get called away to meetings and try to keep up with email and issues as they arise during the day. So, I didn't get to as many sessions as I'd have liked. But I did very much enjoy those sessions I did see.

The conference was very well organised by John Breslin, leader of the Social Software unit at DERI, co-founder of boards.ie and member of staff in the Electrical and Electronic Engineering discipline at NUI Galway.

Unlike some of the other bloggers who have written about the conference (Mark Cahill, Emer Lawn), I was there very much from a teaching and learning in Higher Education perspective. So any of my comments will be from that angle.

DAY 1

Darragh Doyle (boards.ie) who we are, what we do, where we are going
This was a great talk from Darragh Doyle about boards.ie which is quite unique, there is nothing else like it in Ireland or the UK. It is the most popular forum in Ireland and Darragh suggested that it has replaced the town hall in the community. What I find interesting is the social networking going on in the NUIG forum, with students asking questions about their courses and college life before they even arrive on campus. Everyone is welcome and every question is answered, sometimes helpfully, and other times with a large dose of mis-information. It's a lesson for those of us who spend so much time trying to get accurate information out to students.
Anyway, Darragh's talk has inspired me to actually register with boards.ie, though I haven't posted anything yet, I'm doing a bit of lurking.

After the first talk, I had to attend meetings and follow up on a couple of small crises before they got any bigger. So I didn't get back to the conference until lunchtime.

Dan Gillmor (Keynote) A new kind of media literacy
Dan Gillmor is director at the Knight Center for Digital Media Entrepreneurship and a respected American technology writer. He raised some interesting points around the question "what is journalism" in this world where everybody can easily report on what is happening around them. I was particularly interested in his point that consumers need skills in judging the credibility of news. They need a "credibility scale", which should include negative points. Of course, this is something that we've been aware of for a long time in HE, with many major initiatives around information literacy for students. Wikipedia is the least of our worries.
Gillmor wants to persuade consumers to be "active media users", to be sceptical of everything. This is an extremely important life skill, which should be addressed not just in higher education, but also at first and second level.
Finally, Gillmor spoke about principles for journalists (accuracy, thoroughness, fairness, transparency, independence). He asked why there isn't a revision history for journalism; at least with wikipedia we can trace where the information came from.


Charles Dowd (Facebook) The Facebook Platform
Charles Dowd has the "best job in Europe", as manager of platform operations in Europe. He described how popular facebook has become, particularly in Ireland where there are 1.4 million monthly active users (and I am one). He spoke about the "like" button and how it works - just 5 "friends" liking something is a magic number.
After this, though, things got scary, as Dowd spoke about the facebook future and the ways that applications will be able to interface with our data. I know I wasn't the only person in the room with concerns, but probably among the minority. Sure, we can set our own privacy levels, but there are also social norms involved and I'm not sure that these are being considered.

Panel Session on Social networks versus conversational networks
This was chaired by Ade Oshineye (Google) and involved Charles Dowd (Facebook), Blaine Cook (Osmosoft) and Darragh Doyle (boards.ie).
Ade presented a nice social network spectrum with social at one end (Facebook) and conversational at the other (Twitter). The classification was interesting, and reflects my own use of the tools, but is an oversimplification. The lines are definitely becoming blurred and, as Darragh Doyle put it, what about social conversation?
There was an interesting conversation about authenticity. Apparently Facebook supports authentic identities and connections, reflecting the real world. Hmmm.

At this point, I had to get back to work and so missed the final keynote of the day from Bill Liao. By all accounts it was excellent, so I'm looking forward to seeing the recording when it becomes available.
(Update: here it is Bill Liao Keynote)

Post about DAY 2 to follow....

Tweet