Learning Services release three online workshops for December 2014

The Learning Services team have released three online workshops for December 2014. The topics are;

1. Getting started with information sources
2. Essay Structure
3. e-Portfolios for the reflective learner

How are the courses managed?

The online workshops are managed through the Coursesites platform by Blackboard. In the majority of cases they are open to anyone. However, some of the courses are for UCS student and staff only, as they use UCS software or require UCS accounts. The courses which are UCS only are clearly labelled "UCS Only".

A number of the courses at tutor lead, therefore, these have set start and end dates. These are clearly labelled "Tutor Led", and will include the start and end dates, and a sign up form. The other courses are student led, and self paced.

All of the courses integrate other online support materials and how to guides, including Learning Service's Assignment Toolkit

What do I get for completing the course?

Inline with our face to face workshops, as recognition of successfully completing the online course you will be awarded a certificate and open badge as recognition of the skills and knowledge you have acquired. More information see the video below (a short story about open badges)




How do I enrol on Learning Services UCS: Study Skills Online (lsucssto1)?

The courses are being taught using CourseSites by Blackboard, an online platform for organizing and securely sharing course materials, online lectures, discussion and other learning activities. To request enrollment into the courses, follow the steps below:

• Launch a browser and enter the following URL to the course home page: https://www.coursesites.com/s/_lsucssto1
• Once at the course home page, click the Request Enrollment button.
• Enter a valid email address and your full name in the corresponding fields.
• Optionally, edit the Subject.
• Optionally, edit the message. The name you enter in the Full Name field will be automatically entered into the signature of the message.
• Click Submit to send your request.

Shortly after, you will be sent to you a course invitation. Follow the link to confirm and register. When signing up, take note that you can register using existing account information from popular web services like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Gmail, Yahoo and Windows Live to make it easier to login.

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If you would like more information, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

Designing effective presentations: Getting started with Google Slides

The session on designing effective presentations focusses on; the presentation life cycle, storyboarding, the role of the audience, handling questions, your body position, tips around screen design (use of text, bullets, images, video and animation) etc., However, we don't actually create anything in the session. 

Given, we don't create a presentation, and I used Google Slides (if you have a gmail account, you have access to google slide: http://www.google.co.uk/slides/about/). I thought I'd share the following silent movie, I create to demonstrate how to get started with Google Slides.

The background is I'd like to demonstrate the ease of authoring, sharing this with co-authors (group members) and exporting as a powerpoint to submit as your assignment. The key tasks are;

• give the presentation a name
• set the theme and transitions
• insert a title page
• insert a slide with an embedded video
• insert a slide with an embedded image
• inset a slide with some bulleted text
• share the presentation with others so they can edit
• export in a powerpoint format

If you have any questions, please contact Learning Services (learningservices@ucs.ac.uk)

Observations from recent presentations: how can we improve?

As part of the Elevate Team role, we are often asked to record student presentations for assessments. The following are a few observations from a recent set of recordings. The question is, do you do these? and if so, how might you improve your presentations?

The following observations are not exclusive, and are intended to make you reflect on your practice.

• Reading notes - this is OK, but try to use small cards and not A4 pieces of paper. From the observers perspective it is more obvious when reading of A4 than a small card. The use of small cards will encourage you to simply points, and expand. Which will also encourage you to slow down and not rush what you are saying. If you rush, the audience will not follow your argument.
• Positioning - often you need to present as part of group work, so think about where and how you stand when you aren't presenting. Try not to hunch over reading your notes, but stand up and engage the audience with eye contact and smiles.
• Positioning - don't stand in front of the display (projection area) if you are presenting. As an observer, you get in the way, and also it becomes more difficult (without turning around) to refer to the presentation.
• Use of Technology - keep it simple and effective. If slides go wrong it is very confusing for you, and this sense of anxiety quickly spreads to the audience. Think hard about transitions between slides
• The Audience - engage with the audience through eye contact, smiles, and questions. Remember, they need to feel part of the presentation if they are to follow your argument and suggestions.
• The slides - you need to think carefully about the role of the slides, what are they going to accomplish. If you are using them, you need to refer to them. Don't leave it up to the audience to read them and try to connect those ideas to your presentation
• The slides - think about the text and images ... less is more

If we assume you'd like to improve the effectiveness of your presentations, what can you do? We'd suggest, contacting Learning Services for information on the next workshop session.

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With Thanks - Image - http://piciandpici.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/bored-people1.jpg

Thoughts from this weeks workshop programme

Lots of fun with Mind Mapping

I've run two session from this weeks programme (Enhancing Employability, and Effective Presentation) and really enjoyed the use of MindMup (http://mindmup.com) as a means of collective ideas from those attending. I was particularly pleased when I asking what they wanted from the session, when one attendees said, learn how to use the tool you are using to collect and manage our ideas.

If you'd like to know more about MindMup, it's referenced within the following slides.


Getting organised with RefWorks

Halfway through the Learning Services workshop week and it’s time to get organised with RefWorks.

Finding a way to keep track of and organise your sources of information can seem daunting at first but RefWorks can help, and anything that helps must be good. RefWorks seamlessly integrates with our online resources, converts your references into UCS Harvard, UCS APA or Footnotes and can generate a bibliography for you.

Wednesday’s workshop covered setting up and customising your account, creating folders and organising your references, where to find referencing help, importing from Summon and a database, 360 linking and creating your bibliography.

The group included a mix of levels and subject areas, some students had knowledge of resources beyond Summon and some were just at the start of their studies, for this reason I selected Proquest Central as the database to use for importing references into RefWorks. I also felt confident that I wouldn’t have any technical difficulties as the products come from the same company. For the majority of students the export worked, but for a handful there were technical issues where we waited for RefWorks to respond.

As is the way with mixed groups some students forge ahead with confidence while others take a little more time and while most databases are straight forward to use Pubmed is one of the exceptions - so it was good to see that the students who queried how to use Pubmed with RefWorks managed to work out how to do it from the hand-out, this gave me the opportunity to help those who needed it.
Everyone managed to get the basics covered, but there were a number of additional tools and topics that we could have covered if there had been time, creating an entry from scratch, installing Write-n-Cite (a tool to integrate RefWorks with Word to manage in-text citations) and RefGrab-it are just a few - maybe a second session on more advanced techniques is the answer?

Finally, how might you start thinking about enhancing your employability through a more effective online presence? The following, might help, and arrange to see a member of the Careers Team.

If you have any questions concerning the workshop programme or other development and suport opportunities, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

Library induction for Graphic Design - First teaching session

First attempt at blogging after my first attempt at delivering a workshop for 10 students on the wisdom and benefits of knowing about and using Learning Services at UCS… Nervous was an understatement, I think the fact that I was being observed by a senior and way more experienced colleague probably didn't help, but feedback and anything that aids professional development has got to be good, right…
I should at this point note that I am a graduate trainee at UCS. I have just completed a History degree and am aiming for a career in librarianship. This is after 15 years working within the field of substance misuse and supporting sex workers to exit the sex industry. Radical career change to say the very least…
So back to my first session and the question are students more scary than drug-users and sex workers and the answer would be kind of, sort of, maybe. Actually, it was ok, once I got into my stride I surprised myself with how confident I sounded and how much I enjoyed facilitating the group. As part of the session the students were given iPads and sent off round the library to make a short film or photo montage of the services and support offered by learning services. They were then asked to talk their way through the films and explain their discoveries. For me the best part was sitting back and watching the students present the short films they had made. What started out as a group of people who were all a bit unsure of what was going to happen (me included) turned into a fun, stimulating and informative session. Roll on the next opportunity to do it again!!
Feedback from students; “Very informative yet informal session” “Workshop was very detailed and helpful” “It was good to see how the library really works” “Good activity and found out lots of info”

Getting prepared for "Social Media for Researchers"

Thanks to those researchers who have registered for the Social Media for Researchers workshop on Wednesday.

The following outlines how we'd like you to prepare for the sessions. you should only spend 30 minutes on this pre-session task.

Visit: Social Media for Researchers (http://libguides.ncl.ac.uk/socialmedia). Read and watch the videos for:

• Blogging
• Twitter
• Sound & Vision

We'll work through some of the potential ideas for you and your research during the session.

Get Ahead Programme: As the dust settles, lets reflect ...

Learning Services ran the Get Ahead programme for new students coming to UCS during August and September.

The Get Ahead series aims to help students in the transition into Higher Education. Successful studying at university is about developing a higher level of study, thinking and writing skills. You will naturally develop these skills as you progress through your course, but it's a great idea to get ahead. The "Get ahead: preparing to study at UCS" course helps you do just that.

In total, 94 students attended across the 6 events. With the registered numbers ranging from 8 in the Arts and Humanities session to 40 in Social Science and ECS.

What did those attending the sessions think?

"It helped me massively with what is expected of me for my uni assignments and also boosted my confidence"

 "Having been away from education for an extended period of time, the idea of enrolling at UCS was very daunting. The Get Ahead course has empowered me to joining on the 29th with confidence. We are inundated with information to assist our learning whilst gaining knowledge of the setting and the opportunity to meet both fellow students and the staff"

After each course we have made the resources available after the session, and included the flip chart activity around how to effectiveness for them. These are available from: http://ucslssessions.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/getahead_sep14 

How did those attending think we might improve it for the next time?

The feedback can be divided into four sections:

1. Expectation Management: "by providing sufficient information in advance about the content of the course, particularly the academic level at which it is aimed and the level of detail / information which will be discussed and therefore how this will be of use"
2. Ensure it is relevant: "use specific questions regarding your course ... I felt at times the staff trying to do examples for criminology and for early childhood studies students this was quite different"
3. Socialisation: "if practical ... group individuals attending the same course to encourage early interaction with their peers"
4. Post session support: "Have demos online of how to find or do certain things within the online library, like searching for a journal"

What did the session facilitators think, how might we improve the course for next time?

The feedback can be divided into:

1. Administration: Lots of opportunities to make the process easier for people to register on the day and access the buildings.
2. Programme design: Lots of thoughts around one or two day course, length of sessions and connecting sessions together.

So, overall I'd suggest the Get Ahead was a success, glad lots of students appreciated, and a big thanks to all the Learning Services Staff who made it happen.

Staff development TEL Workshops: Oct 2014

We'd just like to disseminate the details of the technology enhanced learning sessions we are running during October, as part of the wider Learning Services development provision.

The following workshops are intended for staff (both lecturers and support teams), the details are below, and the online booking form is available from:

• Learning Services Workshops

Flipping your teaching model: the how and the why (21st October: 12:00 to 13:00)

The flipped classroom is a teaching model which integrates the use of online and face to face teaching spaces to maximise the learning experience. The broad approach is to use the online for pre and post session activities, to enable the face to face teaching to be more active and problem based. This workshop will discuss what it is, and provide hands-on experience at developing a flipped classroom approach.

Getting more out of your LearnUCS module (21st October: 13:00 to 14:00)

This workshop is intended as a question and answer session, around how you might get more out of your use of LearnUCS. The session will weave actual uses by lecturers at UCS around effective uses of video, collaborative tools, reflective tools, and assessment tools.

Using social media to become a connected educator (22nd October: 11:00 to 12:00)

Social media is becoming increasingly important as a means of sharing ideas and work. This workshop will explore ways you can harness social media to enhance your own personal learning environment. The session will focus on the application of Twitter and YouTube to discover material and resources.

How clickers can change the way you teach (22nd October: 12:00 to 13:00)

Clickers (audience response systems) offer the lecturer a simple, non threatening way to enhance the effectiveness of student participation within a teaching session, and open up opportunities to improve formative feedback mechanism. This session will introduce clickers, question writing and work through deployment strategies.

Monitoring student engagement and performance in your LearnUCS Course (22nd October: 13.00 to 14.00)

With the inclusion of more interactive tools and learning designs within LearnUCS lecturers are able to make use of the Retention Centre. This new feature allows lecturers to check on student progress within their course according to criteria of their choice. Students' participation and engagement are visually displayed, alerting the lecturer to any potential risk and students who are excelling.

Creating talk over powerpoints and similar videos (22nd October: 14.00 to 15.00)

A popular request from staff is, how can they create short talk over powerpoints / presentations which they can share with their students? This session will cover the rationale, what do you want to create and how is this embedded within your learning model, and providing the hands-on experience of creating the video and embedding within LearnUCS.

Designing a group based learning activity (23rd October: 12:00 to 13:00)

This workshop will discuss the opportunities for enhancing learning through group based learning activities, and how technologies might more effectively facilitate this learning model. The technology enhanced, group based learning activities will focus on the group tools within LearnUCS, and the social media. We’ll be exploring activities where they will create and share content.

Getting started with the LearnUCS Quiz engine in your teaching and assessment models (23rd October: 13:00 to 14:00)

Objective testing in LearnUCS (the quiz engine) is probably one of the most under utilised tools with the VLE, and it tends to be viewed as only useful for lower order learning skills. This session aims to challenge this perception as it is argued the tool offers significant benefits as a formative and summative assessment feedback tool, and we'll ensure you have the technical skills to design and develop an objective test using LearnUCS.

We hope to see you at one of these sessions. In the meantime, if you have any questions, please email elevate@ucs.ac.uk

Academic support for ESOL students

Time: Wednesdays 2-3pm 

Place: Library Seminar Room L107

I am offering academic writing and English language support this semester for all students who are studying with English as a second or additional language. So… I would like to cordially invite you along to some workshops which will take place on Wednesdays in the library seminar room (L107). The workshops run from Wednesday Sept 24 until Wednesday December 3 and take place from 2-3pm. The sessions will allow you to meet other international students, hopefully have some fun, and get up to speed with your academic writing. The first couple of workshops will give you the chance of a short writing task from which you will get feedback with recommendations for developing your English language. Then there will be five sessions focussing on academic writing and English language development, followed by sessions for individual assignment support. By the end of the course I hope you will be well prepared to submit your first assignments. I very much look forward to meeting you and getting to know you all.

Further course information.

Mark Illman

Academic Skills Adviser

T: 01473 338728

E: m.illman@ucs.ac.uk

What workshops are we offering in October 2014

We are pleased to announce our October 2014 workshop program is now available. The topics and titles are developed in line with your likely requirements at the start of the new academic year.

Our workshops are one hour each, and they are designed around the principles of active and collaborative learning.

The online booking form is available from: October 2014 Booking Form

If you have any questions, please contact Learning Services (leanringservices@ucs.ac.uk)

Monday 13th October

Session Title	Time	Description
Enhancing your learning with social media	12.00-13.00	This workshop will explore ways you can use social media (Twitter & YouTube) to enhance your learning through accessing and managing resources.
Assignment planning and writing	13.00-14.00	This session will introduce you to the layout of assignments and some strategies to use for planning work.
Reading it right, so you don't get it wrong!	15.00-16.00	An introduction to effectively reading scientific or scholarly journal articles. Find out about the layout and structure of the research articles, this will enable you to interpret and discuss.

Tuesday 14th October

Session Title	Time	Description
Planning your dissertation	12.00-13.00	Aimed at level 5 & 6 students, this workshop will help you to understand the requirements for an undergraduate dissertation and help you to select an appropriate title. Please bring along your dissertation handbook if you have one.
Electronic is the new black: Navigating ebooks	13.00-14.00	This workshop will introduce you to the various electronic book platforms available at UCS, we will also explore techniques for searching and tips for navigating the collection.
Find it, use it, cite it: An introduction to Harvard Referencing	14.00-15.00	An introduction to Harvard referencing.

Wednesday 15th October

Session Title	Time	Description
"Too descriptive, not enough critical analysis": An introduction to critical writing	11.00-12.00	Introduction to the main features of critical writing with a focus on some of the techniques you can use to increase the amount of critical content in your assignments
Keeping your references organised with RefWorks	12.00-13.00	An introduction to using the RefWorks management tool. Discover the functionality of RefWorks as well as investigating the importance of proper referencing skills and techniques.
Becoming employable: creating your online presence	13.00-14.00	A workshop to explore how to create, develop and manage your online presence with a view to future employment.

Thursday 16th October

Session Title	Time	Description
How can you design and develop effective presentations?	12.00-13.00	Introduction to the main features of critical writing with a focus on some of the techniques you can use to increase the amount of critical content in your assignments
Literature searching and search strategies: An introduction to Summon and databases	13.00-14.00	The aims is to introduce types of resources and search strategies to first year students
Seen Text Help (Read & Write) icon on your desktop and wondered what it's all about?	14.00-15.00	An Introduction to a text speech software programme that helps the user to read aloud documents, tint the screen, assist with proofreading and study skills

Friday 17th October

Session Title	Time	Description
UCS Learning Services: getting started	12.00-13.00	An introduction to the key services and resources that will help you make a flying start with your studies
Developing your reflective practice	13.00-14.00	This workshop will introduce the topic of reflection and discuss its purpose and relevance to academic study. We will outline some reflective models and how they can be used
Technologies to facilitate reflective learning	14.00-15.00	This workshop will explore two technologies which can facilitate the development of your reflective skills. these technologies are: Mahara (ePortfolio) and MindMup (mind mapping tool)

How do we choose workshop topics and content?

We are just starting to roll out the sessions we'll be running during October for staff and students at UCS. We are often asked, what influences our choice of topics and content?

We thought it might be useful to outline the process, and explain why it matters to you.

The topics are influenced by a number of factors, including, what people (staff and students at UCS) are requesting. We get this information from a various of sources, including, questions at the helpdesk, questions we are asked in our sessions, the course teams and curriculum development sessions.

When we design our workshop sessions we map the aims and activities to a number of external frameworks. These are:

1. Researcher Development Framework
2. Information Literacy Competencies (informed by Sconul 7 Pillars)
3. Graduate Employability Skills (CareerEDGE)
4. Descriptors for a Higher Education Qualification at Level 6 (QAA)

Why is this important?

We think this approach is really important as it ensures we meet your needs. For instance, an awareness of the Information Literacy Competencies, at the entry (basic) level, ensures the session tasks across a number of workshops meet the requirements;

• Recognize the importance of using good quality information resources to complete an assignment
• Clearly identify and understand the assignment question or problem

This should re-assure you that our the workshops are designed to develop your required skills and meet your future needs.

If you have any questions, please email learningservices@ucs.ac.uk

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Image - With Thanks - https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/24/58299511_2bcff18db2_b.jpg

Get Ahead Report: Science & Technology

We ran the forth Get Ahead course on the 15th and 16th September. This course was intended for students within Science and Technology. Six students attended the whole two days.

This post includes the materials we used (these will be added to over time), and some reflections on the sessions from our perspective.

Workshop Evaluation Posters (in groups of 4 or 5 people)

1. What three things have you taken from the course?
2. Which two things will you take forward into your learning?

Suggested Task: Twitter

An observation from the feedback poster session was the interest across the group in the use of Social Media. Therefore, a useful task when you receive your course handbooks, would be to look at the indicative reading (both people and organisations) and search for them on Twitter. A criteria to following the account, tweet about the appropriate content, tweet regularly.

Slides & Presentations

Get Ahead Report: Applied Social Science

We ran the second Get Ahead course on the 8th and 9th September. This course was intended for students within Applied Social Science. The attendance was good (35 students).

We've had lots of positive feedback from the students. The lego sessions run by Becky, Aaron and David seemed to be well received.

This post includes the materials we used (these will be added to over time), and some reflections on the sessions from our perspective.

However, to get started, what did a student take from the sessions and would they recommend it to a colleague?




With thanks to Sarah King

We encourage our Team members to reflect on the sessions they ran, or the programme. This is to encourage the benefits of reflective practice. The following is by Becky Blunk.

People say, “it’s not the size that counts,” but, in reflecting on our most recent Get Ahead programme for Applied Social Science students here at UCS, I beg to differ.  Numbers were definitely on our side as we were inundated with over 40 students from across various course areas such as Social Work, Early Childhood Studies, Criminology and other Psychology routes for our intensive (yes, it is that dramatic) 2-day programme in which we explored, together, the far sweeping availability of support within our new Learning Services team.  Of course, a large number of participants (so many, in fact, that we had to revise the schedule and include parallel sessions to best accommodate those in attendance) does not equate to providing a successful programme, however, it did provide those of us teaching an extra boost of encouragement to provide effective, meaningful sessions.

Although there is always room for improvement and opportunity to grow in teaching, one of the most positive results of this programme in particular was the way in which our team collaborated and worked together in our new roles within Learning Services.  Whether it was Sarah working with us to develop the timetable, Andy filling in to deliver the welcome and closing or David, Aaron and Jo helping me facilitate two LSP workshops, there was a great feeling that, although running a 2-day programme welcomes any number of problems, issues or confusion, the new Learning Services team was working in just that way- as a team.  And it is because of the way everyone involved seemed to be ready to assist other team members throughout the programme, that our potential for success in the future has been further unveiled to students and the rest of the UCS community.   

 Workshop Evaluation Posters (in groups of 4 or 5 people)

1. What three things have you taken from the course?
2. Which two things will you take forward into your learning?

Selection of Session Materials

Supporting Maths: Data Analysis (1.32 mins to 12.00 mins)




Maths Support: Applied Social Science

Get Ahead Session Report: Nursing, Midwifery & Health

We ran the session on the 1st and 2nd September for Nursing, Midwifery and Health students (15 student in total). Some of the session slides are linked below. The feedback at the end of day 2 was very positive. We'll collect feedback across all five sessions and report on impact, and changes in the future.

I have listed some of the resources used during the 2 days below at the end of this post.

From my perspective, I thought my sessions went well. The two sessions I ran where Maths Support at UCS, and the closing activity using a poster activity. The Maths Support is always a tricky one given the breadth of maths they will do during the year, and their previous experiences. Therefore, the aims were to re-assure and build confidence using typical maths questions they'll encounter and talking through the support routes. The pitch was to re-assure, not shock and awe !!

The confidence building activities are always fun. It involves getting them into groups of three or four, and working through some past paper questions. After which they have to write an exam question based on those we've seen, and these need to be answered by the other groups. One group proposed the following:

Peter is prescribed amoxycillia 250mg, 3 times a day, for 7 days. How many grams will he need in a week? a) 0.525g, b) 5.25g, c) 52.5g, d) 525g

Mark Illman (with help from Jo Calver as an observer/participant) has reflected on his session. The session started with a discussion of the different types of learning activities that were likely to take place in HE and how these activities represented certain styles of learning. This was followed by an introduction to Honey and Mumford’s concept of learning styles, and moving on from this all participants were given a questionnaire designed by Honey and Mumford to find out about their own learning preferences, with statements about learning that participants were asked to either agree or disagree with. The questionnaire was designed to identify preferences for four learning styles: activist, reflector, theorist, and pragmatist.


After the results were interpreted, each student discovered that they had a profile which was quite individual and unique, but which could develop and change over time. This was graphically demonstrated by students drawing their own colour profile on the whiteboard as a diagram for the whole class to see and compare with others. The class then moved on to discuss how learners could choose and adapt learning activities to suit their own learning preferences. For example, people preferring a more active style of learning might benefit from creating mindmaps incorporating colours and diagrams to record lectures or enjoy forming peer discussion groups (chat and coffee?) to reflect on materials presented in lectures. In this way, practical methods of adapting learning activities to suit learning preferences were introduced as a way for people to overcome any frustration or difficulties when faced with a potentially unfavourable learning environment.


It was generally felt that all participants enjoyed the session and came away having learnt something interesting and helpful about themselves, which they were encouraged to discuss with others. Several people commented that the knowledge gained from the session would serve them well throughout their studies at UCS.

Workshop Evaluation Posters (in groups of 4 or 5 people)

1. What three things have you taken from the course?
2. Which two things will you take forward into your learning?

Poster from student group: This is what they took away (networking, referencing, orientation) and will take forward (planning and goal setting)

Selection of session resources

• Harvard Referencing
• Information Sources and Searching

Available online courses running in May 2014

I very pleased to announce, we'll be running the following online courses during May, 2014. The titles are:

• Using e-Portfolios as a reflective learner
• Getting started with Augmented Reality as a Learning Technology
• Why use the flipped classroom in your teaching?
• Getting started with the Blackboard Quiz Engine in your teaching and assessment models
• Using RefWorks for resource management

These online courses will use the Blackboard CourseSite's Learning Platform (http://www.coursesites.com), they are designed for approximately 5 hours effort, and if successfully completed will provide a Mozilla Badge (and Certificate) of Attendance. All the courses will start on the 12th May, 2014, and run for two weeks.

The registration form is available from: http://bit.ly/1hRi056

For this set of courses we are opening them up to non-members of UCS.

The intended learning outcomes of the courses are outlined below. If you have any questions, please email elevate@ucs.ac.uk.

Using e-Portfolios as a reflective learner

By the end of this course participants should be able to;

• LO1: Have a better understanding of what a reflective learner is and be aware of other types of learners
• LO2: Create an e-portfolio page which has been used for personal reflection in the Mahara e-portfolio tool
• LO3: Be aware of the different tools available and their effective use in supporting reflective learning

Getting started with Augmented Reality as a Learning Technology

By the end of this online course participants should be able to answer the following questions;

• LO1: What is meant by the term augmented reality?
• LO2: How it is been used in UK HE & FE?
• LO3: How you might use it in your Teaching, Learning and Assessment Models?
• LO4: How do I design and develop an augmented reality learning activity using Aurasma?

Why use the flipped classroom in your teaching?

By the end of this online course participants should be able to answer the following questions;

• LO1: What is meant by the term flipped classroom?
• LO2: What are some of the underpinning educational models?
• LO3: What evidence is there to support using a flipped classroom from UK HE & FE?
• LO4: What concerns are there around flipping the HE classroom?
• LO5: What technology enhanced learning designs suit a flipped classroom?
• LO6: How you might use the flipped classroom teaching model?

Getting started with the Blackboard Quiz Engine in your teaching and assessment models

By the end of this course participants should be able to;

• LO1: Explain what we mean by the term objective test
• LO2: Review a number of ways objective tests have been used in UK HE to enhance the learning experience
• LO3: Design, develop and deploy an objective test in a module on LearnUCS
• LO4: Accessing the results through the Grade Centre

Using RefWorks for resource management

By the end of this course participants should be able to;

• LO1: Answer the question: “What is a reference management tool (i.e.RefWorks)?”
• LO2: Created accounts with customised setting to reflect use of UCS Harvard referencing style.
• LO3: Import/Export content from a variety of sources, including databases and other online resources
• LO4: Installed and know how to use the Ref-Grab-It Bookmarklet tool
• LO5: Set up folders and store references in them
• LO6: Created a bibliography of their references
• LO7: Know the importance of checking that their references lists meets UCS referencing standards 
• LO8: Share references within their RefWorks account with others.

Image Source: https://c1.staticflickr.com/1/66/198046070_730a2474d2_z.jpg?zz=1

Face to face programme for March draws to a close ... thanks and good night

This weeks face to face digital literacy events have drawn to a close for March. Firstly, I'd like to thank all those who participated and contributed. Initial reactions from attendees was positive, and we'd connected with over 30 people (staff and students).

There were a number of positives which came out from this coordinated programme, including,

1. it involved staff from the greatest number of professional service teams to date (Elevate Team, Library, Learning Development, IT Services & Careers)
2. the design focussed on a combined audience of staff and students

The session we ran during the week were;

• Using ePortfolios as a reflective learner
• Designing and creating your presentation: Intro to Prezi
• Working in groups: Online collaborating using Google
• Using Refworks
• Why use the flipped classroom in your teaching?
• ePortfolios for Careers and Employability

We'll be undertaking an evaluation over the next few weeks, and we are now putting the final touches to our online workshops due to be released in May 2014. The session titles will include;

1. Getting started with Augmented Reality in your teaching (staff only)
2. Using e-Portfolios as a reflective learner
3. Getting started with Refworks
4. Why use the flipped classroom in your teaching? (staff only)
5. What can objective testing offer your teaching and assessment models? (staff only)
6. Enhancing your learning through social media

More information around the online programme keep an eye on this blog.

Image Source: http://farm7.staticflickr.com/6067/6082960782_3a3114ff9f_b.jpg

Bookings open for face to face digital literacy sessions in March 2014

The programme for our face to face sessions during March 2014 has been finalised, and it is outlined below. The booking form can be accessed via the face to face sessions (March 2014) page.

• Online Booking Form

If you have any questions concerning the content of the sessions, and how appropriate they are for you, please email the Elevate Team (elevate@ucs.ac.uk).

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New programme soon to be announced: March & April 2014

I am glad to announce we are putting together the final touches of our next wave of digital literacy workshops, masterclasses and online courses. So, keep an eye on this blog for dates and booking information.

To wet your appetite, the working titles for the workshops (2 hour face to face sessions) include;

• Enhance your learning using Social Media
• How do you design social learning into our e-learning activities?
• Understanding Copyright for Digital Media
• Designing Collaboratively (Group) Online Learning Activities
• Collaborating with others using Google
• Using RefWorks for resource management
• Getting Started with LearnUCS
• Designing and creating effective presentations
• Designing and creating effective academic posters

Building on the success of last time, we'll also be offering six online courses (equivalent learning outcomes to the face to face workshops). The following documentation is for the 

What does the flipped classroom offer your teaching?

Rationale

The rationale for this course is to support the growing interest from lecturers around how to more effectively use technology enhanced learning to improve their face to face teaching.

Aims

The aim of this workshop is to help teaching staff to contextualise what a flipped classroom offers the teaching model, identify current good practice and the tools which facilitate their emerging learning designs.

Learning Outcomes

By the end of this online course participants should be able to answer the following questions;

• LO1: What is meant by the term flipped classroom?
• LO2: What are some of the underpinning educational models?
• LO3: What evidence is there to support a flipped classroom in UK HE?
• LO4: What concerns are there around flipping the HE classroom?
• LO5: What technology enhanced learning designs suit a flipped classroom?

Learning and Teaching Model

This is to be provided as a standalone CPD online course which includes a number of milestone (assessments) points. The completion of all the milestone will result in a Certificate of Attendance.

The underpinning educational approach is a social constructivist framework. The learning model will be a group activity to create a wiki based guide, with pages organised around the questions within the intended learning outcomes. To help group dynamics and support for online learners there will be a number of online socialisation activities, and the course facilitator(s) role will be to facilitate developments and monitor the work packages.

The underlying learning design assumptions are:

• Effective learning requires the inclusion of all learning models, with particular importance on social (situated - communities of practice) learning
• Effective online learning requires the student to be active within the process

Assessment Model & Criteria

This module follows a Certificate of Attendance approach. Where, you are classified as attending if you complete all the milestones within the time frame. The milestones include;

• completion of at least one of the socialisation activities, both contribution and response to others contributions
• contribution (in terms of the text and/or comments) to each of the wiki pages

The broad learning activities are:

Socialisation

• Discussion Board: “Look out the window and describe what you see?”
• Discussion Board: “Who would you invite to a dinner party and why? Respond to other contributions, what questions would you like to ask them?”

Content (wiki pages)

• What is meant by the term flipped classroom?
• What are some of the underpinning educational models?
• What evidence is there to support a flipped classroom in UK HE?
• What concerns are there around flipping the HE classroom?
• What technology enhanced learning designs suit a flipped classroom?