Changing Training

 
Since we first decided upon Moodle as our vle, training as a means of getting it out there to staff was clearly going to be of some priority. In the first round, using bound notes, I must confess that in my enthusiasm to get people on-board as quickly as possible the sessions lasted around two hours, much to long really and difficult to bolt into a curriculum delivery of 90 minute classes. And so the process was broken down into time scales that would fit into current and even changing session times and took the form of Bronze, basically how to get your course up and running and Silver,
which introduced the web 2.0 features. You may be thinking what about Gold, and indeed there has always been a Gold offering, which focuses on such things as eLearning, Learning Objects etc.


Well moving as we are toward a major 2.4 upgrade, the issue of training also emerges, because lets face it there are some significant differences. The question then arises that after having the Moodle vle around for some years now, do we actually require a formal attendee type of training session, there are colleges I know that have dropped the idea altogether, and so should we follow that lead. I decided that a new approach would be worth pursuing and so to that end the new training takes the form of video material that everyone can simply access at will and use on demand. How though do we authenticate training, with the previous approach it was simply case of qualification through attendance. With the new model I am thinking that staff will be presented with a number of requirements that a course must feature  under the new release, and once they are in place and clearly being used, then an electronic certificate will follow, see initial design.

 How are you handling training with Moodle these days, please feel free to comment, bye for now

Feeling more competent now thanks

Just to follow up on my last blog where I proposed using a Questionnaire as a means of gaining some measure of session success from students, I took the opportunity to apply the idea in two separate classes this week and you can see the results from the screen shot. Just to recap, the initial impression was taken at the introduction phase and the final impression during the plenary. The material covered in the session 1h 45m, for most represented their first exposure to the topic. From the numbers it would appear that the confidence / competence in each area had more than doubled during a single session, and so I feel this has been a good measure for me and in fact for students who collectively felt that it was of value to them.

Continuing on with with my quest to find useful resources,  I came across an interesting link the other day from TeachThought.com named ‘15 Free Learning Tools You’ve Probably Never Heard Of’. The posting describes the collection as ‘under-the-radar free learning sites’. I confess that there are many that I was not aware of and are certainly worth looking into, so do please take a look at this one, and feel free to share your own under the radar sites or apps.

Closing on a somewhat lighter note, are you pod casting your classes? Well I do, though not the whole session, instead I will record (audio only), those aspects of the material that experience tells me often seem to need reinforcing; so basically listen again. The casts themselves seldom exceed a three or four minutes, looking at the hits on the vle, they are ceratianly used. But are they useful? Well it seems from a recent report from one of my students they would certainly seem to be distracting. While driving home, he was listening to one such pod cast to such an extent that he missed the usual motorway turn-off, and instead of arriving home at 18:30, he arrived at 20:15, how engaging was that!

 

As usual please feel free to comment

Being able to usefully capture student progress while in a session is without doubt one of those essential ingredients, not only because it allows you to know where they are within the course work, but also as means of informing me on differentiation and last but not least a means of motivation and engagement. I recall a while ago now, back in the days when the pda looked as if it was destined to become the computer in your pocket, I would use an Excel spreadsheet of student name and session dates to award colours for class performance such as green for completed, gold for exceeding expectations, useful, though I confess a somewhat rather loose subjective model. Of course we have dedicated tracking systems in place, but I really wanted something a little more lightweight and so I have started experimenting with the Moodle Target feature that has become available as an Activity option. Quick and easy to use, I simply apply a set of targets for the session, then upon completion students leave comments and I mark as completed. In the event that somebody achieves all the targets, as usual I set about negotiating extension work, and set the new differentiated target. Now if you are reading this and thinking, but that means I now have to think up targets for each session, well not really, I find the targets are in essence the session objectives, though be it couched in a little more detail. I like Moodle Target, and if you have found it useful then do please feel free to post any comments.

While on the subject of making use of Moodle in teaching session, I have been having thoughts on that rather illusive metric, how successful has the session been for me! Not an easy one really, however, could I acquire some useful feedback by using the Moodle Questionnaire Scale rating option? Basically at the introduction, students each select an option between 1 and 10 (with 1 being least) to indicate how competent / confident they are with the specific subject matter we are about to explore, then at the plenary they indicate how this has changed. Has it proved useful, well I have not really had the opportunity to give the idea a good test drive as of yet, so please stay in touch with future postings.

Bye for now Barry  

Resources, Resources and even more Resources

One of those things that I am always on the lookout for my Moodle courses and I feel that I am not alone here are resources and this week seems to have been particularly fruitful on that particular front.

First off was this ‘Your must-have classroom toolkit’ from TES, where they have from contributions from over 130,000 teachers assembled a really impressive list of class management and planning resources, and by the way these are all free.

So simply follow the links to. You will need to be a registered user though simply create yourself an account.

Next there was ‘The 100 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools ChosenBy You’ from Edudemic

Back in 2010 Edudemic ran the post 'The 35 Best Web 2.0 Classroom Tools Chosen By You’. Following this it became apparent that a considerable appetite exists from everyone for the Web 2.0 and so there followed a trawl of Twitter polls and Facebook correspondence involving some 900 submissions that resulted in this very impressive list. If you have favourite tool that is not included then you are invited to post your suggestion.

 

Finally there was 'Resources A to Z' from the BoxofTricks Education and Technology website, and this lists a massive 209 links, that were last updated 28th February 2013, so that’s about as current as it gets. The list features what are considered to be the best free internet resources for education. This list is in fact the latest version of a page resource that is constantly updated so I recommend that you to include it in your feed and favourites.

Well I hope you found these little finds useful, and do please feel free to comment

Thinking Moodle Theme Design

I have been taking a loom at the some options for templates this last week and came across an couple of site that seemed to have some useful and I thought interesting content. The first was Themza. The themes features are free and cover a wide range of curriculum area defaults, and when it comes to installing the theme, there are short video tutorials that will guide through the process.

 

If you are feeling really creative then  Themato Web Moodle Theme Engine may well be the solution. The website feratures among other things video tutorials that guide you through the design process and has the following new features available: -

*New - Added keyboard navigation the website. Use your arrow keys in gallery to navigate fast and use Shift+1, Shift+2 and so on for menu links on the website(Not on Moodle). To use keyboard shortcuts in your Moodle themes, press Ctrl+Shift+K to see your list of Admin keyboard shortcuts. Watch out this space, Moodle UI is gonna get richer in interaction!!

*New - Added support for New Layout in themes!

*New - Added Moodle Bar for easy navigation.

*New - Added Menu Builder so that you can create your menu items without having to write a single line of code.


Finally I discivered Hayley eLearning Center, have nice looking page of free themes that covering Moodle 1.9 and  Moodle 2.0. I particularly liked the way in which the themes on this site have taken on customisation of menu options and colour styles

I hope you found this posting useful and do please feel free to comment

BETT Show 2013

Made my way to the BETT show and first time at Excel center for me anyway, even bumped into a couple of people I knew there, had a catch-up, always good. A great deal to see in a day, and I was impressed by the turn out of resources particularly for robotics and science, very impressive, very encouraging. For my own part working as I do with the Moodle, it was a little disappointing to see only one stand promoting the vle, though there were other vle systems on offer, so competition is good right.

So how was the rest of the show, well there did seem to be a heavy emphasis on applications for Interactive White Board systems, so if that was you interest, then you would have been spoilt for choice. For my own part I am really interested in for want of a better term, eLearning, and to be frank, I do retain the distinction that IWB’s are more in the arena of ILT, though some I know would disagree. Where eLearning was concerned though there was plenty of interest to see, including live demonstrations and I came away with a bag full of pamphlets that I am still trawling through. Another one of the big offerings at the BETT was the presence of Cloud based solutions, and there seemed to be applications across a whole range of possibilities from backing storage to real time software solutions, a very promising set of market options here.

Given that I do still retain a very active presence in virtual worlds and that includes Second Life and Open Simulator, it was a shame that these did not seem to be in evidence. I feel sure there is a niche still just waiting to be filled, but looking at the more recent Gartner Techno  curve I confess virtual worlds do seem to be only just emerging from the Trough of Disillusionment, so I guess frustrating though it is, it’s going to be a case of wait and see; personally I remain optimistic. After a couple of hours of walking around the various stands and getting into some good conversations, I realised that I had only covered about half the show and decided it was time for a break.

When it comes to refreshment outlets, at the Excel BETT you are spoilt for choice, however having filled my backpack with supplies, I wondered out- side on what was a bright, really mild gusty force five and sat by the river front, all very agreeable, even took a couple of pics and then back in for the rest of the show. A new project for me, one that I started to work on over the last end of term is in using augmented reality, which was not very much in evidence at all apart from one company who specialised in web design that used a feature, but this is going to be the subject of another posting soon, so do please stay in touch for that.

Bye for now and please feel free to comment on the show

The mythologies of eLearning

Well start of the new year here and time to commence some new work on e-Learning, a term that I must confess I am looking forward in many ways to replacing or at least redefining. None the less there is little doubt what so ever in my own mind and indeed from experience and evidence that technology can and should be used to extend our classrooms. Of course its not the technology at all that we need to make a case for really is it. Without wishing to invoke any comments about my deeper understanding of the term, really its 'learning culture' that is very much at issue here, or for that matter what is very often the lack of it. Whether e-Learning is part of a blended or whole distance learning solution, it is all to often the case I find that resistance emerges to its implementation from a range of perceptions, that I can only describe as myths, some more common than others for instance:-

• Students will not enjoy the interaction that a class environment provides
• e-Learning courses cannot provide the same level of quality
• Teachers will find themselves replaced by a computer

 And so I was more than pleased to come across a web article posted by Julie DeNeen entitled 30 Myths About e-Learning That Need To Die In 2013 , if you are looking for some ready made come backs, then let me recommend these for your virtual notebook, an excellent source.

Is it time I wonder to startup the compilation of such mythological objections that we so often hear, and  perhaps use it as an e-Learning myth of the day campaign? More reasonably though, just looking around at the growing trend of distance learning solutions both in education and the commercial sector, clearly myths reconciled, no doubt by those who listen more closely to the preferences for digital access and collaboration expressed by students. But let me just flip the coin a little, when condemning these contextual myths, I find maybe, just maybe, we should not at the same time conclude mythology itself has nothing to teach us on this very subject. Surprisingly I came across this posting on elninsights.com by Vov Cole entitled What can e-learning take from classical mythology and it tells the tale of The Sybilline Books, personaly I confess to not having heard of this one, but worth a read and I will leave you to follow the link.

Please feel free to post your thoughts and experiences .

eBook Student Survey

I guess it when it comes to planning and delivering a course using a technology platform such as Moodle, it does become part of normal practice to introduce new resources simply by supplying a suitable link and this year one of these links was to eBooks. So I was more than an little fascinated by report from edudemic.com  '10 Surprising Facts About Students Using E-Textbooks’ From a survey by eCampus.com. It would seem that not surprisingly some 98% of students own a digital device, but maybe that’s a bit too general, but putting this aside a surprising 73% of those students surveyed said ‘they would not be able to study without technology!’ When asked however why they chose eBooks almost half, 48% cited cost, not any kind of techno leverage, a little surprising I felt. So is there a perceived advantage academically in using eBooks? Well around two thirds of those surveyed felt there was an associated saving in time during the typical semester, however only 17% felt that this amounted to more than 3 hours, and with only 2% of students reporting that they used  mobile device in this role, for me seems to put a little question mark on some of those assumptions I keep coming across surrounding mLearning. When the students were asked if they would consider purchasing an eTextbook in the next semester 54% said maybe with only 38% confirming with a definite yes. From my own reading of the infographic, I must confess it does generate some questions, not least that while I agree eGooks are cheaper, a physical book can be re-sold, whereas the DRM (Digital Rights Management) on eBooks will almost certainly prevent this. What do you think, please feel free to comment.

I you are interested in getting started with infographics and I must say I do really enjoy the way they are cable to communicate the facts, then I came across a really nice video tutorial the other day from Linda Braun. The video, which lasts a little under 15 minutes Lynda shows how you can make an infographic using Visualy.ly well worth a view I felt.

200 Resources and Counting

Being on the lookout as I usually am for new resources for eLearning, as I am sure so many of us are, it was a very pleasant surprise the other day to come across the extensive list for elearningindustry.com that details over 200 spread across three lists, the link to Part 1 of the list is here and on the page you will find the others. A really useful web linked compilation of resources I feel and even more so when someone else like elearningindustry puts it together for you. On the same page you will find further lists for Learning Management Systems, so if you are yet to decide on any particular platform as a solution for you eLearning delivery, then this would be a good place to start.

While we are opn the subject of resource lists, browsing the elearningindustry site, I also came across The Ultimate list of Free Stock Photos Sites for eLearning, being able to make use of pictures and images not only as part of your own materials, but also for students in their project work, particular Work Based Learning is a question that I find myself frequently advising on; the bottom line to this of course though is always read the copyright details, they are numerous.

That's all for now, and I hope you find the post useful

Scooping Links for Moodle

When it comes to presenting a course in Moodle I often find myself trying to think of alternatives to the default means of materials presentation through the links to documents and websites approach, and the other day I discovered Scoopit. I have actually seen these websites before, but not taken the time to look into them any further. If you have not come across Scoopit yet then the approach is basically this, rather than simply collecting a series of your favourite links for others to tryout, Scoopit organises and presents a snapshot of the target websites and organises them into a multi-row two column display. If you would like to give it a try then the whole set-up is extremely straightforward, simply create a free account, name your topic, enter a description and some keywords. To gather content for your topic you can either Click-On the Curate button that appears on the page, this will generate a set of suggested sites, or use the Bookmark facility, essentially by dropping the Scoopit bookmark onto browsers toolbar and Scooping while you surf, very effective.

By using my Scoopit Topic url as the website address in a Moodle course link the students can now simply use this to review the sites that I am recommending for them, much better than creating a link for each site.

Finally, and I do like this, every Scoop can be posted to your social networking sites and include among others Facebook, Twitter and Linkedin, plus there are apps for the iPhone and Android, so you can Scoop on the move.

 

If you are using Scoopit, have discovered other means to display your links then please feel free to comment.

Running The Survey

Following the trial of our eILT skillset questionnaire for staff, where I ran it past a sample of nearly twenty, this week I applied the finishing touches and launched the survey for real. The initial trial took the form of a paper based exercise that allowed us to evaluate and apply changes to what would become the final electronic form delivered through our Moodle vle. Interestingly following some feedback observations from the first group, I went ahead and made a couple of the questions optional, a consequence really of trying to create a questionnaire that could be adapted for varying situations. All in all though, this has proved to be a preferred means of acquiring the information as opposed to a web database which had been my original intention. Not to my own surprise I also learnt a great deal from the whole exercise in how to write questionnaires. In fact if you are thinking of writing a questionnaire for the first time, then you may like to have a look at these two links, the first for SurveyMonkey, includes some very useful pdf’s and the second from accesscable, has some very useful general recommendations.  So having completed the questionnaire, and had it proof read and then running it past the first half dozen or so members of staff, eventually someone found a question with a repeat word! Why I find myself asking, did the error have to be in question 13 of all places.

If you would like to see a pdf of the finished product as it stands at the moment, then please follow this link to a pdf, a little untidy as I simply took a screen copy from Moodle to Word.

eBooks and Printed Books

I recall back in the early days of our vle here at College one of my selling points was that having materials in digital form would save not only on paper, but also those trips to the print room, and indeed this remains the case.

With all this in mind I was pleased to come across an infographic from onlinecolleges.net that extended the reasoning along with a host of  statistics on the benefits digital text including eBooks. For my own classes this academic year, I have provided links to both eBook libraries and specific publications with the result that predictably, perhaps, very little by way of actual physical books appearing, but is this always the case. While it would seem to be the case that an eBook would represent a saving in raw cash terms, this may not be the only of most important deciding factor, and so I decided to look (surf) around and get a view.

In the New York Times Business Day Technology  a very interesting piece By Claire Cain Miller and Julie Bosamn entitled "E-Books Outsell Print Books" , reports some very convincing sales statistics from Amazon, though I am drawn to the fact that much of the sales trend would not possible be representative for HE requirements, non the less, a powerful message here.

From StandarSpeaker.com in the article "Colleges adapting to influx of ebooks" by Amanda Christman, sites that according CourseSmart, the publishing industry has seen e-textbook sales double each semester over the past two year; not sure how sustainable this would be but even so the uptake is undeniable.

However now balance this with a more student oriented view in "Why Aren’t Students Using E-Books?" by Audrey Watters from KQED, and you begin appreciate some interesting points, and I quote "But students also share their textbooks because they are so incredibly expensive. And as the digital rights management (DRM) restrictions on e-books makes lending someone your copy difficult if not impossible, students are likely steering away from e-books because they simply don’t work for them — practically or economically. After all, there is little savings to be found in many digital textbooks. They cost roughly the same as print, but come without the ability to sell back a used copy at the end of the semester".

So where does this leave me, well one thing is for certain, and that is we are not about to witness the demise of printed materials, and for me as both an educator and eLearning Development Coordinator ,will have some impact upon assumptions that I may have otherwise drawn regarding my approach to course content, how about you? Please feel free to comment.

Are you ready Tin Can

If you have been around the Moodle vle or for that matter any vle for a while, then you will have I am sure over the years developed and or deployed in support of eLearning various scorm packages. And I would judge that you are still enthusiastic about scorm, and if you are  regular to this blog then you will know that we make good use of Wimba Create for College generated content. So to get started with this particular posting, I was fascinated the other day to discover the Tin Can project.

The Tin Can Project, now at Phase 3,  page provides an interesting, though we are assured cut-down list  new features that will be available that the e-learning have been requesting, and I repeat that list here, certainly an eye catcher 

 •It needs to be simpler
 •Removal of the need for an Internet browser
 •Distribution of content/cross domain
 •Access to more data (run time data)
 •Need to be able to use “user defined variables” in content
 •Learning that’s not initiated in an LMS
 •Simulations and serious games
 •Track real-world activities, not just digital ones
 •Need to track offline or long running content
 •Platform transition (computer to mobile device, etc.)
 •Better interoperability (several new benefits in this category)
 •SCORM user interface requirements don’t achieve interoperability
 •Instructors/others need to observe/interact during training
 •Collaboration and team-based learning
 •“I want to do my own sequencing”
 •We need security/authentication
 •Need to be able to “tag” content with skills (better organization)

While browsing through the website, I was reminded that scorm is in fact now ten years anyway and what people are looking for is a more powerful while at the same time simplistic means implementation and feedback communication.

Taking the implementation issues first then

•You no longer have to deal with Javascript.
•The complexity of activities and LRS communication is greatly reduced (fewer API calls.)
•There are no more required manifest files or complex file structures.
•There are no complex requirements for the content (activity) to meet. It only needs to be able to send the statement “I did this.”
•Since there are no user interface requirements to be met by the activity or the LRS — the activity exists on its own and reports statements to the LRS. The learner does not have to start an activity from within the LMS, the activity just sends a statement to the LMS (LRS) once an
activity has been completed

Using scorm packages I always include a set of questions for feedback and these can be scored in a number of ways, but Tin Can provides us with a more meaning set of options based around the concept of Actor Verb and Object:-

[Somebody] says that [I] [did] [this] in the context of [ _____ ] with result [ _____ ] on
[date].

If you are feeling techie enough there is an API starter that I feel certain you will be very keen to take a look at.

Should you wish to give Tin Can a try then go to cloud.scorm.com and sign up for a free account. I have already given this a go, uploaded one of my scorm packages and everything ran very smoothly. For Moodle users there is a Tin Can plug available here so that you can now connect your LMS to Scorm Cloud.

My initial impressions are I must say very good, and I am particularly interested in the possibility of utilising Tin Can for our growing use of  OpenSimulator here at the College.


If you have given Tin Can a try yet or have any comments then please feel free to post.



iPads and the word eLearning

While our work here at the college continues with the iPad trials, I am always interested to read and discover from the work of others in using tablet technology. Not so much with regard to the use of tablets as really this is more directly the evolutionary transition of anyone’s tech experience, but more by way of how they could be utilised in improving outcomes in a way that cannot be readily achieved using the now more traditional desktop technology. So I was encouraged to discover a net article recently entitled ‘Technology makes a difference in student achievement’ from sourcenewspapers.com, where a teacher describes how she managed to improve here class outcomes from 81 percent with 100 percent, and attributes this to the use of iPads, an interesting though somewhat specialist approach however still very much worth a read. I felt.

Is it time to drop the e from the term eLearning? and this is a discussion that has been going on for some time now and one that I came across originally back in 2007 in a blog posting from Donald Taylor. If you would like to see that posting then you can find it here and so therefore I will not attempt to repeat the salient points in  this post. More to the point for now though are two other postings namely ‘10 Tech Skills Every Student Should Have’ and ‘10 Important Skills Students need for the Future’. It does seem to me that all to often we feel the need to ensure that teachers have the necessary skills for the creation of content and its  delivery, of what for want of a better term I will call eMaterials, but what do we assume about students. If you feel you have not considered that question fully enough then please follow the two links, and you may well find as I have one or two that you may not have given due consideration to.

That's all now now, but do please stay in touch with this blog and of course feel free to comment.

Lets try audio

Well back into the swing with the vle for the new academic year and time to try out some new I thought. The Assignment submission in Moodle is a really nice feature, students upload their work, that you can access and read, then you either feedback live using the text box and award a grade or alternatively download the assignment, hi-light and add connects the upload this as a more detailed way of guided response. It was last academic year that I went along to a Partner College event and saw a presentation on using audio feedback, in fact this had been part of a JISC trial and you may like to follow this link for a lot more information, guides and case studies on the use of audio feedback, under the headings of :-

• What are the benefits of audio feedback over written or verbal feedback?

• Are there any specialist skills that need to be learned?

• Is it time/cost effective?

• How do students feel about audio feedback?

So how can you record the audio feedback? Well I made use of Audacity and if you wish to export to MP3 format then you will also need to download the Lame MP3 Encoder plugin as well, all very straightforward. Depending upon your own approach to providing feedback, whether you read the whole document first or comment a section at a time, moving over to audio really makes little difference. My first impression is that this really is a better method when it comes to giving complex explanations; ideas can be developed in real time, and lends themselves a more personalised response.   As far as sheer volume of feedback is concerned, an average word count for the audio files revealed a figure of 671, and for my typical font size this amounts to about 1.3 sides of A4, I think more than I would usually do on average, or  without doubt at or above the upper limit of my handwritten or typed feedback.

Have you tried audio feedback for your own classes, if so then please feel free to comment and share your views.


 

End of term roundup

With our decision to merge the Moodle system for the two Colleges ready for September 2011 start, it seemed a good idea to at least have a small trial of course of course transfers just see if any issues emerged.
Interestingly it seems that a lot of failures flagged up surrounding issues with the quiz module. On close investigation it became very apparent that where one system had the standard distribution of quiz options the other had three extra, which I have listed below.

Drag and drop matching
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=975

Ordering
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=1317&filter=1

Java molecular editor
http://moodle.org/mod/data/view.php?d=13&rid=296

In resolution it simply became necessary to install the
necessary changes an run the test again, which now seem to be fine.



I was pleased to see that requests appeared for Wimba Create training before the end of term, and the session ran really well. There however one small glitch in the way YouTube appear to be presenting link options, as one of my selected videos no longer had the Old Embedded code available associated with it. The issue arises because Moodle 1.9.x does not support the iframe tag, something that I will have to update my notes on this one. A very rewarding note though was the fact that people soon realised the potential of having otherwise seperate resources packaged as a trackable Scorm resource, which afterall is really what the whole expercise is aiming at .


Just as our term here finished I received a invitation from Amrit Ahluwalia the Managing Editor of online newspaper for continuing education and lifelong learning Evolllution.com asking if I would be prepared to write a short article based around the question ‘What impact do you think mobile apps are going to have on adults in higher education?’ And of course I was pleased to respond and you can find a link to my article that I hope you will enjoy Making Mobile Learning a reality here.

Well term finally did come to a close and does among others considerations give me the chance to have a look around in search of new resources, particularly those that are free, and I came across this link Teachers Easy Guide to The Most Important Web Tools in Education this features a thirteen point list that I am musing through at the moment and feel sure will be of some use

While we are on Summer term right now, I shall still be posting, so please stay in touch with Moodle Journal, and of course feel free to comment.

Barry

e-Factor Conference

Yesterday 27th June 2012 I went along to the RSC e-Factor “It’s all about the learner event” in London. There were just on 200 delegates, so a sizable gathering, with some really useful presentations from Colleges, I took ten pages of A3 notes, always a good sign, so will be following up on those. These events are always great for networking, and this time was no exception in during the two unscheduled fire alarms.

I must say that I felt particularly encouraged with regard to
the emphasis on the vle and eLearning especially with relevance to the new Common Inspection Framework. I have since grabbed a copy from the website along with the ‘Handbook for the inspection of further education and skills’. Reading through this I extracted what would appear to be the most obvious paragraph points and copied them here below, hopefully this will be useful to anyone reading this. While the term Virtual Learning Environment only appears twice, the numerous mentions to ‘learning’ are often accompanied by: - types, methods, capturing, forms, independent, outside sessions, range of environments, so this is very good. Naturally I feel that we should take every opportunity where possible to accommodate and demonstrate these through the use of our Moodle eLearning platform.

Below you will find a numbered list of relevant paragraphs, again hopefully useful:-

36. A provider may deliver a combination of provision, such as: community learning, apprenticeships and courses where a qualification is the main learning aim. If this combination of learning occurs in one sector subject area, it will be inspected as one subject area. The different types of learning will be considered for the overall subject area grade and highlighted in the subject area report.

44. The lead inspector will plan the inspection to ensure that the maximum amount of first-hand evidence is collected from learners and the activities they are engaged in. The inspection team will want to capture as many forms of learning as possible in order to make sound teaching, learning and assessment judgements. Although observations of teaching, training and assessment are key sources of this evidence, other methods of capturing learning and assessment on inspection are equally important. Therefore, the lead inspector will plan other activities such as: assessments; reviews; discussions with groups of learners; scrutiny of how learning materials and assessment are promoted and communicated to learners through technology;live demonstrations by learners to discuss their work; case studies;

100. Inspection of the Quality of teaching, learning and assessment, and the impact it has on the quality of learning, provides direct evidence. Inspectors will capture evidence from a variety of learning activities, for example through: direct observation; evaluation of learning materials and their use by learners; the use of technology to deliver and assess learning; and examining what learners
can do and make as a result of their learning.

101. Inspectors will also conduct formal observations of teaching, training or assessment activities. These should be of sufficient length to ensure the inspector has enough evidence to form clear judgements and give a grade. The inspector will usually provide feedback to the person
observed. This will normally include the grade awarded, with a short summary of the strengths and areas for development. Other forms of learning activity that are not teaching or assessment sessions may be graded, for example progress reviews.

152. To make this judgement, inspectors will consider:
how well teaching and learning methods – including training, coaching and mentoring – inspire and challenge all learners and enable them to extend their knowledge, skills and understanding the extent to which teaching, training and coaching encourages and develops independent learning

153. Where relevant, inspectors should take into account:
how the different needs of groups of learners are met the effectiveness of learning outside learning sessions through technology, reviews and tutorials care and support in their broadest forms, both in and between learning sessions.

154. To make this judgement, inspectors will consider:
how effectively and creatively staff use resources, including accommodation, equipment and technology, and specialist advice and guidance to promote and support learning the promotion
and development of independent learning skills, for example, through the use of a range of technologies, including a virtual learning environment.

155. Where relevant, inspectors should take into account:
how learning materials are used during and outside learning sessions, including those available in a virtual learning environment

163. Where relevant, inspectors should take into account:
the extent to which timely information, advice and guidance enables individuals to gain greater learning autonomy and decreases dependence on others

Page 49 Grade characteristics: Quality of teaching, learning and assessment (Outstanding)
Staff have consistently high expectations of all learners and demonstrate this in a range of learning environments. High quality learning materials and resources including information and communication technology (ICT) are available and are used by staff and learners during and
between learning and assessment sessions.


At the moment I am thinking of a series of 30 minute workshops, ‘Using eILT to get a better Ofsted’ or similar.

It was also good to see that other colleges are using Questionnaires in Moodle to record eILT staff skills as part of an overall approach to CPD, in very much the same way as we are here.

The event concluded with a really good plenary type keynote from Peter Mayhew-Smith the Principle at Kingston College, in summary:-

• eLearning, know what difference is being made
• eLearning, should be graded as means of assurance
• eLearning, appraisal is a good mechanism
• eLearning, should be responsive to the student voice
• eLearning, should make use of students own technology

If you would like to reveiw the Twitter comments then please make use of the following Hash Tag #efactor2012

Teaching & Learning Conference

Last we week had our Teaching & Learning Conference day here at the College, and as part of that I was asked to deliver a session on eLearning.
As I am sure it is the case for all Colleges it is not often that staff are given
a day to select a presentation / workshop that they would like to attend and so its one of those occasions were if you have a particular message to get across then you do have to pick your approach. In the end I decided to opt for an introduction to eLearning, the terminology, and standards and how the vle fits into the delivery. With regard to content I took the opportunity to demonstrate
Wimba Create, which in itself would act as nice advertisement for my training session. With Wimba Create in mind and the whole area of producing suitable content, the session touched on outlining the concepts of learning objects and the Scorm recommendations, I did find a very useful cartoon style short video clip SCORM Demystified from YouTube for this. Overall the sessions seemed to go very well and there was a lot of interest pursuing the use of Wimba Create as a tool for converting Word docs.


One of the other sessions running on the day was delivered by a colleague and featured the ComicLife app and how it was used as part of our Comenius Virtual World project using Open Simulator. This particular workshop must have been received well because I was approached by two members of staff after requesting an OpenSim Island for the coming year, brilliant. If you are interested our work using OpenSim then you may like to follow our BC OpenSim blog.



During this last week I came across a new report from TEL
(Technology Enhanced Learning) entitled called ‘System Upgrade Realising the
vision for UK education’. With was hooked in by the headline- Teaching and
learning in the 21st century needs to be 'turbo-charged' by educational technology rather than using technologies designed for other purposes’ . The result of over four years work the report looks at twelve principle themes, complete with recommendations for everyone involved in learning – including teachers, policymakers, lecturers and workplace trainers. Right from the opening paragraphs I am certain you will see as I did that this report addresses very pertinent issues, well worth a read this one and please feel free to post your comments.

End of Year Conference

I was asked this week to provide a short session on using our Moodle vle for the for our end of year Teaching and Learning Conference here at the College. The idea seems to be that the session should address the interests of basic users in the first half and those more experienced practitioners whishing to move on to something more ambitious in the second. As you will have read from other posts on this blog I am taking every opportunity to provide the widest expose possible for Wimba Create this academic year, so the second half is sorted. As for the first part of the session that has caused me some extra thought. Lets face it, getting a vle to work for you is not simply about knowing your way around the menu options, its equally about deployment in support of a blended teaching delivery, at least that’s the way that I am seeing it.

With this in mind I was really pleased to come across a posting on the net this week 'In Education, Technology Changes Everything and Nothing' from the Atlantic's second annual Technologies in Education forum, where it starts out and I quote 'A technological revolution is happening in the world of education; it is changing schools for the better. But, it will never change the definition of and need for great teaching.' As part of the posting was a report from Gallup, who having spent decades studying great teaching and the innate talents of the best teachers, concluded that the fundamentals that make for a great classroom teacher are the same fundamentals that make for a great online course or gaming experience, well, well!

So then, according to the outcome of that work here is what the best teachers do:

They are relational: They develop student-to-student, student-to-educator, and student-to-parent relationships.

They are hopeful: They inspire students with energy and enthusiasm for the future.

They are insightful: They see each student as an individual and get to know his or her unique identity and nature.

So how will I use this, well my intention will be to show how we may realise these attributes as part of an online presence, and to that end I intend start out with the findings and then go on to demonstrate the opportunities that the Moodle vle has in the way of online assignment submission and especially feedback, naturally with some examples thrown in.

Simply put, and to quote once more from the report, great teaching is about emotionally engaging the learner in a way that is individualized.

Comments welcome

Flipping the class with Ed Ted

Not so much about Moodle in this blog post, but of equal importance materials that you can use as part of your course. If like myself you make use of YouTube videos in your lectures and classes, then I feel certain that you will have come across the Ted Talks, so I was really very pleasantly surprised when the other day I discovered Ted Ed lessons worth sharing. Essentially these are a collection of Ted Talk videos that have been ready packaged with quiz style questions, a Think section for open answer type responses and a Dig Deeper area for any further resources. The attraction here soon becomes obvious, because now you can select a video from the Ted Flipped library and use it as a ready to go online lesson. Furthermore you can even add additional questions and content to each lesson you choose. Having selected your flipped video and material, it is then published to a unique url so that it can be shared either through your vle, e-mail, Facebook, or Twitter, brilliant. So how do you get to track your student activity? Well after your material has been shared, you simply log-in to the service and see who viewed the lesson, the number of questions they attempted, the answers they provided, in the case of multiple choice questions, even the incorrect responses; though it seems this last feature does require permissions from the student. The whole idea of flipping has become a popularised term for a practice not entirely new, but through which we can certainly leverage technology to effectively push learning away from the more traditional taught environment and into a more distributed style.  I do feel ready to buy into this approach, because through applying the flipped model to some parts of delivery anyway, it could release greater scope for the traditional type and range of class bound activities; if learning takes place elsewhere, then the class perhaps becomes a place for more student driven activity, innovation and personalisation. And there is more, you do not have to rely on flipped content becoming available, because you can make use of any YouTube video and add your own Questions, Think and Dig Deeper content, now surely that really makes it worth trying. Have you tried the Ed Ted yet, if you have, then please feel free to comment.

Regards