Newsletter,feedback and eMaterials

One aspects of eLearning that I have been very keen to get established is a newsletter. Apart from raising awareness for everyone regarding those things that are actually taking place with eLearning at the college, I also felt that it could act as a link to resources and news items in the e-digital world in general. From the screen shot you will see that apart from the links associated with our OpenSim project and new materials from Skillls2learn, more of that in a moment. As part of the links section I have included a couple of nice little animated infographics on SOPA and Digital Life: Today and Tomorrow, both well worth a look. I have in recent times really begun to see the benefit of infographics and they do come in a variety of forms including animated video clips. As for the title of the newsletter, I wanted to bring a wider perception than eLearning may have on its own suggested, particualry with the work that I am conducting at the present time in virtaul worlds.

As you will have read from previous recent postings, I have introduced Wimba Create as tool for converting Word files into Scorm packages, and these can include embedded webpages, media and short tests. Of course while these new materials certainly look impressive, what is the perception of our students? To that end I have been working on a short feedback system based on a Moodle Quiz. The questions that I have used here are mainly from a eLearning evaluation survey.

I found the resource was easy to use
There was a variety of things to maintain my interest
I learnt facts easily
I prefer this style of learning to traditional documents
The use of animation is a benefit
The application ran smoothly on my computer
The application is accessible (dyslexia)
I found this method of learning enjoyable
My comments

The final question ‘My Comments’ is really a free form text area that students can complete, particular useful I suspect as a means of providing us with guidance in the event that they were not very happy with the material!

The other day I received an email from our Technology department asking if I could install some new eLearning materials onto the vle for them, which naturally I was more than pleased to both do and also take the opportunity to review. The materials came on a CD from Skills2learn, and included a standard network and Scorm package version, nice. Once installed you need to apply for a license key and for some there was also a requirement to download the free Unity Web Player from the net onto target machines. I went onto the Skills2learn website, which I must say is very clean, stylish and intuitive to find the headline ‘E-Learning, Virtual Reality Simulation and Creative Multimedia’. Well from what I can see of the materials that we have so far, Health& Safety, Carpentry & Joinery, Building Heat Loss Calculator and Bricklaying, I would give that headline a yes, very good quality and priced materials, well worth a look if you are in the market for some ready packaged eLearning resources.

Well thats all for now , please stay in touch.

regards Barry Spencer (eLearning Development Coordinator)