Hi All,
hope your well. First of all apologies for the lateness of this posting, things have been a little on the crazy side the last few months. Here is an update of what has been going off in the e-learning team.
Well first of all, we have moved, just around the corner to where we once were but hey its a change. Projects have been steadly coming through, completing one at the end of august this year and new ones emerging over the course of the next few months. Soon our team will be up to 4 people, so watch this space on this.....
New improvements to UCB Online have and will be atking place over the coming months with new packages being integrated into the system to aid in online delivery of modules and work. Further updates to follow....
Tuesday 3 November 2009
Tuesday 31 March 2009
Hello everyone!
We would like to share a few links to interesting and useful websites. We hope you will find them helpful. Please see below.
It’s worth looking at Academic Earth a website containing thousands of free, post-secondary lectures. This site gives the options to either download the lectures on iPod or copy and paste them directly into your website.
On the next website you will be able to find “Top 100 language and education blogs”. Please visit LexioPhiles to find out more details.
For book enthusiast we can recommend “The Tower and The Cloud - Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing”. On www.educase.edu you will be able to either order the book or access the whole book online in pdf format. Some other interesting e-learning articles can be found on this website as well.
Please check www.britannica.com for different blogs grouped into categories. We recommend the Education area in particular. This is how Britannica describes this site: “Britannica Blog is a place for smart, lively conversations about a broad range of topics. Art, science, history, current events – it’s all grist for the mill. We’ve given our writers encouragement and a lot of freedom, so the opinions here are theirs, not the company’s. Please jump in and add your own thoughts.”
Click on http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=facultydevelopment&view=videos to access faculty development’s videos. If you are interested in getting some multimedia training online simply click on http://www.multimediatrainingvideos.com/ and choose from: Director Videos, Flash Videos, Introduction to Photoshop and Useful Tools for Students. There is similar site for teachers, please go to http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/
Make sure you’ve got plenty of time and enjoy!
E-learning Team
It’s worth looking at Academic Earth a website containing thousands of free, post-secondary lectures. This site gives the options to either download the lectures on iPod or copy and paste them directly into your website.
On the next website you will be able to find “Top 100 language and education blogs”. Please visit LexioPhiles to find out more details.
For book enthusiast we can recommend “The Tower and The Cloud - Higher Education in the Age of Cloud Computing”. On www.educase.edu you will be able to either order the book or access the whole book online in pdf format. Some other interesting e-learning articles can be found on this website as well.
Please check www.britannica.com for different blogs grouped into categories. We recommend the Education area in particular. This is how Britannica describes this site: “Britannica Blog is a place for smart, lively conversations about a broad range of topics. Art, science, history, current events – it’s all grist for the mill. We’ve given our writers encouragement and a lot of freedom, so the opinions here are theirs, not the company’s. Please jump in and add your own thoughts.”
Click on http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=facultydevelopment&view=videos to access faculty development’s videos. If you are interested in getting some multimedia training online simply click on http://www.multimediatrainingvideos.com/ and choose from: Director Videos, Flash Videos, Introduction to Photoshop and Useful Tools for Students. There is similar site for teachers, please go to http://www.teachertrainingvideos.com/
Make sure you’ve got plenty of time and enjoy!
E-learning Team
Friday 19 December 2008
happy christmas
Hi All,
this will be the final posting of 2008, and it has been a good year for UCB. Many new advancements have been made with Blackboard and we are now piloting new innnovative software pieces within the VLE that are proving highly effective for both learners and staff here at the college. New software tools are also being used to create a bank of interactive learning materials that can be delivered in a online learning environment. After the initial teething issues with the Blackboard upgrade and automatic student enrolment, things have started to fall in place and we are looking to further automate things in the coming months as we move into a new year. Similar to this, the new AT System has been put in place for assignments. Although new to both students and staff, it has proved highly effective in students handing work in, and has reduced the time and oftern queues that were experieced at assignment handin time within the resource centre.
So a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all, see you in 2009
regards
E-learning Team
this will be the final posting of 2008, and it has been a good year for UCB. Many new advancements have been made with Blackboard and we are now piloting new innnovative software pieces within the VLE that are proving highly effective for both learners and staff here at the college. New software tools are also being used to create a bank of interactive learning materials that can be delivered in a online learning environment. After the initial teething issues with the Blackboard upgrade and automatic student enrolment, things have started to fall in place and we are looking to further automate things in the coming months as we move into a new year. Similar to this, the new AT System has been put in place for assignments. Although new to both students and staff, it has proved highly effective in students handing work in, and has reduced the time and oftern queues that were experieced at assignment handin time within the resource centre.
So a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to all, see you in 2009
regards
E-learning Team
Thursday 23 October 2008
October Update
Apologies all for not updating this blog for the last couple of months, but to say things have been hectic would be a little bit of an under statement. Finally student enrolments have finished and Blackboard queries seem to be dying down, so we can now concentrate on the projects that lie ahead for the next year or so. So whats happened in the last 2 months, well after Blackboard version 8 was released and tested on our system we went live in septemeber for the new academic terms enrolments. We have also integrated a new Blackboard tool for automatic enrolment called 'SnapShot'. This uses the information contained within the student record database, and subsequently enrols the students onto their given course and modules without any need for spreadsheets and manual enrolment. Now seeing as this was the first time for implementation, we have found some teething problems, but all in all things have progressed quite smoothly with the majority of students being enrolled on their chosen subjects.
The e-learning team is about to embark on a key project for the university, that will see new online material being developed in-house for a new course that will soon be available during the start of next semester in 2009. Other projects that we are looking at are focussing on the use of web 2.0 and mobile technologies, and their impact and effect on teaching and learning within the university.
I will endeavour to keep this blog more up-to-date as the weeks go by, so watch this space.....
The e-learning team is about to embark on a key project for the university, that will see new online material being developed in-house for a new course that will soon be available during the start of next semester in 2009. Other projects that we are looking at are focussing on the use of web 2.0 and mobile technologies, and their impact and effect on teaching and learning within the university.
I will endeavour to keep this blog more up-to-date as the weeks go by, so watch this space.....
Monday 14 July 2008
Monthly Update
Hello all and welcome to the monthly update from the e-learning team. During the months of June and July several projects have been active, with one being a review made on the TDA Vodcasting project bid that UCB were given. This project surrounds the use of PDAs and their support for PGCE students studying on placement. A meeting with senior teaching staff proved succesful, were ideas were gathered and collated and the functionality of the PDAs that the students have access to were showcased. This project is proving to be a success among the students, and the staff have requested that they have similar training and guidance on how to effectively use the features within the device, in order to enhance their skills with new types of technology.
Other areas that the e-learning team have been focused on surround updates and additions to Blackboard. We are piloting several new pieces of software that we are hoping to integrate fully into our VLE, and we are soon to roll-out the new Blackboard upgrade (version 8), that incorporates several new and updated features. Both the new e-community and help tab on Blackboard will be unvailed on the next update, both of which include new types of software tools to aid in collaboration and communication of both staff and students.
More to follow
Other areas that the e-learning team have been focused on surround updates and additions to Blackboard. We are piloting several new pieces of software that we are hoping to integrate fully into our VLE, and we are soon to roll-out the new Blackboard upgrade (version 8), that incorporates several new and updated features. Both the new e-community and help tab on Blackboard will be unvailed on the next update, both of which include new types of software tools to aid in collaboration and communication of both staff and students.
More to follow
Friday 20 June 2008
Monthly Update
New developments have taken place in Blackboard. There are several areas on the test server that have been updated with the view to updating the live site. The login page, help tab and e-community tab have all be re-vammped with links, images, new modules produced and the incorporation of web 2.0 tools and videos to aid engagement of both the student and the academics that use Blackboard. The help tab has been updated for both the staff and students wiith more accessible information and a more interactive and appealing user interface.
The e-community tab has been re-designed from that on the live site. The tab area includes more resources that are available to the overseas students, with a view to incorporating a variety of new software tools that will aid in collaboration, retention and engagement of students that study both part-time and who study from a distance.
We have been looking at a wide variety of software tools that we intend to pilot for a range of different features. We are currently looking to create learning objects on a range of distance learning courses, and we have looked into using Articulate to facilitate us in this approach. To aid in online collaboration of students, we have downloaded the Learning Objects Campus Pack building block into Blackboard. This allows uses to create blogs, wikis, podcasts etc within Blackboard. As an addition to this tool, we are also looking into piloting Wimba collaboartve suite, that feature tools such as virtual classroom so a lecturer can run a live classroom to students overseas, and Pronto which is an interactive messaging service allowing students and tutors to communicate vai the aid of Blackboard.
more to follow..
The e-community tab has been re-designed from that on the live site. The tab area includes more resources that are available to the overseas students, with a view to incorporating a variety of new software tools that will aid in collaboration, retention and engagement of students that study both part-time and who study from a distance.
We have been looking at a wide variety of software tools that we intend to pilot for a range of different features. We are currently looking to create learning objects on a range of distance learning courses, and we have looked into using Articulate to facilitate us in this approach. To aid in online collaboration of students, we have downloaded the Learning Objects Campus Pack building block into Blackboard. This allows uses to create blogs, wikis, podcasts etc within Blackboard. As an addition to this tool, we are also looking into piloting Wimba collaboartve suite, that feature tools such as virtual classroom so a lecturer can run a live classroom to students overseas, and Pronto which is an interactive messaging service allowing students and tutors to communicate vai the aid of Blackboard.
more to follow..
Friday 23 May 2008
New Members to the e-learning team
During the period of May this year, 2 new members of staff have joined UCB working alongside Saima Akhtar in the e-learning team.
Dominic Gore has been appointed as the new E-learning Development and Support Officer, working closely with Saima on a number of e-learning projects surrounding using mobile technologies in teaching and learning, and looking at the advantages of using the Content System within UCB's Virtual Learning Environment 'Blackboard'.
Magdalena Jozefko has been appointed as the new e-learning assistant and is responsible for the day to day running of Blackboard, supporting students and staff with issues and queries within Blackboard. She also works closely with the other members of the e-learning team on new and up-coming projects to enhance the overall learning and teaching of the students here at University College Birmingham
To contact either member of staff simply email:
dgore@ucb.ac.uk
mjozefko@ucb.ac.uk
Dominic Gore has been appointed as the new E-learning Development and Support Officer, working closely with Saima on a number of e-learning projects surrounding using mobile technologies in teaching and learning, and looking at the advantages of using the Content System within UCB's Virtual Learning Environment 'Blackboard'.
Magdalena Jozefko has been appointed as the new e-learning assistant and is responsible for the day to day running of Blackboard, supporting students and staff with issues and queries within Blackboard. She also works closely with the other members of the e-learning team on new and up-coming projects to enhance the overall learning and teaching of the students here at University College Birmingham
To contact either member of staff simply email:
dgore@ucb.ac.uk
mjozefko@ucb.ac.uk
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