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