E-Learning Development Group

Meetings update April 2008

Andrew Rothery — Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:09:44 +0000

The next ELDG meeting is scheduled for 10:00 am Tuesday 8 April in PL 11 (Lower Tower Room). Two short topics are planned for this meeting:

Personal Response Systems – introduction to use of this technology for immediate feedback from students in the classroom. The session is to raise our awareness of what this is, and to have a discussion about potential use as there is already some interest in this development. 10:00 – 10:45 (approx.)
Learning and teaching materials online – discussion on what would be the ideal online storage/access for tutor’s materials. Includes an update on CoRE repository development, but we should look at the VLE, the e-portfolio and beyond to see what is needed to meet lecturers’ needs. 10:45 – 11:30 (approx.)

Notes from earlier meetings are posted on the ELDG website. The topic for the January meeting was Information Literacy Online, and the topic for the December meeting was Virtual Worlds (incl. Second Life)

October Meeting

Andrew Rothery — Wed, 17 Oct 2007 16:20:08 +0000

The notes from the October meeting are now published on the ELDG web page – see the link in the list on the right. The meeting featured a presentation given by Tom Franklin and the notes give the url to this presentation and records comments made during the meeting. The meeting was an excellent opportunity for lecturers and support staff across the university to review the options for making use of Web2.0 approaches in learning and teaching. It has given all of us ideas and directions to take advantage of these opportunities.

If you have any comments on the minutes, or on the meeting, or on Web 2.0 generally please leave a reply comment to this posting.

Rooms for meetings in 07/08

Andrew Rothery — Fri, 06 Jul 2007 14:38:19 +0000

Here is confirmation of rooms for next year’s meetings:

Reminders will be sent before each meeting with agenda etc

10:00 Tuesday 9 October – MB27

14:00 Monday 10 December – PL1.1 (LTR)

14:00 Wednesday 6 February – PL1.7 (UTR)

10:00 Tuesday 8 April – PL1.1 (LTR)

14:00 Monday 9 June – Bridges Centre

The rooms have been booked 15 minutes before the start time if you would like to get there in good time to enjoy the tea/coffee provided.

Arrangements for 2007/2008

Andrew Rothery — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 13:10:49 +0000

Dates for meetings are as posted in the earlier blog posting! See below. Info on rooms etc to follow.

Core membership will remain the same but the ELDG has agreed to make its meetings more open, as was done with the e-portfolio meeting and the e-repository meeting. This will enable those with a specialist interest in the particular topic to be able to participate. Invitations will be sent out as soon as the main topic for each meeting is finalised.

Minutes of the June meeting

Andrew Rothery — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 12:40:03 +0000

The minutes of the June meeting are now published on the ELDG web site (link in left hand column of this blog)

We discussed the outcomes of our earlier initiatives on ” laptops instead of desktops”, “e-learning strategies in departments” and “e-portfolio”. We also used the “hype cycle” to identify the state of current e-elearning developments.

The main item was about the online submission and marking of assignments. Libby will lead a working group to sort out the detail of managing and organising this process and report back next academic year.

Proposed dates for 2007 – 2008 academic year

Andrew Rothery — Fri, 15 Jun 2007 14:19:05 +0000

The following dates are proposed based on the same pattern as this year:

10 am Tuesday 9 October 2007

2pm Monday 10 December 2007

2pm Wednesday 6 February 2008

10 am Tuesday 8 April 2008

2pm Monday 9 June 2008

Dates and membership will be discussd at the ELDG meeting on 18 June 2007.

June 2007 meeting reminder

Andrew Rothery — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:07:26 +0000

This is to remind you that the next meeting of the E-Learning Development Group takes place at 2:00 pm on Monday 18 June 2007 in the Bridges Centre.The principal item for the agenda is online submission and marking of assignments. This will be introduced by Libby Symonds and colleagues from the Institute of Health. The ELDG will be invited to recommend policy guidelines. In addition Libby will demonstrate a comparison of the two main systems available, namely WebCT and Turnitin.

Lecturers’ laptop pilot scheme

Andrew Rothery — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:06:30 +0000

You may remember last year recommending that laptops be available to lecturers as an alternative to desktops, as the portability might help staff make more use of e-learning in the office, the classroom, home or placement location. Judith Elkin sponsored a pilot scheme to provide laptops to a small group of lecturers.

The evaluation of this scheme was carried out by John Colvin and Andrew Rothery and their report is available on the ELDG web page. Follow the link in the column on the right of this posting.

The evidence was that laptops would be more useful than desktops for many, if not most teaching staff.

WRaP: Worcester Research and Publications

Andrew Rothery — Wed, 30 May 2007 17:00:43 +0000

At its meeting on 18 April 2007, The ELDG had a preview of the new system for an online collection of research papers and other publications written by university staff.

Full details of this session are in its “notes” on the ELDG web site – see link in side column of this blog.

February meeting: special meeting on e-portfolio

Andrew Rothery — Tue, 23 Jan 2007 17:17:33 +0000

E-portfolio special meeting

Bridges Centre, Friday 23 February 10:00 – 12:30

The ELDG is holding a special meeting in order that it may recommend a strategy for the adoption of a university-wide e-portfolio system. In addition to the normal membership, the Learning and Teaching Committee departmental representatives are also invited, together with those tutors who have a particular interest in developing the use of an e-portfolio with their students.

The meeting will focus on two particular e-portfolio systems, Pebblepad and WebCT. Representatives from the two companies and also from two universities each using these systems will be invited.

10:00 Introduction

10:10 Overview of Pebblepad – including demonstration

10:30 Comments from Gloucester university users

10:45 Questions and discussion

11:00 Coffee/tea

11:10 Overview of WebCT E-Portfolio – including demonstration

11:30 Comments from Birmingham university users

11:45 Questions and discussion

12:00 Options for university strategic development

12:30 Lunch: feedback and general discussion