Blackboard Portal – where are we with this?
Posted on: 4 May 2015
By: saundeg
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The Blackboard portal work continues with its various strands. Soon the project will appoint a number of student helpers to engage with staff on a ‘tidy-up’ of Blackboard sites over the Summer. They will be offering drop-ins and surgeries to support staff in making their site simpler and more consistent.
For our pre-arrival Blackboard offering work has started to identify some of the likely content of the pre-arrival experience. This is likely to include links mainly to existing information needed for enrolment and induction; specific information for international students and a range of help resources which will give students the opportunity to find out about services (including of course Blackboard), processes and procedures which they would normally only become familiar with in face to face induction week.
We also plan to have some ‘fun’ things for pre-arrival and students are helping us design a treasure hunt online for which there will be attractive winner prizes.
The project now has an advanced plan for the information architecture of the new Blackboard and meetings have been arranged with an external design company to begin to look at how to provide each Faculty with their own look and feel.
More updates to follow soon.
Latest from the Classrooms Project
Posted on: 4 May 2015
By: saundeg
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The Classrooms projects is nearing the end of the phase which will see plans go out to tender. Rock Townsend (external design consultancy) and Hewshott (external AV/IT consultants) have worked on the specifications for each room provided by the Faculties. Preliminary drawings were issues just over a week ago to Faculty contacts and the feedback is being used now to finalise detailed drawings for each room.
The detailed drawings for each room will go back to Faculties on the 6th May for a final look before the plans go off with the tender pack to a range of suppliers.
The principal Faculty contacts for this work to date have been:
FABE – Adam Clemens, Harry Charrington and Sarah Speed
WBS – Deirdre Sinclair and David Hitchcock
SSH – Tom Moore and Diane Buckley
FST – Thierry Delaitre and Mark Clements
MAD – Silke Lange and Mandy Addison
Classroom Ideas – Latest Plans
Posted on: 26 April 2015
By: saundeg
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The classrooms project is now at the stage where more detailed plans from the design company and AV/IT consultants have been produced. Feedback from Faculties is awaited. In the meantime take a look at some of the images/ideas that have been out forward in the designs.
Here’s an overview sketch to give an impression of part of one future room with some ideas for floors, ceilings and walls
And here are some sketches of a planning innovative and space saving lectern, currently being referred to as ‘the box’!
Some possible chair layouts and furniture types:
And finally some images of indicating the kind of direction the project is heading with respect to lighting, decor, power supply and flooring.
Situated learning using mobile devices
Posted on: 8 April 2015
By: saundeg
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Take a look at this short video which summarises a mobile learning approach used successfully at another University with ecology students. Though the case study is about ecology students on a field trip the principle of situated learning and the utility of mobile devices in supporting such learning, can be applied in other contexts.
Roles in Blackboard
Posted on: 8 April 2015
By: saundeg
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In order for Blackboard to function as a portal we need to use the Community functionality of Blackboard. Community allows specific roles to be defined behind the scenes (e.g. undergraduate from Faculty of Science and Technology) so that information can be targeted to specific individuals based on their role definition.
Last week, as part of progressing this project, staff in the education technology team were trained by an external consultant to be able to fully utilise the Community function. This means that as soon as we receive the final report from Blackboard from the staff and student engagement work, we will be able to begin building a prototype portal.
To learn more about Blackboard Community functionality please look at this web page.
Progress with the classrooms project
Posted on: 8 April 2015
By: saundeg
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The design company working on the project, Rock Townsend, have now had an opportunity to tour all of the rooms identified by the Faculties. They are currently working with the outline ideas for each room that some Faculties have already provided. Early next week we are hoping to have similar outline ideas from the remaining Faculties.
Click to see the ideas that have come from MAD and those from FST.
The timeline for the project is challenging and looks as follows:
Engagement with Faculties March – April
Design /cost plan complete: 24 April, to allow your presentation to the Project Board
Tender pack completion: 24 April – 1 May
Tender: May (4 weeks)
Negotiate with possible contractors: end/May – mid June
Instruct Main contractor and AV specialist contractor: mid June
Construction: July/August
Completion: end of August
Mobile Learning in the Faculty of Science and Technology
Posted on: 27 March 2015
By: saundeg
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The project to help transform learning and teaching through mobile learning is now well underway. It was recently agreed that iPADs would be the device that the Faculty would exploit in this work. The plan will essentially involve providing all level 5 and 6 students with iPADs as well as all staff.
At present the project team are finishing of an invitation to tender to be issued for companies to bid to supply the iPADs and an attendant support programme.
Alongside this the team are busy putting together a development programme for staff in the Faculty which will range from the basic operation of the device through to using the iPADs for in and out of class activities.
To find out more about the ideas behind the project visit the project website.
Classroom Project
Posted on: 27 March 2015
By: saundeg
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The first step with the classroom project has been to work with small groups of staff at each to identify which rooms should be the target for ‘modernisation’ over the Summer. We hope at this stage that Faculty will be able to markedly improve between 4-6 rooms with a combination of new furniture, different AV/IT, as well as attending to some basic needs such as blinds and lighting.
The rooms identified as targets at each Faculty are:
Marylebone – C176, C178, C179, C180, C181, C279, C280, C281, C282, M321, LA103
Regent – 350, 352, 354, 355, 359, 251
Harrow – A7.01, A7.02, A7.02a, A7.03, A7.04
Cavendish – C305, C303/4, Pavilion, C204, C207, C211, CLG1, 1.110, C1.15
Now a design company are on board (Rock Townsend) the nest step will costing up what each Faculty would ideally like each room to look like.
Blackboard Discovery Workshops
Posted on: 27 March 2015
By: saundeg
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A Blackboard discovery workshop was held on the 24th February. This one day event was attended by around 40 staff representing the academic community, IT support, library, student support services (careers, health and wellbeing), recruitment, admission and marketing, academic registries and core Blackboard support staff.
The day comprised a number of activities the most extensive of which involved groups deciding on a student persona and then trying to think through what that student might need from a Blackboard portal.
All groups decided on an undergraduate persona and the range of information and services they felt critical to their student were quite similar and can be collectively summed up as including:
Information
This should be personalised and include:
– timetable
– week to view calendar of timetable/events
– notifications (upcoming tasks, e.g. assessments)
– Progress bars (assessments, course)
– Key contacts including tutors and office hours
– Course Facebook page
Other key information included:
– Discounted goods and services for students
– Student support services (counselling, careers)
– Finance support
– Registry support
– Induction and enrolment information
News should include:
– SU events
– Faculty events
– Training and placements
– Extra curricular opportunities
– Talent bank
– External newsfeeds
Other key information services included: Library, email. print
An example of feedback from one of the groups is shown below:
Each group was also asked how things may need to be different for postgraduates. It was suggested that key for them would be knowing their timetable a year in advance (to support the need for greater flexibility), ‘different’ employability support, targeted training and research seminars
Mobile Devices and what the University should do
Posted on: 27 March 2015
By: saundeg
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Filed under: Mobile
During the recently completed Review of Infrastructure and Environment for Learning and Teaching there was much discussion around the future use of mobile devices in learning and teaching. Staff generally agreed that:
- Total ownership of mobile devices, plus reliable wireless, supports new in class learning methods
- Mobile devices are potentially significant for group work
- A number of simple in-class approaches for engagement derive from tablets/mobiles
- There is concern that mobile devices in class is thought to = student engagement
- Staff need a lot of guidance and support to get started
The review concluded that the University should:
- Have a defined strategy(ies) for mobile learning and use of devices
- Provide guidance on reliable, effective mobile learning
- Develop an approach to ensure ‘total ownership’ of a suitable mobile device1
- Ensure that the wireless network can support ‘total ownership’
- Ensure students have ubiquitous access to networks and power
- Enable students to network their own devices easily in campus locations
- Ensure social spaces support the use of personal devices and associated informal, collaborative, networked modes of learning
- Assess the impact of mobile/lighter devices on open access computing laboratories