In this episode, Tab Betts talks to Dr. Catherine Pope and Helen Hampson about how they created an online induction for doctoral research students. Our discussion touches on WordPress blogs, consulting learners about their individual needs and microlearning via short videos.
Links:
– ‘New Doctoral Researchers at Sussex’ Online Induction
– Dr Catherine Pope (and her blog: The Digital Researcher)
– Helen Hampson
– Researcher Development Programme
– WordPress
– YouTube
– Microlearning
Over the last couple of years we have often mentioned Padlet in our blog posts* and workshops but never devoted a whole blog post to this versatile tool. As there have been some useful updates recently this seems like a good time to have a closer look at Padlet and how it can be used in teaching and learning.
What is Padlet?
Padlet provides a free virtual wall where users can post content and comments. Most types of digital content can be added to a Padlet (directly or as a web link) and the options for layout, access and permissions make it useful in a wide range of settings.
An example of a Padlet showing some of the content that can be posted. Click on the image to see it on Padlet.
How are people using Padlet?
Many staff at the University of Sussex are using Padlet for collaborative work and learning. Two of the first projects using Padlet at the University were outlined in this post on the #altc blog by Professor Lucy Robinson (History) and Dr Rebecca Webb (Education) which show how versatile it can be. Where Lucy and her students were using Padlet to create learning resources, Rebecca’s students used it as a social and reflective space.
More recently, Dr Wendy Garnham’s Foundation Year Psychology students have been creating a rich mix of digital artefacts during seminars and sharing them to group Padlet walls for others to comment on. Wendy and some of the students presented their use of Padlet at the Sussex Teaching and Learning Conference 2017 and you can hear Wendy talk about Transforming Seminars with Padlet for the Teaching with Tech Podcast. Read more ›
Technology Enhanced Learning are always keen to be involved in school specific events and this year we have been pleased to be invited to contribute at many of the academic schools’ teaching and learning away days. These are sessions which are set aside to both examine current teaching practices within the schools and plan for the year ahead. These events feature a range of talks, workshops and discussions and this year, as in previous years, Learning Technologists within TEL were around to join in these discussions as well as contribute their own talks and workshops around various teaching and learning topics.
This year’s away days featured a range of different themes including ‘Focus on Feedback’ and ‘Delivering Inclusive Teaching Learning and Assessments through TEL’. We have picked out a few key topics that arose across the various schools to discuss, TEL will also be focusing on these, in partnership with schools, throughout the upcoming academic year.
“Feedback” flickr photo by Skley https://flickr.com/photos/dskley/15719784736 shared under a Creative Commons (BY-ND) license
Many of the events had a specific focus on assessment and feedback, both formal and informal. Each event looked at identifying best practice for providing feedback to students, for example during the Department of International Relations’ Away Day they emphasised that the need to find a good balance between criticism and encouragement is vital. Meanwhile at the School of Maths and Physical Science’s Away Day, Dr Peter Giesl, Director of Teaching and Learning, focussed on the importance of the way in which feedback is structured as well as the need to enable and support students to put the feedback they receive into practice. This event also featured a presentation from Dr Mick Taylor in which he showed how he uses student response systems to provide two-way feedback to students. Mick uses these tools to firstly allow students to provide feedback to him, for example on the pace of a lecture or topics they would like to cover, and secondly to provide students with real-time feedback during teaching sessions by presenting on-the-fly questions which enable him to highlight areas of understanding and adjust his teaching accordingly.
During a number of the events Dan Axson and Kitty Horne also introduced staff to Mahara as an alternative assessment tool, highlighting how the journaling tool and commenting function in particular can be used to provide students with ongoing feedback.
Another key focus was learning spaces, both physical and virtual. During the School of Global Studies’ Away Day Pete Sparkes co-presented a session titled ‘Bodies of Space: Disruption, Comfort and Discomfort in Teaching’ with Dr Thomas Chambers and Dr Beth Mills. During this session Pete focused on the interconnectedness of the virtual space, classroom space and physical outside space and how technology can be used to capture and create learning experiences which transcend and influence the way students can interact within different spaces.
Alongside this, Student Reps from the School of Maths and Physical Sciences presented findings from a student survey that they had carried out which suggested that students, particularly in the first year, can find it daunting to visit staff during their office hours to ask questions and receive feedback. They suggested that technological interventions could remedy this, for example through providing online feedback or virtual spaces, helping to build students’ confidence.
There were many examples of active learning techniques taking place across the university. During the School of Life Sciences’ Away Day there was a focus on the use of student response systems to engage students, with Dr Joanna Richardson and Professor Buge Apampa presenting ‘Poll Everywhere, The Student Voice & Revision’ and Professor Ali Nokhodchi and Dr Mohammed Maniruzzaman introducing ‘Active Learning with KAHOOT’. In addition to this, Mike Pettit demonstrated how Values Exchange can be used for debating ethical dilemmas in an interactive classroom.
At the Business, Management and Economics Away Day there was a focus on making lectures and others forms of large group teaching interactive. Dr David Walker and Tab Betts from TEL delivered a workshop titled ‘Working with large groups/international cohorts’ in which they introduced a range of strategies to help support international students integrate into UK higher education, as well as how Poll Everywhere, Padlet and Google Slides can be used to engage large cohorts.
There was also a lot of interest expressed around the Active Learning Network, particularly during the School of Engineering and Informatics’ Away Day. The Active Learning Network is a staff-led initiative facilitated by Technology Enhanced Learning and is designed to provide a space for staff to share practice and ideas and to support each other in their active learning endeavours. The Active Learning Network meets regularly on campus and also has an ever-growing online community which is open to both internal and external participants.
Active Learning Network https://activelearningnetwork.com/
It is great to have been involved in the discussions around teaching and learning within the academic schools and to have gained further insight into the great work going on across the university. TEL are always keen to be involved in school and department specific events and workshops and are always willing to discuss new initiatives and ideas that both schools and individuals may have around ways of innovating teaching and learning practices within the university. If you would like to discuss any ideas that you have with TEL or if you would like to find out more about the Active Learning Network then please email tel@sussex.ac.uk.
The Technology Enhanced Learning team recently ran a bitesize online course for University of Sussex staff looking at Digital Productivity. This blog post will explore some ideas around that topic.
The course was conceived as a way to introduce staff to ways of working that take advantage of digital technologies to enhance or expand on practices they would previously have carried out manually. These techniques are equally useful for students and for ‘life admin’ for everyone.
It is very tempting to launch into lists of so-called productivity apps – and there are very many lists of that sort on the web – but if you are really going to find new, better ways of working then it is important to spend a little time thinking about where you are now and what you want to achieve. For example:
Once you have an idea of what you might need or want, you can start to explore what is going to be most useful to you and/or your team. Digital productivity can be split roughly into 3 main areas: communication and collaboration; managing and organising tasks; making and organising notes.
During the course we used Slack as a platform for sharing, discussing and supporting participants. If you have not seen Slack before this video will give you a quick overview.
What is Slack? video from Slack on YouTube
Slack would be useful for:
Slack also integrates with hundreds of other apps (see the Slack App Directory) so if you are already using some of the apps listed in the Slack App Directory there is scope to bring things together in one place.
For University of Sussex staff and students Office 365 which includes OneDrive for storage and OneNote for notemaking and organisation is an obvious choice. With free versions of Microsoft Office for computers and mobile devices it offers an extensive package of collaboration tools and training courses are offered by ITS.
Sussex staff and research students also have access to a Box account which allows you to share and collaborate on files.
Cloud services like this, with mobile apps, allow us to keep track and organise our lives using phones and other mobile devices.
A previous post, 3 steps to improving your time management with digital tools looked at ways that students and staff can be more organised, and hence productive, with their ‘to-dos’. At the time, we suggested Wunderlist as a useful app, but as Microsoft have taken over Wunderlist and have announced that it ‘will eventually be retired’ you might want to look at something else – Any.Do and Todoist are both good options that will let you organise all your tasks, from work to ‘life admin’, in one place.
For a more visual display of tasks Trello is still an excellent choice for individuals and teams (see our previous review of Trello), but MeisterTask now offers similar functionality.
There is very little difference between Trello and MeisterTask, but the latter will let you track time spent on tasks. If the people you work with are already using one or the other it is probably best to choose that one to make sharing tasks possible. If you want to give MeisterTask a try, there are many useful videos on the Meistertask YouTube channel.
Most of us need to make some sort of notes – for example, a shopping list, notes on reading, ideas for a journal article or reflection on teaching practice. Paper notebooks can be fine, but digital notemaking tools offer the ability to:
Staff and students at Sussex have free access to OneNote as part of Office 365 and there are many ways it can be used by students, teachers and administrators.
Here are some previous blog posts that you might find useful:
The Technology Enhanced Learning team are happy to advise and support staff at the University of Sussex in developing their digital productivity. You can contact us on tel@sussex.ac.uk.
How can technology help to make learning more inclusive? How can card sorting and mythbusting become powerful tools for the classroom and beyond?
In this episode, we interview Fiona Macneill and Tucker Macneill, who are both Learning Technologies Advisors at the University of Brighton. Our discussion focuses on how they have helped to make teaching more inclusive, re-imagine learning spaces and engage staff and students across a variety of contexts. We talk about accessibility features in iOS (the iPhone and iPad operating system), how card sorting can benefit both face-to-face and distance learning, and how mythbusting activities can be used to help people increase their digital awareness and skills.
To help familiarise staff at the University of Sussex with the major update to Turnitin (due for August); the Technology Enhanced Learning office will be running short taster workshops around campus throughout the months of July and August.
All staff who are involved in marking or supporting the process for assessments using the e-submission via Turnitin hand-in point are encouraged to book onto one of our sessions via our website.
Turnitin is the software interface used by staff and students for submitting and marking text-based assessments as part of our e-submission and e-feedback process. Feedback Studio is a major update and rebrand of the Turnitin software, as explained in our recent blog post ‘A first look at Turnitin Feedback Studio’ which provides a useful overview of the update.
The workshops will provide an early opportunity to learn about and familiarise yourself with the changes to Turnitin which will take effect from August 1st and the chance to practice using the software with support from a learning technologist.
| Date | Time | Location | Booking |
|---|---|---|---|
| 11th July | 11:00 – 12:00 | Pevensey 1 – 1B5 | Book here |
| 19th July | 11:00 – 12:00 | Arts C – C169 | Book here |
| 3rd August | 14:00 – 15:00 | JMS Building – 1B1 | Book here |
| 7th August | 14:00 – 15:00 | Freeman Centre – G21 | Book here |
| 22nd August | 14:00 – 15:00 | Jubilee Building – G23 | Book here |
| 31st August | 15:00 – 16:00 | Library Training Room | Book here |
If you have any urgent questions or would like to organise a bespoke session for your school or department, then please contact us at tel@sussex.ac.uk
Introducing “Turnitin Feedback Studio”, a rebrand and major update of the Turnitin software used by staff and students at the University of Sussex for online submission, similarity reports, marking and feedback of text-based assessments.
Watch the video below for a brief overview of the changes to Turnitin that will be forthcoming from the start of August 2017.
Whilst the principles and functionality of the software remain much the same, there have been significant developments in the following areas:
We will be running brief introductory sessions on Turnitin Feedback Studio around campus throughout July and August (2017). You can book for a training session via the TEL website.
Southampton Solent University was the venue for Student futures – equipping students to thrive in the digital era, a recent two-day event organised by the UCISA Digital Capabilities Group
The conference took place in The Spark building, dominated by a fantastic giant red pod, looming over it like something out of War of the Worlds. The pod houses a lecture theatre and has a cafe style area up top. It has to be seen in person, but it’s pretty cool to look at.
The Pod at the Spark
The purpose of this event was to explore the ways in which we support students to develop their digital capabilities, from a student, staff and institutional perspective. But what exactly are Digital Capabilities? Well, as I discovered over the two days, depending on who you speak to you may well hear it called something else (e.g. digital literacy). You’re also likely to hear various interpretations of the idea; for simplicity here is the Jisc definition, although we’d encourage you to explore this further if you’re interested.
Digital literacies are those capabilities which fit an individual for living, learning and working in a digital society (https://www.jisc.ac.uk/guides/developing-digital-literacies).
