Peer learning and small group activities have long been staples of higher education – and with good reason. Working together develops students’ understanding of the topic alongside teamwork skills which are so important for employability and lifelong learning. Professionals across a wide range of disciplines now work together online and students can benefit from exploring digital collaboration as part of group work. Read more ›
Learning together: Technology enhanced collaboration.
Threshold Standards for Moodle: A Learning Technologist’s tale
An Unexpected Journey….
Over the summer months Sussex TEL have been in their various Hobbit holes focussing a lot of time on implementing school-level standards for Study Direct, Sussex’s virtual learning environment (VLE) that’s built on the Moodle platform.
This endeavour began this time last year when the TEL team discussed individual needs and requirements with representatives from each school. During these discussions, one issue that was consistently raised was the inconsistency amongst Study Direct sites. So, with a large task in our hands and commitment in our hearts we began our arduous and unexpected journey… Read more ›
Being there – or not? Conferencing virtually and ‘in real life’ #altc
Conferences are changing just as Higher Education and modes of learning are changing. Where once you had to be present to engage with and learn from your peers at a conference you can now follow proceedings and interact online. These changes can be seen across disciplines, but in this post I am going to reflect briefly on my hybrid participation in the recent ALT (Association for Learning Technology) conference.
The physical conference took place over 3 days in Manchester but people were also encouraged to participate online and there were many opportunities ahead of the event to connect with the ALT community via the conference website or using the #altc hashtag on social media. Read more ›
Exploring The Keep – valuable resources for teaching and research
Recently the TEL team went to visit The Keep and were hugely impressed with the range of resources available to students, teaching and research staff and the public. Here we talk to Fiona Courage, Special Collections Manager & Mass Observation Curator at the University of Sussex, exploring the many ways in which The Keep can be used to enhance learning experiences and develop research skills as well as the ways in which TEL will be working with The Keep in the future.
Tell us about The Keep
The Keep is many things but at its most basic level it’s a building which has been created to house the archival and rare book collections of the University of Sussex, the archival collections of East Sussex Record Office and the collections from the Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and Hove. Opened in 2013, the building is designed to house archives and rare books in the correct environmental conditions and has been created to be completely accessible. Read more ›
Encouraging student engagement through interactive lectures
flickr photo by teddy-rised shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license
With large lecture sizes there is always the risk that some students may become disengaged. Bringing interactivity to the lecture setting through the use of mobile student response systems can contribute towards solving this problem and, used effectively, can encourage higher levels of student engagement.
A study by Voelkel and Bennett (2013) from the University of Liverpool highlights the positive effect that the introduction of mobile response system had upon students’ enjoyment, engagement and attendance on four undergraduate modules. Read more ›
Reflective practice goes digital
flickr photo by Wagner Machado Carlos Lemes shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Reflective practice for academics in Higher Education is not a new idea, in fact reflection is encouraged in most professional fields and is a habit that students should be developing as part of their wider digital capabilities.
Unfortunately, reflection can easily be overlooked when time is short. If digital tools can make it easier to quickly capture thoughts and ideas across a range of media, then there can be huge benefits for learning and professional development. Read more ›
Windows 10: has a sleeping giant awoken?
flickr photo by ToddABishop shared under a Creative Commons (BY) license
Readers of our blog may notice that many of our technology-focussed posts relate to either applications that can be used on Apple and Android devices, or online resources. We haven’t, up until now, referred to the operating system that 61% of you probably use every day…Microsoft Windows.
Whilst this omission may seem an oversight, it hasn’t been without good reason. As a team, we focus on emerging technologies that can assist either teachers or learners, and Windows hasn’t delivered specifically in this area recently. Read more ›
Periscope: live broadcasting for teaching and learning
flickr photo by Jim Makos shared under a Creative Commons (BY-ND) license
Have you heard of Periscope, the live broadcasting app described by its creators as ‘the closest thing to teleportation’?
This new, free app enables easy broadcasting directly from your smartphone – no additional equipment required. You can also view live broadcasts from all over the world.
Try Periscope
Owned by Twitter, Periscope has signed up over 10 million people in the last four months. Read more ›
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This work by Educational Enhancement, University of Sussex is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at https://blogs.sussex.ac.uk/tel/.