Educational Enhancement

Threshold Standards for Moodle: A Learning Technologist’s tale

Posted on 22nd September 2015 by Nicholas Botfield

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 ›

Tagged with: Study Direct
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Being there – or not? Conferencing virtually and ‘in real life’ #altc

Posted on 18th September 2015 by Anne Hole

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 ›

Tagged with: altc
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Exploring The Keep – valuable resources for teaching and research

Posted on 15th September 2015 by Kitty Horne

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 ›

Tagged with: The Keep
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Encouraging student engagement through interactive lectures

Posted on 8th September 2015 by Kitty Horne

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 ›

Tagged with: ResponseWare
Posted in Polling tools, Technology Enhanced Learning

Reflective practice goes digital

Posted on 1st September 2015 by Anne Hole

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 ›

Tagged with: Reflection
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Windows 10: has a sleeping giant awoken?

Posted on 25th August 2015 by Nicholas Botfield

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 ›

Tagged with: Windows 10
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Periscope: live broadcasting for teaching and learning

Posted on 18th August 2015 by Sally Burr

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 ›

Podcast: Play in new window | Download

Tagged with: Periscope
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Digital resources for Arts and Humanities

Posted on 11th August 2015 by Anne Hole

flickr photo by Leonieke Aalders shared under a Creative Commons (BY-NC-ND) license

Things are changing in Arts and Humanities. Researchers are increasingly working with digital materials and using new tools in traditional research locations. Reading itself has been transformed by digital devices. So how can you make the most of digital tools and resources for teaching and learning in the Arts and Humanities?

Being a digital academic

There is a wide range of ways to use, or get involved with, digital tools and resources. For example Professor Tim Hitchcock (Digital History, HAHP) writes about using Twitter and blogs to make academic practice public and publishes his own blog while Dr. Lynne Murphy (Linguistics, English) has recently received a US grant to help write a book based on her very successful blog ‘Separated by a Common Language’. Read more ›

Tagged with: Humanities
Posted in Technology Enhanced Learning

Threshold Standards for Moodle: A Learning Technologist’s tale

Being there – or not? Conferencing virtually and ‘in real life’ #altc