Introducing Service Pack 12: A look at what’s next for Learning Edge – July 2013 upgrade

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Mark Wilcock

Whats-New-in-SP12-for-Educators Over the years, there have been significant system upgrades implemented to Learning Edge (Blackboard 9.1) which have added many new features as well as an improved overall user experience. The next upgrade to Learning Edge is scheduled for July 21^st-22nd, 2013, this is when the system will be unavailable for a short time – However we will continue to update you with further information closer to the time.

Once the work is complete, you will be able to log in as normal but will notice a number of enhancements.This upgrade will provide an even more user friendly and modern experience for students and staff alike. Many existing features have been improved and some exciting new features added to make the user experience more efficient.

The following is a quick overview of the tools* that you can expect to be using soon:

*Subject to change and agreement of social ‘cloud’ policy and testing.

Global Navigation

The new Global Navigation feature refers to the set of links that appears at the very top right of the Blackboard Learn frame. This set of links has been streamlined and becomes the entry point to My Blackboard and social learning tools. Access points to critical academic information are organised in one place to provide a consistent, quick, and easy way to find information.

My Blackboard

The new My Blackboard feature provides information from across Learning Edge for users. Users access My Blackboard via the new Global Navigation Menu at the top of the screen. My Blackboard has a navigation panel that quickly connects to the new My Blackboard tools – Profile, Updates, People, and Posts – as well as courses, organisations, and settings.

Discussions

With this enhancement, Blackboard have thoroughly revamped the look and feel of this tool. The first thing you’ll notice are the large avatars or profile pictures, so it’s a lot easier to identify tutors or students. And now you can see all threads on one page, but if this gets overwhelming, you have the ability to collapse and expand them.

Something you’ll all like is this new post first feature. If used, this will force students to write their own posts before seeing what their peers have written to encourage critical and original thinking.

Highlights include:

All posts on one page: The entire discussion thread appears on a single page, thereby maintaining the context of posts and replies to one another.
Avatars: The user profile avatars are more prominent in the new Discussions.
Conditional highlighting of instructors’ posts: It is easier for students to find posts from instructors in a sea of other posts.
Respond to posts inline: When clicking “Reply”, the content editor appears in the context of the discussion so as not to disrupt the flow of the user. The full content editor is available for the user to write a reply. When finished, submitting the post adds it directly into the page without losing context.

Inline Assignment Grading

Inline Assignment Grading is a revision to the workflow for grading submissions via the Assignment tool. Now instead of downloading the files that you need to view, edit and grade, you can view the Word, Excel, PPT docs or PDFs “inline” within Learning Edge. Instead of downloading student-submitted files to view or edit, you will now be able to view student-submitted files “inline,” i.e. in the web browser, without requiring any plugins, applets, or client-side applications.

Additionally, annotation tools will be made available as part of the inline viewer, enabling tutors to provide feedback including comments, highlights, and even drawings/annotations directly on the inline view of the document.

Retention Center

The brand new Retention Center provides an easy-to-use data visualisation and pre-configured rules for identifying at-risk students in a course. Because it requires no set up on the part of the tutor or administrator, it automatically calls out students who may need the tutor’s attention, making it easy for tutors to catch and respond to risk factors quickly, while there is time to help the at-risk students succeed in the course.

New Calendar

With this new calendar, you can spend less time organising your calendar and more time doing what’s on it. Consolidate your course items into this easy-to-use calendar. Add events, drag and drop to change due dates, input course reminders.

Students and tutors can view items that are past due, due today, or due this week by navigating to the overview capability in My Blackboard. From the image below you can see that it’s much more modern, in terms of both look and functionality.

You can select views (month, week, and day) and color-code the events to differentiate courses and personal items. Items with due dates automatically appear on the new Learning Edge calendar. If you change a due date within a course area, the calendar gets updated for students as well.

Calendar events may be viewed at once– or filtered to show only the desired mix of class and personal events. Users can select which calendars to view, ranging from personal to institution to individual course listings. These calendar items can also be exported via an iCal feed to Outlook, Google or other 3^rd party calendars.

Assessment Item Analysis

The new Item Analysis provides statistics on overall test performance and on individual test questions. This data helps faculty recognise questions that might not adequately discriminate between students who understand the material and those who do not. Faculty can use this information to improve questions for future tests or to adjust marks on current attempts. Ineffective or misleading questions are identified easily, corrected in the Test Canvas, and are re-graded automatically.

We hope you like the look of these new features and would be happy to hear your thoughts via the comments section below.

If you have any queries regarding this upgrade please don’t hesitate to contact the Learning Technology Development team on 01695 650754 or via ltdsupport@edgehill.ac.uk

Mark Wilcock
Learning Technology Development Officer

Doing something different with data – using infographics to showcase your research

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Rachel Bury

The 5^th EHU Student eLearning survey closed in the spring of this year and we will be sharing the full report and feedback shortly, but we wanted to highlight some of the headlines using infographics. Using pictures to tell a story is nothing new but we have been looking over the past few months at how we can represent research data in an infographic. We can see many opportunities for communicating to our customers the messages from what in the past, they might have seemed like dry or complex data. Seeing the trends, figures and statistics which are contained in research can be really hard sometimes but the infographic brings the message to the foreground in a visually appealing way. Using a graphic can also very easily give your statistic some context, again, something which can be hard when you are writing a report.

A key element of the annual eLearning survey is seeing the trends in terms of the use of TEL and the VLE and also the technology the students are using to access learning.

Here are 5 infographics showcasing the following; the increase in student satisfaction and interaction with Learning Edge; personal means of accessing the internet (we all know where that one is going!); preferred place of study on campus – it is still the library but we will be tracking in future how students are using our new student HUB; the technology students feel could be best used in terms of their learning; and bringing us back to our campus and the facilities, the increase in students using wireless on campus.

We hope you find these graphics more appealing that just a percentage statistic and we will be sharing more technology and Learning Edge data soon, along with some library statistics so if we can excite people about book issues by using graphics, it’s a result!

Rachel Bury

Academic Liaison Manager – Quality, Marketing and Communication

Mobile Learn App – Emerging Cyclical Patterns of Use

Posted on June 7, 2013 by Megan Juss

In the last 12 months, the Mobile Learn app has been used by nearly 14,000 staff and students, and this timeframe includes the quiet(er) summer months of June – Sept. We’ll need to revisit the data again in September to capture a picture for the full 2012-13 year but already we can start to see cyclical patterns of use emerging throughout the academic calendar: see usage analytics data below in Figures 1 & 2.

Figure 1. Mobile Learn Total Logins

Figure 2. Mobile Learn Logins by Day of the Week and by Hours of the Day

At a glance we can see the most active periods are:

Term time

Peaks of activity between Sept-1^st and Dec 22nd, Jan 2^nd and March 28^th & April 8^th to the present, are all punctuated with a drop-off in use as one term ends and the next begins.

The working week

Weekend use is regularly lower than that taking place between Monday and Friday, with the start of the week tending to be marginally more active.

The working day

From 7am to 10pm we can see how a rapid rise in use begins and then remains consistently high throughout the day; from the moment we wake and on into the evening the app is in regular use. (Interestingly the small peaks at likely break or travel times, 10 am, 12pm and 16 pm, are even more noticeable in some of the most active monthly charts, than they are in the yearly average graphic shown above).

The usage analytics data alone doesn’t tell us how the app is being used, but further data, gathered via our annual student eLearning survey and a supplementary mobile library services snapshot study, confirms that our EHU students are finding the app useful, primarily for accessing lecture notes, course notifications and grades. The striking spike at the start of January coincides with the release of results for first term assessments- suggesting students are using the app to check their results. I think there is certainly more work we can do next year to make sure all courses know they can use the Blackboard grade book to deliver grades and feedback that can be quickly and easily accessed by our expectant students via the app!

If you’d like help or advice on how to do more with your course to make use of the mobile learn app features contact your learning technologist, come to one of our staff development sessions and browse the Learning Edge: Blackboard Mobile Learn guides available on eShare.

Meg Juss, Learning Technology Development Manager

Spotlight on the Learning Services Mobile Implementation Team

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Megan Juss

Readers of the Learning Services blog or the Edge Hill News will have perhaps already read about our exciting 2013 Blackboard Catalyst Award for Mobile Innovation, which celebrates the successful wide ranging activity taking place across the service (and in collaboration with other departments across the university,) to enhance the student experience of mobile technology.

As I’ve said before, this achievement is a collective one- so I thought it would be good to highlight some of the people involved with the mobile implementation project and the activity that has been recognised by the Blackboard community as exemplary:

Learning Services Mobile Implementation Team. L-R: Adrian Cain, Paul Appleton, Mark Wilcock, Martin Baxter, Meg Juss, John Langford, Lindsey Martin, Rachel Bury, Nina Unsworth, David Callaghan, Carol Chatten, Irfan Mulla, Pete Beaumont.

Adrian Cain, Learning Technology Development Officer
As an advocate of the Mobile Learn app and proactive technologist within the Faculty of Health and Social Care, Adrian has worked closely with Laura Taylor, the Faculty of Health and Social Care Senior Solstice Fellow, to showcase the Learn app to new students at inductions. Adrian has also worked with Meg to co-develop ‘The Students’ Ideal VLE’, a popular staff development workshop that draws on evidence from our internal surveys and NSS commentrary, which promotes the essential role of mobile in VLE developments. Adrian is now a leading member of the Learning Services App Review group who, in response to student feedback, are identifying and signposting other useful mobile apps for learning.

Paul Appleton, Communication and Design Officer
A professional graphic designer, Pauls’ handiwork can be seen in the numerous print and online marketing materials used to introduce students and staff to the growing portfolio of mobile solutions. Paul has also created a series of illuminating infographics to clearly present findings from our annual Student eLearning Survey and continues to design visual resources to help us convey our mobile story. (We’ll be publishing more about the 2012-13 survey and infographics in a future blog post).

Mark Wilcock, Learning Technology Development Officer
Working closely with staff in the Faculty of Education and Faculty of Health and Social Care, Mark has provided support for teams wanting to explore and improve their course design and embrace mobile-friendly practices though the production of quick-guides and delivery of bespoke staff development sessions. Mark is currently working extensively on assignment submission projects and will play a key role in supporting mobile grading functionality when it becomes available for both Blackboard and Turnitin.

Martin Baxter, Learning Technology Development Officer
Delivering staff development sessions for academic, support and administrative staff on the use of QR codes and smart phones, Martin has helped introduce new ideas to colleagues wanting to explore what mobile technology has to offer. Martin is currently investigating methods and tools to support bespoke eBook content creation, with a view to building even more mobile-friendly content options into our course designs.

Megan Juss, Learning Technology Development Manager
Responsible for the delivery and effectiveness of our mobile initiatives I manage the numerous strands of our strategy (communication, marketing, staff development, student support as well as progress evaluation and R&D) in order to make our mobile vision a reality. I am currently working with Learning Services colleagues to organise an internal conference on ‘Mobile Technology and Social Media’ to support the skills and confidence development of our service staff, as well as coordinating six exciting new projects to enhance mobile touchpoints with the service, and ultimately improve the EHU student experience (Social Media, Library Instruction, Mobile Communication & AskUs SMS, Library Resources, Apps Review & Signposting, Augmented Reality and EHU Central v2).

John Langford, Learning Technology Development Systems Officer
Coordinating installation, testing and updates to the mobile learn building block John makes sure we have the most up to date, feature rich app available. He has also worked extensively with Blackboard to resolve reported problems and continues to provide expert technical advice. With numerous app developments on the horizon, John will be closely involved with the implementation and delivery of improved functionality to the suite of EHU mobile tools.

Lindsey Martin, Assistant Head of Learning Services (Learning, ICT and Media Technologies)
Listening to what Edge Hill students have to say underpins the vision and direction that Lindsey offers to the team. Having instigated the annual Student eLearning Survey 5 years ago, Lindsey has worked hard to utilise the voice of our students to inform service developments – including supporting the original business case to invest in the Mobile Learn app. Exploring the most recent survey data, Lindsey is now examining the implications of the growing BYOD movement on our student support structures – to make sure we are in a position to respond to the growing numbers of students using their own devices on campus.

Rachel Bury, Academic Liaison Manager (Quality, Marketing and Communication) Rachel has been the driving force behind our communication campaign, using print, web and social media to really heighten awareness and ensure impact. As well as commissioning the production of professional marketing materials and collaborating with ITS colleagues to help market on-campus wifi solutions, Rachel continues to play a leading role in organising events like Fresher’s Fair during Welcome Week and the Pop-up Mobile Clinics.

Nina Unsworth, Learning Technology Development Operations Coordinator
Collating monthly usage stats and devising a simple dashboard to enable easy monitoring and dissemination of information to key stakeholders, Nina supports our analytics and evaluation activity. She also responds to user enquiries and provides level 2 troubleshooting assistance to LS Help Desk colleagues. Nina is currently working on a project to capture enquiry data in a format that allows us to analyse end user issues (including those related to the use of mobile technologies,) that will feed into future support activities.

David Callaghan, Learning Technology Development Officer
As a learning technology evangelist David has worked with colleagues in the Faculty of Education to showcase the learn app and promote the broader potential of mobile technology for teaching, learning and assessment. David has also provided support and staff development sessions for colleagues across the university looking to enhance their use of iPads, including Facilities Management colleagues wanting to gather user feedback, and senior managers wanting tips for using iPads in the workplace. David is now exploring the mobile capabilities of Campus pack to support student ePortfolio activity in the workplace

Carol Chatten, Learning Technology Development Officer
A resident mobile expert, Carol has played a leading role in many of our mobile developments, including: extensive work to support the design of mobile-friendly courses (particularly with the Clinical Education programme team and colleagues in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences), researching the role of the mobile learn app for enhanced online discussion, and delivering several innovative staff development workshops such as the ‘Mobile Field Trip’. Carol has also collaborated with Academic Liasion and Information Resources colleagues to develop our mobile Library facilities, including producing a catalogue of resources to support users downloading loanable eBooks to their mobile devices. Carol is now working in collaboration with Web Team colleagues to review and enhance the EHU central app.

Irfan Mulla, Learning Technology Development Officer
In collaboration with colleagues in the Faculty of Education Inclusion programmes Irfan has supported the development of mobile-friendly and accessible course content, provided staff development sessions to help the team develop the knowledge, skills and confidence to embed mobile learning into their course design and produced a comprehensive collection of bespoke guidance materials for Dyslexia and SENCo students. Irfan has also supported the introduction of web conferencing using Blackboard Collaborate online and via Collaborate app, and is currently exploring the latest app update that brings support for Android and Kindle fire devices as well as integrated conference call in functionality.

Peter Beaumont, Learning Technology Development Officer
Promoting the range of mobile technologies and support available from the LTD team, Pete has delivered numerous overview sessions for colleagues within the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as well as induction sessions for all new academic colleagues and international visitors. Pete has also facilitated staff development workshops to help colleagues produce content that is accessible to a wide range of students including those with SpLDs and those using mobile devices. He has also researched the potential of mobile devices to support classroom teaching, extending the work he does supporting the use of our Optivote and Turning Point clicker systems. Pete is now leading the Learning Services Augmented Reality working group who are exploring the potential of AR enhanced content.

Other university departments (not pictured) but who have also played a key role in Edge Hill’s successful and on-going mobile developments include:

IT Services colleagues, including Web Services (managed by Mike Nolan) and Core Services (managed by Neil Malcolm), who this year have delivered a new mobile website and numerous other new services targeted at mobile users, including the EHU Central app, enhanced mobile-friendly Library Catalogue, improved on-campus Wi-Fi and the impressive and popular computer availability app.

Learning Services Information Resources colleagues who in collaboration with IT Services have introduced enhanced mobile compatible library search facilities, such as Discover More and the mobile-friendly Library Catalogue.

Customer Services colleagues and Flexi IT rovers for their excellent on-going Help Desk support to mobile users- which also now includes mobile-friendly (search, live chat and SMS) support via the Ask Us knowledge base.

Academic Skills division colleagues who have staffed the regular Mobile Clinics and Open Days to help promote mobile facilities- including the vast array of mobile compatible eResources that are available to staff and students – such as the Ebrary Downloads.

Media and ICT division colleagues who have produced many of the excellent videos featured on the Edge Hill YouTube channel which appear in the EHU Central app, and who continue to contribute to on-campus classroom infrastructure reviews.

And… Faculty colleagues who are using the learning and teaching opportunities presented by the evolving mobile world to support and enhance the Edge Hill student experience!

Hopefully this brief summary of activity is enough to give you a flavour of the collective on-going efforts taking place to improve the mobile facilities and services here at Edge Hill. The pace of technological change isn’t likely to slow and I’m sure we’ll see another exciting 12 months of progress in 2013-14!

If you would like to learn more about our activites to support the uptake and application of mobile technologies please leave a comment or contact your learning technologist.

Meg Juss, Learning Technology Development Manager

Future Gazing: Exploring Tomorrow’s Technologies Today

Posted on May 17, 2013 by Peter Beaumont

I’ve been working at Edge Hill for 10 years and in that time we’ve seen major developments in the use of technology in Higher Education. For example mobile technologies have become mainstream, and online services have developed massively. Remember that YouTube only started in 2005, and Twitter in 2006, but they are widely used by educators today.

The NMC Horizon Report: Higher Education Edition is an annual publication which presents six areas of technology that a collection of experts in the field see as likely to see mainstream adoption in Higher Education over the next five years. The aim is that this will give “campus leaders and practitioners a valuable guide for strategic technology planning”, and it is also an interesting read.

This year’s report covers:

<1 year to adoption

Massive Open Online Courses
Tablet Computing

2-3 years to adoption

Games and Gamification
Learning Analytics

4-5 years to adoption

3D Printing
Wearable Technology

We’ll be running a session led by Peter Beaumont and David Callaghan on Thursday 23rd May 2013 from 12:00-1:00PM, where we will briefly present on these six areas of technology and aim to start some ongoing conversations around them.

We’d love it if you could join us. If you can make it, please book on through the session page on the Human Resources wiki.

Peter Beaumont
Learning Technologist

Using Facebook to engage and retain new students

Posted on May 13, 2013 by David Callaghan

Weaving social media into the learning technology mix.

Ian Currie, Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Education, is an advocate for the complementary use of social media to support his students’ learning experience. Understanding the tensions between the professional educational environment offered by ‘Blackboard’ and the popular social medium of ‘Facebook’ he elegantly walks the tightrope between cloistered and open technologies. Ian talks candidly about his approach and acknowledges that the potential pitfalls of using social media in Higher Education are not to be taken lightly: i.e. the legitimately held concerns of eSafety, data protection, inclusion, reputation, branding, etc. (see afterword for advice from JISC). Ian has used the immediacy and informal nature of the Facebook platform to great effect – and then continued that use on throughout the course, integrating well with the more formal Learning Technologies at Edge Hill University.

FacebookAndBlackboard100 I seem to have gained a bit of a reputation amongst my peers for being an advocate of social media as a means of communicating with students – this is more by accident than design but I am growing to accept my fate.

The attraction of Facebook as a means of communicating with prospective students emerged from the frustration of applicants (at the time) being unable to access Blackboard content before enrolling. Thus apart from marketing messages and/or individual emails it was difficult to keep potential students engaged with Edge Hill – particularly at course level. The attrition rate between applicants and those finally enrolling was something I felt social media could be used to ameliorate.

At around this time, I also came across the work of Goodenow (1992), Becker and Luthar (2002) and others around students’ ‘sense of belonging’ – something their work suggests is a key factor in students’ decisions to leave their course of study early.

It occurred to me that Facebook as a social media platform inhabited increasingly by a substantial proportion of the population had potential to engage applicants early and keep them engaged with their chosen destination course up until (and possibly after) enrolment. So in 2011 I launched a Facebook page specifically for applicants for the BA (Hons) Early Years Professional Practice and Leadership Course. A simple idea, posts about sector developments, occasional posts about the university, a means of making contact with other applicants for the same course, a platform for sharing concerns, intelligence about Ormskirk and the surrounding area, asking questions of each other (and of course the tutor/admins) and some surprising outcomes at enrolment…

In their first induction session, Freshers were seeking each other out following on-line conversations they had already had. They were becoming acquainted not as strangers, but as individuals finally putting names to faces. The page was so popular that we kept it going after the start of the course and a few months later when I asked for specific feedback about the page, this is what the students said:

They could talk to people already on the course
The page was a point of contact
Video links were interesting
It was a single place to go if I needed any information or had any problems
People from class could also post comments and links
People from class can help post links related to the assignment
There were resources on it that they found useful (and which weren’t necessarily module specific)
They liked being able to see information about the university in a less formal format before coming
They were able to see other people’s questions and comments about the uni and found this reassuring
Meeting new friends on-line
They could see what course is about
Became more relaxed, less nervous about coming to uni.
Received help and advice on queries which helped preparation for uni.
Simply chatting to people on your course
Noting important dates before getting to uni.
Parents could get a better idea of the course and what uni would be like

I launched a second page for 2012 recruits, the evaluation of which provided similar positive feedback. This has however raised an issue – whether to keep separate pages going for each new cohort or whether to somehow merge these into one. My current strategy is as follows…

I have now created a generic page for all ‘PD early years courses at Edge Hill’. New applicants will be signposted to this where sector relevant links and new sector developments are featured prominently. Current students are also signposted to this link.

I will continue to create a new page for applicants with a view to engaging them early and maintaining contact, but I will encourage students to increasingly take responsibility for posting content to keep this going.

One thing I would like to share with colleagues is that these Facebook pages are not intended to replace Blackboard. Indeed, any comparison is really one of oranges vs apples. The success of the page(s) has been largely due to the differences between the two platforms. Facebook is a social space that students routinely inhabit and as such is a convenient means of information sharing. A recent discussion with a group of students about what they liked about the Facebook page confirmed that the immediacy of access was far more preferable than the logging on process required to access Blackboard. ‘Far too many clicks and passwords to navigate through Blackboard’ was their response. They found Facebook much quicker for sharing information than Groupwise/Blackboard and the fact that they routinely had Facebook notification activated meant that this was a further convenience in terms of speed of communication. This experience was brought home to me earlier this year when I was delayed getting to work (snow) and I posted a Blackboard announcement as well as sending a Facebook notification to this effect. When I checked with students which version of the message they had received, only one person identified the Blackboard announcement.

Clearly there are functions on Blackboard that could not, and indeed should not, be replicated on a Facebook page, but as a vehicle for sharing information and speedy communication the Facebook page works well.

Some colleagues have expressed concerns about students posting inappropriate content on a Facebook page – thus far this has not happened in my experience, but could conceivably arise. In setting up a page, one has administrator rights and would thus be able to moderate any unacceptable posts.

One very recent phenomenon that I have come across but so far I am just keeping an eye on, are two people who have ‘befriended’ the Facebook page and who have started to post some (so far) subtle advertising content – not spam, but advertising about leadership coaching and private tutoring. I do not currently see this as too problematic, but it is a reminder that content can be seen and accessed by the wider public – that said, I recently received feedback via the Lancashire Early Years Forum that Edge Hill is clearly at the forefront of sector initiatives, because of someone having seen the posts on the Facebook page. This now has me thinking about the further potential of Facebook as a vehicle for promotion and publicity.

In a nutshell, if Blackboard is the formal institutional vehicle for pedagogical discourse, narrative and communication, Facebook is the equivalent of the local pub which customers frequent out of a combination of habit and choice to share thoughts and ideas in a non-threatening, convivial and largely egalitarian virtual environment. I would be interested to hear via the comments, others’ views on the pros and cons of aligning Facebook and other social media channels with core institutional facilities.

References:

Goodenow, C. (1992). Strengthening the links between educational psychology and the study of social contexts. Educational Psychologist, 27(2), 177-196.

Becker, B. E., & Luthar, S. S. (2002). Social-emotional factors affecting achievement outcomes among disadvantaged students: Closing the achievement gap. Educational Psychologist, 37(4), 197-214.

Ian Currie
Course Leader BA (Hons) Early Years Professional Practice & Leadership
Faculty of Education

Afterword: The use of a ‘Page’ and a generic ‘EYPPL account’ in Facebook mitigates many of the risks arising out of colleagues using Facebook to communicate with students. For detailed advice, see ‘Facing up to Facebook: A Guide for FE and HE (August 2011)‘ from JISC and/or talk to your Learning Technologist (see the Faculty Contacts on this page) or email the LTD Team on LTDSupport@edgehill.ac.uk.

It is also worth noting that continued investment in the university’s portfolio of teaching and learning technologies have introduced features that now address some of the improvements Ian’s students originally sought- such as the Blackboard mobile app, which offers them quick and easy access to their courses, and has activity notification alerts like Facebook.

Furthermore, as the Blackboard product continues to evolve, new social learning features will become available to support registered students to connect and collaborate in a secure and supported environment.

Finally, on the Edge Hill technology roadmap, faculties can look forward to even greater flexibility to use the VLE to engage with pre-entry, alumni, partners and guests. Programme teams and colleagues like Ian will be able to create publically available course spaces to deliver content for potential or pre-enrolled students in the same way that Ian is using the Facebook page above

Keep an eye on this blog to hear more about upcoming upgrades and improvements to Learning Edge Blackboard 9.1

David Callaghan, 13^th May 2013

Supporting the Associate Tutor through a Blackboard ‘Hub’

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Irfan Mulla

Two programmes in the Faculty of Education who rely on Associate Tutors to bring skills and expertise to their courses have created ‘Hubs’ or Tutor Areas to create a community of practitioners where they can discuss and share experiences, questions and receive support in a safe environment, as they are most usually away from campus.

The Inclusion Team at Edge Hill have explored different ways of supporting Associate Tutors on the Inclusion Award. One of the ways of which has proved to be really successful is making an area available on Blackboard called the “Inclusion Associate Tutor Hub” to which all associate tutors on the award have access to.

This allows all associate tutors on the Inclusion Award a central area on Blackboard to participate in discussions, share ideas and discuss best practices.

It allows the programne leaders and course leaders to provide support and information/updates to all Associate Tutors (AT’s) on the award. The associate tutor hub has proved to be an excellent resource area for all AT’s to engage in. A comment received by an AT supporting the course;

“The Associate Tutor Hub has proved to be a great resource area and also allowed me to keep in touch and share ideas with other Associate Tutors on the award through discussion forums.”

In Clinical Education, Associate Tutors are predominantly drawn from doctors, experts and practitioners in the medical context. They have full time jobs in hospitals and clinics and so find it difficult to attend AT sessions during working hours.

The Associate Tutors’ Area has helped ATs keep abreast of any changes or developments as the course progresses and also allows them to obtain any workshop materials ahead of the day of delivery and review up-to-date PowerPoint presentations that are planned to be used.

The area is broken up into the courses and modules to make identification of the materials quick and simple and also has links (using the web tool ‘When Should We?‘) to allow the tutors themselves to offer their availability to attend, facilitate or deliver workshops should they be available. Being a blended programme, not all the content is delivered and facilitated online and so allowing the ATs to offer their attendance is vitally important to the programme.

Links to Edge Hill contacts are also included to avoid any feelings of isolation and a convenient calendar is utilised to enable ATs to plan ahead and see when one of the numerous cohorts of modules is due to commence or when workshops are coming up.

Help is also included for technology FAQs and help with getting their own PC or device setup and ready to use. The discussion forum allows ATs to share thoughts and ideas on the course and also make suggestions for improvement in regards to what they would like training or development-wise.

The Blackboard areas have really helped associate tutors feel more included in the on-goings of the behind the scenes workings of courses and programmes. Having a forum for Associate Tutors can aid their development and improve their own skills in a supportive environment, even though they may be away from campus.

If you are thinking this is something you would like to develop for your own Associate Tutors but would like some help or advice getting started, give LTD Support a call on 7754 or ltdsupport@edgehill.ac.uk

Irfan Mulla
Learning Technology Development Officer (SENCo)

Carol Chatten
Learning Technology Development Officer
(FAS and Clinical Education)

The secrets of online discussion

Posted on April 30, 2013 by David Callaghan

How one tutor used simple techniques to generate authentic, engaging and fruitful online discussion.

During a focus group with a cohort of Teaching, Learning and Mentoring Practice students, 3rd years from the Faculty of Education, a picture emerged of excellence in the use of the online discussion. This post is based on an interview with Deborah Humphreys – the tutor for that module.

Q: What is the key to getting students engaged with discussion boards?

One of our most successful techniques was embedding online discussions into the course materials – ‘locking in’ the discussion – so that as students progressed through the online materials they were automatically presented with the relevant discussion page. Students would then be able to respond to fit their timescales.

Another key technique is to keep on top of the discussion – going back constantly to be able to look at that discussion point, see if there is a new comment on it*, and if it did I’d post another. I always post an answer to whatever they’d posted, and then post another question. So therefore those that had moved on got into the habit of going back to that discussion point, looking at the new question and answering that question. It was a circular thing – it was just constant – it was almost like a chat room a lot of the time. It was easy to spot those new to discussion – they were slower on the uptake, or just hadn’t got to that point. But they didn’t feel like they were being left behind because they were constantly seeing new posts.

So the real secret is little and often, getting into the habit of checking the discussions frequently*. You’ll get to know your group like you would in a classroom – who got the points and who hadn’t – who was on-task, who had actually understood the theories or the concepts that you are working with.

Another key aspect is to vary when in the day you visit the boards. I didn’t have a set point throughout the day – I could be posting at night, in the morning, whenever. I found that this increased the variety on my boards thus making them more engaging.

Also the students were engaged and as such I was able to monitor progress very closely as the tracking systems within Blackboard was very accurate.

In the said module, all the work was submitted on time and, moreover, I would actually be so bold as to say ‘angst’ (stress levels) was lower amongst the students.

Q: Tell us more about monitoring.

You have to track (how many times people have been on) but you got to know your group; you got to know the ones that always had their hands up first. I would then encourage those new posts by being helpful and upbeat, but at the same time critical.

Q: What impact did it have on the outcome?

Great! We saw a significant rise in higher grades. Around 77% of the cohort were graded 2i or higher. Reflecting on this result and the discussion boards I remember differentiating to enable less confident students to feed off other students’ comments, and then I’d make a posting that enabled those students to come at it from a different angle, yet still getting to the same point so that they grasp the notions being discussed. It’s scaffolding all the time within the discussion, and although it sounds like a lot of work it isn’t, you just get into the habit of doing it. It should take you minutes.

Q: What do you say to colleagues asking ‘What can we do to get students engaged on the discussion board?’

You have to be totally flexible – you can’t just go on once a day and treat it as a face to face session – it has to be flexible because that’s the name of the game – you have to do evenings, weekends, whenever. If students know you are going in at one specific time – I don’t think that works. That might be different for Blackboard Collaborate – if you have got such an interactive session as that then that is totally different. And monitor! You really have to monitor and then act on the information that the system gives you.

Deborah Humphreys
Programme Leader, Professional Learning and Development
Faculty of Education

Deborah would be happy to talk to colleagues about her experience engaging students in online discussion.

Blackboard has a whole host of features and tools to help you monitor, evaluate and feedback. Using the Performance Dashboard (in Control Panel > Evaluation) you can view a column headed ‘Discussion Board’ that contains a number representing the number of discussion boards that the each student has engaged in – and better still, if you click on that number you’ll be taken to the board that they have contributed to. You can click even further to see all the students contributions for a specific discussion board.

*Ask all enrolled on your module or programme to subscribe to the discussion forum. You can then be notified immediately via email if there are any new postings to that forum or thread. Check this setting when creating your discussion board in Blackboard.

For further help, support and advice on how you can use Discussion, Tracking and other tools within the Learning Edge Suite contact your Learning Technologist (see the Faculty Contacts on this page) or email the LTD Team on LTDSupport@edgehill.ac.uk or call x7754. Also, see the LTD Guide about Blackboard Discussion Boards.

A bit of Blackboard TLC

Posted on April 15, 2013 by Carol Chatten

Blackboard European Teaching and Learning Conference at Aston University, Birmingham

Last week I was in Birmingham for the Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference. This conference allows those interested or involved in Learning Technology to get together to discuss, demonstrate and network with colleagues from institutions all over Europe.

The main themes involved:

Engagement & Retention
Instructor Adoption
Digital Collaboration Solutions
Institutional Value
Large Course Support

The ‘Roadmap’ session.

This session is always one of the best attended sessions at the conference. Blackboard representatives present an outline of new and interesting developments and features that are likely to be available soon. Some of the features proposed at this session included:

Post first on discussion forums; before a student gets to see what other students have written they have to create their own post/message first.
Roll over of course dates for the following year which will automatically adjust the dates for the next year in one go!
Reward badges; mimicking Playstation and Xbox games where you are rewarded for completing set tasks or achieving set expectations.

Some features suggested for later releases include:

Improved chat and virtual classroom; a bit like a stripped down version of Collaborate for any tutor to use to deliver or support their students in their own module or course area.
New Assignment submission tool that enables online marking and commenting – similar to the GradeMark tool within Turnitin but with enhanced features.
Mobile app for marking work through your iPad.

The Roadmap session was particularly relevant to us as we are looking at upgrading in the summer.

“Using Blackboard Collaborate to Engage Postgraduate CPD and eLearning Students”

The first session I attended was presented by Graham McElearney about University of Sheffield’s pilots of Collaborate. It was reassuring to hear that they have experienced similar issues to our institution in regards to minor issues when setting up for the first time (Java installation and initialising) when using Collaborate and the suggestion to have someone who knows the software to be on hand to help during the first session or two.

The University of Sheffield have found Collaborate a useful addition to their system in regards to flexibility of CPD provision as well as adding value and ease of providing the teaching to a diverse range of students. One of the tutors involved in the pilot commented that Collaborate was:

“Making distance learning less distant”.

They offered a number of words of wisdom:

Set up a ‘coffee space’ in Collaborate that was available to students to give the software a go, to help them become acquainted with the space and how they interact with it. Imagine it being like a coffee area where students would discuss and converse with ideas much like they would do in a physical space, just that this would be in a virtual space. This would be unmonitored to allow students their own space and time to try out the software.
All distance learning tutors should be encouraged to practise what it is like to be a student in a Collaborate space so they can relate to the student experience.
For the pilot project, a Senior Learning Technologist acted as Project Manager and worked with an Academic (who provide the materials and the delivery) and also had other Learning Technologists to support with any technical queries.
The lesson of the story though is to not over provide support just because it’s a pilot! You have to be realistic with what can be done in a virtual classroom. If whilst piloting you have excessive levels of support then this would be unrealistic in actuality.

We can use this model to manage future pilots and to help bring in new products quickly and with relevant and timely guidance and support.

“E3: Elevating use of eLearning, eSubmission, eMarking and eFeedback”

This fascinating session by Gillian Fielding from Salford University gave an insight into how staff development is delivered in other institutions. Salford issue reasonably strict guidance on baseline expectations within Blackboard and have even produced a chart of ‘essential’ and ‘desirable’ criteria in areas. They managed to train 85% of their academic staff in the new Blackboard (9.1) in just 5 weeks using a mixture of classroom based and online delivery of materials. They used examples of good and bad practice to demonstrate to academics what a student would experience. Further, a report was sent to directors to highlight who had or hadn’t been on the training that helped target missing attendees. Finally, students would be asked to check Blackboard areas to discover whether they were up to the pre-defined standards that were set.

We will take on board some of the good ideas offered from this session in our own delivery of staff development to give you more of what you need when you need it and help you keep track of your own development.

“How to help your instructors in finding the right tools in Blackboard”

When migrating to Blackboard 9.1, staff at Leiden University were offered software to handle the move called ‘CarePack’. Although now discontinued, the principals for this software can still be very useful when constructing a Blackboard course.

The tools in Blackboard (and any plugins) are divided into groups; Assessment, Content, Collaboration, Management and Information and staff can use a ‘pick and mix’ technique to construct their course as long as they pick at least one tool from each category enabling them to create a rich Blackboard area.

More can be seen about the software here: http://cultivatelearning.com/?p=88

See some examples from Leiden University on their blog: http://bbtools.weblog.leidenuniv.nl/2013/04/09/carepack-original-materials/

We’re looking towards producing our own version to help our academics with their Blackboard area creations.

“Is your Blackboard getting its 5-a-day? Planning and controlling your SIS Integration”

The final session I attended concerned something we are already developing with the aim of incorporating into our own Blackboard instance; SIS Integration.

SIS stands for Student Information System and integrating it into our other existing database systems should help the streamlining of all information between SID (our own Student Information Database) and the Blackboard Users and Courses database.

Our processes to create course areas and student enrollment are mainly automated – with some manual processes around combined course areas and tutor enrollment. Using SIS would completely automate the process and also allow us to link more data fields between the two systems allowing a greater level of control and offers far more possibilities in handling and passing data from one system to another.

The session, delivered by Staffordshire University, covered ‘What to feed’, ‘When to feed (with planning tools and strategies)’ and ‘How to set up SIS Integration’. It involved identifying stakeholders and how to control what is being fed from SID to Blackboard. This may be as simple as users being attached to a course or much, much more. The key to developing a link between two (or more) systems involves not just how the data is stored but what is stored basically meaning, don’t worry about where you’ve got it stored as long as it is stored – it can always be pulled out! This helps to identify ‘missing’ data which in turn can then be included into an existing database or a new database created.

An excellent feature demonstrated (developed by Staffordshire University), that may appeal to anyone who currently manages or delivers a Blackboard course, was a tool that would list all courses within an institution with details of whether that course is available or unavailable. You can then choose to change the course’s status – great for those last minute checks of ‘have I released my course!?’ If you choose to make your course available (if currently unavailable) the system will then email all tutors on that course to say it has been made available. Great!

Having this integration will open up new doors of possibility when it comes to passing data between our systems. This means that tools like the one mentioned above can be developed for the utilisation of all members of staff to help them use Blackboard efficiently and effectively.

Presentations from the conference will be available in the next few weeks if you are interested in learning more about the above sessions or any other sessions that were delivered over the 3 day conference.

If you are interested in developments of our Blackboard system please contact either your Learning Technology Development Officer (click on ‘Faculty Contacts’ on this page) or email LTD Support on ltdsupport@edgehill.ac.uk and arrange to have a chat with one of the team.

Carol Chatten,
Learning Technology Development Officer

Staff Development from the comfort of your own space

Posted on March 30, 2013 by Carol Chatten

We’d like to take the opportunity to report on, and thank those who attended the very first Staff Development session delivered entirely online!

Last Wednesday (27th March) saw the ‘Avoiding Digital Disasters in your Presentations‘ session delivered via the University’s web conferencing solution ‘Collaborate‘. Staff self enrolled onto the Developing Digital Excellence course and navigated their way to the online conferencing room where they joined other attendees virtually. Each member of staff was able to take part anywhere they wanted (where they had a PC, laptop or iPad connected to the internet) and on a decidedly chilly day didn’t have to trek across the campus to attend!

Collaborate

The session covered topics such as creating and finding images to use in presentations, ensuring the images ‘look’ correct (aspect, colours, cropping) and also using video in presentations; where to find them, how to link or embed and also how to stream or download.

The session was well received with many saying they would like to see other sessions delivered this way. We know how busy everyone is and it was a pleasure to offer staff training and development in such a new and fun way and being able to let staff join in from wherever they feel most comfortable, saving valuable time in not having to journey from building to building – or even from another location to the campus!

Our thanks go to Geof, Rachel, Pamela, Julia and Jo for joining us in a very significant event and we hope you enjoyed the session.

If you would like any further information about sessions we are hoping to offer online, or suggestions for what you would like to see offered, please contact the Learning Technology Department on ltdsupport@edgehill.ac.uk or ext. 7754.

Carol_Chatten

Carol Chatten
Learning Technology Development Officer

Martin Baxter
Learning Technology Development Officer

The Learning Edge

… and the journey continues