The team have been working over the past few weeks to bring together all the feedback and comments the VLE has generated. We thought this would be a good time to share some of those points.
The review has captured views of staff and students in a variety of ways and this has been a very interesting process for all those involved. You will recall we have undertaken a number of events which included focus group style sessions with academics to see what would be important in the future Edge Hill VLE, the most important teaching and learning tools they would want to use, a comprehensive staff survey to allow for further comment and then the presentation event 3 weeks ago.
The event showcased..warts and all..both Blackboard and Moodle. Here are some of the staff comments:
Blackboard..the good
Familiarity
Drag and Drop
Professional look and feel
The migration wouldn’t seem problematic
Navigation intuitive
365/24/7 support
Selective release of content
More organised
Empty folders don’t show in student view
Blackboard…not so positive
Speed of student down loads
Add-ins have to be paid for
Technical issues still exist ie Java
Moodle…the good
Use of communication with announcements pushed to email
Forums
Linear
Looks easy, similar design to Google
Intuitive
Looks as if its more interactive
No Java used
Moodle..the not so good
Busy/cluttered
Wordy
Too many boxes
Looked dull
Seems complex
Linear
No selective release
Migration
The afternoon was very useful for all those involved and the comments from staff are very important but of course not everyone could attend and we did only see a small snap shot with the perspective of those two universities. Testing will help tease out some of the detail behind all the comments above
The next stage is to have a sand pit/play area where we will have sample courses set up will be asking staff to get involved in testing out the main functions and adding content. As soon as this is ready we will let everyone know and try to get staff and students from all our faculties involved.
Please post your views if you were at the event or want to get involved in the sand pit.
