Category Archives: Learning Services

Students and their reading lists…

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We have be aware for some time how close to students’ hearts their reading list is.  You can find out about the feedback we received around how students utilise reading lists and our steps to improve reading list accessibility.  The research we undertook is the lead story in the latest Learning Services newsletter.  It’s the summer edition but we are using the term very loosely…

Our newsletter also includes three faculty updates to highlight to colleagues some of the work we have been undertaking with staff and students in faculties as well as lots of general news and developments.

As well as faculty updates we have articles on:

The Digital Office, Office 365 and the move to Outlook

Roving student assistants

Our support for media students and the development of VibeTV

Please take a look and leave a comment if there are any developments you would like to know about

Rachel Bury

Academic Liaison Manager – Quality, Marketing and CommunicationRachel_Bury

Learning Edge Summer Upgrade: 21-22nd July 2013!

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We are pleased to announce that Learning Edge (Blackboard 9.1) will be upgraded this summer. This essential work will not only ensure a reliable service for 2013-14 but will also introduce a number of new and improved features. We’ve listened to your feedback over the past year and can tell you that this upgrade will address many of your comments and suggestions, with improvements to general navigation, the calendar, discussion board, and much, much more!

The date you need for your diary is 21-22nd July 2013 as this is when the system will be unavailable for a short time.

Once the work is complete, you will be able to log in as normal but will notice a number of enhancements. Over the next month or so will be posting in detail about the features you can look forward to but for now here are a few early highlights:

Global Navigation & My Blackboard
You told us you don’t want to have to go to multiple places to keep up-to-date with on what’s going on across all your courses. With the introduction of My Blackboard you will have one place to conveniently access your Profile, Posts, Updates, My Grades, and People. Always present in the top right corner, the new navigation menu will also give you one-click access to your Courses, Settings, Help.

Learn more about the My Blackboard Posts Tool in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit – My Blackboard Posts

Learn more about the My Blackboard Profile tool in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit – Profiles

Discussions
An overhauled interface will introduce a much simpler way to look at all the messages in a thread at once. Profile pictures will also help you put faces to names and messages, and instructor posts will be highlighted to help you spot your tutor’s messages in the forums.

Learn more about the new Discussion Board in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit: Discussions

Calendar
Dramatic improvements means it now looks great and does all the things you’d expect from a modern calendar. You can personalise your view of the calendar, filter by course, apply colours and labels, move items with drag and drop and export to Outlook or Google Calendar.

Learn more about the new look Calendar in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit: Calendar Feature

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

nina_unsworth

 

Nina Unsworth

Learning Technology Development Operations Coordinator.

How to Subscribe to our Blogs and Never Miss a Post

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One of the great things about blogs is that you can subscribe to them. This means that you receive notifications when they are updated, rather than having to keep checking the blog yourself.

We’ve just added links to make it easier for you to subscribe to the Learning Services and Learning Edge blogs. You can choose to subscribe to receive email notifications, or if you use a Feed Reader you can subscribe with that.

Go to the blog’s home page by clicking on it’s title near the top of the page. Then just click on one of the links in the section labelled ‘Subscribe’ which is usually found on the right hand side of the screen.

If you need help we have a guide on eShare that will talk you through the process.

Picture of the author

Peter Beaumont
Learning Technologist

Developing Digital Excellence – staff development sessions in May

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This month Learning Services are offering sessions around a number of areas of digital literacy.  Our session around the students’ ideal VLE has been popular in the past and generated some interesting conversations about the use of the VLE and student learning and support.  The session includes feedback from the student annual eLearning survey and we are keen to share this important feedback with staff.  We are also looking to the future – thinking about what comes next in the session about future gazing……

The Digital Practitioner

The Students’ Ideal VLE                                                            9th May         12 noon – 1pm

Learning Edge Essential Skills                                                 20th May        2pm – 3.30pm

Future Gazing: Exploring Tomorrow’s Technologies Today    23rd May        12 noon – 1pm

The Digital Researcher

If you are new to research or teaching at Edge Hill, you might find our introduction to RefWorks very helpful. The session is run by one of our librarians who will be there to get everyone started. We also offer an advanced RefWorks session, please ask the facilitator for more details.

Introduction to RefWorks                                                        21st May        10am – 12 noon

The Digital Office

EXCEL 2- Functions and Workbook Management              16th May       9:30am – 11.30am

All sessions take place in the staff development ICT training room, 2nd floor LINC building.  Book your place online via the HR Staff Development booking system.

Learning Services staff also offer bespoke sessions for teams around a number of themes.  Please get in touch if you would like to know more.

Rachel Bury

Academic Liaison Manager Quality, Marketing and Communication

 

Award-winning Student Assistants!

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Have you noticed our award-winning Student Assistants, resplendent in their red sweatshirts answering enquiries in the library?

At the Employability Awards Evening organised by the Careers Centre on Tuesday 23 April, the Student Assistant team who work in the University Library, Ormskirk won the Student On-Campus Employee Team Award.

This award celebrates students or teams of students who work within their university or college including those working in students’ unions or other departments on campus.

In presenting their awards, Deputy Vice-Chancellor Steve Igoe commended them for their professional and committed attitude and their relaxed, informal style which is communicated to the enquirer.

He also mentioned the unforeseen advantage to employing students in this way is that the organisation has also benefited from their valuable insights into how our services and resources are organised and perceived.

The Student Assistants are based at the ‘Ask’ desk on the first floor of the University Library, Ormskirk. They deal with a range of with basic enquiries including finding books and journals, demonstrating eResources, referencing, navigating Learning Services web pages, using reprographics equipment and ICT issues.

If you have any questions don’t hesitate to ask.

Michael Stores

Michael Stores

Academic Liaison and Skills Librarian

For more information please contact michael.stores@edgehill.ac.uk

 

 

Woodlands Library drop-in Tuesday 30th April

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Drop in and see us at the Woodlands Library Open Day on Tuesday 30th April  between 12 and 2:30pm.

You can meet representatives from Learning Services, Student Services and the Students’ Union. Advice will be available on student finance, off campus support and how to access University IT via your phone, tablet or laptop.
You can also find out how to access our electronic and print resources using Discover More and how to make the most of your studies by accessing our online subject and academic skills guides.
Don’t forget to enter our competition while you’re here. The lucky winner will receive a USB wristband.

Technology Roadshow to appear at FoHSC enrollment day

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Technology Roadshow April

Tuesday 30th April sees the return of the Technology Roadshow!

After the success of the last event held in the University Library, we are to bring the road show to the Faculty of Health and Social Care to tie in with the Faculty enrollment and induction day for the newest cohorts, but all current students and staff are welcome to come and ask any burning questions you may have about your devices, gadgets or gizmos.

We would be delighted to talk to you about technology; let us demystify some of the things you’ve heard about but don’t know how to use, and let us help you get started using technologies maybe you haven’t heard of yet!

Some of you have said you would like to know how to do such things as:

  • sync my emails?
  • easily log into Learning Edge?
  • get the course notifications I want?
  • download journal articles and eBooks?
  • save shortcuts to the library and my subject pages?
  • watch videos or listen to podcasts?
  • find online journals and articles?
  • build a reference using the Discover More ‘cite’ tool?
  • find useful apps?
  • connect to wi-fi on campus?
  • find a PC to use?
  • forward my Edge Hill emails to a personal account?

Tell us what you want to know about Learning Edge, Campus Pack, Mobile Learn, the PC Availability Finder, Library Anywhere, Ebrary, Collaborate and anything else you want to know about technology to support your learning.

Come along to the Faculty of Health and Social Care; we will be located in the foyer between 11am and 2pm.

If you’re not on campus on the day to speak to us in person, we have got that covered too!  You can contact us during the event (and beyond) via our social media channels: Facebook and Twitter. We’ll be using #EHUmobileclinic so if you have something to say or a question to ask about using technologies for your studies please get in touch.

We look forward to seeing you!

Carol_Chatten2

 

 

Carol Chatten
Learning Technology Development Officer

 

Award Winning Leadership in Mobile Teaching and Learning!

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Learning Services have been awarded a Mobile Innovation Award as part of the 2013 Blackboard Catalyst Award programme. This exciting achievement recognises the impressive growth of mobile enhanced provision and practice at Edge Hill University and specifically, Learning Services’ strategic approach to supporting all staff and students to embrace the educational affordances of mobile technology.

BB_Catalyst_AwardIn September 2011, evidence of increasing mobile device ownership and student feedback about the potential of mobile technology led the university to invest in the Blackboard Mobile Learn app and our journey to mobility began! Following installation, set-up and testing, a strong communication and marketing campaign was initiated to promote and encourage uptake. Resource guides and support events like the technology roadshow mobile clinics were provided to help students and staff get started downloading apps, connecting to the campus wifi and using the vast range of mobile compatible library resources, such as the Library Catalogue app, Discover more and Ebrary eBooks. Concurrently a comprehensive staff development programme, which included innovative workshops like ‘A Mobile Field Trip’ & ‘Help My Mobile Is Smarter Than Me’, began, in order to support the effective adaptation and development of new mobile friendly teaching and learning practices – with areas such as Postgraduate Clinical Education, HEA4065 Clinical Research, SENCo, Dyslexia, and Sports Therapy leading the way to design and develop course environments that work seamlessly with the Mobile Learn app and enable their students to engage and learn at a time and place that is convenient to them.

Over the last 18 months mobile usage has increased dramatically and pockets of mobile friendly practices are expanding to become the standard modus operandi, accordingly both the service and the university have continued to invest in a portfolio of mobile facilities and activities to develop staffing expertise in order to positively enhance the student experience.

Mobile_Learn_Users_ComparisonFigure 1. Yearly Comparison 2011-12 2012-13 : – Number of Mobile Learn app users

Mobile_Learn_ComparisonFigure 2. Yearly Comparison 2011-12 2012-13 : Number of visits to the VLE via Mobile Learn

The mobile landscape continues to shift and provide new opportunities to enhance education and we’re working to build on these strong foundations to explore and exploit these exciting  developments. (Augmented reality is next on our agenda so watch this space!) Ongoing evaluation through analytics, user feedback, research and benchmarking is helping to ensure we are in a position to respond to changing behaviours and continue to implement a progressive mobile strategy.

This Blackboard Catalyst Mobile Innovation Award celebrates the hard work and achievement of many colleagues and students across the university. The product of constructive relationships and collaboration makes innovation and transformative teaching and learning practices possible- so this award goes to everyone at Edge Hill who is involved, engaged and working together to embrace mobile learning!

The awards ceremony will take place amongst a global community of peers at the Blackboard World 2013 Education Technology Conference this July in Las Vegas. As Learning Technology Development Manager I have been lucky enough to be invited to represent Edge Hill and Learning Services to accept this prestigious Mobile Innovation Award.

Congratulations everyone – keep up the good work!

Meg Juss, Learning Technology Development Manager

 

 

 

 

Meg Juss
Learning Technology Development Manager

The Blackboard Catalyst Mobile Innovation awards honour those who have pushed boundaries and embraced mobility to positively impact the educational experience at their institution.

For more information about the award visit the Blackboard Catalyst Awards web pages.

Getting more from Discover More

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Welcome back. I hope you enjoyed your break and had lots of Easter eggs. The  next few weeks can be challenging, especially with exams and dissertations looming for some of you. One thing that can make your life a bit easier is using Discover More to find information. This is our search tool that allows you to search the majority of our electronic journals and databases at the same time.

As well as the simple search box that comes up when you open Discover More from  the library catalogue it also has an Advanced Search feature which allows you to: select the data field you want to search e,g, title, abstract; limit you search and construct more complex searches. For more details of how to use this and improve your searching take a look at the Help section in Discover More (top right hand of screen) and look at Advanced Search.

If you need any further help pop up to the Ask desk on the 1st floor of the University Library between 9am – 7pm weekdays or email librarian@edgehill.ac.uk

Yvonne Smith

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Academic Liaison Librarian (FAS & Research)

 

 

 

 

What do you need to do at least once every ninety days…?

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I’m sure there  are many answers to this, however the key thing you need to do every ninety days with your university network account is change or update your password. As some of you are coming up to the dissertation deadlines, or a large number of deadlines all at once the last thing you need to happen as you make your final amendments, is to be locked out of your account.

If your password has reached 90 days, you will be promted by a message in the GO portal as you try to logon, that your password has expired. Please make sure you follow the instructions.  You will need a brand new password and you have to enter twice to confirm. 

Or you would like to change it more regularly and keep the password moe secure you can change it within your settings in the GO portal.

Login via the Go Portal.

  1. Once logged in hover your cursor over your own name in the top right hand corner and click on settings.
  2. You will now have the option to change password via the forth option listed, perhaps unsurprisingly the heading is named password.
  3. The password you select willneed to be a minimum of 8 characters in length – it can be letter and numbers, but it must be different from your last 10 passwords.

N.B. When you change your password you will need to log back in with your new password.

Also you can set yourself a safety net from within the settings page, from the second option listed Settings. From here you can provide an alternative email account e.g. yahoo, gmail, or Hotmail account. This means at any time of the day or night you can reset your password should you get locked out.

Your student number and password allow you to access all of the following:
Your University email account
Your Learning Edge account
Your library account to renew books
Wireless networks on campus
eBooks and eJournals
Eduroam wireless network available in over 900 UK locations listed here www.eduroam.org

If you have any issues logging in or navigating around the GO portal,
you can contact us on:

Tel: 01695 584286

Email: lsdesk@edgehill.ac.uk