Award-winning Student Assistants!

Posted on April 29, 2013 by Michael Stores

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

Academic Liaison and Skills Librarian

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

Award Winning Leadership in Mobile Teaching and Learning!

Posted on April 22, 2013 by Megan Juss

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.

In 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.

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

Figure 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

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.

Download ebooks to your Kindle Fire, iPhone, iPad, Android or Sony eReader

Posted on February 28, 2013 by Michelle O'Connell

Did you know you can download an ebook, or a section of an ebook to read offline?

Two ebook providers, Ebrary and Dawson, offer this option, allowing you the convenience of downloading and reading information for when you haven’t got an internet connection.

Ebrary

You can create an image PDF of a specific chapter or page range:

Same page limits as for printing.
Accessible on most computers and devices, including the Kindle.
Files do not expire.

Learn more: http://0-support.ebrary.com.library.edgehill.ac.uk/?p=655

You can download an entire document as an ebook:

Accessible on most computers and devices.
You can have up to 10 documents at a time.
Documents can be full-document downloaded for 14 days. (Single-user-only documents can be full-document downloaded for 7 days.)
There is no need to return items: they will auto-delete after 14 days.

You need to install Adobe Digital Editions (free online). For a guide, go to http://www.eshare.edgehill.ac.uk/id/document/5748
For a guide on reading on your smartphone go to http://www.eshare.edgehill.ac.uk/1388/

NEW! Download to your Kindle Fire find out how at http://support.ebrary.com/kb/ebrary-books-on-kindle-fire/

Dawsonera

You can download an ebook from the Full Title Display of the Reader portal:

Read the ebook offline utilising Adobe Reader© controls.
Navigate through the ebook using the nested Table of Contents on the left-hand side.
During the download period, you can make annotations and highlight text.
Please note it is not possible to print or copy offline.
The book will auto-delete after the chosen loan period (1-3 days).

Learn more: http://www.eshare.edgehill.ac.uk/2708/

Learning Services go the extra mile!

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Helen Jamieson

As a holder of the Customer Service Excellence award for 8 years, Learning Services are committed to continuously improving our facilities, resources and services to ensure your learning experience is the best that it can be.

We were delighted to receive some excellent feedback from our latest Customer Service Excellence assessment in January 2013. Not only are we still fully compliant in all elements of the award, but we received 3 compliance pluses! Compliance pluses are awarded when a service goes that extra mile. We were awarded compliance pluses for our insight into how customers use our services, resources and facilities, our approach to staff development and our use of mobile technologies.

The assessor also highlighted the following as areas of strength:

Learning Services has a very good understanding of the needs of all of its customer groups and has used this understanding to develop and improve services to them.
There are good levels of customer satisfaction across all areas of service delivery and, where in some academic Faculties and Departments these are lower, support has been available to help to improve satisfaction levels.
There is a real culture of customer focus that stems from Managers down to, and upwards from, front line staff.
Staff recognise the value of good customer service and the impact that their roles have on front line service provision, demonstrated through the speed with which resources become available for student borrowing.
Staff are empowered to develop services both within their own areas of expertise and as members of wider teams and working groups across all areas of service delivery.
Staff seek out new solutions to problems, for example, developing mobile solutions to accessing services.
There are well established systems in place for monitoring and reviewing performance in respect of service delivery outcomes and the timeliness of delivery.

Do you agree with these statements? As always we would love to hear your feedback about what we do well, and what you feel we could improve: http://www.edgehill.ac.uk/ls/feedback/

For more information about the Customer Service Excellence award contact:

Helen Jamieson, Customer Services Manager

helen.jamieson@edgehill.ac.uk

Steps to Academic Success 2013

Posted on January 18, 2013 by Zoe Clarke

Steps to Academic Success is back due to popular demand. Learning Services are again running a series of workshops to support all students in their academic work. One hour workshops will take place between January and June 2013 on subjects such as:

exam techniques, essay planning, Harvard referencing, annotated bibliography and employability.

Please go to http://ehstudyskills2012.eventbrite.com/ to find details of each session, and to book in if you feel inspired.

Zoe Clarke (Academic Liaison Manager) ext.4829

Reading Promotions

Posted on January 10, 2013 by Zoe Clarke

The Learning Services’ EHU Loves Reading campaign came to a close just before Christmas with over 100 people telling us why they love reading. Lindsey Blackhurst won an e-reader and runner-up Amanda Tarbox won a £20 book token. Congratulations to both of them.

For those who love reading please note that the Costa Book Awards 2012 category winners were announced on 2nd January 2013. Copies of all the winning books, plus all books on the short lists, are now available to borrow from the University Library. The successful authors, who will now compete for the 2012 Costa Book of the Year (to be announced on 29th January 2013), are:

• Husband and wife team Mary and Bryan Talbot, who jointly win the Costa Biography
Award for Dotter of Her Father’s Eyes, an interweaving of two father-daughter
relationships (that of James Joyce with his daughter Lucia, and that of the author
with her father, a James Joyce scholar) and the first graphic work ever to win a Costa
Award
• Hilary Mantel, who takes the Costa Novel Award for Bring up the Bodies, which won
the 2012 Man Booker Prize
• Journalist, critic and writer Francesca Segal, whose debut novel The Innocents, set in
a tightly-knit Jewish community in north-west London, is modelled on Edith
Wharton’s The Age of Innocence, wins the Costa First Novel Award
• Poet Kathleen Jamie whose book The Overhaul, is described by the judges as ‘the
collection that will convert you to poetry’
• Writer-illustrator and dyslexia campaigner, Sally Gardner, who as a child was once
branded ‘unteachable’, and now takes the Costa Children’s Book Award for Maggot
Moon.

So pop into the University Library and browse the Costa books displayed on the ground floor to see if any of them take your fancy as a new year read.

Zoe Clarke, Academic Liaison Manager (ext 4829)

Red (sweatshirt) Alert!

Posted on November 30, 2012 by Michael Stores

Have you noticed our student assistants, resplendent in their red sweatshirts who are based at the Ask desk on the first floor of the University Library, Ormskirk?

Research at other universities has shown that students can benefit from ‘peer to peer support’, hence the move to introduce student assistants into the library.

Students themselves have indicated that if they have got a query they would prefer to ask their peers first before they would approach a member of staff.

According to The University of Manchester,
‘There is strong evidence that Peer Support has a positive influence on students’ experience of their time at University, both academically and socially.’

The student assistants are trained in the use of library and learning resources, study skills and basic IT functions. They can also help students to understand the physical layout of the library.

The student assistants offer an additional layer of support to complement the work of the staff at the Ask desk and the flexible IT support staff.

Next time that you are in the University Library say ‘Hello’ to our student assistants and if you have a query, don’t be afraid to ask.

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

Discover Free to Use Software

Posted on October 17, 2012 by Martin Baxter

In today’s climate when the cost of things seem to be on the increase, it can be a relief to hear about something with the potential of making your studies more affordable.

We all know how software can help us with our studies. Occasionally we need to purchase specific software to do a particular task, such as word-processing to write an essay or editing software to develop a project…

…but do you know about Free/Open Source Software (FOSS) that you can download and use? Software that may do exactly what you want and more to help with your studies.

We’ve taken a look at some software and believe it can benefit most people in a number of situations, software that is affordable, accessible, assistive and flexible.

Programmes assembled in to portable collections so that you can use them with almost any computer anywhere.

In certain cases you can handpick from several items tailoring the software bundles to your individual needs.

All this including technical support, guidance and regular updates from reputable software developers and providers within the freeware and open source communities.

Discover more about free software by visiting us here: ehu.ac.uk/freesoftware

Martin Baxter

(Learning Technology Development)

Exciting new editing software from Avid

Posted on April 27, 2012 by Donald Moffatt

Avid is here!!. Our new editing software has now arrived and is up and running. For those of you who don’t not what we are promoting…It’s the latest industry standard professional editing systems designed and built by Avid, there was a slight delay in getting these installed as we were holding out for the latest software.

The new software has been built from the ground up, and for the technical among you…. this is based on a very powerful PC, with a Windows 7 operating system, running a 64 bit architecture, with Avid Media Composer v. 6.0 software. This allows for multi-layering of complex effects, with added colour correction, with minimum rendering time.

These new systems are based with our other editing booths, 2^nd Floor in the LINC building. Avid media composer has been around in industry for a very long time, and is an established editing platform for media industry editors. It is packed with high end tool sets that allow professional finishing to be accomplished. Our systems also have an internal 1Tb media drive, separate from the operating system hard drive, so it’s capable of handling large media projects. It also allows imports of Pro-tools projects, allowing you to finish in surround sound 5.1 or 7.1.

Avid has some amazing opportunities for collaborative working. Within industry, the large broadcasters have Avid and Pro-tools sitting on large shared media networked storage solutions, for example, the Avid ISIS solution. Here is an example of how they pull it all together…one or more editors can be working on the same project, while the audio dubbing editor sitting on the pro-tools system, finishes the audio. When the project is finalised, it can then be colour graded for transmission, and all this is achieved within the Avid ISIS network.

In broadcasting, they will use a totally file based work flow and nothing has to leave the system, unless the customer requires a tape copy. Media that needs to be kept is then placed into deep archive for retrieval at a later date. These systems can handle up to 640 Tb of raw storage.

So for the budding editors amongst you, why not come along and take a look at these new systems, and if you want to hone your skills on the latest offering from Avid, the Media Development team based in the LINC, will be able to support you in using our new Avid systems.

If you would like to learn more about what we do or need help with Media or ICT you can contact us at lsmedia@edgehill.ac.uk

Donald Moffatt

Media Technology Development Manager

Give us your feedback! We want to know about your experience of using the library…

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Helen Jamieson

Learning Services are committed to continuously improving our facilities and services and one of the ways we do this is by listening to your feedback.

Please take a minute of your time to answer some questions about your experience of the library.

Complete our 60 second survey here:

http://surveys.edgehill.ac.uk/librarysurvey2012

Your feedback will help us to improve our services to you.

Entries will be entered into a prize draw to receive one of ten funky USB wristbands.