• Learning Edge will be unavailable Sunday 22nd and Monday 23rd July

    For approximately 48 hours from Sunday 22nd July to Monday 23rd July, the Learning Edge system will be unavailable due to the Service Pack 8 upgrade that will be applied.

    We have recently reported on what’s new in the upgrade.  You can find further details here:  http://blogs.edgehill.ac.uk/learningedge/2012/06/25/learning-edge-is-getting-a-face-lift-summer-2012-upgrade/

    Learning Technology have been working hard to ensure that the upgrade goes as smoothly as possibly, for this reason the Learning Technology Team Office will be closed whilst the upgrade is applied to allow time to carry out final testing (on 24th July).

    Please can staff members who need to refer to content within Learning Edge over the 2 days ensure they have any items needed saved offline as no access will be guaranteed until Tuesday 24th July.  Please also let your students know if you think they may be affected by the downtime.

    We hope that you will enjoy using the new-look system and new features once the upgrade is complete!  Please contact Learning Technology Development if you have any concerns:  [email protected]

    Carol Chatten
    Learning Technology Development Officer 

     


  • Campus Pack: An Introduction to Wikis

    Campus Pack is a new addition to Learning Edge and one of the tools that comes with it is a Wiki tool. Wikis were originally created as a very simple way to put information online, that all users could edit. They weren’t designed to look pretty, just to be quick and easy to use.

    Wikis have developed over time and now it can be hard to see the difference between a content management system and a wiki. Generally though Wikis contain things like widely editable pages, a page history, records of discussions about the page’s development, and the ability to subscribe to notifications of changes to the page. Duffy and Bruns (2008) provide a good quick overview of wikis and their uses in ‘The use of blogs, wikis and RSS in education: A conversation of possibilities‘.

    As some interesting examples of non-education specific uses have a look at:

    • Wikipatterns – A collaboratively updated book about different ways in which wikis can be used
    • Pulp Bard – Colaborative project to translate the Pulp Fiction film script into a Shakespearean equivalent
    • Wikipedia (English Version) – The largest wiki
    • Wikia – A site hosting 1000s of wikis where the communities have collected information about things like travel, games and films.

    Many educators have used in Wikis in Higher Education. Some uses we are aware of at Edge Hill include:

    Other uses elsewhere in Higher Education include:

    Potential benefits reported have included:

    • Wikis “supporting social-constructivist models of pedagogy” (Feng Su and Chris Beaumont, 2010)
    • Wikis “invite collaboration and tolerate dissension, moving toward consensus and defined disagreement” (Cummings and Barton, 2008)
    • Students can benefit from quick peer feedback when there is a vibrant community. (Feng Su and Chris Beaumont, 2010)
    • Wikis can be used to promote integration of learning – i.e. “the ability to connect, apply, and/or synthesize information, knowledge and skills across varied contexts” (Barber, 2012)

    Potential issues to be aware of, include those related to orientation and usability of the technology.

    • As with other collaborative online tools you might find that “inadequate socialisation at the start of the collaborative activity was a key obstacle in conducting group projects or activities at a distance” (Dr Shailey Minocha)
    • “When participants fail to form functional groups in their wikis, their ability to engage with the task and to form a community of enquiry… is impaired.” (Benson, et al, 2012)
    • Finding the right wiki tool for your particular use. “usability is the key attribute for a positive user experience” (Shailey Minocha and Peter G. Thomas, 2007)

    I’ve started making notes around a few articles and my list might help you get started exploring the literature.

    Finally, the following videos have been created to show how certain simple things can be done using Campus Pack wikis.

    Picture of the author

    Peter Beaumont
    Learning Technologist


  • Learning Edge is getting a Face Lift! Summer 2012 Upgrade

    This year we heard staff and students saying how much they liked Learning Edge but if there was one thing they could change, it would be how it looks. Well, we are pleased to announce that Learning Edge will be getting a face lift this summer with an upgrade to Service Pack 8.

    The work is planned to take place on Sunday 22nd July & Monday 23rd July, during which time the system will be unavailable.

    Don’t worry if you’re thinking: *gulp* I’ve only just learnt what all the buttons and tools did in the current version! The tools are the same and they will work in the same way. It is just the interface itself that will change to look more modern and contemporary. Feedback about it has been really positive from Edge Hill colleagues who have taken an early look at it on our Test environment. They are saying that it looks much nicer and is easier to navigate.

    So what will it look like?

    Your ‘My Institution’ homepage will remain very familiar.

    Screenshot My Institution Homepage

    The Course/Module page will look cleaner and less cluttered.Inclusive_Services_Course_PageDiscussion Forums will be more streamlined and viewing the parent post within a reply will be much more obvious. Discussion_Screenshot

    There are other benefits too!
    The service pack will fix some minor problems in the current version, and add functionality to existing features. Some of the other improvements you can look forward to include:

    A new and improved Visual Text Box Editor which has an option to work in full screen mode – and will allow you to copy and paste from Word documents into discussion, blog, journal posts and other HTML items without annoying formatting problems!

    Text_Editor_ScreenshotA brand new course-to-course navigation feature which will help you easily switch from one course to another with a click. You’ll be able to jump to a recently visited course and retain your context (ie. move from the discussion board in one course to the discussion board in another).

    Teaching staff will be able to personalize the look and feel of courses with pre-designed themes, to make them more attractive.Themes_Screenshot

    Teaching staff and administrators will be able to run a wider range of activity reports about how courses and course materials are being used – which will be perfect for helping academic teams with their evaluation practices.

    There will also be a number of improvements to the assessment tools. There will be a prominent progress indicator bar on tests, which will turn red when the test time is nearly up, and Instructors will be able to select whether to make a test “auto submit” when the time has elapsed or notify the student that they are now over time.

    Timer_Green_ScreenshotTimer_Red_ScreenshotGuesswork on multiple choice questions won’t be a problem anymore as instructors can set negative points for wrong answers on tests. Also, if an instructor notices an error in a test ‘answer’ they will be able to edit the test, and Blackboard will automatically recalculate the score for all submissions (and future submissions) affected by the change.

    These are just a few of the enhancments SP8 will bring. Full details on the changes can be found in the Service Pack 8 Release Notes.

    If you would like to take a look at the changes before the upgrade, we have a test server with it installed already.  Contact [email protected] if you would like further information about this.

    Finally, a note about the timing of the upgrade
    In order to implement these enhancements, we do need to make the system unavailable for a short period during the summer break, on 22/23 of July. (Specific timings will be announced when testing has been completed and we know how quickly we can perform this work.)

    Finding the right time to perform a system upgrade is difficult, particularly when so many staff and students make daily use of it. However, we trust you will understand how important it is to maintain and improve the system and hope that you will approve of the new more contemporary interface once the upgrade is complete!

    We welcome thoughts about the planned enhancements. What do you think about the new look? Do you like it? Let us know what you think by commenting below…

    Megan Juss Profile Picture

    Megan Juss
    Learning Technology Development Manager

    If you have any questions about this work you can speak to your Learning Technology Development contact or email [email protected].


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