• Getting Started with Virtual Reality

    We have a weekly meeting in Learning Technology Development where we get together to talk about things that have interested or inspired us. Recently I brought along my Google Cardboard so that the team could try out some Virtual Reality experiences. There is a lot of interest in Virtual Reality at the moment with Facebook’s […]

  • Blackboard Profile Tool

    Many people have uploaded profile pictures to Blackboard. When they post messages on Blackboard Tools such as the Discussion Board their photos now appear next to the messages, and simple personal profile pages are available. Research by Kear et al (2014) found that some learners in online courses felt personal profile pages helped provide social […]

  • Games for Health UK Conference at Coventry – 14th May 2014

    On Wednesday 14th May I attended the Games for Health UK conference, held at Coventry University’s Simulation Centre. This was a satellite event linked to Games for Health Europe, which is an organisation based in Amsterdam. Jurriaan van Rijswijk spoke first, talking about Games for Health’s vision of using games as a way to change […]

  • Accessible and Inclusive Design: iSpring Version

    For those who couldn’t make it to the recent session on creating accessible content I thought it would be worth making a version of the session available. In the session we looked at how content uploaded to Edge Hill’s Learning Edge online learning environment can be created in ways that make it more accessible to […]

  • Introduction to Profiles and Social Learning Tools in Blackboard

    Blackboard’s ‘Social Learning Tools’ form a small scale social networking style environment within Blackboard, which your students can use outside of their course areas. They include the Profile tool, People tool, Messages tool, and Spaces tool. The Profile tool will be the one you are most likely to have noticed. The profile pictures feed into […]

  • Looking to the Future: The Horizon Report 2014

    The Higher Education edition of the Horizon Report always comes out this time of year, and is worth a read if you’re interested in emerging technologies and their impact on teaching, learning and research. The 2014 edition of the report is split into three sections. Key Trends looks at things like the growth of social […]

  • Your Digital Tattoo: What the web says about you! – For Staff

    Is how you present yourselves online important? When people search for information about you what might they find, and how does that affect your reputation and employability? How can you take control of what people can find about you online? Over the last few years we’ve spoken with hundreds of Edge Hill students about issues […]

  • Introducing Blackboard Spaces

    If you open the Global Navigation menu in Blackboard, you will see that the bottom icon on the menu links to a tool called Spaces. These are very simple social spaces that anyone can set up and invite people to. Members of a Space can create their own posts and comment on posts written by […]

  • Future Gazing: Exploring Tomorrow’s Technologies Today

    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 […]

  • Accessible and Inclusive Design: Session Notes

    For those who couldn’t make it to this week’s session on creating accessible content I thought it would be worth making the session notes available. In the session we looked at how content uploaded to Edge Hill’s Learning Edge online learning environment can be created in ways that make it more accessible to a wide […]