Over the last academic year Learning Services have undertaken 2 projects to identify apps that can support study for our students.

The first project, led by Andrew Billington, aimed to identify apps that could be used to support students with note taking, as a result of changes to the Disability Students Allowance. The second project, led by Lorna Clarke and Emma Child, looked at apps that support student progress, and covered a range of activities including revision, assignment planning and content management. Both projects carried out a review of apps on the market and narrowed this down depending on their accessibility, cost, and usefulness. Testing of the apps was carried out by staff and students, and focus groups with students was used to collect feedback for the final recommendations.

The results identified three new apps that Learning Services will promote and signpost.

Evernote  takes notes, creates to-do lists, and saves online information and content. It has the functionality to sync everything between your phone, tablet, and computer automatically.

Instapaper is the simplest way to save and store articles for reading offline, on-the-go, anytime, anywhere. Articles are perfectly formatted and the app allows readers to change the font and background style. The speak function allows you to listen to articles on the go and the archive ensures you can manage what you have read.

Go Conqr allows you to create Mind Maps, Flashcards, Quizzes, Slides and Notes for study and learning. You create resources on the website version then sync using the mobile app to revise and study offline and on-the-go. Share your resources with classmates or search for ready-made resources to learn collaboratively with others.

We have had a soft launch, promoting the apps with the new Faculty of Health and Social Care nursing students who started with us in April.  We have also been giving demos and discussing with academic teams at the recent Programme Boards across departments and have received some great feedback from staff.  The main campaigns will begin in September as we welcome new students.  If you would like to find out more or discuss promoting with your students please get in touch with your academic liaison librarian. 

Rachel Bury

Academic Liaison Manager

During May, Learning Services will be ‘On Location’ in your faculty to offer academic and administrative staff help and advice on a wide range of services.  Engaging with staff is key to our service and recent feedback from the academic staff survey highlighted that staff would find it very useful if we could be around in your buildings and departments to provide bespoke support.

Each event will run between 10am-3pm and will offer different ways in which you can:

• MEET a range of Learning Services staff to discuss your needs.
• LEARN how Learning Services can help you achieve your (course/online/development) goals.
• DEVELOP your (Library & Learning Edge) knowledge with practical discussions

Our first event is Wednesday 18th May in the Faculty of Education Building

There will be CPD events throughout the day from Learning Technology Development, Academic Support, Digital Capabilities Development, Classroom Technologies support and Learner Support (SpLD) teams, whilst Librarians, Learning Technologist and Skills Advisors will be available for help.

In E16 you can drop-in and meet the Learning Services FOE Teams for problem solving and learn more about how we can support you.

In E22 a range of our teams are offering bite-sized CPD to enhance your practice.
The programme for the day in E22 is:

10am  – Find out about Learning Technologies – LTD Team

11am – A partnership approach to education resources –
Ruth Wilson & Andy Tomkins

12pm – Digital capabilities – Heather Johnston

1pm – Lecture capture – Howard Turpin

2pm – Changes to Disabled Student Allowances and inclusive practices – Andrew Billington

Just before the event we will be dropping in to see people to ensure you know when and where we will be on the day and whether you want to make an appointment for a 1-2-1 on the day.
For more details or if you would like a 1-2-1 appointment with one of the teams (we can come to your desk), contact Rachel Bury, Academic Liaison Manager.
Email: [email protected]

Please make a note in your diaries for the Faculty of Health and Social Care (25th May) and Arts and Sciences (31st May) dates and we will be out and about with more information and reminders just before the day.  Again, colleagues in those faculties can make an appointment for a 1-2-1.

ON LOCATION

MEET. LEARN. DEVELOP.

Rachel Bury

Academic Liaison Manager – Quality, Marketing and Communication

Advice for a stress free submission.

First, please use the Chrome or Firefox browsers if you are submitting online.  Note that the default browser in Windows 10 is Edge – perhaps OK for surfing the net – but we believe it isn’t performing so well for ‘high stakes’ activity such as assignment submission.  We see a handful of problems with empty submissions every week, and these have been submissions using the Edge browser – so, please download and install Firefox or Chrome and use these browsers when working with Blackboard.

More general assignment advice is on Carol & Mark’s excellent post from last December – here’s my summary:

• Find out well in advance about where, when, how, & in what format to submit your work – ask your tutor – and keep them informed of any issues you are having;
• If you are having problems submitting, check it’s not the system via these Twitter feeds: @EdgeHillVLE & @Turnitinstatus;
• Use Firefox or Chrome to submit – also available for Macs;
• Aim to submit 24 hours early – especially if submitting to Turnitin;
• The Uniskills online submission page covers Referencing, Planning, & Finding Academic Information.

Finally, a great place to get help is the AskUs service – it’s a 24/7 searchable knowledge base, with the ability to post your specific question to Learning Services for a quick response: askus.edgehill.ac.uk.

Good luck with your assignments.

David Callaghan
Learning Technology Development Officer
[email protected]
@LTDatEHU