tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9883793771310587342024-03-19T03:29:48.899+00:00BLE BlogFrom the members of the Bloomsbury Learning ExchangeNancy Weitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16320725791542581308noreply@blogger.comBlogger83125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-84482544096183739122024-02-22T16:18:00.011+00:002024-02-22T16:25:23.046+00:00Launch of our latest course: Is a PhD Right for Me?<div style="background-color: white; line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-a0f17eb7-7fff-22c7-f15c-6c18468ee5c8"><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Is a PhD Right for Me?</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 6pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The BLE's new three-week course on FutureLearn offers a comprehensive approach to considering, applying for, and beginning doctoral study in the UK. The course dispels misconceptions, examines real-life concerns and speaks to a wide range of groups and individuals traditionally under-represented in doctoral study.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Throughout the course, learners discover strategies to help them work effectively, manage their wellbeing, maintain good working relationships with supervisors and clarify potential career paths after the PhD.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Week 1 </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">helps the learner decide whether to pursue doctoral study. We provide an overview of fundamental personal, practical, and financial aspects of the decision. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Week 2</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> provides guidance on making a PhD application, such as how to search out opportunities, put together a research proposal, find the right supervisor and apply to an institution or research project. </span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Week 3</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> focuses on managing day-to-day life as a doctoral student. </span><span style="border: none; clear: left; display: inline-block; float: left; height: 144px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; overflow: hidden; width: 255px;"><img height="144" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/t8T3bCusvHVdoDtGjjXdgw3kygTzzCu_3irxir1X9VtFaHLOc_TtZdREVpbD4shYg_mYoCiIK-Yzd2bYJXgs2-9I2YK7oegw9PwMkBoTBMi9LCBpStf2mt1TpOYE3qDk5sXlW5KMkXQy5RxInF-GrfE" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="255" /></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Learners take an active role in their learning, completing reflective and practical tasks and taking part in conversations with each other. Highlights include interviews with current doctoral students, supervisors and staff who share their experiences, expectations and advice. Learners also follow four diverse student characters in their journey to decide whether or not doctoral study is the right path for them.</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt;"><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-style: italic; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Really amazing! [This course] opened my mind to the ''secrets'' of PhD study and had so many tips to follow</span><span style="color: #0b5394; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">.</span><span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> (Learner feedback).</span><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"> </span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; padding: 0pt 0pt 10pt;"><br /></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a343a; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="border: none; display: inline-block; height: 234px; overflow: hidden; width: 416px;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s7znKrZW01Y"><img alt="Video link for course introduction" height="234" src="https://lh7-us.googleusercontent.com/8R5qaEqM4qMoxIuTK-slROaqAJg-lptSq9uX6xw8LpZTqg_eykfDBnaBezi0xwF5b5mDMhXrCJP4qAHYuSalxONmfPJDTBXQ5swktsBuQDrOtBttZbcaFeYf_pgboUhQ0TEfhuB0GcXHRTaxaIbxgLY" style="margin-left: 0px; margin-top: 0px;" width="416" /></a></span></span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt; text-align: center;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #3a343a; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space-collapse: preserve;">Course introductory video</span></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><br /></p><ul style="margin-bottom: 0; margin-top: 0; padding-inline-start: 48px;"><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/is-a-phd-right-for-me" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #434343; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Enrolment link</span></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;"> </span></p></li><li aria-level="1" dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; color: #434343; font-family: Verdana, sans-serif; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; font-weight: 700; list-style-type: disc; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre;"><p dir="ltr" role="presentation" style="line-height: 1.38; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/phd-mooc.html" style="text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: #434343; font-size: 10pt; font-variant-alternates: normal; font-variant-east-asian: normal; font-variant-numeric: normal; font-variant-position: normal; text-decoration-line: underline; text-decoration-skip-ink: none; text-wrap: wrap; vertical-align: baseline;">Course development information</span></a></p></li></ul></span></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-cdd52438-7fff-b1fb-fa79-e903e67f1d97"></span></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-66016738723431416262022-09-08T13:12:00.001+01:002022-09-08T13:12:41.506+01:00BLE Director and UCL Learning Technologist are filmed in the Channel 4 News studio!<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px;">The Association for Learning Technology (ALT)</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px;"> </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px;">and ITN Business have co-produced a news-style programme, l</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px;">aunched this week at the ALT Annual Conference.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">With 66% of ALT members now using blended and hybrid models in the classroom, it is now more important than ever to be tech-savvy in the educational landscape.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"> <span style="font-weight: 700;">“</span><span style="font-weight: 700;">Digital Transformation”</span> highlights the importance of investment in both the right infrastructure and the people behind the technology, delving into the latest learning technologies and strategies enabling change.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">The <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLxoWy14N6f8t3515gPi4b9wAakasYmhDG">full programme</a> aims to encourage new strategies to further the offering to educational institutions, while raising awareness, champion partnerships and support the next stage of digital learning. You can watch <a href="https://youtu.be/F02Suj3W56A">the showcase with all the highlights here</a>.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Anchored by ITN Business presenter Michael Underwood, the film consists of interviews with industry thought leaders discussing the positives of the new direction of learning following the pandemic, the importance of the staff behind the technology and the key issues the sector is looking to address.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Michael was joined in the ITN London studios by the BLE's own Director, Sarah Sherman and Carol Worsfold, Learning Technologist at UCL who discuss ALT's accreditation scheme, CMALT. The BLE has been running an annual CMALT scheme for seven years - more information about that <a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/cmalt.html">is available here</a>. </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/U8HVyzf7PMo" width="320" youtube-src-id="U8HVyzf7PMo"></iframe></div><br /><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><br /></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-7196662114893378952022-04-04T12:02:00.001+01:002022-04-04T12:06:47.603+01:00Facilitation? Moderation? A Model for Clarifying Educator Presence in Online Learning Discussions<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiitZG-uD8sFcBiir0AsTd6Yn8znLpe1H5k8JLjnylZGIftJ8HHMEKzOWWzeiksfBWsiz13A3oCZcKr7WjAqJ4NJhUlIP_adwyewETOZkL-aZy09TyDTZNpLsSBfE8nNkoT7sUJXIvOtYXLOW-I0FWqyrE5-BF2I1UIj22JlYEGM1kjVPdg9wkUREaDEA" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1080" data-original-width="1920" height="360" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiitZG-uD8sFcBiir0AsTd6Yn8znLpe1H5k8JLjnylZGIftJ8HHMEKzOWWzeiksfBWsiz13A3oCZcKr7WjAqJ4NJhUlIP_adwyewETOZkL-aZy09TyDTZNpLsSBfE8nNkoT7sUJXIvOtYXLOW-I0FWqyrE5-BF2I1UIj22JlYEGM1kjVPdg9wkUREaDEA=w617-h360" width="617" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-size: medium;">Last week we ran a seminar (a <i>Moderation Masterclass</i>) for new moderators on our recently launched FutureLearn course, <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/digital-skills-awareness-for-starting-higher-education/1" target="_blank">Digital Skills Awareness for Starting Higher Education</a> in which we tackled head-on the thorny issue of Moderation v Facilitation -- what do these terms mean? How do they differ? In preparation for the session, I started work on a little diagram for helping to establish distinctions between the terms, which are often used interchangeably. <br /><br />I started working in this area way back in the early 2000s, when online discussions, if not new (discussion boards had been around since the mid-90s), were certainly hot technologies in the burgeoning world of online learning. A lot of research and influential ideas came out around that time about building online communities and engaging participant interaction from the likes of Gilly Salmon, Nancy White and Etienne Wenger (amongst others). I'm not going to do a survey of literature here, but you are invited to go look. While online learning has changed a lot (especially the technologies and dependence on video and video conferencing), discussion forums themselves have not (please see <a href="https://architelablog.wordpress.com/2018/08/01/we-need-new-online-discussion-tools/" target="_blank">my blog post about that</a>). Nor has the way we use them.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">For the purposes of our seminar, my diagram needed to be a quick way to conceptualise the key educator roles (that is, the delivery and support sides of a learning activity) and the way these relate to the learner's engagement with the activity and, specifically, the educator. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The primary elements of the model are:</span></p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Educator role: Monitor, Moderator, Facilitator, Tutor</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Role category: continuum from Admin to Teaching</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Level of learner independence versus dependence on educator (apart from interaction with other learners)</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">Level of educator "presence" within the activity (visibility as well as active intervention) </span></li></ul><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Courses, and even individual activities, will often overlap or complicate these elements, but the overall model is useful for developing an understanding of what is required in a specific instance and -- vitally -- for getting a team of educators all on the same page. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Monitoring</i> and <i>Tutoring</i>, at either end of the spectrum, are relatively clear. Monitoring involves virtually no educator presence. It is simply oversight to keep an eye on proceedings and report problems while the learners engage with the material and each other,<i> independent</i> of educator intervention. Tutoring involves strong educator presence carefully leading the <i>dependent</i> learners through the discussion as an expert in the subject.<br /><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Moderating</i> and <i>Facilitating</i> are the two terms most often confused and ill-defined, especially in terms of online discussions. In my model, Moderation is further up the Admin end of the scale than Facilitation, which has more of a teaching function. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Moderation</i> requires no subject knowledge. It's about keeping a discussion ticking along smoothly and, unlike monitoring, allows for occasional visible interventions, especially to counter incorrect or potentially enflaming contributions from learners. In addition, a moderator can respond to learners directly to point to sources of assistance or answer a pressing question that the other learners cannot answer. Moderation usually does not include interventions about the ideas or topics in the course. It takes a judgement call to avoid setting up expectations that the discussion will be actively facilitated while also making sure learners are not neglected. </span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><i>Facilitation </i>picks up where Moderation leaves off, involving the kinds of skills that encourage learners to respond to each other and extend their thinking and also the ability to summarise key points and present the learning developed in the discussion back to the learners. Maybe surprisingly, Facilitators do not have to be experts in the subject; they need to be experts in facilitation. Facilitation requires a judgement call to avoid dominating discussions by presenting as subject experts while also making sure the learners are sufficiently engaged with the topic and with each other.</span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></div><div><span style="font-size: medium;">Which type of role, category, level of independence and presence is appropriate for any discussion will depend on a range of contexts, such as the purpose for the discussion, the course it sits within, the subject matter, the type of course, the group size, learner expectations, staff availability, budget, platform, technical and other factors. Above all, the originating design for the course needs to take into consideration these constraints to create and present a holistic learning experience with well-planned activities, whether simply monitored, moderated, facilitated or fully led by a tutor.<br /><br />Do you have thoughts and experience with these roles? We'd love to hear your views.</span></div><p></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><br /><br /><br /></span></p>Nancy Weitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16320725791542581308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-67643273714206949882022-02-18T13:04:00.001+00:002022-02-18T13:04:31.671+00:00Technology, racism and unpeeling the onion<div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; text-align: left;"><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">This post by Samanatha Ahern was originally posted here: https://london.ac.uk/centre-for-distance-education/blog/technology-racism-and-unpeeling-onion</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Members of the <a href="http://www.alt.ac.uk">Association for Learning Technology (ALT)</a> Anti-Racism and Learning Technology Special Interest Group have been developing a free set of tools to address racism. The draft toolkit is currently available and community feedback is being sought. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Explore the toolkit and provide feedback: <a href="https://reflect.ucl.ac.uk/ar-lt-toolkit/">https://reflect.ucl.ac.uk/ar-lt-toolkit/</a></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Digital technologies and media in all their forms are increasingly ubiquitous in broader society and education, both nationally and globally. However, they are not neutral. They are both socially constructed and construct society. The social nature of their construction bakes in and reinforces existing epistemologies and biases, both conscious and unconscious. This can lead to the exclusion and isolation of the non-normative group(s). In teaching and learning contexts this can impact learners’ sense of belonging, engagement with their course of study and ultimately their outcomes. </div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">Overview of the toolkit</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The draft toolkit developed by the ALT(Opens in new window) Anti-Racism and Learning Technology SIG provides a series of prompts to help un-peel the onion and support those designing and creating digital learning, and supporting and procuring digital tools.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">The ‘Tool’ section of the site links to a form containing a series of prompts one could use while working on a technology enhanced learning project or piece of work. The broad categories of prompts the toolkit provides are as follows:</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Communities</li><li>The project team</li><li>Learning content</li><li>Tools and platforms</li><li>Post-project reflection</li></ul></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">A ‘Further Resources’ section offers suggestions mapped to the five category areas in the toolkit and a ‘AR in LD and ID’ section is aimed at scenarios where one is facilitating learning or instructional design workshops that draw on frameworks that aren’t specifically anti-racist. This part of the toolkit offers guidance on where in those frameworks you might incorporate anti-racism, for a wide range of frameworks.</div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><br /></div><div style="box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">In order to further develop the toolkit, both in terms of usefulness and usability a community consultation is currently underway. Colleagues are invited to engage with the prototype prompt tool and to provide feedback.</div><div><br /></div></div>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-5482302332453497342022-02-17T13:12:00.002+00:002022-02-17T14:29:51.175+00:00New BLE MOOC on FutureLearn is now live!<p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Our new MOOC, which offers prospective students
the opportunity to learn key digital skills to succeed in Higher Education, has recently landed on FutureLearn!</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: left;">The course is particularly relevant after a recent Jisc survey showed that </span><b style="text-align: left;">87%</b><span style="text-align: left;"> of
students are studying online with a further 12% studying in a hybrid model.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="text-align: left;"><br /></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/digital-skills-awareness-for-starting-higher-education/1">DigitalSkills Awareness for Starting Higher Education</a></span></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"> is delivered
online over a three-week learning period.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/D-IZEdlRtXc" width="320" youtube-src-id="D-IZEdlRtXc"></iframe></div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /> <o:p></o:p></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The course, which is free for everyone, has
been developed by the BLE to introduce the digital skills students will need
when they start their degree or other Higher Education courses.<br /> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">And it has never been more necessary, with the <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/8487/1/Student%20DEI%20HE%20report%202021%20Final.pdf">Jisc survey</a>*</span> showing that:</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">87% of students studied completely online last
year<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">A further 12% studied online and in person,
with only 1% studying solely in-person<br /><o:p></o:p></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Less than half (41%) said they received
guidance about the digital skills they needed for their course and<br /> <o:p></o:p></span></span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Only one in four (26%) said they had an
assessment of their digital skills and training needs.</span></span></li></ul></span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The course introduces students to the important skills, systems, and
core technologies for learning to help them succeed at university and Higher Education.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Dr Nancy Weitz, D</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">igital Education
Specialist at the BLE, created the course </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">to help students get to grips with essential
technologies to support their learning.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /><o:p></o:p></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">She said: “The course we’ve developed is aimed at all students before
they are due to start studying<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>and will
teach them about the various online platforms and learning environments, study
and assessment tools, and advice for staying safe online.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /></span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">“As the recent Jisc survey shows, this has never been more important,
with virtually all students studying either exclusively online or as part of a
mixture of online and in-person. We’d encourage all students to take our free
course as a vital introduction to their Higher Education study.”</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Students on the course will be guided by experts from the Bloomsbury
Learning Exchange (BLE), an organisation dedicated to sharing digital education
expertise.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><br /> </span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">Learning with the BLE means learning with a digital education
association comprised of six prominent Higher Education Institutions in
Bloomsbury, Central London: Birkbeck, LSHTM, RVC, SOAS, UCL, and the University
of London.</span></span></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><br /></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><b>Course Outline:<br /></b></div><p></p><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><b>Week 1: Your Learning Environment</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Access and accounts </li><li>Online learning environments</li><li>Assignments and assessments </li></ul></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><b>Week 2: Foundations of Digital Study</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Study skills tools </li><li>Written communications</li><li>The Internet and searches</li><li>Working with files </li></ul></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><b>Week 3: Digital Safety and Wellbeing</b></div><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Safety and security </li><li>Social media for learning </li><li>Digital wellbeing </li><li>Time management</li></ul></div></div><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The course, delivered through FutureLearn “on
demand”, is available absolutely free and will take just a few hours each week
to complete. <a href="https://www.futurelearn.com/courses/digital-skills-awareness-for-starting-higher-education/1">Enrol now here!<o:p></o:p></a></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm;"><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">*About the </span></b><b><span lang="SV"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Jisc digital skills survey</span></span></b></p>
<p class="Default" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="https://repository.jisc.ac.uk/8487/1/Student%20DEI%20HE%20report%202021%20Final.pdf">Student
digital experience insights survey 2020/21; UK higher education (HE) survey
findings (jisc.ac.uk)</a></span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="Pa6" style="margin-bottom: 6pt;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The survey was conducted between
October 2020 and April 2021 and there were 38,917 participants in the HE survey
from 41 different universities. This represents 12% of all universities and HE
institutions in the UK. 27 of these were based in England, seven in Wales, four
in Northern Ireland and three in Scotland. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-top: 0cm;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">The Survey There was a mismatch in students' expectations in how
they would be studying this last year – 55% expected to be fully on campus but
the reality was that only 1% were able to do so and 87% did their studying
online (a further 12% said they studied using a mix of online and on campus).
Only 41% of students agreed that they received guidance about the digital
skills they needed for their course and just 26% said they had an assessment of
their digital skills and training needs. These figures are a concern.</span><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-size: 11.0pt; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p><br /><p></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-55334557142699311622021-10-04T15:36:00.006+01:002021-10-06T09:49:32.440+01:00The hierarchy of priorities on a digital learning technologist during the national lockdown of 2020-21 <p>The BLE Executive team, Sarah Sherman (Director), Nancy Weitz, (Digital Learning Specialist) and Julian Bream (Coach for Digital Education Leadership) have been reflecting about how learning technologists coped during the thick of the global pandemic. We've been talking through the pressures our colleagues faced when demands were being thrown at them - thick and fast, from all directions - all requiring immediate attention and resolution. There was no time for anything, yet everything had to be done. In the early days of the national lockdown in March 2020, learning technology and digital education staff were working all hours of the day - whilst somehow trying to manage their private lives (caring responsibilities, household obligations and attending to their own wellbeing). It was a nightmarish time for everyone involved in learning, teaching and assessment delivery - but, in our opinion, our coworkers were at the sharp end. During our discussions, Julian described how he had envisaged a hierarchy of pressures - or impacts - on an average learning technologist, similar in design to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs. </p><p>The basic level of concern, as we saw it, lay in the working environment: access to equipment, functional technology, space to work. Some of our colleagues were forced to work on the edge of a sofa, resting on a coffee table where others converted children's bedrooms into a second office whilst their partners worked in another room. A space to work was fundamental to establish before anything else.</p><p>Prior to the pandemic, learning technologists rarely had a quiet working day: training colleagues, developing content, designing courses, administering learning environments, producing audio and video material, etc, etc. The unprecedented volume of work caused by the pandemic hit our colleagues hard - but it wasn't until later on that the learning technologists were realised by all to be the heroes of the pivot to online learning, teaching and assessment. </p><p>Interactions with colleagues - teammates, managers, those that they supported (academics/students) became a source of pressure. These interactions were intense - online meeting followed online meeting, with no time for comfort breaks or space to think (or do the actual work). Interactions were difficult because in a traditionally in-person role, these all had to take place virtually; many between colleagues who had never met in person, since recruitment (in this area) was not frozen and new starters were joining all the way through lockdown.</p><p>Learning technologists had to work through the initial lack of institutional support - from personnel understanding to the creation of policy and strategy of remote learning and teaching. These developments came later but for the learning technologist, there was no time to wait. </p><p>Learning technologists had to work through despite (or in spite) of institutional culture. For universities where a willingness to be open in practice, flexible about sharing and adaptable to change was not the norm, the learning technologists had to strive on regardless.</p><p>And there was certainly no time for professional development or career recognition; CMALT portfolios and applications for HE Advance Fellowship were abandoned due to just needing to get on with the job.</p><p>To illustrate this hierarchy of pressure points, Julian and Sarah drew out (remotely!) a pyramid placing working space at the bottom (as the fundamental layer) and career progression at the pinnacle. However, inverting the pyramid offered a better visual representation of the force and weight of the individual pressures.</p><p>As a result - and thanks to Nancy for designing exactly what they wanted to convey in their model - we present the Hierarchy of Priorities on a Digital Learning Technologist During the National Pandemic (select the image itself to see a larger version):</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV5mWqG-b9NstLrh0oE_wqqZQU9OrqbZD_uz4rNguX1qOgBhB99R_cS8gfxrrnveRkqT2NkQVk1rFs31ccd8NFxMPb3d93HG8cfaIGGhyJYGaLnsNpl-mNlSOvh-P9gDCM_SFWEom_nFg/s1000/WhatsApp+Image+2021-10-04+at+15.39.15.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1000" data-original-width="1000" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV5mWqG-b9NstLrh0oE_wqqZQU9OrqbZD_uz4rNguX1qOgBhB99R_cS8gfxrrnveRkqT2NkQVk1rFs31ccd8NFxMPb3d93HG8cfaIGGhyJYGaLnsNpl-mNlSOvh-P9gDCM_SFWEom_nFg/w400-h400/WhatsApp+Image+2021-10-04+at+15.39.15.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br /><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-4293292055318741332021-09-03T11:13:00.000+01:002021-09-03T11:13:11.465+01:00The BLE is supporting prospective doctoral studies applicants<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #202124; font-family: verdana; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYIhtzDRWQMBcR3lrnekB6WtQPDSsf3kbpFL-usUXE-IC0uxAdfXNnuYuuJE35o0CYYUULg4wp7Mw0ZLYzxHCHt-GttNTWfjW-MjwV46bOdKdS5vtuZ72DJhIRZ0m-qia-i2Pq9ZOm5EU/s1280/graduate-150374_1280.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1223" height="155" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYIhtzDRWQMBcR3lrnekB6WtQPDSsf3kbpFL-usUXE-IC0uxAdfXNnuYuuJE35o0CYYUULg4wp7Mw0ZLYzxHCHt-GttNTWfjW-MjwV46bOdKdS5vtuZ72DJhIRZ0m-qia-i2Pq9ZOm5EU/w148-h155/graduate-150374_1280.png" width="148" /></a></div>This academic year, the BLE will be developing a free, open course aimed at prospective
doctoral students - especially those from underrepresented communities. The
course will help participants decide if a PhD is right for them and if indeed
they are right for a PhD. We are therefore collecting advice from
current/recent doctoral students (e.g. studying for an MPhil/PhD, professional
or practice-based doctorate) and supervisors to help us design the course.<p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"></p><p><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #202124; letter-spacing: .15pt;"><span style="background: white;">The survey will only take <b>5-10 minutes</b> to
complete. Contributions will be treated completely anonymously, we just ask
that respondents are really honest about their answers and draw on their
personal experiences. The survey closes on 30th September 2021.</span></span></span></p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="color: #202124;"><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.15pt;">Complete the survey here or send this link to colleagues, friends, families, neighbours, etc:</span><span style="background-color: white; letter-spacing: 0.2px;"><br /></span></span></span><a href="http://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/f1ARCmy54u1vnzrIGR8Jm?domain=bit.ly" style="font-family: verdana;">http://bit.ly/BLEPHDSurvey</a><br /><span style="font-family: verdana;"><br />For further information and
to find out how to get involved, contact </span><a href="mailto:info@ble.ac.uk" style="font-family: verdana;">info@ble.ac.uk</a> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-89603828631278894652021-08-13T12:45:00.001+01:002021-08-13T12:45:04.772+01:00BLE welcomes a new associate partner for 2021-22<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rBXE0TrrlZymIlA8_q1yKOpuN7fipkfAmOro2zoyrT7WvyM5Ep-R5JqW6fUeWjQuPbfqmu5SbxILqN3OBhmZOodZX83Z9BYX8O6AAdNs04eXww5qvZTiky5_-zFF9KOrDs29cv-mqmI/s1154/Ex_LOGO_stacked.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1154" height="173" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi3rBXE0TrrlZymIlA8_q1yKOpuN7fipkfAmOro2zoyrT7WvyM5Ep-R5JqW6fUeWjQuPbfqmu5SbxILqN3OBhmZOodZX83Z9BYX8O6AAdNs04eXww5qvZTiky5_-zFF9KOrDs29cv-mqmI/w300-h173/Ex_LOGO_stacked.png" width="300" /></a><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpr5eXronPEU81iHtlPTtLVQ6l_sNP3bYSxerqt_LEbPCFwTO4ZMF2Hkx3ZnB4P9KcgftQ3rYGaSahG4nPB9k6Bps8we149_Qz1YcuexVTMHCwJRZX-Q_Yy4pkcCbqPmWJWOWth83Obcs/s604/City+UoL+crop.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="604" data-original-width="440" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjpr5eXronPEU81iHtlPTtLVQ6l_sNP3bYSxerqt_LEbPCFwTO4ZMF2Hkx3ZnB4P9KcgftQ3rYGaSahG4nPB9k6Bps8we149_Qz1YcuexVTMHCwJRZX-Q_Yy4pkcCbqPmWJWOWth83Obcs/w145-h200/City+UoL+crop.JPG" width="145" /></a></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: verdana;"><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">We are excited to announce that
City, University of London has joined the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE) as an
Associate Partner for 2021-22. We will work closely with colleagues in Learning
Enhancement and Development (LEaD) and especially the Digital Education team,
headed up by Dr Julie Voce – who will also be joining the BLE Steering Group.
<br /></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">As an Associate Partner,
staff at City will be invited to attend BLE events, participate in our
activities, have access to our resources, and contribute to our special interest
groups.<br /></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;"><o:p> <br /></o:p></span><span style="font-size: 10.0pt;">Since last year, Julie has
supported the BLE’s CMALT cohort contributing to the monthly sessions and
bringing along a number of City colleagues who participated in our scheme. As
an active member of the University of London, City’s vision
and ambition for d</span></span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 13.3333px;">igital education</span><span style="font-family: verdana; font-size: 10pt;"> closely aligns with the current BLE partners and we're delighted to
be welcoming them into our fold.</span></p>
<br /><p></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-43969590729783874842021-06-16T16:27:00.002+01:002021-06-16T16:27:29.194+01:00The BLE wins the 2021 Roger Mills Prize for Innovation in Learning and Teaching<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMTzNIvTUJIX4sY0LAH05pyZJhFgohUr3qnOXhRWsgitO72kkPYFxrhGFSZ5d5pOEqbpr7weacJj4737r2xE7XTYgYHiaN-ka1L6Ln5e9Syo8ILCC9CSynw_UAYCWPVTgIS_iu9lOR7Y/s383/DSAC.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="238" data-original-width="383" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvMTzNIvTUJIX4sY0LAH05pyZJhFgohUr3qnOXhRWsgitO72kkPYFxrhGFSZ5d5pOEqbpr7weacJj4737r2xE7XTYgYHiaN-ka1L6Ln5e9Syo8ILCC9CSynw_UAYCWPVTgIS_iu9lOR7Y/w209-h130/DSAC.png" width="209" /></a></div><span style="font-family: helvetica;">I am delighted to announce that the BLE has won this year's Roger Mills Prize for Innovation in Learning and Teaching for our approach in designing,
developing and sharing our digital skills awareness courses for incoming
students and teaching staff.</span><p></p><p dir="ltr" style="line-height: 1.2; margin-bottom: 0pt; margin-top: 0pt;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: 400; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Ensuring students have appropriate digital skills upon entering the world of higher education is essential for their academic success, especially in these changing times of flexible, distance and blended delivery. Similarly, teaching staff have a responsibility to meet the level of digital proficiency now expected by their institutions. Our response to this need was the creation of two short online courses: the Digital Skills Awareness Course for new and prospective students (DSAC) and the Digital Skills Awareness Course for Teaching Staff (DSAC-T).</span></span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">Our two courses have been designed in Moodle, trialed and adopted by BLE partners and are now openly available to the UK Higher Education sector. </span></span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">These courses are “blueprints”, which can be repurposed and adapted to suit the needs of the institution that adopts them. For example, the DSAC has been adapted by the University of London’s PGCert Learning and Teaching in Higher Education programme and recommended as a supplementary module. </span></span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The approach we have taken offers benefits to over-stretched digital education and staff development teams across the BLE partnership and beyond.</span></span></p><p><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">More information at <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/digitalawareness">www.ble.ac.uk/digitalawareness</a></span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The judging panel provided the following feedback:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: helvetica;">The promotion and support of
digital skills for academics and university professionals as well as students
is central at this pivotal point in the move to blended technology supported
learning, and what was remarkable about this project were the ways in which
transferability and impact were built into its very identity, through its
construction on the principles of Open Education Resources. The success of this
approach and its value to the sector as a whole is validated by the issuing
already of 49 OER licenses by the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange to other
institutions to use and adapt the Digital Skills Awareness course for their own
purposes.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><br /></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-70501893975915723432021-05-21T15:51:00.001+01:002021-05-21T15:52:02.558+01:00Open book exams: open season for cheaters or a better form of assessment?<p>This post by<b> <a href="https://iris.ucl.ac.uk/iris/browse/profile?upi=GJHUG20">Gwyneth Hughes</a> </b>at UCL was originally posted here <a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2021/05/19/open-book-exams-open-season-for-cheaters-or-a-better-form-of-assessment/">https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/2021/05/19/open-book-exams-open-season-for-cheaters-or-a-better-form-of-assessment/</a></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/files/2015/10/exams.jpg" style="background: 0px 0px; color: #3366cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"></a></span></p><p></p><div class="wpa-ld alignnone size-full wp-image-3057" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; display: inline-block; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; position: relative; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/files/2015/10/exams.jpg" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #3366cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;"><img alt="photo of exam hall" id="longdesc-return-3057" loading="lazy" longdesc="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe?longdesc=3057&referrer=11458" sizes="(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px" src="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/files/2015/10/exams.jpg" srcset="https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/files/2015/10/exams.jpg 620w, https://blogs.ucl.ac.uk/ioe/files/2015/10/exams-300x121.jpg 300w" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: 0px 0px; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; border: 0px; display: block; height: auto; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; width: auto;" tabindex="-1" title="Photo by Pete via Creative Commons" /></a></span></div><p><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif" style="background-color: white; font-size: 16px;">The start of the pandemic in March 2020 caused universities to do a rapid pivot from the well-entrenched invigilated, timed, unseen exams to online tests mostly taken at home.</span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Software can monitor students taking exams in their own homes by using video or <a href="https://kaplan.co.uk/insights/article-detail/insights/2020/04/30/what-is-online-proctoring" style="background: 0px 0px; color: #3366cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">proctoring</a> methods, or by locking down the examinee’s computer. But by far the most straightforward option is open book exams with extended timescales. This is mostly what happened at the University of London. But does this mean better assessment or more cheating?</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">For an open-book exam, students can search online and access books, notes, and other available resources online or in print. If the exam writing window remains <span id="more-11458" style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></span>similar to that of previous exams with perhaps some extra time for uploading answers, then there is not much opportunity to look up answers and students will not have any advantage. However, if students are given longer – for instance, a 24 hours gap between releasing the exam questions and sending in answers – then they can do some research for their answers.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Students like online exams but not just because they can cheat more easily</em></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">A study from the <a href="https://london.ac.uk/centre-for-distance-education" style="background: 0px 0px; color: #3366cc; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Centre for Distance Education | University of London</a> has shown that students doing online exams for the University of London’s distance learning programmes preferred the online exams done from the comfort of their own homes without the pressure to travel to an examination centre and with a bit more freedom from relying on memory alone. Cynics might have it that open book exams give students carte blanche to plagiarise copy and collude with other students and no wonder they liked the experience. But cheating is not inevitable. The study provides evidence that some programme teams changed exam questions for the online shift to ensure that students could not copy and paste answers.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">If questions requiring memorisation were replaced with more probing ones and questions that require application of knowledge, then cheating would become much more difficult. It is also possible that these better designed exams will encourage students to learn more deeply in future.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Some markers also noticed that giving students more time to write their answers meant they could make better use of references and correct errors. Again, this indicates that students could be advantaged by the online exams.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; font-weight: 600; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><em style="background: 0px 0px; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Rethinking exam design</em></span></p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">The big worry about exams, and indeed other forms of assessment, is student cheating – but that does not mean that heavy-handed electronic monitoring, restriction on using resources or plagiarism detection software is the answer. The pivot to online testing has encouraged exam designers to think more about how exams support student learning. Even if there is a post-pandemic return to attendance in person next year, many programmes at the University of London will continue with online open book exams and/or move to coursework assessment, which is the ultimate open book experience.</p><p style="background: 0px 0px rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, "Lucida Grande", sans-serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Here’s one tough question: Will more discussion of how to prevent plagiarism and cheating through improving assessment design follow?</p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-70109362170259888162021-05-14T11:08:00.016+01:002021-05-19T16:26:26.785+01:00Dealing with dissonance: now is the time for open, critical and mediated reflection on remote teaching and learning<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Nobile; font-size: 14px;">This post by </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Nobile; font-size: 14px;">Martin Compton</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Nobile; font-size: 14px;"> from UCL was originally posted on the UCL Reflect blog here </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Nobile;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://reflect.ucl.ac.uk/mcarena/2021/04/16/dealing-with-dissonance-now-is-the-time-for-open-critical-and-mediated-reflection-on-remote-teaching-and-learning/">https://reflect.ucl.ac.uk/mcarena/2021/04/16/dealing-with-dissonance-now-is-the-time-for-open-critical-and-mediated-reflection-on-remote-teaching-and-learning/</a></span></span></p>
<iframe allow="autoplay" frameborder="no" height="300" scrolling="no" src="https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/1051504882&color=%23ff5500&auto_play=false&hide_related=false&show_comments=true&show_user=true&show_reposts=false&show_teaser=true&visual=true" width="100%"></iframe><div style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Interstate, "Lucida Grande", "Lucida Sans Unicode", "Lucida Sans", Garuda, Verdana, Tahoma, sans-serif; font-size: 10px; font-weight: 100; line-break: anywhere; overflow: hidden; text-overflow: ellipsis; white-space: nowrap; word-break: normal;"><a href="https://soundcloud.com/sarah-sherman-735709801" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Martin Compton">Sarah Sherman</a> · <a href="https://soundcloud.com/sarah-sherman-735709801/dissonance" style="color: #cccccc; text-decoration: none;" target="_blank" title="Dissonance">Dissonance</a></div>
<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; orphans: 4;">The necessary, pandemic-enforced modifications that teachers and lecturers made over the last year have often been nothing short of miraculous. Most frustrating perhaps is where effort has been huge but responses (either engagement levels or evaluation responses) have been less than hoped for. I have heard colleagues desperate for a return to ‘normal’ and others very keen to hold on to and develop approaches they have honed or learned from scratch. Whatever teaching, learning and assessment look like next year, there will no doubt be degrees of ‘blendedness’, hybridity and necessary flexibility. Whatever our disciplines, it makes sense to take a moment to reflect on the experiences of the year and to consider what worked, what didn’t, what we WANT to keep, what we HAVE to keep and what that means for our workloads and impacts on our own and our students’ mental health (I originally typed ‘wellbeing’ but am starting to feel as though this word is being stripped of tangible meaning and weight). Anyway, so far; so obvious.</span></p><figure aria-label="Block: Image" class="wp-block-image block-editor-block-list__block wp-block size-large" data-block="ac44fc20-4be5-49bb-aab8-bc670eba0e75" data-title="Image" data-type="core/image" id="block-ac44fc20-4be5-49bb-aab8-bc670eba0e75" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0"><div class="components-resizable-box__container" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; display: table; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 424px;"><img alt="woman in glasses looking at screen full of computer code" height="276" loading="lazy" src="https://reflect.ucl.ac.uk/flslearningtech/files/2021/04/woman-3597095_1920-1024x683.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="414" /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 0.8rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0.6rem 0px -0.2rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">image: geralt via pixabay</p></div></div><div class="components-drop-zone" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">One of the things that has become clear over my years working in teacher and lecturer development is that ‘reflection’ as a process is not necessarily something that happens naturally for us all. And, even where reflection is happening, we can find ourselves (for SO many reasons) not modifying our behaviours and approaches. If we are going to properly address the issues in the paragraph above- in context- it may be that we need time (!) and perhaps some form of mediated dialogue to push reflection. As part of that, we need to open ourselves to candid and perhaps even difficult challenges to our thinking. One way we can do this is to see how far we as individuals (or collectively as members of a department, faculty, institution or disciplinary ‘tribe’) may be subject to cognitive dissonance and immobile thinking.</div></figure><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="d7262311-5c04-4ad0-8ad9-134b3f9becf5" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-d7262311-5c04-4ad0-8ad9-134b3f9becf5" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0">Without being immersed too deeply in the psychology, I am leaning on the language of ‘cognitive dissonance’ (Festinger, 1957<strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">– <a href="https://www.simplypsychology.org/cognitive-dissonance.html" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; color: #c7930d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">good summary here</a> for non-psychologists</strong>) and the ‘fixed and growth mindset’ conceptualisation of Carol Dweck (<strong style="background: transparent; border: 0px; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><a href="https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; color: #c7930d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">c</a><a href="https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; color: #c7930d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">ore i</a><a href="https://youtu.be/hiiEeMN7vbQ" style="-webkit-tap-highlight-color: rgba(0, 0, 0, 0); background: transparent; color: #c7930d; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; text-decoration-line: none; vertical-align: baseline;">deas summarised in 9 min video by Prof Dweck here)</a></strong>. Cognitive dissonance is anxiety caused by our own behaviours that challenge what is known (for teachers, a belief in the self and what constitutes effective teaching is important). ‘Forced compliance behaviour’ is the most useful way to think about this in the Covid context because the vast majority of lecturers and teachers have had to act in ways that conflict with beliefs and pre-conceptions about what equates to good teaching and what shapes us- what defines us- as teachers. Pre-pandemic, ‘digital education’ could be ignored and the research dismissed where there was no perceived need or obligation to engage. Clumsy edicts without clear rationalisation or evidence and behaviouristic award systems for degrees of compliance have often led to cynical compliance or overt resistance. Witness the frustratingly frequent phenomena of VLE ‘scrolls of doom’ and too oft-repeated references to ‘death by PowerPoint’.</p><figure aria-label="Block: Image" class="wp-block-image block-editor-block-list__block wp-block size-large" data-block="98fd27a7-e7c4-44f6-bb06-a934bb447ab9" data-title="Image" data-type="core/image" id="block-98fd27a7-e7c4-44f6-bb06-a934bb447ab9" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0"><div class="components-resizable-box__container" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqEojZzRQGUBNCOsBX8T32DbbKbWKEQR6O5kltUrQhXE2feweTTYhximXeCbiO_6ihzk7MH4hE6iWPnPginjRwwozpcSgL_fHcApr6wu15AbapaD9-CyrgfTWAiuEKwS3iOkmseMQNJI/s1920/confused-880735_1920.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="hammer banging in a bolt while a spanner tackles a nail" border="0" data-original-height="1280" data-original-width="1920" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUqEojZzRQGUBNCOsBX8T32DbbKbWKEQR6O5kltUrQhXE2feweTTYhximXeCbiO_6ihzk7MH4hE6iWPnPginjRwwozpcSgL_fHcApr6wu15AbapaD9-CyrgfTWAiuEKwS3iOkmseMQNJI/w320-h213/confused-880735_1920.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; display: table; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 408px;"><p class="wp-caption-text" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 0.8rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0.6rem 0px -0.2rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">image: stevepb via pixabay</p></div></div></figure><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="5dec6664-1144-438f-ab6a-78ca953fafcb" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-5dec6664-1144-438f-ab6a-78ca953fafcb" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0">When Covid hit and the ‘emergency response’ morphed into something much longer, there was an inevitable and essential upskilling and mode switching but these pre-existing tensions framed persistent deficit narratives. When enforced, those most resistant (and fearful) are most likely to be subject to confirmation biases and this is completely normal and understandable but anxiety inducing and ultimately a barrier. Dweck’s notions of fixed and growth mindsets are useful ways of framing this, especially if ‘mindset’ is expanded to include departmental or institutional cultures.</p><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="e9024f9b-6d10-4fa2-ae21-403d5a33a382" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-e9024f9b-6d10-4fa2-ae21-403d5a33a382" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0">Like many, I championed compassion as a driver and for it to be at the forefront of our pedagogy in terms of the way we interacted and supported students as well as centring care in expectations and sensitivities around how we worked with colleagues. I don’t want colleagues to be anxious! According to Festinger, to resolve the anxiety and stagnation, something needs to change: beliefs and/or actions. The pandemic <em>forced</em> us to change our actions. But to what extent have we fully embraced the wisdom of the research, the learning techs and instructional designers rather than ploughing on with what is most familiar (or a replica of that)? And in terms of beliefs, how much have we built in time for mediated reflection that can reframe negative experiences in our actions? Do we understand why some activities are more likely to work than others? Are our individual and collective minds open to the difficult questions of what scholarship and experts say- weighted against our ‘intuitions’? I have witnessed how the two big aspects of HE pedagogic conservatism – lectures and examinations- have been challenged. In some ways their persistence as defaults in the context of a HUGE library of pedagogic scholarship can be framed as an example of collective cognitive dissonance. I felt that those that missed/ craved the lecture most were often those that suffered most; not because of ability or kit differentials but because of how wrapped in their identities the lecture is: teaching as performance. It is fascinating to witness how quickly debates about the future of lectures, for example, have become something of a false dichotomy, framed as: ‘your way is just fusty, boring lectures’ versus ‘you want to throw the brilliant lecture baby out with the pedagogic bathwater!’ This lack of nuance and this doubling down may be seen as a reflection of the populist zeitgeist but are we not supposed to be centres of research, debate and critical engagement?! We need time and mediation and space for openness to explore disciplinary-specific understandings, needs and possibilities.</p><figure aria-label="Block: Image" class="wp-block-image block-editor-block-list__block wp-block size-large" data-block="17b7fbad-a029-48af-a70d-ba66412d64c3" data-title="Image" data-type="core/image" id="block-17b7fbad-a029-48af-a70d-ba66412d64c3" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1em; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0"><div class="components-resizable-box__container" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><div class="wp-caption aligncenter" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; clear: both; display: table; height: auto; margin: 0px auto 1.5rem; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 5px 0px 0px; text-align: center; vertical-align: baseline; width: 373px;"><img alt="large auditorium mostly full of people waiting for a lecture" height="272" loading="lazy" src="https://reflect.ucl.ac.uk/flslearningtech/files/2021/04/the-audience-1254036_1920-1024x767.jpg" style="background: transparent; border: 0px none; height: auto; margin: 0px; max-width: 100%; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" width="363" /><p class="wp-caption-text" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; font-size: 0.8rem; font-style: italic; margin: 0.6rem 0px -0.2rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">image: alieino via pixabay</p></div></div><div class="components-drop-zone" style="background: transparent; border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; margin: 0px; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"></div></figure><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="246fbc35-45a3-4de7-a12a-9f3e46ffe9b0" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-246fbc35-45a3-4de7-a12a-9f3e46ffe9b0" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0">We can’t get everyone to change and shouldn’t force people to change. But in the clamour to get back to normal we are in danger of conflating the affordance of digital education more broadly with the experiences of 2020-21. What I’m saying here is as much about cultures and leadership as it is about individual examples of ‘cognitive dissonance’. Whilst this IS a challenge for colleagues to think critically about their work and thinking this is not meant to be read as a critique of that work. So, for people in my sort of role we have delicate job: I do NOT want to be seen to accuse anyone of closed-mindedness, entrenched thinking, suffering from confirmation bias…but that shouldn’t stop me from trying to push challenging conversations. How do I engage colleagues without the arms folding though?</p><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="1b744afe-dbc1-4df2-be6d-d34274029194" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-1b744afe-dbc1-4df2-be6d-d34274029194" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0">In my view, those that are at the centre should be provoking and mediating discussions and debate around these issues; prepared to challenge intuitive discourses. Whilst I do not have the gift of time to offer, this is one of my goals this coming year and I want to take as many people as I can with me. I believe that cognitive dissonance is a useful vehicle for considering how powerful our mindsets are, opening this particular reflective doorway may be one way to start reconciling what has been a manic year.</p><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="d2b73359-34ed-4a5f-8d0b-e7e75e5f07db" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-d2b73359-34ed-4a5f-8d0b-e7e75e5f07db" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px 0px 1.5rem; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0">Dweck, C.S. (2006) Mindset: How You Can Fulfil Your Potential. New York: Random House.</p><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="e6c3a2d6-6ee2-4c47-b448-f6da77feba4b" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-e6c3a2d6-6ee2-4c47-b448-f6da77feba4b" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0">Festinger, L. (1957). A Theory of cognitive dissonance. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press.</p><p aria-label="Paragraph block" aria-multiline="true" class="block-editor-rich-text__editable block-editor-block-list__block wp-block rich-text" data-block="e6c3a2d6-6ee2-4c47-b448-f6da77feba4b" data-title="Paragraph" data-type="core/paragraph" id="block-e6c3a2d6-6ee2-4c47-b448-f6da77feba4b" role="group" style="background: rgb(255, 255, 255); border: 0px; color: #444444; font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px; margin: 0px; orphans: 4; outline: 0px; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;" tabindex="0"><br /></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"></p><p style="background-color: white; clear: left; color: #666666; float: left; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; margin-top: 0px;"> </p><em style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.4px; text-align: center;">Martin Compton is an Associate Professor working in the Arena Centre for research-based education at UCL. email: <a href="mailto:martin.compton@ucl.ac.uk" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #079948; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">martin.compton@ucl.ac.uk</a> Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mart_compton" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #079948; text-decoration-line: none;">@mart_compton</a> </em><p></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-51842195790021707552021-04-14T15:01:00.002+01:002021-04-14T15:02:17.181+01:00The curious case of long videos: how research evidence, institutional data and experience struggle to trump gut instincts<p><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Nobile; font-size: 14px;">This post by </span><b style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Nobile; font-size: 14px;">Martin Compton</b><span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: Nobile; font-size: 14px;"> from UCL was originally posted on the ALT blog here, </span><span style="color: #222222; font-family: Nobile;"><span style="font-size: 14px;"><a href="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2021/02/the-curious-case-of-long-videos-how-research-evidence-institutional-data-and-experience-struggle-to-trump-gut-instincts/#gref">https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2021/02/the-curious-case-of-long-videos-how-research-evidence-institutional-data-and-experience-struggle-to-trump-gut-instincts/#gref</a></span></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">The rapid changes to the ways in which most are teaching at the moment have led to some recurring debates that are surprisingly persistent despite what I would argue is strong contrary evidence. Fortunately, colleagues are rarely rude, deliberately divisive, dismissive and provocative like the Times Educational Supplement piece that appeared during the autumn term of 2020 (<a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/pedagogy-has-nothing-teach-us" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;">Anon, 2020</a>). In this article an anonymous academic berated educational ‘evangelists’ for trying to force new teaching ‘fads’ on resentful academics, who apparently burn with resentment at being constantly torn from their research and burdened by inanities like teaching. The colleagues I have in mind, by contrast, are almost universally rational and reasonable and do take teaching seriously. Nevertheless, there are these recurrent areas where rationality is usurped by a refusal to accept what should be compelling evidence for good practice. As a consequence, they can sometimes find themselves in what I see as an equivalently blinkered position as the provocateur in the TES. My primary focus here will be on discussions about the length of videoed ‘lecture’ content.</p><div class="wp-block-image" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin-bottom: 1em;"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized" style="display: table; float: left; margin: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 0px;"><a href="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/ALTC-blog-windows-c-lUYtNjqxw-unsplash-M-cropped.jpg" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="Young woman sitting outside in the sun looking at her computer screen, with papers at her side." class="wp-image-9055" height="262" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 354px) 100vw, 354px" src="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/ALTC-blog-windows-c-lUYtNjqxw-unsplash-M-cropped-1024x760.jpg" srcset="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/ALTC-blog-windows-c-lUYtNjqxw-unsplash-M-cropped-1024x760.jpg 1024w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/ALTC-blog-windows-c-lUYtNjqxw-unsplash-M-cropped-300x223.jpg 300w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/ALTC-blog-windows-c-lUYtNjqxw-unsplash-M-cropped-768x570.jpg 768w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/ALTC-blog-windows-c-lUYtNjqxw-unsplash-M-cropped.jpg 1150w" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="354" /></a><figcaption style="caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-size: 0.9rem; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding: 4px 8px;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@windows?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;">Windows</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">The enforced ‘pivot’ to emergency remote teaching and the subsequent transitions to online teaching in the academic year 20-21 have ranged from significant to total. The efforts and outcomes have been varied with high-profile complaints centering on a narrative of financial value of online teaching that often mask the quietly successful or, in some cases, transformed approaches. The false equivalence often invoked between fees for ‘just <em>Zoom</em> lectures’ and a <em>Netflix</em> subscription is particularly unhelpful. If one thing is clear to me, it is that the vast majority of academic colleagues have gone way above and beyond, and have adapted with students’ best interests at heart. Much of this has been built on the often understated work of learning technology, instructional design and academic development teams. Even so, one of the most persistent disputes centres around the issue of video duration.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Those of us in support roles have built productive relationships; we are widely trusted; we are persuasive; our credibility is rarely challenged. While debate continues around such things as what constitutes effective and sufficient asynchronous content or the cameras off/ cameras on debate for live sessions, it is the issue of video length for recorded content that most lacks level-headedness. I think it is fair to argue that the research evidence is compelling in terms of the relationship between engagement, viewing time and video length. Guo <em>et al.</em>’s (2014) data from nearly 7 million MOOC videos and Brame’s (2016) connection between video length and cognitive load theory indicate that optimal viewing time is somewhere between 6 and 9 minutes. Institutional data from the lecture capture tool strongly buttresses the research evidence. Additionally, there is the experience of colleagues who have taught online for several years (including me) who can offer compelling experiential cases. Further layered might be evidence from educational videos on YouTube such as the study by Tackett <em>et al.</em> (2018) which found the medical education videos on one successful channel averaged just under 7 minutes and focussed on one core concept. Yet, that optimal time of 6-9 minutes is often received by academics with horror. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">The first and most common counter argument centres on what I would consider to be a false time equivalence between the conventional expectation of lecture length (and content) and the length of videos that might replace them. When I say chunk content I am NOT arguing for 6 x10 minute videos to replace a 1 hour lecture. If a lecture is scheduled for 1 hour on campus then around 50 minutes of that might be usable for logistical and practical reasons. Of those 50 minutes it is unlikely for those 50 minutes to be crammed with content. There are likely to be cognitive breaks and opportunities for reinforcement in the form of discussions or questions. There is likely to be time for questions from students, time for connections to prior learning, opportunities to elicit latent knowledge and experience, chances to connect the subject to the assessments. None of this need happen in the videos. In discussions with colleagues, we typically conclude that a 50-minute lecture might contain 2 or perhaps 3 key or <em>threshold</em> concepts. These are the essential or ‘portal’ ideas that open doors to broader understanding and that lectures are an excellent medium for. The essential content can thus be presented in much shorter chunks. Say, for the sake of the argument, this is 2 x 10 minutes. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">‘Ah!’ some then say, ‘This is all very well but students will feel short changed!’ There is a huge underlying tension and much of it feeds the ‘refund the fees’ arguments and is actually not assisted by clunky contact time equations. We must not ignore these issues but neither should we pander to them. If we accept the logic of the paragraph above, then we should challenge this conceptualisation. If the alternative is a rambling 60 minute video that the statistics show few will reach the end of only because that’s what students think they have paid for, then we are not working in a research-informed way. To challenge it, we need to share the rationale for our learning designs and tool choices with students; be open with them about our pedagogies; rationalise our approaches. I would argue that we should pre-empt the ‘value for money’ arguments by talking students through the logic expressed above. Then, for added oomph, layer on the additional benefits:</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;">Videos can be paused, rewound and rewatched which also means the pace can be faster and there’s no need for repetition.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;">Videos can increase access and accessibility.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;">The live contact time can be dedicated to i) deeper level, higher order discussion ii) application or analysis of the concepts that are defined in the videos or iii) opportunities for students to test their understanding or to give or receive feedback. </li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;">Upload (for lecturers) and download (for students) time is limited and reduces the potential for errors on weak connections or where VLE or video-hosting systems have been struggling.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;">It pushes lecturers to revisit content and to reconsider threshold concepts and vital content.</li></ul><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Finally, it is not uncommon to hear colleagues argue that, despite the evidence from ‘other’ disciplines, students in their discipline like videos that are 1 or 2 hours long. Perhaps because they are perceived to be wired differently, perhaps because it seems intuitive to have fewer videos that they can dip in and out of or perhaps because the students insist that this is their preference. </p><div class="wp-block-image" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin-bottom: 1em;"><figure class="alignleft size-large is-resized" style="display: table; float: left; margin: 0.5em 1em 0.5em 0px;"><a href="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/markus-spiske-Huyq5rbM_Po-unsplash-cropped-M.jpg" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;"><img alt="A timer indicating 09:59:59, suggesting that the video has slightly overrun the optimal viewing time." class="wp-image-9058" height="388" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 303px) 100vw, 303px" src="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/markus-spiske-Huyq5rbM_Po-unsplash-cropped-M-799x1024.jpg" srcset="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/markus-spiske-Huyq5rbM_Po-unsplash-cropped-M-799x1024.jpg 799w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/markus-spiske-Huyq5rbM_Po-unsplash-cropped-M-234x300.jpg 234w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/markus-spiske-Huyq5rbM_Po-unsplash-cropped-M-768x984.jpg 768w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/markus-spiske-Huyq5rbM_Po-unsplash-cropped-M-1199x1536.jpg 1199w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/markus-spiske-Huyq5rbM_Po-unsplash-cropped-M.jpg 1249w" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="303" /></a><figcaption style="caption-side: bottom; display: table-caption; font-size: 0.9rem; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding: 4px 8px;">Photo by <a href="https://unsplash.com/@markusspiske?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;">Markus Spiske</a> on <a href="https://unsplash.com/?utm_source=unsplash&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=creditCopyText" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;">Unsplash</a></figcaption></figure></div><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Every time I have a variant of this conversation I am left pondering how it is, in a centre of discovery, in a culture of research, that <em>actual </em>experience, research and learning can be so easily dismissed. And this even before we get into discussions about whether students are adequately predisposed to distinguish what works from what they prefer. I suspect that these sorts of conversations will be familiar to anyone working in an academic development or learning technology support capacity. </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">These sorts of conversations have happened with surprising regularity this year, and so receiving positive responses from colleagues who are prepared to consider the evidence, is incredibly rewarding. A senior academic colleague in our Computing department attended one of my online CPD workshops on curating and creating video where this discussion took place. Persuaded by the arguments presented here, he took the short video plunge and was sufficiently impressed with the student feedback that he sent me a summary (unsolicited) of it, where students said:</p><ul style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;">I found the videos really engaging. Having the videos split into sections made it a lot easier to learn.</li><li style="margin: 0px 0px 0.45em;">I liked the way the lecture was spilt into different videos because it never felt like it was too long or boring.</li></ul><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">I continue to struggle to fully understand what makes video length such a common sticking point. Perhaps the evidence challenges intuition? Perhaps it relates to how committed we are to the lecture/ seminar structures in HE? Whatever it is, it does make the epiphanies and successes like the one described above all the more special. </p><h3 style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: Roboto, "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 18px; font-weight: normal; line-height: 1.3; margin: 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word;">References</h3><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Anon (2020) Pedagogy has nothing to teach us. Times Educational Supplement. Available: <a href="https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/pedagogy-has-nothing-teach-us" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;">https://www.timeshighereducation.com/opinion/pedagogy-has-nothing-teach-us</a> [accessed 22 January 2021]</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Brame, C. J. (2016). Effective educational videos: Principles and guidelines for maximizing student learning from video content. <em>CBE—Life Sciences Education</em>, <em>15</em>(4), es6.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Guo, P. J., Kim, J., & Rubin, R. (2014, March). How video production affects student engagement: An empirical study of MOOC videos. In <em>Proceedings of the first ACM conference on Learning@ scale conference</em> (pp. 41-50).</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;">Tackett, S., Slinn, K., Marshall, T., Gaglani, S., Waldman, V., & Desai, R. (2018). Medical education videos for the world: an analysis of viewing patterns for a YouTube channel. <em>Academic medicine</em>, <em>93</em>(8), 1150-1156.</p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><img alt="photo of Martin Compton" class="wp-image-9067" height="200" loading="lazy" src="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/02/Martin-web-1.jpg" style="border: 0px; font-size: 14.4px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; text-align: center; vertical-align: middle;" width="185" /> </p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><em style="background-color: transparent; font-size: 14.4px; text-align: center;">Martin Compton is an Associate Professor working in the Arena Centre for research-based education at UCL. email: <a href="mailto:martin.compton@ucl.ac.uk" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #079948; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank">martin.compton@ucl.ac.uk</a> Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/mart_compton" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial; color: #079948; text-decoration-line: none;">@mart_compton</a> </em></p><p class="info" style="background-color: white; border-left: 5px solid rgb(7, 153, 72); color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em; padding-left: 10px;"></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large" style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-family: "Open Sans", sans-serif; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"></figure><p></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-24477196021400078372021-03-31T12:37:00.001+01:002021-03-31T12:53:30.040+01:00Google Jamboard - an invaluable ally<p><b>Lucy Trewinnard</b>, Digital Education Associate at Birkbeck, University of London writes exclusively for the BLE blog about Google Jamboard </p><div><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">A nationwide move to online teaching saw lecturers
put away their dry wipe markers and erasers and start testing out the array of
digital whiteboards available to them. </span></div>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Digital Whiteboards are not just a replacement for
where an educator highlights notes during a class, but they also
give the student the pen - inviting collaboration and idea sharing.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">What is Google
Jamboard and how does it work? <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><u><span style="color: blue; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><a href="https://jamboard.google.com/" target="_blank">Jamboard</a></span></u><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> is Google's
answer to the digital whiteboard. Aside from being a 55-inch screen
hardware you can buy - Jamboard is also browser and app-based piece of software
residing in the Google Cloud allowing real-time annotation and
collaboration <u>(for free)</u><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A board invites its users to "Jam" by
offering the ability to: <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Write, draw and mind-map</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sketch (Google's own Image recognition technology also boasts it
can turn your sketch into a polished image) </span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Add images straight from Google's image search function</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Add Google Docs, Sheets or Slides</span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Collaborate - with up to 25 users being able to work on a
"Jam" at once. </span></li><li><span style="font-family: "Open Sans", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Backup to the Cloud - the Jamboard's save automatically, meaning
that you can re-visit them later.</span></li></ul><ul type="disc">
</ul>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"><br />
Digital Whiteboards provide spaces for students to work collaboratively with
each other, in both live sessions and out of class. <b>Dr Becky
Briant </b>(Department of Geography, Birkbeck, University of London) and<i> </i><b>Dr
Annie Ockelford </b>(School of Environment and Technology, University of
Brighton) talk here about their experience teaching with Jamboard
- as both a synchronous and asynchronous tool with, used within small
and large groups.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" class="BLOG_video_class" height="266" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8coyGVrbdjg" width="320" youtube-src-id="8coyGVrbdjg"></iframe></div><br /><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">How do
digital browser/app based whiteboards differ from integrated
whiteboards (collaborate, MS Teams, Zoom)?<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">A lot of the platforms being used across higher
education institutions already have their own answers to a digital whiteboard.
Collaborate Ultra, MS Teams and Zoom all have whiteboard features which can be
used effectively in teaching - as a method for collecting students’ thoughts
and responses in discussion. However, there are limitations to this - being
unable to share images, in most cases there is no ability to save the
whiteboards that have been created (which also means no editing later) and
not always being large enough for everyone to contribute. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">What is key to Jamboard (or other digital
whiteboards used within Digital Education) is the versatility of how these
tools can be used as tasks as a feedback, for diagram/image annotation, as
a group project area, or live question and answer responses... or just as
a space for gathering thoughts. This versatility allows students to engage in
discussion dynamically across multiple different learning styles. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Limitations <o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Of course, there are limitations. Jamboard, being a
Google product, works at is very best when its users all use Google accounts -
which is great if your institution's emails are hosted by Google - but less
friendly when hosted elsewhere; this then requires your Jamboard to sit on
the web publicly. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Anonymity: There are both pros and cons that come
along with anonymity - with anonymous posts the students have freedom to
contribute to a "Jam" without fear of judgement, of course, the
problem with this is that students may be able to get away without contributing
at all. It can be difficult to tell when a student is or isn't engaging.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">During a live class, it can be difficult for
students that might not be accessing the class on a laptop - without the
ability to open new windows to be able to contribute to the "Jam."
This poses a real challenge for synchronous use of the tool - where an
integrated whiteboard may be preferable. It is important for educators to keep
in mind what devices their students may be joining classes using.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto; mso-outline-level: 4;"><b><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Conclusion<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">Considering Googles Jamboard is free and that
it is relatively intuitive to use even for those less tech savvy it can be
a powerful ally for teaching - inviting students to contribute with words,
images and drawings, creating a place for them to meet for groupwork and
form discussion outside of the traditional forums that have long been pillars
of Virtual Learning Environments. There are several collaborative digital
whiteboards available, so it might be worth investigating if this these tools
are something that your institution could incorporate into teaching. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; mso-margin-bottom-alt: auto; mso-margin-top-alt: auto;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-language: EN-GB;">If you are interested in hearing about first-hand
experience lecturing with Jamboard, you can contact Dr Becky Briant
(Birkbeck, University of London) at <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="mailto:b.briant@bbk.ac.uk">b.briant@bbk.ac.uk</a></span> or Dr Annie
Ockelford (University of Brighton) at <span class="MsoHyperlink"><a href="mailto:a.ockelford@brighton.ac.uk">a.ockelford@brighton.ac.uk</a></span>.</span><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/09284479835420906796noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-51238918876415209292021-03-29T10:42:00.001+01:002021-03-29T10:44:29.674+01:00Will Covid-19 finally catalyse the way we exploit digital options in assessment and feedback?<p>This post by <b>Martin Compton</b> from UCL was originally posted here <a href="https://protect-eu.mimecast.com/s/12e7Coy14uD7Dryu1Fxz3?domain=blogs.gre.ac.uk" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://blogs.gre.ac.uk/glt/2020/09/29/digital-assessment-feedback/</a></p><p><br /></p><p></p><p style="margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">The typical child will learn to
listen first, then talk, then read, then write. In life, most of us tend to use
these abilities proportionately in roughly the same order: listen most, speak
next most, read next most frequently and write the least. Yet in educational
assessment and feedback, and especially in higher education (HE), we value
writing above all else. After writing comes reading, then speaking and the
least assessed is listening. In other words, we value most what we use least. I
realise this is a huge generalisation and that there are nuances and arguments
to be had around this, but it is the broad principle and tendencies here that I
am interested in. Given the ways in which technology makes such things as
recording and sharing audio and video much easier than even a few years ago
(i.e. tools that provide opportunity to favour speaking and listening), it is
perhaps surprising how conservative we are in HE when it comes to changing
assessment and feedback practices. We are, though, at the threshold of an
opportunity whereby our increased dependency on technology, the necessarily
changing relationships we are all experiencing due to the ongoing implications
of Covid-19 and the inclusive, access and pedagogic affordances of the digital
mean we may finally be at a stage where change is inevitable and inexorable.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">In 2009 while
working in Bradford, I did some research on using audio and video feedback on a
postgraduate teaching programme. I was amazed at the impact, the increased
depth of understanding of the content of the feedback and the positivity with
which it was received. I coupled it with delayed grade release too. The process
was: Listen to (or watch) the feedback, e-mail me with the grade band the
feedback suggested and then I would return the actual grade and use the
similarity or difference (usually, in fact, there was pretty close alignment)
to prompt discussion about the work and what could be fed forward. A few really
did not like the process but this was more to do with not liking the additional
process involved in finding out the grades they had been given rather than the
feedback medium itself. Only one student (out of 39) preferred written feedback
as a default and this included three deaf students (I arranged for them to
receive BSL signed feedback recorded synchronously with an interpreter while I
spoke the words). Most of the students not only favoured it, they
actively sought it. While most colleagues were happy to experiment or at least
consider the pros, cons and effort needed, at least one senior colleague was a
little frosty, hinting that I was making their life more difficult. On balance,
I found that once I had worked through the mechanics of the process and
established a pattern, I was actually saving myself perhaps 50% of marking time
per script though there certainly was some front-loading of effort necessary
for the first time. I concluded that video feedback was powerful but, at
that time, too labour- and resource-intensive and stuck with audio feedback for
most of the students unless video was requested or needed. I continued to use
it in varying ways in my teaching, supporting others in their experimentation
and, above all, persuading the ‘powers that be’ that it was not only legitimate
but that it was powerful and, for many, preferable. I also began encouraging
students to consider audio or video alternatives to reflective pieces as I
worked up a digital alternative to the scale-tipping professional portfolios
that were the usual end of year marking delight.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Two years later I
found myself in a new job back in London and confronted with a very resistant
culture. As is not uncommon, it is an embedded faith and dependency on the
written word that determines policy and practice rather than research and
pedagogy. In performative cultures, written ‘evidence’ carries so much more
weight and trust, apparently irrespective of impact. Research (much better and
more credible than my own) has continued to show similar outcomes and benefits
(see summary in Winstone and Carless, 2019) but the overwhelming majority of
feedback is still of the written/ typed variety. Given the wealth of tools
available and the voluminous advocacy generated through the scholarship of
teaching and learning and potential of technology in particular (see
Newman and Beetham, 2018, for example), it is often frustrating for me
that assessment and feedback practices that embrace the opportunities afforded
by digital media seemed few and far between. So, will there ever be
a genuine shift towards employing digital tools for assessment design and
feedback? As technology makes these approaches easier and easier, what is
preventing it? In many ways the Covid-19 crisis, the immediate ‘emergency
response’ of remote teaching and assessing and the way things are shaping up
for the future have given a real impetus to notions of innovative assessment.
We have seen how many of us were forced to confront our practice in terms of
timed examinations and, amid inevitable discussions around the proctoring
possibilities technology offered (to be clear: I am not a fan!), we saw
discussions about effective assessment and feedback processes occurring and a
re-invigorated interest in how we might do things differently. I am
hoping we might continue those discussions to include all aspects of assessment
from the informal, in-session formative activities we do through to the ’big’,
high-stakes summatives.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Change will not
happen easily or rapidly, however. Hargreaves (2010) argues that a
principal enemy of education change is social and political conservatism
and I would add to that a form of departmental, faculty or institutional
conservatism that errs on the side of caution lest evaluation
outcomes are negatively impacted. Covid-19 has disrupted everything and
whilst tensions remain between the conservative (very much of the small ‘c’
variety in this context) and change-oriented voices, it is clear that
recognition is growing of a need to modify (rather than transpose) pedagogic
practices in new environments and this applies equally to assessment and
feedback. In the minds of many lecturers, the technology that is focal to
approaches to technology enhanced learning is often ill-defined or uninspiring
(Bayne, 2015) and the frequent de-coupling of tech investment
from pedagogically informed continuing professional development (CPD)
opportunities (Compton and Almpanis, 2018) has often reinforced these
tendencies towards pedagogic conservatism. Pragmatism, insight, digital
preparedness, skills development, and new ways of working through necessity are
combining to reveal a need for and willingness to embrace significant change in
assessment practices.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">As former
programme leader of an online PGCertHE (a lecturer training programme) I was
always in the very fortunate position to collect and share theories,
principles and practices with colleagues, many of whom were novices
in teaching. Though of course they had experienced HE as students they
were less likely to have had a more fossilised sense of what assessments and feedback
should or could look like. I also have the professional
and experiential agency to draw on research-informed practices
not only by talking about them but through exemplification and
modelling (Compton and Almpanis, 2019). By showing that
unconventional assessment (and feedback) are allowed and can be
very rewarding we are able to sow seeds of enthusiasm that lead to a
bottom-up (if still slow!) shift away from conservative assessment
practices. Seeing some colleagues embrace these strategies is rewarding
but I would love to see more.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">References <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Bayne, S. (2015).
‘What’s the matter with ‘technology-enhanced learning?’ <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Learning, Media and Technology</span></em>, 9
(1), 251-257.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Bryan, C., & Clegg,
K. (Eds.). (2019). <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Innovative
assessment in higher education: A handbook for academic practitioners</span></em>.
Routledge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Compton, M. &
Almpanis, T. (2019) <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Transforming lecturer practice
and mindset: Re-engineered CPD and modelled use of cloud tools and social media
by academic developers. </span></em>Chapter in Rowell, C (ed.) Social
Media and Higher Education: Case studies, Reflections and Analysis. Open Book
Publishers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box; margin-bottom: 12pt;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Compton,
M., & Almpanis, T. (2018). One size doesn’t fit all: rethinking approaches
to continuing professional development in technology enhanced
learning. Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching,11(1).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Hargreaves, A.
(2010). ‘Presentism, individualism, and conservatism: The legacy of Dan
Lortie’s Schoolteacher: A sociological study’. <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Curriculum
Inquiry</span></em>, 40(1), 143-154.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Newman, T. and
Beetham, H. (2018) <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Student
Digital Experience Tracker 2018: The voices of 22,000 UK learners</span></em>.
Bristol: Jisc.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="color: #555555; font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Winstone, N., &
Carless, D. (2019). <em style="box-sizing: border-box;"><span style="font-family: "Open Sans",serif; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri;">Designing
effective feedback processes in higher education: A learning-focused approach</span></em>.
Routledge.</span></p><p></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-78170635960514030892021-03-22T09:55:00.009+00:002021-03-22T09:59:47.581+00:00Pandemic pedagogy: in praise of collaboration and compassion<p><span style="font-family: inherit;">This post, written by Samantha Ahern from UCL, was first published on the ALT blog, <a href="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2021/03/pandemic-pedagogy-in-praise-of-collaboration-and-compassion/ ">https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/2021/03/pandemic-pedagogy-in-praise-of-collaboration-and-compassion/ </a></span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.4px;">In responding to the pandemic and how it has impacted higher education, now more than ever there has been a need for and move toward collaboration and partnerships within our institutions.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The academic mission has only been made possible by these collaborations. Educational developers working with digital education and faculty teams, supported by underpinning Professional Services. Certainly, my role as a faculty learning technology lead would not be possible without it.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It has been a tough year for everyone. I am saddened by some recent articles criticising faculty for not embracing new technologies or not seeing them as creators of learning content and materials. Because in my experience this is just not true.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, there are always some colleagues who take more of a tortoise approach to developing their digital pedagogy. And there are also those that are hares, always trying something new, pushing boundaries.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But the most important thing is that is that whatever approach they take, it’s considered. It’s pedagogy rather than technology driven. It is accessible in both senses of the term for all students so that they have an equitable learning experience, and it is ethical.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Yes, there are some amazing technologies that are becoming available to us, and some have great promise. But are they the right thing, at the right time for the right reason.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">It’s too easy to see many modern learning technologies and digital platforms as mere tools, instruments for our use. But they are more than that. They are human made, constructed into them are their creators ideas of what education should be, how it should be moulded, what is important and crucially all our biases conscious and sub-conscious. I am never in a rush to adopt the latest shiny new thing.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Don’t get me wrong. There are platforms, equity considerations and approaches to designing blended and online learning that I would like faculty colleagues to engage with. But much like our students I know that they are in a different place in their learning and development. I choose what to champion and when, based on my knowledge of them and their needs. I identify what is the one thing I would like them to focus on. There are many things I could ask them to adjust, tweak, and change. But in know that it’s not always appropriate. I hope my interactions, support and interventions are compassionate and empowering.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I have been heartened by the efforts of all colleagues. Particularly by the ownership of online learning spaces and the desire to create good learning experiences for students. Those who teach and support teaching activities have always been both content creators and curators. For many this year, the types of content they have created and the considerations that requires have been completely new. Not only has a new way of thinking been required, but also a new way of doing and in very short space of time.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">I really hope that these collaborations, experimentations and pedagogic re-evaluations / considerations will continue post pandemic.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">So yes, maybe, things have not been approached in the way they would have been by a learning design expert or specialist content creator? But, so what. Instead of criticising colleagues for what they aren’t doing, why not celebrate them for what they have done and support them in continuing to do so.</span></p><p style="background-color: white; color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 0.7em;"><a href="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/03/Samantha-rotated.jpg" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-size: 14.4px; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><img alt="Samantha Ahern @2standandstare" class="wp-image-9118" height="160" loading="lazy" sizes="(max-width: 120px) 100vw, 120px" src="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/03/Samantha-rotated.jpg" srcset="https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/03/Samantha-rotated.jpg 481w, https://altc.alt.ac.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/sites/1112/2021/03/Samantha-225x300.jpg 225w" style="border: 0px; height: auto; max-width: 100%; vertical-align: middle;" width="120" /></span></a></p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><figcaption style="font-size: 0.9rem; font-style: italic; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding: 4px 8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal;">Samantha’s approach to learning design is shared </span><a href="https://t.co/DqWBC29f1k?amp=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background: transparent; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 600;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">in this blog post</span></a><a href="https://t.co/DqWBC29f1k?amp=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background: transparent; color: #079948; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 600; text-decoration-line: none;" target="_blank"> </a><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal;">and she clearly believes in the importance of putting people before processes. She also writes this about </span><a href="https://t.co/PcSarE6FHR?amp=1" rel="noreferrer noopener" style="background: transparent; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal; font-weight: 600;" target="_blank"><span style="color: black;">digital wellbeing</span></a><span style="color: #666666; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal;"> and shares practical advice about coping during Covid.</span></span></figcaption></figure><figure class="wp-block-image size-large is-resized" style="background-color: white; font-size: 14.4px; margin: 0px 0px 1em;"><figcaption style="color: #666666; font-size: 0.9rem; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-top: 0.5em; padding: 4px 8px;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal;">Samantha Ahern (FHEA, ACMALT) </span><span style="font-size: 14.4px;"><i>@2standandstare<br /></i></span></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.4px; font-style: normal;">Faculty Learning Technology Lead (Bartlett),<br /></span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: 14.4px;">Digital Education, Information Services Division, University College London</span></figcaption></figure><p></p>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-80117522343858172392021-03-08T16:02:00.005+00:002021-03-08T16:07:56.484+00:00Let’s admit that students may have learned less<p><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #0f1419; white-space: pre-wrap;">This post was first published on Wonkhe, </span></span><span style="color: #0f1419;"><span style="white-space: pre-wrap;"><a href="https://wonkhe.com/blogs/lets-admit-that-students-have-learned-less/">https://wonkhe.com/blogs/lets-admit-that-students-have-learned-less/</a></span></span></span></p><h2 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #0f1419;">CDE Fellow, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #292945;">David Baume says we should acknowledge the Covid-19-shaped asterisk beside students' qualifications this year.</span></span></h2><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #292945; font-family: inherit;">Gavin Williamson said something very helpful on February 25. Stay with me.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">He said that 2021 A level students will be assessed on what they had been taught, not on what they had missed.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Maybe he will take this to its logical conclusion. Perhaps A level results will be accompanied by a transcript showing not just marks and grades in subjects, but additionally what outcomes students had achieved. Assuming that there is a close relationship between learning outcomes and assessment tasks, this could be done largely mechanically rather than individually.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">This transcript could be accompanied by an account of what they had been taught. The users of A level results could then compare these two accounts to the syllabus, and thus be able to make better use of the results. They could calibrate their expectations of what grades mean this year. They could be clear in which subset of the syllabus each student had shown proficiency, and in which not. And be clear in which subsets it would be unreasonable to expect students to demonstrate attainment, because that subset had not been taught.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students graduating from university in 2020, 2021 and (insert your own closing date here) will, in their own minds and in the minds of employers and others, have a large Covid-19-shaped asterisk by their degree. The Minister’s plan, with my modest extension to it, will mean that we know what this asterisk means for A-levels.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The obvious question is – what will that asterisk mean for university graduates?</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A better question may be – what will graduates, employers and others take that asterisk to mean?<br />The best kind of question, a Wonkhe-type question, may be – what kind of assessment policy would help here?<br /><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Deconstructing education and assessment</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">The University contract of education with the student may be, essentially, this:</span><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 0.5rem;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Universities admit students who will have a reasonable prospect of graduating;</span></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 0.5rem;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Universities teach students what the students need to know or be able to do, and how well, to enable them to graduate, and more broadly support them to learn;</span></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 0.5rem;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Students, meanwhile, do the necessary listening and studying and learning; and</span></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 0.5rem;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most of those students get some sort of a degree.</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: inherit;">Similarly crudely, there may be two dimensions to assessment judgments:</span><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 0.5rem;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Quantity – how much have the students learned / how much can they do?</span></li></ul><ul style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 1rem; margin-top: 0px;"><li style="box-sizing: border-box; padding-bottom: 0.5rem;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">And quality – how well do they know it / how well can they do it?</span></li></ul><span style="font-family: inherit;">Talk of standards in assessment generally and unhelpfully crunches these two dimensions of assessment together.<br /><br /></span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">A giant finger of fudge</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">There are proposals to convert that Covid-shaped asterisk into a giant finger of fudge. The idea is that we adjust / inflate / normalize students’ grades. In other words, that we pretend that they have learned and achieved more / better than they have actually learned and achieved. In fact, we pretend that they have learned pretty much what they would have learned in a non-Covid year.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Of course, we fudge assessment anyway. Under the seemingly benign label of “norm-referenced” assessment, we fudge marks up or down, each year, so that, on balance, overall, more or less, the distribution of marks looks pretty much the same as it did last year.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But what happens when we fudge marks upwards in Covid times? We don’t fool anybody.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Universities, students and employers all know that graduates from the Covid years may well have learned less, and / or learned to perform less well, than graduates from previous years, because teaching and learning were disrupted.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Employers can cope – they will adjust their view of the students, to reflect what they turn out actually to have learned, what they actually know, what they can actually do, and how well. That will confirm the already widely-held (and pretty accurate) view that university grades are measured on rulers made mostly from rubber, although that’s probably not a message that universities, as among other roles guardians of standards, want to reinforce.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Universities, who in this respect are being flexible with the truth, and the students, who know that their current state of knowledge and capabilities are probably being flattered by their award, are both likely to feel a bit grubby. This finger of fudge is no treat at all.<br />Of course, some students may do better under the new regime. Even if the questions are the same, a Covid-era twenty-four-hour unseen open-world un-invigilated exam, answered via a keyboard, is a very different task from the pre-Covid two-hour unseen invigilated handwritten version.<br /><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Tell the truth</span></h3><div><span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /></span></div><span style="font-family: inherit;">Alternatively, we could mark against the same inviolable-ish standards we use every year, before we norm reference. What would happen?</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Most students would (presumably) get somewhat lower grades in the Covid years (although see the caution above about assessment methods). Because they had learned less. Because their teaching and learning had been disrupted.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Employers, and others who use degree qualifications as a basis for selection, might have to change their selection criteria – reduce their expectations of graduates; maybe also provide their new recruits with more initial training and development to fill the Covid-19-induced gaps in what their incoming graduates had learned. Some students will have managed to learn very well, despite the disruptions to their teaching.<br /><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">“But that’s not fair!”<br /><br /></span></h3><span style="font-family: inherit;">There would be concerns about fairness – but Covid isn’t fair, and the disruption to education caused by restrictions arising from it isn’t fair. The fact that some students are better than others at independent learning isn’t fair. The fact that some universities have done a better job at taking education online than others isn’t fair. The fact that different assessment methods may have been used isn’t fair. Very little here is fair.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We can’t honestly “no-detriment” for Covid. Nor can we do the opposite, no-unfair-advantage. Covid happened, is happening and will continue to happen, for a while yet. And it has detrimental effects, and maybe a few positive effects, probably different effects on different students, subjects, courses, universities.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Can we meaningfully safety-net? To some extent.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We can surely allow more preparation time for assessment, perhaps early sight of the paper – very few learning outcomes specify preparation time, although assessment regulations may. Regulations can be reviewed, and changed, as long as we acknowledge that regulations affect the assessment task.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">We can surely allow more resubmissions – very few learning outcomes say that the outcome has to be achieved at the first or second attempt, although again current regulations may.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">But I don’t think we can sensibly safety-net by, for example, adjusting everyone’s post-mid-March-2020 marks to line up with the marks they were getting before that date.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Marks mean outcomes and standards achieved, things learned, capabilities developed and demonstrated. To adjust in this way would be implicitly to pretend that students had learned things they hadn’t learned, learned to do better than they had actually done, achieved outcomes that they hadn’t achieved.<br /><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Discomfort<br /><br /></span></h3><span style="font-family: inherit;">Telling the truth here may feel uncomfortable. That may be because we confuse grades with worth, with intelligence, with academic ability, with other desirable qualities. A student is not a worse human being because they got a lower rather than an upper second. A student who might otherwise, in a non-Covid year, have got an upper second is not academically poorer or weaker just because, in a Covid year, they got a lower second.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">They may have different (less) current knowledge, different (fewer) current capabilities, different (lower) current levels of proven ability. Because their teaching and learning were disrupted. And so they have different development needs for whatever they decide to do next. They are the same person. With the same potential. They may just be a few months behind.<br /><br /></span><h3 style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Policy implications?<br /><br /></span></h3><span style="font-family: inherit;">We should be truthful. Let’s acknowledge and declare that the Covid-19-shaped asterisk beside their qualification means that, because of the pandemic, their teaching was disrupted, and so they (may have) learned less. No shame.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">If we exaggerate what has been learned; if we fudge what Covid-era qualifications actually mean – then we damage the credibility of universities. I don’t think we want to do that.</span></div><div style="background-color: white; box-sizing: border-box; color: #292945; margin-bottom: 0.5rem; margin-top: 0px; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">The 2021 A-level approach may show a way, with my modest extensions to it. A transcript, showing what students have actually learned, and what they have been taught, and under what conditions they have demonstrated what they have learned. No fudge.</span></div>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-21795559789971644392020-06-11T13:17:00.003+01:002020-06-11T18:20:11.699+01:00Hello from lockdown maternity leave...<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyB8sAKb_AomLKyP7KEJWvTMpARfIZnsKjmolWDa_6-_g7Awn1n2KebGgaDSamQeTU8BvrTfxBULanA7bPf7T-kCXgX0UFKsGFLkGSiVEcQ5z-UhxMw1qOktQXsVOQ9x6DTFgryOA00HI/s1600/mat2.JPG" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="712" data-original-width="951" height="149" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhyB8sAKb_AomLKyP7KEJWvTMpARfIZnsKjmolWDa_6-_g7Awn1n2KebGgaDSamQeTU8BvrTfxBULanA7bPf7T-kCXgX0UFKsGFLkGSiVEcQ5z-UhxMw1qOktQXsVOQ9x6DTFgryOA00HI/s200/mat2.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Online Baby Rhyme Time</td></tr>
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Hello! So, I didn't really have a firm, pre-conceived idea about what maternity leave would be like - but it certainly wasn't this... The first half or so of Matilda's first year was spent going to baby rhyme time classes and (sometimes) visiting friends but for the most part, we were both at home receiving visitors - these included some BLE dignatories including Mandy Bentham (brainchild of the BLE), Caroline Bell (now Brown; former BLE Project Officer) as well as Bloomsbury digital learning specialist, Caroline Norris, UCL, and academics, Dr Anita Skinner (LSHTM) and Prof Jill Madison (RVC). Matilda also enjoyed meeting Julie Voce and Mimi Weiss Johnson from City.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left; margin-right: 1em; text-align: left;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6m867Uxot0rP0vBAuIVbeqk5lqAhSgFpDbNkm_PD2KE8ZquJHn8LqyTgT0-Bvhxpbvd0tFwVvfT1EE6n_LQnxmKBLifLRzHKsHR9dA5lvBYeXoaoWDYMK_XkJapqFHCxmjz3ZeAySaY/s1600/mat1.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="photo of us video calling" border="0" data-original-height="761" data-original-width="571" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6m867Uxot0rP0vBAuIVbeqk5lqAhSgFpDbNkm_PD2KE8ZquJHn8LqyTgT0-Bvhxpbvd0tFwVvfT1EE6n_LQnxmKBLifLRzHKsHR9dA5lvBYeXoaoWDYMK_XkJapqFHCxmjz3ZeAySaY/s200/mat1.JPG" title="Video calling" width="150" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Video calling with her friends</td></tr>
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<div>On Monday 16th March 2020, we drove over to see my parents and then had lunch with some friends - and that was the last time we went out until last week, when we sat in my parents' garden, 2m away from them. In that time, Matilda has become very au fait with video conferencing technology. She has participated in FaceTime and WhatsApp video calls, HouseParties, Skype and Zoom conference calls. At less than 8 months old, she gets as excited as we're waiting to connect with a grandparent on FaceTime as she would have seeing them in person. Luckily, she doesn't know what 'normal' means - she is truly a digitally communicating (dare I say it) <i>native</i>. She even joined the last BLE CMALT Cohort presentation session - she is already collecting evidence for her portfolio! </div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYD2FQfv4Rqh9g04zBzlt3rFabtuuxrR9NIMIMTUIxBg4mX28Os2XouOswm0dIMKoar9ZG0r7OuMbcbRZJuPYkczIvplt4RKO4f-0Bu6RzAdxyoHr9V1sdDcYXSqMY2k9o35uJTYcJCH8/s1600/Skype-20200608-110209.jpeg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="photo of Skype call" border="0" data-original-height="630" data-original-width="840" height="150" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgYD2FQfv4Rqh9g04zBzlt3rFabtuuxrR9NIMIMTUIxBg4mX28Os2XouOswm0dIMKoar9ZG0r7OuMbcbRZJuPYkczIvplt4RKO4f-0Bu6RzAdxyoHr9V1sdDcYXSqMY2k9o35uJTYcJCH8/s200/Skype-20200608-110209.jpeg" title="BLE Brainstorm" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BLE Brainstorm call with Nick Short, <br />Julian and Nancy</td></tr>
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And as for me? Weekly life in lockdown maternity leave is pretty much Groundhog Day - nowhere to go, and no-one to see (apart from my partner who, like many, is working very long hours from home). I'm lucky that the baby (usually) has a long nap in the mornings so, amid the boundless amounts of laundry and washing up, I am keeping in regular (more-or-less daily) contact with the BLE Executive, Julian and Nancy; taking part in BLE-run online meetings and webinars; speaking to other BLE colleagues across the consortium and checking on the incredibly active Twitterfeed and discussions for the BLE's <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/getinmooc" target="_blank">Get In MOOC</a>. All this has really helped me to stay energised and enthusiastic.</div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1tuJOV9pbTL4ZYpD_HTM473DWSyePD6eF8tNpmwbGPPT10dGE25yMs2uZrfDJvP-MMuds6Tb0gLH0nXI9YbUxYfu8z_HcwvUENNm4WLvtxxFtbobh4bSvtht94ZdXCI78N2aR34HzU4/s1600/mat3.JPG" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="960" height="125" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgk1tuJOV9pbTL4ZYpD_HTM473DWSyePD6eF8tNpmwbGPPT10dGE25yMs2uZrfDJvP-MMuds6Tb0gLH0nXI9YbUxYfu8z_HcwvUENNm4WLvtxxFtbobh4bSvtht94ZdXCI78N2aR34HzU4/s200/mat3.JPG" width="200" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Family celebration via Zoom</td></tr>
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I'm still using @BLE1 on Twitter - and am still on the same mobile number - so call, text, Tweet, WhatsApp, etc if you'd like to take a break and say hello. I know it's been hard - colleagues are working crazy busy hours in isolated conditions. I hope things can safely start to improve soon. In the meantime, massive thanks to everything Julian and Nancy are doing to keep supporting BLE colleagues (the Digital Skills Awareness course for teaching staff is developing beautifully). Julian in particular is available to anyone in the BLE who needs an ear to listen to or some help with some creative thinking around digital education and planning. </div>
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Take care, be safe, be well, be kind.</div>
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Sarah x</div>
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Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com9tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-21158508825256125012020-03-18T09:47:00.000+00:002020-03-18T09:51:24.781+00:00MOOC to the Rescue<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbHljP_ZfICcrdDG0sqMpQXAHbad5zmmp-3kmTof_JfOxekYJMFbWedi29G2wX-ZtJSO-R4TdThSEvruA8R3dMfEESSjDdkf82LW8AF4_nWXTitHBziOpBjdiKxU0pTOcIy6yLcgV1ScG/s1600/MOOCbanner.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="806" data-original-width="1200" height="214" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiAbHljP_ZfICcrdDG0sqMpQXAHbad5zmmp-3kmTof_JfOxekYJMFbWedi29G2wX-ZtJSO-R4TdThSEvruA8R3dMfEESSjDdkf82LW8AF4_nWXTitHBziOpBjdiKxU0pTOcIy6yLcgV1ScG/s320/MOOCbanner.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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As Covid-19 spreads round the world, and educational institutions shut their doors, academic and teaching staff are feeling the pressure to put their courses online. We all know this is a big ask -- you can’t magic up a brilliant online course overnight. </div>
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However, you can make quick updates that add dynamism and encourage active learning. And you can set the foundation in designing engaging learning for future courses. Sad to say, the lockdown won't be lifted for a while. </div>
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<a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/getinmooc.html" target="_blank"><b>Get Interactive: Practical Teaching with Technology </b></a><br />
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3-week online course. Free, or small fee for certificate. </div>
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Each week focuses on a particular topic:<br />
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<li>Using multimedia for teaching and learning</li>
<li>Encouraging student collaboration</li>
<li>Formative assessment and feedback</li>
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Next start dates: <b>30 March, 27 April, 25 May, 22 Jun</b></div>
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<a href="https://www.coursera.org/learn/getinmooc" target="_blank"><b>Register!</b></a></div>
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Nancy Weitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16320725791542581308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-39281638177326469102019-12-12T11:46:00.000+00:002019-12-12T11:50:34.805+00:00BLE Event: BLESS Meeting<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/uploads/7/0/7/5/70758705/published/bless.jpg?1576064055" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="BLESS group" border="0" data-original-height="328" data-original-width="649" src="https://www.ble.ac.uk/uploads/7/0/7/5/70758705/published/bless.jpg?1576064055" title="BLESS group" width="550" /></a></div>
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3 December 2019<br />
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The BLESS group came together this month to look at current best practice with Xerte and H5P for content creation. Demos of the technologies were presented by Peter Leffek of Birkbeck (XERTE) and Ben Audsley of Queen Mary (HP5).<br />
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The group exists to bring about greater collaboration between the Libraries of the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE) and Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) colleagues by sharing, designing and developing future projects where technology is used to support online pedagogical offerings and associated information systems.<br />
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<span style="color: #2a2a2a; font-family: "muli";"><span style="font-size: 15px;">For more information, notes and links generated by the meeting, please visit the <a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/events.html" target="_blank">BLE website Events page</a>.</span></span></div>
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Nancy Weitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16320725791542581308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-46857190978633980172019-11-07T09:43:00.000+00:002019-11-07T09:43:17.059+00:00Digital Skills for Teaching Staff<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GlDAUIJt5fqH-EJPq604xKEwg6zWfEPrRNDczdbTa357LEilCQxsKLhHMSnukOYElt4gb_hs4qjeh0dVzZGmml-IwnQzGE5MZ-AnaFrAeyTNIS5YH620dzD2kDGXRMPnfbGHOpXsDWCD/s1600/online-3410266_640.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="426" data-original-width="640" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4GlDAUIJt5fqH-EJPq604xKEwg6zWfEPrRNDczdbTa357LEilCQxsKLhHMSnukOYElt4gb_hs4qjeh0dVzZGmml-IwnQzGE5MZ-AnaFrAeyTNIS5YH620dzD2kDGXRMPnfbGHOpXsDWCD/s320/online-3410266_640.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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The world of digital learning technologies changes so fast, it can be hard for educators to keep up. The BLE's <a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/getinmooc.html" target="_blank"><i>Get Interactive</i> MOOC</a> was one approach to helping teachers around the world use practical and popular technologies to enhance their teaching. Now, we're embarking on another approach to supporting teaching staff within their own university settings.<br />
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While we were working on our successful <a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/digitalawareness.html" target="_blank">Digital Skills Awareness course for incoming HE students</a>, which has received expressions of interest from 150 UK institutions so far, we started to hear about the need for a similar course for incoming teaching staff, who sometimes enter employment without essential digital skills. This led to a bit of market research and the confirmation that there is indeed a need gap.<br />
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This new BLE project will be along the same lines: a "template" Moodle course with basic structure and content, which institutions can adopt, adapt and install locally in order to give their new staff a heads-up about what skills they need for their work and - crucially - steer them to where they can acquire and improve these skills.<br />
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The course is being developed initially for and with the guidance of the BLE partners, but the expectation is that, upon successful piloting, it will be available more widely around the UK. Watch this space!</div>
Nancy Weitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16320725791542581308noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-84885854750856161362019-09-04T11:42:00.000+01:002019-09-04T11:56:22.867+01:00The BLE Highlight Report is now available!<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYa63bPSlbC7k5EAXZCkKt2i9bw8topaDW69EUJGHnD11mpJz04_5D3r8HT8ORKyT4YbISxbobJPNWCUPWfTiD_RGX5a9nmlv6PenB7E55Hy-dynZW3LFwHGQH-upD79vWpX1eqti0_Ybq/s1600/2019-09-04_11-36-18.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="BLE Report cover" border="1" data-original-height="405" data-original-width="725" height="222" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYa63bPSlbC7k5EAXZCkKt2i9bw8topaDW69EUJGHnD11mpJz04_5D3r8HT8ORKyT4YbISxbobJPNWCUPWfTiD_RGX5a9nmlv6PenB7E55Hy-dynZW3LFwHGQH-upD79vWpX1eqti0_Ybq/s400/2019-09-04_11-36-18.png" style="border: 1px solid grey;" title="BLE Report" width="400" /></a></div>
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One of Sarah's last big jobs before heading off for maternity leave was to work with me (Nancy) on gathering together all the projects, events, changes, news, awards and accomplishments for the period 2015-19 and present them in a form that wouldn't put the reader to sleep. I think we've managed that by creating a document that balances coverage with brevity.<br />
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If you'd like to see what the BLE has been doing for the last four years (or to remind yourself what you've done, if you've been involved in any of our projects or events) you can download a copy from the BLE website <a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/about.html" target="_blank">ble.ac.uk/about</a> (<a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/uploads/7/0/7/5/70758705/ble_highlight_report_2019_final.pdf" target="_blank">direct link to report</a>).<br />
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Nancy Weitzhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16320725791542581308noreply@blogger.com0Bloomsbury, London, UK51.5073509 -0.1277582999999822351.1912379 -0.77320529999998222 51.8234639 0.51768870000001777tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-41497956915048000622019-08-30T17:52:00.000+01:002019-08-30T17:52:34.821+01:00Au revoir!After 12 years working full-time for the fantastic Bloomsbury Learning Exchange, I will now be heading off on maternity leave for one year. I wanted to announce the arrangements for my cover during this time.<br />
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My official maternity cover is Julian Bream, who has impressive skills in facilitating meetings, coordinating TEL-related events, and engaging and driving the use of digital education to different stakeholders. Julian will work flexibly for two days per week to maintain the BLE Special Interest Groups and relationships with our providers, ensuring seamless service delivery. I have every confidence and faith in Julian and am delighted that he will be joining the BLE Executive.<br />
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Nancy Weitz, the BLE’s Digital Learning Consultant, will increase her days working for the BLE. Her key activities will be supporting the <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/digitalawareness" target="_blank">Digital Skills Awareness course (DSAC)</a> and the <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/getinmooc" target="_blank">BLE MOOC</a>; she will be driving the development of a teacher version of the DSAC and progressing the partnership between the BLE and FutureLearn.<br />
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Julian and Nancy will now be pleased to respond to your queries. In the first instance, you can contact them <a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/contact.html" target="_blank">via the BLE website</a>.<br />
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With very best wishes to all BLE supporters,<br />
SarahSarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-78680874133092937392019-07-15T14:11:00.000+01:002019-07-18T08:56:16.747+01:00The BLE is renamed!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_moMBQqqIDVsiFmFYMXr7xP1xQomCh5as69pZuE5u-vM87iYade-UAngG35n9SL7E9Tk5dm2kSopOjYk4NRNyASX9COA967Ieo3-HS9qxBToYcwWKCO_lqIpBGhkaAGqJP-bBNBROKs/s1600/Ex_LOGO_spread.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="BLE logo no.3" border="0" data-original-height="407" data-original-width="1541" height="52" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiT_moMBQqqIDVsiFmFYMXr7xP1xQomCh5as69pZuE5u-vM87iYade-UAngG35n9SL7E9Tk5dm2kSopOjYk4NRNyASX9COA967Ieo3-HS9qxBToYcwWKCO_lqIpBGhkaAGqJP-bBNBROKs/s200/Ex_LOGO_spread.png" title="" width="200" /></a>After over 15 years, as the "Bloomsbury Learning Environment", the BLE has (slightly) changed its name. Now known as the <b>Bloomsbury Learning Exchange</b>, the BLE Executive Team and Steering Group agreed that this much better reflects the nature of the collaboration.<br />
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<b>A brief history of the BLE</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisNPLm7uOUZBaQhYtIY5jJUqWK46hvrxHAs28uvH_FpTY3YKq7R6Z0EU6dQFvlr4IYEu7F8xHb-M98YLJs4KqeXnjWZTnnPzyPe6HmsaM88dbHP86S0UVUedXxxmWJulL2UNkmis8h1OI/s1600/brief_logo.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="BLE Logo no.2" border="0" data-original-height="401" data-original-width="552" height="144" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEisNPLm7uOUZBaQhYtIY5jJUqWK46hvrxHAs28uvH_FpTY3YKq7R6Z0EU6dQFvlr4IYEu7F8xHb-M98YLJs4KqeXnjWZTnnPzyPe6HmsaM88dbHP86S0UVUedXxxmWJulL2UNkmis8h1OI/s200/brief_logo.jpg" title="" width="200" /></a>Established in 2004 by LSHTM, SOAS and the Royal Veterinary College, the Bloomsbury Learning Environment service was set up to provide a joint virtual learning platform, Blackboard. The Institute of Education and Birkbeck joined the consortium soon after, and all five partners were using this shared platform. Blackboard was cleverly set up so users didn't realise they were actually using the same system. In addition to Blackboard, a number of additional shared software licences were negotiated and introduced. In 2012, we migrated away from Blackboard and each partner moved onto their own instance of Moodle.<br />
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<b>The present</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMV-N0n9WR58m7Ft1LNYWPwICqs8XL4C8T3-e-t_-iog5qOz2m_-g-K_lRKlS6cgq3gl_DALLSgjY0FdDiJ14kj2cQ0sX168-eN4S1OROScBC4FS91eChaSy_uZmSPRGJzepS1_zXgoPM/s1600/Ex_LOGO_stacked.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="BLE logo" border="0" data-original-height="666" data-original-width="1154" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjMV-N0n9WR58m7Ft1LNYWPwICqs8XL4C8T3-e-t_-iog5qOz2m_-g-K_lRKlS6cgq3gl_DALLSgjY0FdDiJ14kj2cQ0sX168-eN4S1OROScBC4FS91eChaSy_uZmSPRGJzepS1_zXgoPM/s200/Ex_LOGO_stacked.png" title="" width="200" /></a>The BLE is no longer a shared platform - although the partner institutions still benefit from preferential software licence deals, negotiated by the Service Manager. Today, it is much more about sharing, collaborating and improving the use of learning technology and the exchange of good practice in digital education to enhance learning and teaching across the partnership institutions. Therefore, 'Bloomsbury Learning Exchange' is a much better fit to represent what we do.<br />
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"<i>In my opinion, the modification of the BLE's name is a no-brainer and took the Steering Group no time at all to approve. I'm proud to support and continue to Chair this valuable and successful collaboration</i>". Jonathon Thomas, Chair of the BLE Steering Group.</blockquote>
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<blockquote class="tr_bq">
"<i>The new name offers much stronger reflection and more representative connotations for what the BLE service provides its partner institutions. I'm delighted that the Service continues to make strides in supporting and improving the application of digital learning and teaching</i>". Dr Mandy Bentham, Founder of the BLE.</blockquote>
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<b>What does this mean for the service?</b><br />
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2zTnmpmROFj5o9dmJ8aqrEYDLmRb0KoHpg4HkgyrII6VusYhc9Ecp6ZfOqNFHWIsJoTSyiQIlwYwrF5ILc5ElTAkt_Y1jBKQArlwK8fEPQki_AZqHvPaBlAvKbQigFjtpENseF4JX-w/s1600/Ex_LOGO_spread_var.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img alt="BLE logo no.4" border="0" data-original-height="372" data-original-width="723" height="102" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjh2zTnmpmROFj5o9dmJ8aqrEYDLmRb0KoHpg4HkgyrII6VusYhc9Ecp6ZfOqNFHWIsJoTSyiQIlwYwrF5ILc5ElTAkt_Y1jBKQArlwK8fEPQki_AZqHvPaBlAvKbQigFjtpENseF4JX-w/s200/Ex_LOGO_spread_var.png" title="" width="200" /></a>Other than some tweaks to our beautiful branding, designed by the BLE's Digital Education Specialist Nancy Weitz, nothing will change. The Service will continue to provide support to staff in the BLE's partner institution (including academics, academic support, learning technologists, librarians and other professional services) <i>and </i>students to explore the opportunities that digital education lends to improving practice. We do this by arranging meetings, <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/events" target="_blank">events</a>, webinars, workshops, demonstrations and developing resources (such as our <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/getinmooc" target="_blank">MOOC</a> for teaching staff and <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/digitalawareness" target="_blank">Digital Skills Awareness</a> course for students).<br />
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For more information and to get in touch, please visit our website: <a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk%20/" target="_blank">www.ble.ac.uk </a><br />
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<br />Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-80165693661838710622019-06-28T16:14:00.004+01:002019-06-28T16:14:59.028+01:00BLE runs its first webinarOn Tuesday 25th June, the BLE organised and ran its first webinar, which focused on a mentoring scheme managed at LSHTM. The purpose of the session was to share the method
used to recruit and train alumni mentors in order to enhance
students’ learning experience. This has transferability across different HE
contexts.<br />
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Dr Anna Foss, <span style="text-indent: -18pt;">Associate Professor in Public Health
Education & Mathematical Epidemiology at the School presented her work in such a way that colleagues will be able to take lessons learned and the model she used to apply to their own contexts.</span></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -18pt;">The aims of the session were therefore to</span></div>
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<li>present key findings from the group mentorship scheme in which alumni support Public Health MSc students undertaking a research project via distance learning through LSHTM</li>
<li>discuss the relevance for other contexts of the transferable lessons learnt</li>
<li>outline and share resources (e.g. mentor training slides www.bit.ly/m150319, code of conduct and template emails) that may be adaptable to other contexts</li>
<li>gain insights from participants on whether these resources are useful / adaptable to different contexts, and whether this mentorship scheme is likely to be transferred elsewhere</li>
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You can watch the recording from the session here:</div>
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<iframe width="320" height="266" class="YOUTUBE-iframe-video" data-thumbnail-src="https://i.ytimg.com/vi/aacKPqQ0tc0/0.jpg" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/aacKPqQ0tc0?feature=player_embedded" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe></div>
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and access all the resources from the session via the BLE website: <a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/events.html">www.ble.ac.uk/events.html</a></div>
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<span style="text-indent: -18pt;"></span>Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-988379377131058734.post-36170078693692965892019-06-20T08:20:00.004+01:002019-07-14T11:36:18.243+01:00BLE's Digital Skills Awareness Course is now available<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd7XflnCPpSpsQtIVx5MpnHvmAW1Mik6gMCizZYT4MXYgO_RD8AH-ZGtQ7sHiS5VFg7qM7hR377kMJTDyIuJLDHV8HLHcc0U30UyVxH5DiZVk-5IPXY36wKEsCWLdAdqtKQ1wWLbUakC_C/s1600/Ex_LOGO_stacked500.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="289" data-original-width="500" height="115" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgd7XflnCPpSpsQtIVx5MpnHvmAW1Mik6gMCizZYT4MXYgO_RD8AH-ZGtQ7sHiS5VFg7qM7hR377kMJTDyIuJLDHV8HLHcc0U30UyVxH5DiZVk-5IPXY36wKEsCWLdAdqtKQ1wWLbUakC_C/s200/Ex_LOGO_stacked500.png" width="200" /></a></div>
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0O4x5vQk4R9aD7uaL-lzi4fBEjhrbgeEspToB4QOrwqcRQrI5WHvKlN7BTpKVbXlJImg_1w0eNV22-Hw6erbixeTv9EPjFb8PVC7UOKLw35zplRyMC-KcibsIfSTr0_NLi3s9IOG4Ts/s1600/video_thumbnail.png" imageanchor="1" style="font-family: Calibri, sans-serif; font-size: 11pt; margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img alt="Course logo" border="0" data-original-height="392" data-original-width="632" height="123" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhD0O4x5vQk4R9aD7uaL-lzi4fBEjhrbgeEspToB4QOrwqcRQrI5WHvKlN7BTpKVbXlJImg_1w0eNV22-Hw6erbixeTv9EPjFb8PVC7UOKLw35zplRyMC-KcibsIfSTr0_NLi3s9IOG4Ts/s200/video_thumbnail.png" title="" width="200" /></a></div>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/">Bloomsbury Learning Environment (BLE)</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">, a digital education partnership of the
Bloomsbury institutions and the University of London, has created a free </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="https://www.ble.ac.uk/digitalawareness">Digital Skills
Awareness course</a></span></span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;"> <span style="background: white;">for higher education (HE) institutions to roll out to
students before they start university</span>. This resource will provide new
students with advice and guidance to help them have a successful learning
experience at university. <span style="background: white;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The course, available
for Summer/Autumn 2019, outlines the key digital skills students need for their
studies and helps them identify the skills they have and the ones they need to
acquire or improve. While the course doesn’t focus on teaching practical
digital skills, it provides valuable tips from a variety of sources, including
university support staff and students, as well as helpful resources and videos.
<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Each unit focuses on a
particular topic:</span><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div>
<ol start="1" style="margin-top: 0cm;" type="1">
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; margin-top: 10pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>General Technologies</b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> <br />
Working with files, Microsoft Office applications, browsers and search
engines</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Learning Technologies </b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"><br />
Online learning environments, forums, assignments/assessments and video</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Access, Sharing and Safety</b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;"> <br />
Accounts/access, safety, social media and sharing</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></li>
<li class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: 12pt; vertical-align: baseline;"><b>Getting Organised <br />
</b><span style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial; background-repeat: initial; background-size: initial;">Notetaking,
referencing and digital wellbeing</span><b><o:p></o:p></b></li>
</ol>
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<span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Licensed under Creative Commons, this
generic Moodle course can be tailored and personalised to fit the local needs
of your university once installed on your own Virtual Learning Environment. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<b><span style="background: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">Sarah Sherman, BLE
Service Manager, said:</span></b><b><span style="font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></b></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">“Our pilot went really
well, and students provided us with excellent feedback. We have had so much
interest in our course already from across the UK. We are now really excited to
be able to share our work with the wider HE sector and look forward to
fostering a course community.”<o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">The BLE collaboration
comprises Birkbeck, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), the
Royal Veterinary College (RVC), SOAS, UCL and the University of London. <o:p></o:p></span></div>
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<span style="background: white; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11pt;">To access the demonstration
version of the course and find out how to request a copy, please contact the
BLE at </span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span style="background: white; color: #1155cc; font-family: "calibri" , sans-serif; font-size: 11.0pt;"><a href="http://www.ble.ac.uk/contact.html"><span style="color: #1155cc;">www.ble.ac.uk/contact</span></a></span></span><o:p></o:p></div>
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Sarah Shermanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04269770726481408051noreply@blogger.com0