E@T Newsletter – November 2008
Refresher Training Reminder!
As you will hopefully have noticed there are some changes to this year's version of blackboard, and in light of the changes heralded by the University's E-learning Threshold Standard some of them are quite significant. Over the past couple of months, we've run a lot of training sessions in conjunction with the schools to try to reach as many people as possible, but we still have a long list of people who have not yet taken advantage of this refresher training. If you're one of them, please get in touch asap to get yourself on to a scheduled session, or, if you prefer, to arrange some one-to-one training at your desk at a time that's convenient for you. For any stragglers, rest assured if you have not yet been trained we'll be knocking on your door soon to arrange something. That's right – no-one is getting away from it!
Workshop Programme
You will find the remaining dates this term for E-learning Workshops on the last page of this newsletter, but next term's schedule is also available now. It's too long to fit in the newsletter, but you can download it in .pdf and word document form from the Home tab in blackboard. As ever if you see something which tickles your fancy, but you're not able to come along on that date, get in touch anyway and we can arrange something one-to-one for you, or do a bespoke workshop for you and your colleagues.
Summer Conference Reviews
Blackboard Europe 2008: May seems a long time ago now, but it was back then we attended the annual Blackboard Europe Conference in the not-so-glamourous-this-year city of Manchester.
As well as most of the Elearning Team a number of faculty were also in attendance including Tim James of SST who presented a session on Online Exams and Assessment with E@T’s Debra Tinney.
Tim and Debra have been working on deploying interactive quizzes with tailored feedback within a Crime Scene Science course over the last year, and they shared their experiences here.
As well as presenting E@T also submitted not one, but two posters to the poster presentation session. One looking at a graphical representation of the Staff Lounge and the other on Teesside’s implementation of the ‘My Portfolio’ staff and student Personal Development Planning (PDP) space available in blackboard.
TeesLife Opens for Business!
Last week saw a very special E@T Lunch take place, with Second Life guru Rob Wright invited to officially open the University's Second Life island TeesLife. The Teeslife space has taken many hours of painstaking development, but the first visitors seem to agree that it has all been worthwhile. The Teeslife island features a spookily accurate recreation of the Middlesbrough Tower building as well as a gallery where student artwork can be displayed, an open space with big screens for lectures, and a fantastic resource that features a digitisation of the Bayeux tapestry. With complementary information points providing study notes for those wishing to examine the tapestry in depth, this is a fantastic example of the potential for learning that Second Life provides. Depicting scenes from the Battle of Hastings in 1066, the Bayeux Tapestry is preserved and displayed in Bayeux in Normandy. But what if you want to study it, and it's not practical to make the trip to Normandy to see it in the flesh? Well why not login to Second Life, teleport yourself to the TeesLife island and take a look instead?! The tapestry is rendered in remarkable detail, allowing visitors to examine it much more thoroughly than they ever could with the real thing which is kept behind glass. There's also the added advantage of being able to login again and again to take a another look whenever you want to! TeesLife is available to try out as many ideas from as many staff members as we can manage to support. Specifically, we believe that we are in an almost unique position with our academic portfolio in that we have subjects we think can make lots of use of learning activities in the virtual world and also many subject groups whose students produce scripting, content and structures, so it should be a marriage made in heaven! Some ideas for use are being presented by Angela Addison and Liam O'Hare (SST) at the ReLIVE '08 conference shortly. There is an organisation in Blackboard for people who are interested in exploring the use of Second Life, please email E@T to join up. There is also 'physical' space available in Second Life if you want to move in, rooms in the Tower are going fast. If you would like to 'rent' an office suite, email us with your Second Life user name and we'll put you on the list and give you a key :) If you're interested in trying out some teaching in Second Life, have some ideas for resources that could be provided on the TeesLife island, or if you would just like to find out a bit more about Second Life and TeesLife please get in touch.
New Staff!
We've been busy recruiting more E-learning Support Officers over the summer as part of our efforts to deliver on the targets of the new e-learning strategy. With the prospect of each school being allocated designated time for one of us to be situated out in the school for part of each week there simply weren't enough of us to go around! Our new colleagues started work in mid-October so they're still finding their feet a little bit, but it's already been great to see their enthusiasm.
So it's a warm welcome to Jen Gutridge who joins us from Middlesbrough College, Richard Glover from Middlesbrough City Learning Centre and Russell Smeaton, who makes the short trip upstairs from SAM.
Jen
Hey. A little bit about me! I studied Visualisation, Multimedia and E-Learning at the University and after a few years as the Web Designer at an advertising company then Middlesbrough College I am back at the University. I was here when Blackboard was first introduced and I look forward to developing it further. Outside of work I regularly attend the gym, which includes two 7am sessions a week - I know, I’m loopy!
Richard
Hello! I’ve come to the University from the Middlesbrough City Learning Centre where I was Network Manager and also looked after Blackboard for a number of Secondary Schools in the area. I’ve worked in education for the last ten years with students from the age of 11 all the way to FE and hope to expand my knowledge of E-learning, sharing what I’ve picked up along the way. I’m a keen photographer and enjoy visiting different countries all around the world!
Russell
Hi there. I’ve come to CLQE after working in SAM on the Help Desk. Prior to life in the University, I worked as both an English and Computer teacher in a few other places. Many years ago I got my degree here so it feels a little bit like coming home again. I’m hoping to pull all of my experiences together to help you out as much as possible but also to learn some new things as well. I look forward to meeting you all!
Summer Conference Reviews (Continued)
Blackboard Europe 2008: Rethinking the digital divide was the theme for this year’s conference for the Association of Learning Technologists which took place this September in Leeds. The ALT-C 15th annual conference was attended by more than seven hundred delegates from around the globe including many staff from Teesside some of whom were presenting.
There was a good mix of research/short papers, symposia, workshops and posters this year. Including James Clay from Gloucestershire College, his workshop Hood 2.0 it’s a Web 2.0 world out there, looked at among other things different ways of giving feedback using technology and was a particular favourite of mine. Tim James from SST and I were fortunate to be giving our first ALT-C poster this year, based on the joint work CLQE & SST have been doing with online quizzes. The poster generated lots of interest and discussion at the conference about how we are using Blackboards online assessment tools with interactive media to support students studying crime scene science. We were also very pleased to get the opportunity to present our poster to Ian Pearson MP, the then Minister of State for Science and Innovation. Who was very interested in the work we have been doing here at Teesside.
There were many opportunities to interact with other delegates/ presenters before, during and after the conference through things like ALT-C Crowdvine, the conference’s social networking site, and a wiki set up for delegates’ views. The Increased communication options for participants were definitely a plus at this year’s conference.
Central Workshop Programme
Date/Time Workshop
Monday 24th November 14:00-16:00 Refresher Training
Thursday 27th November 13:00-16:00 ClassTop and Scholar
Friday 28th November 9:30-12:30 Surveys, Tests and Assignments
Monday 1st December 14:00-16:00 Blogs and RSS
Monday 8th December 14:00-16:00 Podcasts and RSS
Thursday 8th January 10:00-12:00 Refresher Training
Friday 9th January 9:30-12:30 Building your Module
Monday 12th January 14:00-16:00 Rebuilding your Module
Friday 16th January 9:30-12:30 Feedback
To book a place on any of the above workshops please contact You can also find details of the current training programme on the Home tab in E@T (blackboard).
Until next month - E@T Well!