At the UCD Gathering conference last week, Laura Yarrow’s talk on rebellious creativity was a definite highlight for me. She talked about what we can learn from children’s rule-ignoring, rebellion-embracing ways to improve our ideas, creativity and ways of working. A story about her 5-year-old son summed it up well. When frantically searching for an […]

During a year where we’ve seen a switch to a new way of working, I attended the User Centred Design (UCD) online conference, covering all aspects of user-centred design and looking at research from various speakers and industries around the world. User experience and design is somewhat integrated within my role and I was looking […]

Clearing, for those who aren’t familiar with it, is for applicants who have not yet secured a place at university, or who have a place but wish to apply to another university. This year, the University anticipated that more calls would be taken than usual so put a call out to staff for frontline call […]

Happy New Year from the Educational Design and Engagement team! The New Year is traditionally a time for new starts and resolutions. This year why not make a resolution to learn more about the learning technology tools and services provided by the University. There is a variety of courses and workshops to choose from catering […]

Following on from our ALT workshop in September, the “chatbot team” was asked if we would mind running a workshop at Edinburgh Zoo for the College eActivities Group (CeAG), in collaboration with SQA and College Development Network. It was an offer we couldn’t refuse! But unlike previous outings, I would be flying this one solo […]

It’s said that you can only be the first to do something once and I can definitely say that I have been part of a team that has done just that. UoE holds the record for being the first UK institution to launch a MicroMasters on edX. Yes, a year and half after we began […]

It’s September and it’s far colder than it should be for this time of year in Scotland, but on a brighter note ALT-C arrived at the University of Edinburgh for their annual conference. Even the colder weather could not stop me from enjoying my first ALT-C conference. McEwan Hall, University of Edinburgh On the Wednesday […]

  Prepare to be intellectually challenged… Get your mind in focus as quickly as you can. This is not going to be an ordinary blog post. There won’t be a gentle introduction, followed by a few details served to you in an informal, accessible way. Out with the smooth and mellow, in with the… multifarious […]

The VLE Standards Project aims to review the current use of the University’s main virtual learning environment, Blackboard Learn and develop strategies to ensure greater consistency in the way it is used. Consultations with staff and students by the Learn Service team and the commissioned Headscape review in 2016 both indicated that inconsistencies across such systems […]