I’m now eight months into my secondment to Information Services with the Technology Enhanced Learning (IS-TEL) team at Edinburgh University. The student learning analytics project is well underway and I thought it timely to post some impressions of my secondment so far. There are many benefits to undertaking a secondment: for the secondee; their department/institution; […]
On Friday September 19th, the Learning, Teaching and Web Division hosted their first ever Doubles Tennis Tournament! The idea was suggested by Technology Enhanced Learning Manager, Mark Wetton, as a fun way to network and meet new colleagues from across the new division which had just been formed on August 1st, 2014. It wasn’t the […]
On 29 September 2014 the ‘managing your digital footprint’ campaign launches. The campaign is for all students (UG, PGT, online) and PhD researchers. It is being led by the Institute for Academic Development in collaboration with EDINA, the Careers Service, EUSA, Student Information Points, Information Services, and other University departments. There will be various competitions […]
The eAssessment Scotland day conference has rapidly become a fixed event in the year for many practitioners from across the UK. Each year a rich mixture of stimulating keynotes and case studies, hosted by the University of Dundee, gives food for thought and ideas for approaches to the rapidly-changing world of eAssessment for Further and […]
With so many graphics software applications now available, it’s never been easier to turn complex data sets into interactive charts, maps, and infographics. However, using contemporary visuals to represent and understand big data often raises the question, “That looks nice… but, what exactly is it meant to show?”Source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Social_Network_Analysis_Visualization.png?uselang=en-gb Performing an internet search on ‘data […]
For the last year I’ve been working with my colleague, Steph Hay, on a project to deliver an interactive educational resource discovery tool, and we are really pleased that the beta version is now live: Tree (Technology Resources for Educational Enhancement). So what is TREE? The TREE tool is designed to act as a bridge […]
The Scot-Bug meeting was held at the University of Stirling on June 20th, 2014. Blackboard Roadmap Dominic Gore, the Blackboard Representative, outlined the latest upgrade to Learn 9.1. Details are available from the upgrade area at help.blackboard.com. The new student preview mode is a key feature of the latest upgrade. Dominic then outlined Blackboard’s thematic […]
In March this year, I began a secondment to Information Services (one day-a-week) in which I shall be evaluating the impact of learning analytics data on students’ academic performance. The courses I am involved with are all online, part-time Masters programmes, delivered via bespoke virtual learning environments (http://www.essqchm.rcsed.ac.uk/). We enrol around 400 students annually which allows […]
CETIS (The Centre for Educational Technology, Interoperability and Standards) gathers together learning technologists with an interest in the innovations and underpinning work (standards, metadata) needed to ensure our technology serves us, and not the other way around. Colleagues on CETIS staff have long been recognised as leading the field in this area, and providing strategic […]
Several staff from the Learning Services team were able to attend the Celebration of the Principal’s Teaching Award Scheme (PTAS) for 2014. Their individual highlights from the day are presented here. Wilma Alexander Over 100 staff from across the University gathered in late June to share experiences and ideas from their projects. The PTAS scheme […]
