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 […]
I took a day trip to Liverpool for an event from the Media Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (MELSIG) called ‘Social Media for Learning #1: promoting participation and engagement with social and digital media in higher education’. ‘That’s a long way in a day’ my colleague said, but how could I miss the opportunity of […]
We were welcomed to the Leeds venue on a rather grey morning by a bright and cheerful Kyriaki Anagnostopoulou, our Heads of E-Learning Forum (HELF) event coordinator. The meeting got off to an engaging start by Neil Morris, Director of Digital Learning, and host from the University of Leeds. Professor Morris described their strategy and […]
OER14, the fifth annual UK OER (Open Educational Resources) conference, was held in the Centre for Life in Newcastle on 28th & 29th April. The conference themes this year focussed around OER as a catalyst for building communities of open practice which, given recent criticism of the OER movement for over-emphasis on autonomous learning and […]
I attended the second seminar in the Code Acts in Education series, entitled ‘Learning through code/learning to code’, held at the University of Edinburgh on Friday 9th May 2014.The event aimed to examine the sociotechnical interaction of software code and educational institutions. In the midst of mostly social scientists, informaticists, and educationalists, I had to […]
