The BLU team can support staff in the following ways:
We can advise on how best use can be made of the University’s learning technology systems to support your students’ learning and the module learning outcomes. Of course, these best uses will vary according to their differing learning contexts. So a meeting with a member of the BLU team and talking through your modules in terms of the learning outcomes, specific tricky yet key concepts, known student sticking points, assessment issues etc is a good way to tailor uses of technology to local needs. Ultimately though, the aim is to improve retention, progression and achievement, and hopefully make academics’ lives easier. Why not for example, see if using computer-based summative assessment could save you time?
We can also look at what has been working, and also what has not been working, …… and have a look at why?
Finally, we also use such sessions to provide guidance and ideas on enriching already technology rich modules, even further.
There are a number of Blended Learning sessions now offered through the learning and teaching pages of the staff development programme.
Have a look at the staff development programme for more information on these sessions:
For further information or if you have any other specific training needs please contact Harjinder Johal on 01902 518503 or email Jin@wlv.ac.uk.
By contacting Paul Brett, or a member of the BLU team, we can arrange to support extended School or course based Blended Learning development needs. Thus we ‘camp out’ in your School and are available to run workshops, or for consultations. For example, in July 2010 the team spent 3 days in UWBS at Telford, talking through course needs with some 30 plus staff. Let us know if this would be useful for School away days, staff development days. etc.
There is a growing interest in extending the reach and constituency of our learners, through creation and provision of new, distance learning courses.
This is an exciting arena in which to teach and develop learning courses. The University provides guidelines for the creation of flexible and distance learning courses, and we support such developments at all stages, from conception, curriculum design, materials creation (we would recommend re-purposing rather than writing your own – e.g., see the OpenCourseWare Consortium), appropriate technologies to house your courses, and right through to e-tutoring skills with students.
Many Schools are already using a ‘flying faculty’ approach or an ‘in-country’ distance learning structure, and well-constructed electronic support and teaching is already key to their success. We would welcome further consultations to learn what is already successful technology-wise, and what options there may be for further enhancements.
We lead the sector in application of technology to learners in their work place. ILE has hosted the highly successful JISC funded ePPSME project and through this we have developed reusable models and resources for an e-portfolio based pedagogy for distance learners studying where they work.
This pedagogy has been thus far successfully applied to courses by SEBE, UWBS, SAS and LSSC.
For an example of what can be done have a look at the webfolio for CN1025 Enhancing Communication Skills with Clients.
We act as second-line support to the IT Service Desk, and solved some 500+ enquiries over the last academic year. This service is provided by a talented SCIT placement student.
A member of the BLU team will support all academic staff in classes where a new Blended Learning technology is being used and introduced to students. It can sometimes be worrying when using a technology, such as voting systems, or PebblePad, for the first time with your students, and / or in large classes. We supported more than 30 staff last year in such sessions. Contact us to arrange in-class support for key learning sessions.
The Blended Learning Webpages provide an up-to-date University of Wolverhampton focused self-help resource for ideas, links to research findings about the effectiveness of different uses of different technologies, how to do things, and many references for further reading.
The pages cover ideas for Module Content; using Formative Assessment effectively with e-feedback, Collaborative learning and getting students to work together, Electronic Personal Development Planning (ePDP), developing our learners’ awareness of themselves as learners using electronic tools, and how to best use the e-Submission tools.
We also support computer assisted summative assessment. This obviously saves marking time, and most students like this assessment method. It is often derided as not being suitable, but questions can be designed to test analysis, interpretation, application and other higher order skills.
The BLU have recently created support areas in both WOLF and PebblePad which hold comprehensive tip sheets and movies that will take you through all functionality available in both platforms. To find the help:
Often our students know more about new technologies than us and it can be useful if we encourage them to take a lead in supporting each other, using technologies which they use anyway. In the JISC funded report HE in a Web 2.0 World one of the ideas proposed is that ‘Students’ practical skills with ICT can be harnessed by staff to good effect in both domains – operation and effective use in delivery’. A small successful project has already been run by ILE on this – see Brett, P and Cousin, G., (2010). We can help with ideas and innovations about how IT-confident students might contribute to, and support your Blended Learning activities.
We can produce high quality video for learning and teaching uses and tailor this for use within WOLF. We are able to help with large projects from consultation stage, planning and script writing through to filming, post production and packaging. Or, if you just want a talking head to introduce yourself, or talk through some of the module’s key concepts, ideas etc – let us know! We can also provide a variety of ideas about how to transcribe the video.
