E-learning Brown-bag Series Spring 2012

The E-learning Brownbag Series is a platform where academic staff can share their good practice in technology-enhanced learning with the university community, including both staff and students. All sessions meet in the Arts Centre Theatre Foyer (upstairs by the bar) from 11-12.

Please book through CDSAP https://stafftraining.bis.aber.ac.uk/sd/list_courses.php or drop in during the session. If you would like to present in this series, please contact E-learning Support at is-alto@aber.ac.uk.

14 February 2012

Using blogs to enhance reflective journal writing

Andrew Filmer, TFTS     

This presentation will discuss the use of the blogging tool within the Blackboard VLE to enhance reflective journal writing in a second year module covering the theory and practice of Improvisation in the Department of Theatre, Film and Television. Using the blogging tool has proved effective as a means of encouraging students to adopt a processual approach to the writing of a reflective journal as a major item of assessment in the module.

08 March 2012

Mixing media to build interactive learning objects

Juanita Foster-Jones, DIS            

This presentation discusses the rewriting of a Distance Learning module from a print version to using an online learning object approach. To build interaction and dialogue various media were used. This presentation will discuss some of the activities, the pedagogical rationale behind their inclusion, and demonstrate learning objects for a Postgraduate masters distance learning course.

Developing a critical pedagogy of ‘research-based’ teaching in Islamic studies

Ayla Gol, InterPol            

This presentation will share results from Ayla Gol’s recently-published article, “Developing a critical pedagogy of ‘research-based’ teaching in Islamic studies” in Critical Studies on Terrorism. She describes the methods used to make her module more student-oriented, based on developing an innovative formative assessment method using ‘electronic learning portfolios’ (e-Portfolios) on Blackboard.

Please see the article here: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17539153.2011.623421

19 April 2012

Using e-teaching to guide learning in large class sizes

Basil Wolf and Malcolm Leitch, IBERS      

It is difficult to teach statistical methods to large groups of students of mixed mathematical ability and subject interests.  So we are using e-learning and drop-in workshops to enhance one-to-one contact.  Panopto and Sympodium were used to make short video clips to explain basic concepts and demonstrate the use of statistical software.  Blackboard quizzes were written to evaluate performance and provide feedback for a series of formative and summative data analysis exercises that were tailored to the subject interests of different groups of students.  Adaptive release rules were used to ensure that students achieved a set standard of performance before progressing to the tests.  Discussion boards and workshops were used to discuss individual problems.