May 2010
As the project is drawing to a close we are now focussing very much on dissemination and this month hosted an internal event for City Lit, Newham 6th Form College and the Study Group. These delegates had made contact at/following Moodle Moot and asked for more details about the Student Portal and the process of how we got there.
April 2010
This month has been all about dissemination. Angela and I both presented at Moodle Moot in London. I talked about the development of the Portal itself while she focussed on how students have been using Mahara.
Here are some extracts from the ULCC blog about the event:
“Most notable for me were listening to Lewisham College and their Student Portal developments”
Philip Butler, Senior e-Learning Adviser, ULCC.
http://moodlemootuk2010.org.uk/2010/04/20/moodlemootuk-2010-a-view-from-the-trenches/#more-348
“The other presentation that really caught my eye was Angela Jay from Lewisham College. Angela demonstrated a traditional CV against a CV a catering student had created in Mahara and there was no comparison between the two – Mahara won hands down. Portfolios such as this will vastly improve the chances of students gaining employment”
Martin Sepion, Senior Adviser, JISC Regional Support Centre for London
http://moodlemootuk2010.org.uk/2010/04/20/facilitating-at-moodlemoot-2010/#more-341
As a result of this we hosted several internal meetings, firstly with St Georges University to discuss our use of ePortfolios and then with City & Islington College to advise them on their Blackboard to Moodle migration and PDP and Mahara integration.
We also met with Addey & Stanhope School whose students come to College one day a week to undertake the principal learning for the Higher Diploma in Creative Media and got some very positive feedback on the concept of the ePDP. Unfortunately as the school was included in a borough pilot reviewing several new systems for progress and attendance monitoring they were not able to contribute to the ePDPs in eME but it does open up potential opportunities for the future.
Here are some extracts from the ULCC blog about the event:
“Most notable for me were listening to Lewisham College and their Student Portal developments”
Philip Butler, Senior e-Learning Adviser, ULCC.
http://moodlemootuk2010.org.uk/2010/04/20/moodlemootuk-2010-a-view-from-the-trenches/#more-348
“The other presentation that really caught my eye was Angela Jay from Lewisham College. Angela demonstrated a traditional CV against a CV a catering student had created in Mahara and there was no comparison between the two – Mahara won hands down. Portfolios such as this will vastly improve the chances of students gaining employment”
Martin Sepion, Senior Adviser, JISC Regional Support Centre for London
http://moodlemootuk2010.org.uk/2010/04/20/facilitating-at-moodlemoot-2010/#more-341
As a result of this we hosted several internal meetings, firstly with St Georges University to discuss our use of ePortfolios and then with City & Islington College to advise them on their Blackboard to Moodle migration and PDP and Mahara integration.
We also met with Addey & Stanhope School whose students come to College one day a week to undertake the principal learning for the Higher Diploma in Creative Media and got some very positive feedback on the concept of the ePDP. Unfortunately as the school was included in a borough pilot reviewing several new systems for progress and attendance monitoring they were not able to contribute to the ePDPs in eME but it does open up potential opportunities for the future.
March 10
As the controlled assessment continues we’ve been exploring more ways to incorporate the use of Mahara after Easter.
We had always intended for learners to use the CV provision in Mahara to prepare for their work placements and plans are now being put in place to facilitate this. The process for work placements is as follows: EBP/Lewisham College work with employers to find suitable places for the learners; students are allocated to these places by the College; if the company requires a cv these are then sent, but in most cases learners simply participate in a telephone interview.
This will enable learners to showcase some of their work and get feedback from their Learning Facilitator, Jobs and Careers, their eMentor and course tutor to help them prepare for the future.
We’re also looking at how we can use streamed/recorded lessons during the Summer term as this is something that the students have requested.
We had always intended for learners to use the CV provision in Mahara to prepare for their work placements and plans are now being put in place to facilitate this. The process for work placements is as follows: EBP/Lewisham College work with employers to find suitable places for the learners; students are allocated to these places by the College; if the company requires a cv these are then sent, but in most cases learners simply participate in a telephone interview.
This will enable learners to showcase some of their work and get feedback from their Learning Facilitator, Jobs and Careers, their eMentor and course tutor to help them prepare for the future.
We’re also looking at how we can use streamed/recorded lessons during the Summer term as this is something that the students have requested.
February 10
Our session with the curriculum teams finally took place on 3rd February – unfortunately I was unable to be there due to a prior commitment but from all reports it went very well.The team were able to feedback on what they had done so far and we were able to demonstrate some examples of good practice from around the College.
However it did become clear from this session that the controlled assessment phase of the course would impact on the progress of the project. Controlled Assessment is the process used to internally assess coursework on the new Diplomas under exam conditions. It means that the assessor has to supervise the production of assignments, access to resources and time controls. Controlled assessment will continue for the whole of the Spring term so we may need to review some the timing of some of the enhancements we are planning to introduce.
The biggest impact from this has been learners’ reluctance to use Mahara to showcase work as they are concerned about their work being plagiarised as they are preparing for the controlled assessment. Hopefully future opportunities will be more appropriate and effective.
January 10
Well Christmas is over and we’re all back at work, keeping an eye out for the snow. Although the college was open throughout the cold days, attendance was down and we had difficulty scheduling our follow up curriculum event - it seemed Wednesday mornings were the best time for the curriculum team but also the day we usually had lots of snow and staff and students arriving late. Finally we decided to delay until February and the date has been agreed for the 3rd.
December 09
There has been a lot of discussion around how the ES Team can contribute to the project and we finally agreed that the best way forward would be to ask the students. The general feeling from the students was that it was important to them to maintain the face the face contact as they generally were discussing personal issues. They did however like the idea of being able to book an appointment online and we hope to investigate further ways in which this could be done. We had also hoped that they would be able to contribute to the student PDPs but this looks unlikely as the information is confidential and therefore it not be appropriate to record it in the PDP.
As Christmas approaches we got to host a cluster event with Kingston College, College of West Anglia, Kingston University and de Montfort University on 16th. At this event we were able to showcase what had been done in the classroom with eME and our cluster colleagues got the opportunity to talk with the curriculum team involved. In the afternoon we all participated as a group in the Elluminate workshop 'Engaging and responding to learners'. This was quite an interesting experience which prompted lots of discussion around the table although we probably didn’t contribute too much to the overall event.
As Christmas approaches we got to host a cluster event with Kingston College, College of West Anglia, Kingston University and de Montfort University on 16th. At this event we were able to showcase what had been done in the classroom with eME and our cluster colleagues got the opportunity to talk with the curriculum team involved. In the afternoon we all participated as a group in the Elluminate workshop 'Engaging and responding to learners'. This was quite an interesting experience which prompted lots of discussion around the table although we probably didn’t contribute too much to the overall event.
November 09
Hardware requirements agreed and orders placed, evaluation plan circulated to project team, PDP amended to take into account feedback from the curriculum teams. It has been agreed that the Learning Centre will support curriculum team in the following areas: Work Readiness, CV writing, Communications (with mentor), academic writing and through the use of the diary room for PLTS (March-June).
We had a few issues with the new Flip cameras as the file format was not compatible with Windows Movie Maker meaning that students cannot directly edit any footage they record. To alleviate this it was agreed that a piece of free software (Free Studio Manager) would be deployed to the student network to facilitate file conversion.
Feedback from JISC on the interim report was fed back to the team and it was agreed that the curriculum team will post at least once a month and consider setting up a blog for students. Student blogging was also discussed and it was agreed that would be encouraged to contribute on a monthly basis during tutorials and other staff teaching on the course could also prompt students to add to the blog after any sessions that seemed appropriate.
We also participated in the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2009 conference and a copy of our simulation can be seen here.
We had a few issues with the new Flip cameras as the file format was not compatible with Windows Movie Maker meaning that students cannot directly edit any footage they record. To alleviate this it was agreed that a piece of free software (Free Studio Manager) would be deployed to the student network to facilitate file conversion.
Feedback from JISC on the interim report was fed back to the team and it was agreed that the curriculum team will post at least once a month and consider setting up a blog for students. Student blogging was also discussed and it was agreed that would be encouraged to contribute on a monthly basis during tutorials and other staff teaching on the course could also prompt students to add to the blog after any sessions that seemed appropriate.
We also participated in the JISC Innovating e-Learning 2009 conference and a copy of our simulation can be seen here.
October 09
First meeting of a restructured project team took place this month. This new team is more focussed on those involved with the day to day running of the project to ensure that everyone is aware of the priorities and objectives. At the first meeting we reminded everyone of the commitments that they undertook during the July curriculum event, confirmed any additional equipment requirements that they would need in order to carry out the enhancements that they wanted to implement. We plan to meet fortnightly from now on.
We also attended the Programme Meeting in Manchester and had the opportunity to network with other projects and discuss some of the common themes across all projects. We prepared a short video of the project for the event featuring feedback from the course tutor and a learner on the Higher Diploma course. This is available from the project website or can be accessed via this link.
We also attended the Programme Meeting in Manchester and had the opportunity to network with other projects and discuss some of the common themes across all projects. We prepared a short video of the project for the event featuring feedback from the course tutor and a learner on the Higher Diploma course. This is available from the project website or can be accessed via this link.
September 09
Well, the summer break is over, the interim report submitted and now we need to prepare for the introduction of the portal to learners. The decision was made that the implementation would be cross college so it’s been all hands on deck to ensure we are ready for when the students return. Design of the home page ran a bit late but we finally managed to go live in time for the 14th.
Courses for both the Advanced and Higher Diplomas are set up and learners have been introduced to the site during their induction.
We also took part in the Student Fair on 23rd and 24th which gave us the opportunity to demonstrate eME to learners from all areas of the College.
July 09
The end of term is rapidly approaching and we need to consolidate our plans for September before the curriculum teams all go off on leave for the summer. During our Admin and Learning days in the week of 10 July we arranged training sessions for the curriculum teams on using Mahara and the PDP and also set up an event for both curriculum and support staff involved in the project.We used this event to engage staff in the project and help them to see how the different technologies being made available to them could help them to enhance their delivery next year.
The event started with an activity where they created a poster describing the way things are at the moment based on a series of topics/questions. They were in mixed teams so that support and curriculum staff could work together. They then scored each presentation based on its accuracy and the creative flair of the creators.
Bev then provided some data from the baseline evaluation that she carried out with the diploma learners this year and those participating in this year’s mini pilots fed back on what they had been doing.
The second activity involved the same groups looking at the different types of tools, applications or devices and considering how they could be used to enhance delivery. They then added stickers to all the posters of the type of curriculum enhancement that they felt would be appropriate to each of the topics.
In the final session they divided into the two curriculum teams Higher and Advanced Diploma and discussed how they could incorporate some of the ideas into their own schemes of work. We will use the feedback from this event to help plan the implementation of the Portal from September.
Use this link to view the video of the event.
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