TEL Blog - Technology Enhanced Learning

For anyone with an interest in the practical challenges of delivering effective e-
assessment, please consider attending UCISA’s one-day event (E-Assessment:
Making IT work) at the University of Bradford on 4th November.
Keynote addresses will focus on the development of policy on e-assessment
practices, as well as the lessons learned from implementing thin-client
technology.
Discussion groups will be addressing the following topics:

•    joining up assessment practice across an institution, addressing key
relationships and processes, as well as challenges in delivering effective high
stakes summative e-assessment;
•    classroom set-ups for summative e-assessment (large scale);
•    role of support staff in supporting summative e-assessment;
•    role of the VLE and associated learning systems in supporting
summative e-assessment;
•    development of regulations to manage summative e-assessment
activities.

The programme, speakers and booking details are available at:
http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/groups/ssg/asg/Events/2009/eAssessment.aspx

via HELF list

Dear all
Many thanks to those who responded to my query regarding which e-assessment tools are used at your institutions. Below are the results. I am happy to receive more feedback to add to these if you want to send me further updates.

Of the 13 institutions who replied, 12 use QMP / QuestionMark Perception. However one is discontinuing the use of QMP this summer in favour of Bb 9.0. The other respondent uses WebCT Vista.

Interestingly there was some criticism from respondents regarding support provided by QMP, but few alternatives were offered. Some alternatives listed were:

Edumatic from Televic Education:  http://www.edumatic.be/documents/home.xml

Webassessor: http://www.kryteriononline.com

Moodle Quiz

From Andy.Beggan@NOTTINGHAM.AC.UK via HELF list

The summary of the group discussions from the recent JISC Learning and Teaching Practice Experts Group meeting is now available from http://www.jisc.ac.uk/whatwedo/programmes/elearningpedagogy/elearningexperts/jul09.aspx

The summary provides an account of the valuable discussions held around the themes of the meeting, including digital literacies, feedback and assessment, transition and peer support.

From Sarah Knight,Programme Manager: JISC e-Learning Programme

Funded by the JISC Learning and Teaching Committee through the Innovation group’s e-Learning Programme, JISC infoNet, the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) and the Higher Education Academy were presented with the challenge of trying to make some kind of sense of the diversity of current e-learning practice across the HE sector and to seek out evidence that technology-enhanced learning is delivering tangible benefits for learners, teachers and institutions.

The result is, we believe, a celebration of the diversity in the sector and shows the effectiveness of a range of approaches. Most importantly it shows that it is possible to address the thorny question of defining tangible benefits. The set of 37 detailed online case studies available here are supported by an accompanying publication and a briefing paper. We hope these will serve to inform, to inspire, to stimulate debate and to encourage others to participate in this form of knowledge exchange.

Taken from http://www.jiscinfonet.ac.uk/case-studies/tangible, see this page for more & reports

A Word in Your Ear 2009 - Audio Feedback

a one day conference about the use of audio for feeding back on students’ work in higher education
Date: Friday 18 December 2009
Venue: Sheffield Hallam University, City Campus, Howard Street, Sheffield S1 1WB
Website: http://research.shu.ac.uk/lti/awordinyourear2009/

Keynote: Bob Rotheram, National Teaching Fellow, Leeds Met (Sounds Good: Quicker, better assessment using audio feedback)

This national conference aims to bring people together from UK higher education who are interested in finding out about audio feedback or who would like to share and develop their experience and interest in using audio feedback to enhance the learner experience.

Call for Contributions
Given the conference focus, we would like to receive proposals that represent a wide range of interest, success and difficulty. The conference aims to represent the pedagogic, technical, cultural, and organisational aspects of those innovating in this area.
Contributions are therefore welcomed from individuals and collaborators including:
*       academics
*       support and development staff
*       students
*       people with responsibility for e-learning and academic strategy
*       and others
The call seeks contributions in the form of:
*       short papers
*       posters
*       workshops, and
*       case studies in audio format.

Deadline for submissions: Call for proposals closes 29th July 2009. Please submit proposals by this date even where you will be still awaiting final outcomes of the work that you anticipate reporting upon.
Further details are available on the conference website: http://research.shu.ac.uk/lti/awordinyourear2009/ or contact Andrew Middleton (a.j.middleton@shu.ac.uk<mailto:a.j.middleton@shu.ac.uk>) for more information
Please forward this to colleagues who may be interested.

Louise

Louise Thorpe
Academic Lead: the enhance project
Head of Academic Innovation
Learning and Teaching Institute
Sheffield Hallam University
e: l.p.thorpe@shu.ac.uk
t: +44 (0)114 225 2895
f: +44 (0)114 225 4755

Dear Colleagues,

You may be interested to know that Loughborough University are hosting a new
assessment event, E-Assessment Live 2009, on July 8th 2009. Proposals are invited
for both presentations and hands-on workshops.

This event takes the place of the previous International CAA Conference which ran at
Loughborough for 12 years.

Visit http://www.e-assessmentlive2009.org.uk/ for more information. This site now
includes the proceedings of most of the past CAA Conferences.

Best regards,

Charles

Charles Shields
Head of E-learning
University Library
Loughborough University
T: 01509 222405
E: c.f.g.shields@lboro.ac.uk

Posted by John Cook from HELF@JISCMAIL.AC.UK

Sheffield Hallam University is currently exploring the potential of technology-enabled feedback to improve student learning. Funded from the Higher Education Academy’s e-learning research call 2008/9, Technology, Feedback, Action! is exploring the impact of learning technology upon students’ engagement with their feedback. Building on recent innovations at Sheffield Hallam including the use of the Blackboard Grade Centre for online publication of feedback and marks, the adaptive release of marks through a bespoke Assignment Handler and electronic Feedback Wizard linking feedback to learning outcomes, the study aims to consider which elements add most value, e.g. the extent to which the timely delivery of feedback supports effective forward planning, whether withholding marks does encourage deeper reflection upon the written feedback given and the impact of electronic publishing on quantity and quality of feedback provided.

As part of this project we have recently published a review of current literature regarding the application of technology to deliver and support the use of feedback: http://evidencenet.pbwiki.com/Technology%2C-Feedback%2C-Action!-Literature-Review. We hope that you find the information in the literature review useful and invite you to contribute to and comment on the content of the literature review wiki.

More information about this project (along with the other 2008/9 e-learning research projects) can be found via the Higher Education Academy EvidenceNet at: http://evidencenet.pbwiki.com/e-Learning+Research+Projects+200809.

If you would like further information regarding the study please contact Stuart Hepplestone at Sheffield Hallam University (0114 225 4744 or S.J.Hepplestone@shu.ac.uk).

Kind Regards

Louise

Louise Thorpe
Head of Academic Innovation
Learning and Teaching Institute
Sheffield Hallam University

Posted by John Cook from Heads of E-Learning Forum

The final report on the FEASST project (June 2008 - January 2009) carried out by colleagues at the WLE Centre for Excellence and the London Knowledge Lab, is now available online together with other project deliverables. For a copy of the report and other project. Material, see the project wiki: (http://projects.lkl.ac.uk/feasst-workspace) and the project blog: (http://feasst.wordpress.com). A dissemination event will take place at the WLE Centre
(www.wlecentre.ac.uk) 28 April, 2009. The event is free, please contact Sarah Gelcich: s.gelcich@ioe.ac.uk

Posted John Cook, taken from ALT Digest

“Russell Stannard, a lecturer at the University of Westminster, has just been been given the JISC/Times Higher Outstanding ICT Initiative of the Year award for using video to provide training in multimedia and Web 2.0 applications …”.  For more see

http://blogs.cetis.ac.uk/accessibility/2008/10/24/using-video-to-provide-feedback-on-students-work/

Posted John Cook (taken from JISC CETIS Newsletter August - October 2008)

An article by Helen Ashton which explores the benefits and challenges at each stage of the e assessment life cycle from what to assess to how to measure student performance. The 9 page article is available from the JISC CETIS web site
http://www.elearning.ac.uk/features/feature.2008-10-20.0921721929

Posted John Cook (taken from ALT Fortnightly news digest 166, issued 3 November 2008)