Tel Tales

Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

Author: Alana Aldred

Icons around a speech bubble. The speech bubble says 'Let's Recap'

Recap of available support for teaching in a blended learning context

September 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Over the past few weeks TEL and the Academic Development Team have been super busy developing and collating lots of resources to support our colleagues across the University in preparation to teach in a blended learning context.

It is crazy to reflect on the amount of work that has gone on in the last few months – so I just wanted to highlight some key resources and communication channels that we have developed – new and old –  that can support and inform you in the coming weeks ahead as we plan for TB1.

Preparing for teaching in a blended learning context website

Banner for the homepage a lady at a desk looking at her laptop

Information on this site includes:

Learning Well resources to support student wellbeing and inclusion.

elearning tools website

The elearning tool banner which is a photo of part of a laptop, part of a pen and notebook and part of a cup and saucer

This website was set up in the immediate week after Covid-19 lockdown began but is pretty much updated daily with new resources. 

The site covers:

  • teaching remotely guidance on lectures, seminars, assessments etc.
  • elearning tools and how to use them in the correct context.
  • a huge resource bank of relevant articles and other media. 
  • links to upcoming internal and external events to support you in teaching in a blended learning context.

TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival

The TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival banner, which is a big wheel, some festival tents and shapes of people along the bottom

The TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival may well have finished but you can still visit this website and engage with the recorded sessions from this super successful week-long event. 

Training events calendar

We have a wide-range of virtual training sessions covering teaching in a blending learning context and the functionality of tools within Moodle and beyond.

A screen shot of the TEL Training programme with training information, dates, times etc.

Digital Learning Portsmouth

Visit our YouTube channel – dedicated to providing support for Moodle, Turnitin and other interesting technologies that can be used in teaching.

Screen Shot of the banner which is different coloured icons

The TEL Team

Of course, if any of the above doesn’t have the support that you require – please do not hesitate to contact us (elearn@port.ac.uk). We are a lovely bunch who will do our best to help at all times!

Cartoon images of the TEL Team standing in a row

Our Social Media

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter to keep up-to-date with our posts, sharing information about upcoming events and resources.

TEL's Instagram header including numbers of followers and us following

 

TEL's Twitter Image including number details of Followers and Following

Credit: https://fontawesome.com/icons

Three different coloured text boxes with the titles of each step

Situational judgement assessment

August 17, 2020 / / 1 Comment

So I think it is fair to say, Covid-19 has thrown us all into having to think outside of the box when it comes to developing the usual, more ‘normal’, course assessment delivery types. This couldn’t be more true for our academics within the Paramedic Cert HE course. 

A few weeks ago, I was asked to support a colleague within this team to help deliver an online assessment that would replicate what would have been a practical examination on adult and paediatric resuscitation. 

With COVID not going away anytime soon, and practical assessment dates looming, we had a very short space of time to develop an online assessment that would best simulate ‘hands-on’ resuscitation scenarios.

As a response to the need to deliver an alternative assessment, Jane Reid – the Course Leader for the Paramedic Cert HE course – wrote four situational judgement assessments; each scenario had sequential situations and each situation had a series of serious judgement questions to test a student’s knowledge of actions to take within the ever-changing scenario.

Situational judgement assessment has been used in healthcare for years. It allows participants to experience as close to real-life scenarios as possible, without risk (in our case COVID), enabling them to identify, in order, their responses to given situations.

Three different coloured text boxes displaying the steps

Storyboarding a situational judgement test:

  1. Scenario – Includes detailed descriptive text, containing key information that sets the scene. This can also include images, audio or video to further illustrate the scenario.
  2. Situation 1 – Content that builds on the initial scenario, it contains the next layer of information relating to the scenario at hand and includes the first set of serious judgement questions.
  3. Situation 2 – Content builds on the previous situation and includes the next set of serious judgement questions… and so on until the end of the scenario.

There were many considerations that had to be made whilst developing this assessment type – mainly to keep the assessment as authentic as possible. For example:

  • providing media to set the scene; 
  • keeping the narrative on track – ‘time’ is of the essence in any resuscitation scenario, so it was important to include timely details within the situations; and 
  • replicating the quick thinking process that would be required in a real-life situation by using the sequential format in the quiz, so that students had to take notes or work from memory as they couldn’t return to previous situations to guide them.

The student experience was another really important factor in delivering this assessment – most of whom may never have experienced this type of examination. It was essential to provide clear and consistent instructions to guide them through this process. Before the main assessment, we also created a formative version of the quiz so that students could familiarise themselves with what was expected from the assessment.

We used a Google Document, with tables, to structure the content in the development stage and a Moodle Quiz Activity (Multiple Choice) to build and deliver the assessment which worked very well. The feedback from both students and examiners has been really positive, with more scope for using this assessment as a CPD exercise for practitioners. 

Interest has also been shown by academics at other universities who wish to explore this particular method of assessment along with Ambulance Trust managers. The methods for assessing the learning of resuscitation has seen little evolution from the traditional OSCE format therefore, this format that was created for a small group of students may well develop over time.

Developing this was by no means easy given the time constraints. However, it is a great example of an alternative assessment that has been developed from creative thinking during the lockdown.  

Persona Tutoring Project

Personal Tutoring Project

January 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

As part of the OfS-funded project Raising Awareness, Raising Aspirations (RARA) staff from a number of teams – Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), Information Systems, Academic Development, and the Academic Skills Unit – joined forces to develop a platform, website and learning resources to support tutors and tutees in the personal tutoring process.

RARA, a collaborative project between the University of Sheffield, King’s College London and the University of Portsmouth, investigated the extent to which an enhanced personal tutoring system might help reduce the attainment gap for Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) students and those from lower socioeconomic groups. The project had its roots in research (Cousin and Cuerton, 2012; Thomas, 2012; Mountford-Zimdars, 2015) which suggested that such a system could reduce the attainment gap, ‘based on evidence that the personal tutor can play a particularly important role in the academic integration of BME students and students from lower economic groups.’

We used an agile project methodology, drawing on the skills, experience and knowledge across the University. From the start we wanted to create a space for tutors, in consultation with tutors. From these consultations, it was clear that there was a varying understanding of the personal tutoring role across the university. Many personal tutors felt they were not equipped with the knowledge they needed to fulfill their role to the best of their ability, and this was especially true of those new to teaching.

TEL’s main project deliverable was to lead on creating staff- and student-based personal tutoring resources. In August 2018 we launched the website Personal Tutoring @ UoP for tutors and those that support this process. Since this initial launch TEL have been working to develop the site further – a new, more extensive version of the site will launch in February. The site provides information about the personal tutoring role, developing tutees, supporting and signposting tutees, and training resources.

Personal tutoring @ UoP Website

 

TEL have also developed student-facing resources within Learning at Portsmouth – a student website to support transition into higher education. As well as online provision, we also developed a paper-based guide for all first-year, campus-based students to be given at their first tutorial session.

Burke et al. (2016) found that academic staff play a key role in how students construct their feelings about capability, which ultimately lead to success or failure in higher education.

The guides include information for students on how to develop themselves whilst at Portsmouth and also provided contact details of services across the University and their faculty to support them in their studies and in times of personal difficulties.

The end of the two-year RARA project was marked by our University’s first personal tutoring conference for academic staff, and the launch of a RARA personal tutoring toolkit. As an institution we are now well on our way to implementing the recommendations made in the 2019 RARA Report. Student and staff feedback has been positive – the website has not only had an impact at Portsmouth but has formed part of a national toolkit for personal tutors. These have been presented at conferences and have received positive feedback on the clarity of their design. Looking to the future, TEL will continue to work with colleagues across the institution in the development of work in this area so that as an institution we can help tackle the attainment gaps that are prevalent nationally in higher education.

References

Cousin, G., and D. Cureton. 2012. Disparities in Student Attainment (DISA). York: HEA.

Mountford-Zimdars, A., Sabri, D., Moore, J., Sanders, S., Jones, S., & Higham, L. (2015). Causes of Differences in Student Outcomes. Higher Education Funding Council for England, HEFCE. Accessed July 23, www.hefce.ac.uk/pubs/rereports/Year/2015/diffout/Title,104725,en.html

Thomas, L. (2012). Building student engagement and belonging in Higher Education at a time of change: final report from the What Works? Student Retention & Success programme. London: Paul Hamlyn Foundation.

 

Graphic to illustrate blog post

NEW Add-on for Grackle – Now Available for all UoP Students and Staff

November 28, 2019 / / 0 Comments

You’ll be pleased to hear that Grackle – an accessibility checker for Google Docs, Slides and Sheets – is now easily available for you to use when creating documents so that everyone can enjoy your content.

Grackle is simple to use – login to your UoP Google account, select the Google document that you want to check for accessibility issues. Once you have your document open, select Add-ons from the toolbar and then Grackle > Launch from the drop-down menu.

Screenshot displaying 'Add-on' location

Grackle’s accessibility checker panel will then appear on the right-hand side of your screen and  produces a checklist of common accessibility problems and highlights any of these issues in your documents. 

The example below illustrates where Grackle has identified missing Alt text. However, the add-on offers so many more useful tips to improve the accessibility of your documents.

Grackle checklist screenshot

Take a look at this website to find out more about the handy features of Grackle.

Looking at the back of a person who is looking out to sea as the sun goes down

Technology and our mental health and wellbeing

May 7, 2019 / / 0 Comments

I am very fortunate that I get to walk to work daily (okay, except on really rainy days, then maybe I’m not so fortunate!) and I am obsessed with listening to podcasts on my journey. On my walk in this morning I stumbled across a podcast episode from Ctrl Alt Delete with Emma Gannon who was talking with Dr Megan Jones Bell, the Chief Science Officer at Headspace.

Headspace, in case you haven’t heard of it, is an app that promotes positive mental health and wellbeing through the practice of mindfulness. The app takes users through guided meditations and shares techniques in dealing with, for example, a busy, overthinking/negative-thinking, mind – a state that can impact on sleep, performance and relationships, which of course can in turn lead to feelings of stress, anxiety and depression… basically all of the things preventing you from being your best self!

Dr Megan Jones Bell was, interestingly, talking about how businesses are buying into meditation apps such as Headspace for their employees, because employers are starting to recognise the value of nurturing a sense of positive mental health and wellbeing in the workplace.

Listening to this got me to thinking about our students and colleagues University-wide, as I have recently been working closely with personal tutors and support services at the University. Through these encounters I have heard first hand how mental health issues are a real concern, and they appear to be on the rise. I’m sure this is not just an issue within our institution.

Our University freely provides staff and students with software licenses and accounts, such as Lynda.com, for free online training to develop our academic and professional skills. However, knowing what we know about the current situation regarding mental health and wellbeing, I wonder whether we are doing enough in this area? Is it time for Portsmouth and other institutions to invest more in access to products such as Headspace (and other apps are available – I’m using this just as an example), which encourage self-care and have a more preventative approach to mental health and wellbeing? In other words, should employers be helping to embed practices such as mindfulness and meditation, potentially via apps, into people’s daily lives so that we are all armed with tools to deal with difficult and challenging experiences when they arise? Surely this can only be a good thing for staff and students? What are your thoughts?

Note: I am by no means forgetting that mental health and wellbeing is a very complex subject and that apps alone cannot ‘fix’ things in times of crisis! If you or a student are experiencing any mental health issues please seek support from either Occupational Health or refer students to the Student Wellbeing Service.

Resources

Brown, D. & Triggle, N. (4 December, 2018). BBC News. Mental health: 10 charts on the scale of the problem. Available at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-41125009

Economides, M., Martman, J., Bell, M.J.  & Sanderson, B. (2008). Improvements in Stress, Affect, and Irritability Following Brief Use of a Mindfulness-based Smartphone App: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12671-018-0905-4

Mental health and wellbeing apps:

https://www.mindcharity.co.uk/advice-information/how-to-look-after-your-mental-health/apps-for-wellbeing-and-mental-health/

Emma Gannon (2019). Ctrl Alt Delete. #189: Dr Megan Jones-Bell: How To Invest In Yourself (California Innovation Tour #2). 3, April. Available at: https://play.acast.com/s/ctrlaltdelete/-189-drmeganjones-bell-howtoinvestinyourself-californiainnovationtour-2-

 

A young child with extra large glasses on, sitting opened mouthed staring at a laptop, resting his hands on the keyboard

Ten steps to creating great lecture capture!

November 13, 2017 / / 2 Comments

One – Don’t be scared, just give it a go!

Embedding video content within your own Moodle course can be a great way of engaging your students and enhancing their learning experience.

Two – Think about your audience

Think about what it is that you want your students to learn from engaging in this video – will it add value to their learning experience? Is this the most appropriate way of delivering course content? Will watching the video deepen students’ subject knowledge? How will the content delivered in the video tie in with the course learning objectives?

Three – Planning out your recording

You may have lots of ideas of what you want to talk about in your video – whether it be a new topic you are introducing or an old topic you are revisiting. However, plan exactly what it is you want to say and when, and then break this down into bite-sized chunks. You can create a storyboard to help you do this. This will help you to refine your presentation and add structure.

Once you have done this write a script; read it out aloud so that you can hear what works and what feels too forced. Having a script also means that you have a readily available transcript document, therefore providing an alternative format for those students that have accessibility issues when watching videos.

Four – Using visuals

To help make your video more interesting and engaging use images and graphics along side your presentation to illustrate key points and explain complex concepts. However, don’t go overboard and send you students into visual stimulation meltdown, as too much can also distract the audience from the point you are trying to make – keep it relevant!

Five – How to add interactivity

Following on from the video why not set up a discussion activity that allow students to apply what they have learnt from the video. You could also create some questions that test students’ understanding of the information that has been delivered.

Six – What about the length?

The length of your video is really important. When possible try to keep recordings to a maximum of 10 minutes or create pauses to give your audience a chance to digest and reflect on the topic you are presenting about. Studies have shown that students do not engage with video lectures in the same way as face-to-face lectures

Seven – Be Copyright smart!

Make sure that any material used in your videos is copyright cleared – this means using sites like Creative commons and Flickr creative commons or gaining permissions directly from the original owner of the material.

Eight – Using equipment

Tripod: If you are not using an integrated lecture capture system then you need to consider  using a tripod for your recording – wobbly footage can cause quite a nauseating effect in your audience!   

Best possible lighting: Unless you are recording in a professional studio you will need to think carefully about the quality of lighting in your chosen recording location. Good lighting will maximise the picture quality – think about whether there is enough natural light from windows or whether the room has adequate lighting.

Microphone: sound is a really important element of your recording… if the audio is bad then your audience is not going to be able to engage with it and will very quickly lose interest in what is being presented!

Nine – Location, location, location

Choose the space wisely! You’ll need a quiet location where you know you won’t be interrupted or disturbed. Locations that suit the topic you are presenting on are great. However, be wary on how practical the location is to record and be aware that you may need permission to be there!

Ten – You; The presenter!

Rehearse and practice before pressing the record button…

  • Be yourself!
  • Dress in neutral clothing
  • Avoid fast movements and fidgeting!
  • Be natural and informal in your delivery – try, when possible, to bring humor and your own experiences into your presentation
  • Speak clearly and using short sentences and don’t panic if you get your words muddled… just carry on as if you would do in a lecture theatre!
  • Make eye contact with the camera in order to connect with your audience

Skills4Study@Portsmouth web page image. Six boxes each with an image for different areas

Skills4StudyCampus – online study skills support

September 28, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Many students who arrive at the University often fall short of the necessary study skills required for them to achieve their academic goals. With the support of the Academic Skills Unit (ASK) students are able to enhance their skills by attending workshops and one-to-one sessions, as well as receive paper handouts. However, the University have also invested in a licence for the Palgrave MacMillan resource Skills4StudyCampus which is available to our students online.

Skills4StudyCampus is an interactive online tool that allows students to prepare for studying at university level and to help them develop their study skills. There are 6 modules: Getting ready for academic study; Reading and note-taking; Critical thinking skills; Writing skills; Exam skills; and Time management.

Skills4StudyCampus Moodle site ‘Skills4Study@Portsmouth’

Students can access this resource by logging into Moodle and selecting the site Skills4Study@Portsmouth from the ‘Useful Sites’ drop-down menu.

Students are then free to actively participate in activities as and when they need to. The modules include: diagnostic tests to help students recognise areas in which they need to improve their skills; self assessment tasks to help them gain a deeper understanding of their knowledge and skills; interactive activities to help reinforce the skills and knowledge they have learnt; and module assessments to test understanding of what has been learnt. Students can also use the My Journal feature which allows them to make notes and reflect on their learning.

The modules have been designed to suit different types of learners and has been created to support students with accessibility issues.

Embed Skills4StudyCampus into your Moodle course units
Skills4StudyCampus modules / sections can now be easily embedded directly into a Moodle course unit using the External tool activity.

To find out more on how to embed sections of this resource into your Moodle course unit, log into Moodle and select ‘Staff Help Site’ from the ‘Help Sites’ drop-down menu. You will then find a section that will provide you with guidance along with the generated embedding links.

Cute picture of a cat and dog two images pit next to each other

Open source repositories

August 21, 2017 / / 0 Comments

Okay, so this post isn’t really about whether cats are cuter than dogs… rather, it’s about open source repositories, and how they can help you easily access copyright free images and open source content!

We all know that using strong visuals and resources are a really important element in creating engaging paper-based and online course content to enhance the student learning experience.

And we also know that the internet is rich with photos, illustrations, graphic elements, fonts and videos… just a quick Google search and you can find thousands of hits right at your fingertips. But how do we know what is legally allowed to be used without restrictions? It’s fair to say that copyright law can be a bit of a minefield!

So to make life just a little easier, next time you are thinking about revamping old course materials, or creating some new ones, why not take a look at, for example, Wikimedia Commons. The site holds hundreds of thousands of media files, which can be freely used for educational purposes.

Another example of a lesser known repository is NYPL Digital Collections. This site holds a vast array of research collections featuring prints, photographs, maps, manuscripts, streaming video and much, much more!

The following websites have curated links to dozens of free and open source resources (and offer more than just cute pictures of cats and dogs!), which can be used with either little or no restrictions. You can also find tools that can be used to help deliver course content in a more engaging way.

A banner with the slack icon on it which is a # in different colours

Is your team ‘slack’ing when it comes to communication?

May 22, 2017 / / 1 Comment

So we all know that good communication is a pretty important element of any productive team – why, then, is it so hard to get it right?

One of the most frustrating points about communication at work can either be the lack of it … or, possibly, too much of it in the form of hundreds of back-and-forth emails with threads as long as your arm, all talking about the same topic!

Well, the TEL team were definitely feeling this pain! So we came up with a plan to investigate a new method of communication. As a team it was very important that whatever form this took it wouldn’t be invasive to our workflow – it had to fit in with us as a team and as an individual.

So, after a little window shopping we found the Slack app!

So what is it? In very simple terms Slack is a messaging app for teams. It is available to view on iOS and Android mobile devices, and from your Mac & Windows Desktop. The platform allows you to create Channels (groups) which you and other team members can join and contribute to.

Slack interface

Slack, as with most packages, offers a free service. However, it is limited compared to the paid fee package. The TEL team is a fairly small team and we find that the free service is enough for us. The free package is also unlimited unlike so many others where you only get to trial for a short period of time and then have to buy in!

So how do we use Slack? Just to give you an example, we have a news and announcement channel which is used by the whole team; it’s here that we can all view and share information that is important across the team. Then we have project channels which are used by those working on a specific projects – the really useful thing about this is that if you come in late to work on a project you can view all previous dialogue and associated documentation from when the channel was created – Instantly (pretty much) in the loop! It’s also worth mentioning that if you are working on something confidential than it is possible to set up a private channel. My advice would to avoid using private channels unless really necessary as it can create barriers to collaboration and the sharing of ideas and knowledge.

However, Slack isn’t just about messaging! You can upload and share files and it also has some fantastic integrations both practical and fun!

Add media options

Lastly, no one wants to be distracted at work. There are a couple of ways to overcome this issue. First, get your notifications set up! There are loads of options on how and when to get notified! Second, set up a social channel for general chit-chat (and the overuse of /giphy!) … this should prevent work-related channels drifting off topic!

I’m not afraid to say I’m a big fan of Slack. In fact I love it, as it’s so easy and simple to setup and use! Personally I think it’s enhanced our ability to collaborate more freely and its facilitated us in being able to support team members because we are now much more aware of what is happening within the team.

If this sounds like something your team could benefit from using then why not check it out – See https://slack.com/

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We are a talented bunch of individuals that specialise in providing support, development and design to staff around the University. We help to support staff in using technology to enhance their students' learning. Follow our blog to see what the TEL team are doing!

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