Tel Tales

Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

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A view from above looking down on runners, running away from the photograph

Guest Blogger: Claire Tewkesbury – Lockdown And Life With No Students

May 28, 2020 / / 0 Comments

As someone who thrives on routine, going into lockdown and working from home on a permanent basis has been tough. I work full time for the Students’ Union and I started to work from home permanently on the 17th of March. While it was tricky at first, I have managed to develop a new kind of routine now. 

I live in a small flat so no desk space or a spare room to work from and, with a partner who is also working from home, we’ve had to be crafty with the space that we do have. I was lucky enough to have a desk topper that converts from sit to stand bought for me but, with no desk, it sits on my coffee table instead! New routines don’t come easy but I make sure to pack down the desk, my screen and my computer each night which helps me to separate my work life and my normal life. I still run outdoors so I’ve managed to keep a small part of my normal workday routine by running in the mornings before I start work for the day. Running outdoors really helps my mental health so I’m grateful that this remains a constant in my life. 

One benefit of working from home is that I’ve actually been really productive. I’m a list keeper and I usually have quite a few items on my to-do list. I work in a student facing role meaning we usually have a lot of students coming to the door every day and it turns out, without physically being able to see students, the things I need to do on this list get ticked off a lot quicker! 

I do miss this interaction with students and I’m really proud of the ones I work with closely. They’ve adapted incredibly well during tough times and, although they’ve expressed how sad it’s been to have to wrap up their Society activities early, they’ve rallied together and dealt with it in really positive ways. We ran our Student Awards event digitally so I’m delighted that we got to celebrate our students’ achievements, albeit in a very different way. 

On top of my full-time work, I’m also a part-time Masters student at the University so I understand the impact this situation has had on them. I’m studying a Research Masters in the Faculty of Creative and Cultural Industries so a lot of my research is done individually anyway but it can be hard not having your network around you in difficult times. A lot of the students I work with were due to graduate this summer so now won’t see the many friends they’ve made until they do. 

If the current situation has taught me anything it’s that I don’t really know how to slow down even when life forces it upon you. I’m constantly working towards something or engaging in a new challenge – now I’ve finished my university coursework for this year, I’m setting up a virtual event for charity and taking a nutrition course online. But I have realised now that it’s important to give yourself downtime as well. 

Some days I’m full of motivation and still find myself working away after 5 pm and other days I have no concentration at all, but I’m learning that this is OK. I’m a big planner and like things to be just so but now I’m taking it one day at a time – learning that it’s OK for my ‘normal’ to look a little different right now. 

Photo of Claire's work station with the table flat

Photo of Claire's work station with the desk topper extended

In the photo on the left the desk topper is closed for when Claire sits down to work and in the photo on the right, the desk topper is opened for when Claire wants to stand.

 

Claire is a Student Groups Coordinator at the Students’ Union and a MRes student at the University of Portsmouth.

Image Credit: Photo by Mārtiņš Zemlickis on Unsplash

A collage of images taken at Digifest 2020

Into the unknown – part 3

May 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Digifest (#Digifest20) runs across 2 days and provides a wide range of thought provoking sessions to engage and challenge the audience. 

Day 2 started with a keynote from Hayley Mulenda (@hayleymulenda on Twitter) that was one of the most heartfelt and eye opening talks I have ever watched called “The Hidden Filter”. Hayley talked about her experiences at university, her journey through depression and anxiety. How she felt while having to deal with family and friends all the time maintaining the focus on her learning. This is something that I can not do justice to with my attempt to write about it now. Just to say that if you ever get a chance to hear her speak, I would take it. It will demonstrate how many students are facing challenges that (depending on your age and year of study) you may never have even considered. It equally demonstrated to me that there were times in my life where I was depressed and emotionally raw but not realising it because I was in the middle of the situation, it is only when I think back and reflect that I can see the damage I was doing to myself. 

She concluded her talk with the notion that we should not rely on technology in this ‘technology driven world’ (which has become an even bigger issue at the time of writing during the COVID lockdown). We now face an even greater challenge to support each other those who may be isolated, not only literally but figuratively. (I will provide some wellbeing support and guidance at the bottom of this blog for extra reading). It is with the “Hidden Filter” that Hayley addressed that our reliance on presenting a show of permanent strength and happiness in a digital world can ultimately lead to a rise in negative and harmful experiences in the “real” world. My favourite quote of her session was “You don’t need to listen to respond, you need to listen to understand”. 

The second day was just as inspiring as the first, with sessions covering a range of ideas, however the last one, I want to mention for this series of blogs is the one hosted by Michelle Capes and Sean Randall of the Wiltshire College and University Centre. This session was on digital escape rooms and demonstrated how you could use Microsoft OneNote to create pages of questions, restricted by passwords that require you to challenge your students and get them to investigate the material. Creating riddles and puzzles that can be discovered through online research as well as having to work around physical locations to find the information. 

During this session, I was inspired to look at how Moodle may be a potential option in creating ‘Digital Escape Rooms’. I found that it was possible to recreate using a Moodle book to house H5P activities that are all set with restrictions that require a set score from a previous question. It was a quick test I did during the presentation but with more work, the idea could be developed using a range of activities and conditions within Moodle that create more a more in depth experience. What it demonstrated to me was the idea that we are often limited by our own creativity and not the technical limitations. The OneNote option being demostrated was simple but very effective!

What I realised is that often we are all working on creative solutions to problems or have ideas that we don’t elaborate on and this can lead us to the point where we are not always great at sharing those ideas that we have. With that in mind, if you have worked on something in Moodle that is slightly more interesting, or have an idea that you are not sure what to do with, please do get in touch with myself, your Online Course Developer (many of whom have kindly written for the blog) or the TEL team, and we can discuss these ideas and potential solutions. 

To close this post and my experiences of DigiFest 2020, I would recommend to everyone that can attend this event in the future, they do! It is a fantastic example of creative minds and inspiring innovations that demonstrate learning and teaching within the FE and HE sector. It has made me think about things we should be looking at for our institution and what I can personally do to inspire others with the technology we have available. It demonstrated to me that there are more aspects to the life we lead within a university that we might miss from the students perspective (thanks @hayleymulenda). We traditionally work in silos a lot of the time, and it is an easy trap to fall into, but we should be looking at how best we can connect our work with others throughout the university. There is more we can offer, but we might not see the direct value elsewhere or how others might also be able to apply it to their subject. It is a very easy mindset to create, isolating ourselves and not sharing our work or innovations. Often this is not deliberate but just one factor in how we approach what we do in our daily working life. Digifest has shown me we should be singing each other’s praises and looking at ways to connect and integrate our best practice around the university and also what we can offer the wider community (be it learning and teaching practice or what we can offer others who might use our teaching ideas in the outside world). 

Guidance and Support for Wellbeing:

be kind, stay home, save lives

Guest Blogger: Fiona Cook – Isolation Reflections and Co-worker Jealousy

May 18, 2020 / / 0 Comments

A month ago I posted on LinkedIn, sharing what I’d learnt about working from home after doing so for three weeks. Yesterday, I was asked if my advice would still be the same and I realise that seven weeks of home working, with an unknown number of weeks left, meant it wouldn’t be. 

There are still a few basics that help me. I only work at my desk, in my spare room, so that I can keep a work-life balance and switch off when I’m done for the day. I also have space from my boyfriend so that we can catch up with friends independently, as we would do in the outside world. The rest, however, has evolved a bit since I first shared it.

Two computer screens on and a cat sitting on a chair in front of them looking at the screens

I’m now less fussed about dressing as I would for work every day. Although I’m lucky to have a fairly decent desk set-up it’s not completely optimal, so I have put a bit more value on being comfortable in what I wear. This also helps ensure I have time for a workout at lunch, which is actually something I’ll surprisingly miss when I’m back in the office. And no-one can see my trackies in a video meeting, anyway! 

I drink less hot drinks when the weather is warmer but I’m still making sure I’m taking breaks when I need them. There’s a quote I’ve seen a lot which is “You are not working from home; you are at your home during a crisis trying to work.” This really resonates with me and it’s a great reminder that things aren’t normal right now and we can’t be expected to act as if they were. My boss has been flexible and supportive and I know that it’s okay if I’m not quite with it sometimes. 

Staying in touch with people, both for work and socially, hasn’t been too hard – even with the odd technical glitch. However, last week a lot of people seemed to be getting fatigued with lockdown and I actually felt socially drained. I’ve found that people are reaching out more than usual and whilst it’s great to know that friends want to stay in touch I felt my introverted self wanting to hide after four days of video calls and messages from numerous group chats. My boyfriend and I now make sure one evening a week is a phone-free film night so that we can focus on ourselves and not be glued to screens all the time. I also try not to feel bad about ignoring my phone when I need to switch off, and my friends completely understand when I explain why I’ve gone awol. That being said, despite the anxiety of having video calls with friendship groups for the first time, I arranged a video quiz with friends who I ordinarily might not have seen as a group and it was really wonderful to see their faces. 

I’ve also not gone on many walks lately. As I don’t drive I already had a recurring food delivery pre-lockdown and the deliveries are slowly becoming more reliable so I haven’t often had to go out, which I’m grateful for. Part of me feels like I’m wasting the sunshine and Pompey seafront, but I’m able to work out in my lounge and sit in the garden so I can still get exercise and fresh air. I want to go out, and I imagine I will soon, but I know it’s safer at home so I’m trying not to beat myself up for staying safe when I can. 

It’s not easy, especially as people close to me have to go out to work or deal with difficult employers, but we all need to work out what is best for us and our individual circumstances without comparing everything we do. I’ve only baked twice, I’d already recently started exercising, and I’m not learning any new skills. It’s okay to focus on your wellbeing to get through this and not emerge as a new shiny version of yourself, which is definitely worth remembering during Cat curled up fast asleep on a cover Mental Health Awareness Week. Be kind, to others but also to yourself.

Oh, and I’m also still very jealous of my new colleagues who sleep all day.

 

 

Credit Image: Photo by Mish Vizesi on Unsplash

Ablue background with four outlined images on people's heads in a semi circle around the earth, with piles of books either side of the earth

Guest Blogger: Ankur Shah – Are we ready to deliver Online Learning?

May 11, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Overview

With COVID-19, teaching delivery has had an impact across the higher education sector. With the unknown of lockdown being lifted, higher education across the UK faces a challenge of delivering courses online for the new academic year. This post considers options, suggestions from the University of Portsmouth perspective and identifies how the university can be ready to deliver online teaching.

Challenge

Everyone across the university had to change the way they deliver teaching when the lockdown or closure of university premises was implemented. Academic members have had to not only figure out what technology to use, but have also needed to think about how the technology they use fits in with the pedagogy for their modules.

The second challenge was to think about the implications on  assessments and exams and how they would be conducted online.

There was a requirement to provide essential training or tools to our academic colleagues for delivering teaching online and also a concern over student engagement due to the suspension of face to face teaching.

How did we overcome the challenges?

BAL Staff Help Pages

In order to ensure teaching can be delivered and support can be provided to both staff/students, there was an initiative to design a one stop support page defining all the necessary tools, technology and pedagogical approaches academics can use to deliver their teaching. We directed staff to our faculty support page and also TEL’s elearning tool site. Within our faculty we started email communication everyday highlighting key tools/technology and training guidance to academic members to make this period as smooth as possible for them. 

There was also constant communication with the students on a regular basis to reassure them in this pandemic period. Support teams across the university worked really hard to ensure that staff/students can access the Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) Moodle without any issues.

From an academic perspective there were some very good practices noticed within our faculty in terms of using the technology to integrate with the pedagogy of learning. Recording tools (Camtasia, Screencastify, PowerPoint Recording) were used extensively to create short recordings followed by longer ones for the lecture/seminar – examples can be found on the BAL Good Examples – Modules on Moodle. Video conferencing applications (Webex and Google Meet) were used in high demand to conduct live sessions, record student presentations for assessments, seminars etc.

Looking forward

Being the uncertainty of the country, due to COVID-19, no one knows when face-to-face teaching will resume and there are plans for the university to consider delivering online teaching for the new academic year.

If we look back on how the university approached this before Easter when the lockdown was implemented, we can argue that quite a lot of things were done on the fly such as using Google meet for sessions, recording using Powerpoint recorder if no access to Camtasia or recording software, or finding other tools that are not supported but still did the job in terms of delivering teaching.

However going forward this can’t be the case, for the new academic year if the plan is to deliver online teaching then we need to consider the following…

  1. A robust lecture capture solution with the capability of captioning to ensure recordings are fit from the accessibility side of things as well (this can be beneficial for distance learning and on campus delivery).
  2. Provide essential training to academic members to deliver their teaching smoothly.
  3. Identify the preferred application to deliver live sessions that can integrate easily with Moodle (Webex or Google Meet). 
  4. Implement a standard structure across Moodle pages to keep consistency.
  5. Identify how students engage with the content on Moodle pages (i.e. thinking about specifying time a student might require to complete an activity or read an resource).
  6. With regards to online submissions of coursework, have a standard deadline time across the university.
  7. Consider the communication channel you will use with the students (emails, forums on Moodle, video chat etc.).
  8. Think about how attendance can be monitored during the interim period of online teaching.
  9. Ensure all the materials uploaded on Moodle pages are easily accessible for the students.

Conclusion

Based on the consideration made above and also from experience, the university needs to take action on this rapidly, as there is less time to act on the changes mentioned above. Once the academic year starts, students attending, whether on or off campus, will have expectations to get value for their money. There is also a potential expectation on a lecturer to design their materials fit for online, so stating the requirements to them as early as possible could prove beneficial.

Ankur Shah

Ankuh working remotely.

Credit image: Photo by https://pixabay.com/illustrations/online-library-education-book-4091231/

Google icon written in various colours

Google in a time of lockdown

April 27, 2020 / / 0 Comments

2020 marks the fifteenth anniversary of the beta version of Gmail, Google’s first move beyond being just a search engine. Since then Google has created an extensive suite of applications many of which are extremely useful for teaching and learning. In this blog I’ll be looking at some of, what I think, are the most useful apps and why, during the current lockdown, Google can be useful in helping deliver online learning.

Possibly the most useful change Google has made in light of the lockdown was to extend video conferencing (Hangouts Meet)  to all GSuite accounts allowing up to 250 participants in any online meeting. Setting up an online meeting using Hangouts Meet can be done via the Google calendar thus notifying participants automatically. While this particular app lacks some of the functionality of Webex, it is useful for hosting and running a simple meeting or online seminar.

In this time of distributive learning, collaboration can still be facilitated and Google provides tools such as jamboard that will allow students to contribute to online tasks and discussions. Jamboard provides a pin-board style interface onto which students can pin their ideas and contributions to group tasks. While apps such as Google docs do clearly provide opportunities for online collaboration, jamboard provides a tool for more focused tasks with a clear and easy to read interface.

On the Degree Apprenticeship programme, we make major use of G Suite including Shared Drives and Google Docs, indeed without these, it would be difficult to see how we could manage some of the required administrative tasks. The ability to enhance the functionality of some Google products such as sheets, also means that they can be tailored to best meet the needs of our students. For example, all degree apprenticeship students are required to keep a log of their off the job training activities, such as their weekly University sessions, to help them complete these logs we use Google forms linked to Google sheets. Being able to add a script to the sheets means that emails can automatically be sent out allowing course administrators to more easily monitor log entries.

In terms of teaching and learning, one of the most useful Google products, and certainly the most ubiquitous in terms of videos, is YouTube, bought by Google back in 2006. By virtue of having a Google account, all members of the University automatically have a YouTube account. This, combined with the unlimited storage offered by Google, provides staff and students with an invaluable teaching and learning platform. Google’s screen capture app, Screencastify, integrates nicely with Youtube allowing users to edit and then upload directly to their YouTube channel.

So, out of the range of apps, Google provides, which ones are my favourites?

Having worked with apprenticeship students in the Business faculty for over two years, helping them with their ePortfolios, I’ve become a convert to Google Sites. I found the old version while having plenty of functionality, a bit clunky and not that user-friendly, often having to write HTML to achieve what I wanted. A downside of New Google Sites was the lack of template functionality, but this issue is being addressed as the addition of templates is currently in development.

But, on a day to day level, Google docs and Shared Drives have pretty much transformed the way I work, simplifying working collaboratively with colleagues and students. 

The pace of development of Google products is also impressive and I’m looking forward to making use of Smart Compose (https://gsuiteupdates.googleblog.com/2020/02/smart-compose-ga.html) and neural grammar correction, currently in beta. While Word does ship with far greater functionality and even slightly complicated Word documents do not convert well to Google, for the majority of users, the tools available with Docs are generally more than enough and thinglink (https://www.thinglink.com/scene/1282367584611598339) is great for those new to Docs. Google has also made it slightly easier to share documents with non-Google account holders, users can now use their existing email address to set themselves up with Google to enable access to shared Google docs, Sites etc. while a PIN verification system, currently in beta, will remove the need to set up any kind of Google account at all.

The current situation has thrown up considerable challenges in continuing to provide engaging and high quality teaching and learning especially in terms of students working collaboratively, Google clearly does not provide all the solutions required, but its suite of apps are certainly a good starting point.

Image by Saveliy Morozov  from Pixabay

gray-laptop-computer-on-table

Starting a part-time degree as a mature student

April 14, 2020 / / 3 Comments

Hello and welcome to my introductory blog which will serve to document my journey into higher education as I undertake a part-time, fully online degree in Graphic Design, which will hopefully only span over the next 6 years, and not the rest of my life. Every few months or so you will see me pop up, documenting my latest module adventures and letting you know what I’ve been up to. 

For a bit of personal background, I went to college for 6 months before deciding it wasn’t for me, fast forward 4 years I found myself working at the University of Portsmouth. 13 years later I’ve worked my way up the ladder into the role of Online Course Developer, a role which I truly enjoy. However, over the years I have looked at my peers and silently wished that I had pursued an academic path after all, but I had accepted that life doesn’t always go the way you expect it to and buried the thoughts back down when they popped up, telling myself that I had too much going on in my life to consider trying to get back into education (and for those that know me will know that this is true for the most part, my life is nothing but hectic!). 

In 2019, I gained my Mathematics GCSE, after attending night school for 9 months, which I had been putting off due to struggling with dyscalculia and the fear of failure. Succeeding in this triggered such a sense of achievement that I started to consider enrolling on a degree, for real this time. I spoke to friends and colleagues for advice and their thoughts as to what they thought I should do. Some felt that it was wise to add to my qualifications, when others would say, well you’re already doing the job and have the work experience, so what’s the point?   

In the end I decided it was now or never, and time to just dive in – I’ve navigated so many major life events as a baptism of fire – so why stop now? I want to undertake this degree not just to better my job prospects, or to become better at the design aspects of my current job, but for me. Because this is what I’m truly interested in and I know I can do it and be great at it. 

So where am I studying? After doing lots and lots of research, and becoming disheartened many times, I discovered the Open College of the Arts (OCA), somewhere I had never heard of before, and after learning more about them, I’m really surprised it isn’t more well known. The OCA was founded in 1987 by Micheal Young, who was one of the founders of the Open University. They specialise in creative degrees delivered entirely online, something that I’ve discovered is very thin on the ground. In 2016, the OCA became part of the University for the Creative Arts (UCA), which in 2019 was named Modern University of the Year by the Times and Sunday Times Good University Guide, and is ranked number #13 on the UK’s Guardians University League Table and listed as TEF Gold.

As the degree is delivered fully online, which is perfect for me work-wise, it means that my motivation and time management skills are going to have to exceed my usual levels by tenfold. I know myself well enough to know that my main challenges are going to be just sitting down and reading, and balancing my social life with study time … I’ll have to start taking the advice that I give to students, and like most people I am terrible at taking my own advice! 

However, through the power of social media I already have a ‘study buddy’ that I met through the OCA student community Facebook group. It’s already been a huge help, regardless of the ‘real life’ support that I have, and we are helping each other by sharing ideas and just motivating each other generally. She’s started slightly earlier than me (I’m starting in April) so has let me know what the first assignment is, which is to design three postcards based on your interests and hobbies. Naturally they are going to be the nerdiest postcards ever seen, and I’m super excited about getting started on them.

I’m also very interested to see how this degree is delivered from a professional viewpoint. The only contact I will have with my tutors is via Skype or Google Hangouts, I will be sent my assignments online and will be expected to maintain a learner log. I’m not sure yet what Virtual Learning Environment will be used if any, but the feedback I have read from other students has been very positive, so I’ll also be feeding back on this blog on how the OCAs way of teaching could improve my own practice in certain areas as an Online Course Developer. 

I’m under no illusion that this is going to be hard work, lots of hard work, but I’m ready for the challenge!

Image credit – Photo by Flo Dahm from Pexels

Digifest 2020

Digifest 2020

March 30, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Although a regular delegate at Jisc’s annual Digifest I had never before given a presentation so was excited to have had my presentation proposal accepted. The topic for the talk, naturally enough, covered my work as an Online Course Developer on the university’s degree apprenticeship programme. Since the university launched its first degree apprenticeship in 2016 with just 7 Business and Management students, numbers across the university have grown to over 600 involving all faculties and 17 different courses. 

With a long history of involvement in work based learning, the university’s early involvement in degree apprenticeships would have been a natural progression along with a small handful of other trailblazers. Roll forward to 2020 and there are now over 90 HEIs delivering degree apprenticeships including Russell group institutions. 

Anyway, back to Digifest! Given the rapid growth of our degree apprenticeship programme I knew I had a good story to tell and, hopefully, some useful experience to pass on and for me this reflected a shift in emphasis of this year’s conference. I have always enjoyed the two days spent at the ICC every March but this year I was particularly looking forward to sessions looking at the practical application and development of eLearning tools and methodologies. In this respect two sessions in particular stood out. The first was a panel discussion titled “How do we address the digital skills gap” the second a presentation on how staff and students are actually using technology.

Having worked in the field of eLearning for some time, I’ve found one of the main barriers hindering the greater use of technology has been, and continues to be, time. After demonstrating a particular piece of technology, a frequent, and understandable reaction is “Yes, that looks great but I just don’t have the time to create resources using it…” Coming from a teaching background I can empathise, with preparation, marking, meetings and actual teaching, time is often in short supply In the sessions mentioned above different strategies were discussed in addressing the issue of time. One involved recognising and rewarding digital development, thus partly overcoming the digital skills gap with a carrot based approach. The other approach involved a more stick based strategy whereby developing digital skills becomes part of the standard annual appraisal.

In terms of the contrasting approaches proffered, my starting point is very much carrot based, which doesn’t necessarily need to be physically tangible. The use of technology in teaching can bring measurable gains, with some upfront investment in time, resources can be created that can be used multiple times and thus be time saving in the long run. For example a Moodle quiz can be used for either formative or summative assessment and is self marking. A short video can be quicker to produce than a handout and be a more effective learning resource. Use of tools such as Padlet, Nearpod and Vevox can add meaningful participation and interaction in lectures and seminars with the same resource being re-usable for as long as the modules are taught.

For students the greater use of technology can bring real benefits and Jisc’s digital insights survey regularly shows that students do want greater use of technology even if it is just lecture recordings. Moreover, according a report produced by the European Commission (Human Capital: Europe’s Digital Progress Report, 2017) 38% of workplaces stated that a lack of digital skills was harming business while in the panel discussion mentioned a performing arts student explained how the use of technology in his course had helped him develop the skills he needed to be able to gain employment in his chosen field. One suggestion I am a little unsure about is the rewarding of staff with badges they can wear when they achieve a given level of digital skills, a strategy used by one college, but some kind of recognition for digital development can only help spread good digital practice.

The presentations from Digifest 2020 are now available online to view, along with Andy Taggart’s: Degree apprenticeships – meeting the technical and teaching challenges

Image by Klaus P. Rausch from Pixabay

 

Into the unknown - part 2

Into the unknown – part 2

March 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Digifest (#digifest20) as a conference is awe inspiring, Jisc really know how to create that wow factor on entering the central auditorium. It was an area divided between trade stands, a village green and a futuristic stage. Next to it housed a massive screen that projected holographic messages signposting exhibits like AR, as well as when sessions were due to start. 

The first two sessions of Digifest were thought provoking and relevant to what we are all facing, a greater need to work online and provide a digital solution to our traditional working practices. Unsurprisingly enough, this is even more relevant now! Since I wrote part 1, we have gone through a seismic shift in learning and teaching, and had to adapt at a rapid pace to the new ways of working. 

This ties nicely to the third session that I attended called Digital Imposter Syndrome in Pracademia. We are all now facing a new way to interact with colleagues, students and our families. The fact that in the not so distant past, people would shy away from attempting new ways of using technology, yet are now being forced to change and adapt. This session had the perfect message for our current working environments. 

Just give it a go! It might fail. If it does … so what? 

We are a diverse community of practitioners and academics that are rallying, more than ever, to provide support and resources for each other and our students. 

The previous worry and the point I would have made, had I written this when Digifest was fresh in my mind, was that our students know more than us. That might well be true in certain technological areas, but actually, this is also a challenging time for them too. We are in a prime situation for students to give us their feedback, which can only benefit us and them in collaborating going forward.  This idea of digital support and digital co-creation is something that the TEL team are happy to discuss so please let us know if this is something you are doing or want to know more about (you can start with me tom.langston@port.ac.uk or the general help email elearn@port.ac.uk ).


At the time I made this tweet, it summed up nicely where we stand today. At the moment quick wins are the name of the game, being adaptable and using new tools to try something new. 

Back to the wider Digifest angle, and each session I attended, offered new and creative ideas for teaching. Harlow College provides their students with an iPad for their studies and with it they are creating digital scrapbooks to help with dementia patients in the community, writing and directing drama performances for the community around evocative subjects like cyber-bullying. It lets the students’ creativity flow through all their studies and is not fixed to traditional technical subjects. This is key when thinking that ‘they’ know more than we do. We, as academics, understand that the generations surrounding us have different skills to offer, and to ignore that is only going to slow innovation. If we develop why we want to use the technology and think about the pedagogic rationale, maybe the students can run with the theme and ideas and inspire us in how we work, assess and challenge our previous norms. 

Digifest was an amazing space to share ideas and hear about innovations in teaching that are surprisingly easy to implement. So far I have written only around day 1, day 2 was equally fruitful. The final blog post in the series will look at the highlights of day 2 and what we can do going forward with the enforced digital revolution that we are all now part of.

working from home

Are you ready to work from home? – Tips from TEL

March 23, 2020 / / 1 Comment

As the UK prepares to work from home this week, many people might be feeling a little anxious and overwhelmed by the sudden thought of working remotely. Although working from home is a common practice for most of us within the TEL team, we are aware that this isn’t the case for everyone. Working remotely can provide benefits but it can also pose challenges. The TEL team have been working hard to develop an eLearning Tools Site which features useful resources and information on working from home, particularly teaching remotely for staff at the University of Portsmouth. Throughout the weeks we will be reflecting on the benefits and challenges that we experience through working from home, the tools we have used, and how those tools may have helped or hindered us!

Here are some tips for the week ahead. I hope you find them useful for working from home.

Create a dedicated work space

Some of us are fortunate enough to have a spare room that we can easily transform into quiet office space. For those of us who don’t (myself included!) it’s important to find an area that can be used for working. For me, it’s the dining room table, where I have my desktop set up and space for books, notepads etc.

Use to-do lists

It’s useful to have to-do lists – things you want to get done every day. This keeps you focused and on track. However, don’t beat yourself up if you don’t get everything completed: tomorrow is another day and some days can be more productive than others. I always have a list of to-dos on the go, whether it’s on my phone, on a note pad or on post-it notes. This way I feel a sense of achievement when I can tick off the items.

Learn to deal with distractions

It’s easy to get distracted at home and, for some of us during the covid-19 outbreak, it will be even harder while our families are at home too. Allow yourself to surf the internet for 5 minutes – it might provide some inspiration and fuel you to return to your work – but don’t binge-watch box sets on Netflix!

Take regular breaks!

Make sure to take regular breaks from the screen: sit in the garden for 5 minutes and get some fresh air, or go and make a cup of tea. If you can, go for a little walk: it’s so important to move and exercise – you’ll feel so much better for doing so!

Don’t lose touch with your work colleagues

As a ‘veteran’ of working from home, Slack has been brilliant in connecting me with my work colleagues. You can set up channels for different discussion topics and receive notifications as a when people post. There are other apps you can use, such as Zoom and House Party (which is great to use with friends and family whilst social distancing). Working from home can often feel isolating so staying in touch is essential for your wellbeing.

Make sure to drink and eat

It’s so important to look after yourself and ensure you make time to stop for lunch and drink enough water. This is something that I need to personally work on in the coming weeks, as I often skip lunch, snack and don’t drink enough water!  It can be difficult to consciously stop when you are engrossed with work.

Make working comfortable

Do what you can to make your workspace at home as comfortable and functional as possible. Working an eight-hour day in a bad chair is uncomfortable for your body and your mind!

Deal with being disconnected

All technologies can be glitchy at times. Remember: if you do lose your connections, maybe in a video conference, don’t worry – everyone is in the same boat and we’ll muddle through together!

Don’t be too hard on yourself

We’ve all found ourselves in a new situation, even for those that regularly work from home. It’s going to be challenging for all of us in lots of different ways, so it’s important to not be too hard on ourselves. We may find some days are more productive than others. We all need to adapt to a new routine, a new way of working and living.

and finally . . .

Good luck to everyone – remember there is support within your faculties and departments so make sure to use them.

Please continue to follow us on Tel Tales, YouTube,  Twitter and Instagram where we will be sharing more tips and information. If you would like to share your experiences of working remotely on Tel Tales then please get in touch with me at marie.kendall-waters@port.ac.uk

 

Credit image: Photo by Agnieszka Boeske on Unsplash

 

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) UPDATE: learning, teaching and assessment during enforced absence

CORONAVIRUS (COVID-19) UPDATE: learning, teaching and assessment during enforced absence

March 17, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Calling all UoP Staff!

In light of recent events the TEL team have been busy collating and developing a resource for staff on how technology can be used to support learning, teaching and assessment during a period of enforced absence.

This eLearning Tools Site – https://sites.google.com/port.ac.uk/elearning-tools/  is a work in progress. We are updating it as and when we receive feedback from staff about what they need in terms of eLearning.

This site is not intended to be the sole resource for working remotely. We hope, though, to draw together relevant resources to help you create and deliver online learning.

As always, we would like you to feedback to us and tell us what you need. Please do so via elearn.port.ac.uk

Thank you!

The TEL Team

Image credit: Photo by Alex Simpson on Unsplash

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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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