Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

Tag: TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival

Recap of available support for teaching in a blended learning context

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

Reflecting on the TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival

As you are probably aware by now, the TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival was a week long festival looking at developments in educational technology with learning and teaching. How the sudden shift to online and blended learning has put a strain on many academics workloads and more often skill perceptions. I say this as what the current situation has shown is people are far more capable than they ever gave themselves credit for

Across the week the range of subjects was impressive and comprehensive. All the sessions were recorded and can be found on both the TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival website and YouTube on this playlist.

This post though, is just a brief look at how the week felt to me. The first point to note of every conference is that if you are presenting, you don’t really get to attend. Except with a fully digital conference, I am able to go back and revisit the sessions. This is a real pleasure as there were a few sessions that conflicted with mine that are of benefit to my training and personal interest (now just to find the time to watch them all back)!

The second area for me is the adrenaline rush, even just being sat at my desk. The first day saw a few technical issues that made it all the more exciting to diagnose and solve as part of a team. It got rectified very quickly, and by the 4th session of the day the hangover from the problem was gone. The team came together, set goals, allocated tasks and we did it. The reason I bring this up is not to talk in depth about the issue but to say how great it was to work with the whole team, we were able to overcome obstacles together and  provide a smooth experience to those that attended. 

My third point is that it was great to have another person to present with and to a large crowd (for most sessions) to bounce ideas around and get people involved with the process. It was a shame that my session with Andy Clegg wasn’t a little longer to be able to run the activity in full, which would have essentially been ‘Ready, Steady, Cook’. Throw some ingredients at us and let us help solve a problem on the fly. This did take place with Mike Wilson when we ran beginner and advanced Moodle demos and were able to just show people answers to questions they had. It was live, specific and not fitting a normal conference where you may not get what you actually hoped to see. It is something that I hope to be able to do more of going forward, working with colleagues on sessions that can be fun, engaging and promote creative discussions for those that may not normally see the benefit of what we do in the department.

My final reflection is that I am so proud of what the team and colleagues have done. Watching Stephen Webb and Shaun Searle demonstrate principles of content capture and talk about how quickly they have had to deal with the implementation of Panopto, it makes you proud to be part of something so proactive (maybe a little reactive in this case) and so professional. The whole conference was put together quickly with people quickly developing sessions and actually we all learned of ways to develop our specialisms into the wider field of what the department does. 

bunting

From the feedback I and others have received, it was a great success and I hope to do something similar in the future. It has opened my eyes to ideas that can run across the year and not just in one day. How my training online could be the way to go (don’t get me wrong I love face to face experiences) but actually online, I know people have a device and I can be more creative with what was once a demonstration type session. 

This festival was a pleasure to be a part of, and I was sad it finished. I was also glad at the end as it was intense, mildly hectic and not really a sustainable solution to training especially with trying to help manage a family in lockdown (I was lucky not to be attacked by children!). However, my feeling going forward, even after the worst of this current isolation is over, is that the conferences that we run and organise could and should have more online elements to really engage everyone that wants to attend. It opens up other possibilities that physical locations can’t. The best part of this whole experience though was this tweet from @Drstuartsims. Even in lockdown, conference food is questionable …

Credit Image: Photo by Stefan Spassov on Unsplash

Credit Image: Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

Guest Blogger: Amy Barlow – TEL Tales: Blended Learning Festival is now LIVE

This week the TEL Tales Festival Team are excited to bring a jam packed programme of webinars and online training events as part of this week long event. The past months have seen a huge transformation in the way we teach and we think it’s about time we paused, took a deep breath (or sigh of relief) and pat ourselves heartily on the back. If you’d have shown us, on a crystal ball, in 2019 that the whole university would move to online delivery in the space of a fortnight we would have spat out our tea; that, it transpires, was remarkably possible. The effort, determination, blood sweat and tears that such a transformation required from all staff  is not to be underestimated. We learnt to teach in new ways and our students took it all in their stride. The metrics showing the sudden spike in VLE use, content capture and online webinar instances evidences how adaptable we are as a Higher Education provider. Some may say, educators across school, FE and HE are the unsung heroes of 2020 for pivoting so quickly. 

TEL Me How TicketThe TEL Tales: Blended Learning Festival celebrates the great body of knowledge we have acquired and marks our continued journey into the Blended Learning stratosphere. We’ve been teaching at a distance for decades; now distance learning and our expertise with educational technology is front and centre. Next academic year will not be without its challenges and a continued commitment to high quality online and face to face delivery will shape our teaching and learning going forward. The week makes sure that everyone has access to the ingredients they need to cook up a storm. 

So, what does this week have in store?

I’m personally looking forward to this week’s programme and having a much needed debrief following Teaching Block Two. What have we learnt? What have we gained? What areas do we need to upskill in?

Tea at 3!Each day we will hold ‘Tea at 3’ which is a themed informal discussion. Like so many sector events, we are looking forward to the sharing that happens across disciplines. There will be a selection of webinars covering a myriad of topics and tools – look out for the TEL Me How for more practical training. Many sessions are repeated, including the popular Using the Moodle Template webinar and with consent, we will be able to record everything for those that miss out on the live event.

L&T WebinarsHere are some highlights for the week ahead :

  • Meeting the Challenges of Remote Personal Tutoring
  • An Introduction to Creating Accessible Content
  • Using Vevox to Create Live Conversations with Students
  • Learning Well: Resources for supporting student well-being online
  • The Power of Panopto

We look forward to seeing you there!

Amy Barlow, Head of Academic Development

Don’t forget to follow all the latest festival information and daily line-ups of our sessions on Instagram at @telportsmouth and Twitter at @TelPortsmouth

hashtag info

 

 

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