Category Archives: vle

altc2009, learning, podcast, vle

e-Learning Stuff Podcast #070: James Clay is so annoying…

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Janina Dewitz and David Sugden discuss why James Clay is so annoying…

With James Clay, David Sugden and Janina Dewitz.

This is the seventieth e-Learning Stuff Podcast, James Clay is so annoying…

Download the podcast in mp3 format: James Clay is so annoying…

Subscribe to the podcast in iTunes

Shownotes

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #11 Integrating Turnitin

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A decent VLE will allow you to integrate different tools and services into it.

Turnitin is a service that allows both learners and staff to check the originality of their work and then some…

Turnitin is far more than just a plagiarism prevention and originality checking tool. Turnitin is an integrated set of tools that helps educators manage the process of delivering meaningful feedback during the entire writing process – from drafts through reviews, revisions and even reflections.

Now you could simply link to Turnitin from your VLE, however what you can do with a VLE such as Moodle, is to integrate it into the assignment submission process.

What this means is that both practitioners and learners don’t need to create new accounts to use Turnitin, the process is automated. The feedback, grading and originality reports follow the same kind of format that Moodle uses for its own built-in assignments. That familiarity makes it relatively easy for both practitioners and learners to start using Turnitin if they are use to the assignment module already.

The process for a Turnitin assignment is pretty much a similar experience to adding a “normal” assignment to Moodle. You can either write up the brief or you can upload a document (you know write up the brief, better for the learners).

You can choose whether your learners cut and paste in their assignments or upload their assignment as a file. The originality process can then be adjusted according to your needs.

The key really with Turnitin is to use it as a learning tool with learners. Integrating it with the VLE allows this for many to be an easier route into using it effectively.

Of course you do need a subscription to Turnitin and it’s not a free (or what I would call a cheap) service. However experience from my own and other institutions in using Turnitin to support learners on what originality actually means and avoid palgarisim, Turnitin is a very good tool and effective.

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #82 Collating links

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I was once a Business Studies and Economics lecturer and I taught the subject for many years. I use to at that time use a range of learning technologies, which at the time was quite innovative, but today would be considered old hat or even backwards.

One thing though that I did use quite early on was the web and got my learners to use it to find useful news stories and share them in class. I would then collate those links and share them on our “learning platform” which at the time was simply a website I had created…

Now today there are a wealth of social bookmarking sites out there such as Delicious, Diigo which make this really easy. Students can save their website links, tag them and using a shared tag these can be easily seen by others on the course.

However these services are a somewhat dependent on learners creating accounts for these services and not all learners will want to and can you really force learner to create an account on a social bookmarking site just for the course? Unless they use it on a regular basis, they are probably unlikely to use it anyhow, or even remember to use it. That’s a reason why using a single account with a group of learners may not work either…

However if you are using the VLE, then all your learners will have an account for that and the VLE can be used as a place for learners to not only post their links, but also why they think the link is useful and how it helped them.

There is nothing to stop the practitioner taking the links and adding them to a social bookmarking service such as Delicious.

vle

Using the VLE more

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The problem with the VLE sometimes is that practitioners often use it merely as a glorified content repository and not much more.

So how do you get practitioners to use the VLE more?

Well you could use a model approach or grade use of of the VLE.

These can take time, and time is sometimes not always available.

One way is to get the practitioners from a particular curriculum area to attend a session on features of the VLE. This session should be not too long, a hour is certainly practical. Within the session various functions of the VLE are demonstrated and a short explanation on a learning or administrative problem that it solves.

All the practitioners then choose at least one feature that they will use with their learners on one of their courses. Features could include voting, feedback, discussion forum, photo gallery.

They will then report back (say in a team meeting) on the impact and outcome of using this functionality, before choosing the next feature, and so on… They may want to involve their learners in this process too.

This is about moving the responsibility of using the VLE to the practitioner, and their continuing personal development in the use of the VLE.

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #81 Embedding a social bookmarking tag cloud

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I was once a Business Studies and Economics lecturer and I taught the subject for many years. I use to at that time use a range of learning technologies, which at the time was quite innovative, but today would be considered old hat or even backwards.

One thing though that I did use quite early on was the web and got my learners to use it to find useful news stories and share them in class. I would then collate those links and share them on our “learning platform” which at the time was simply a website I had created…

Now today there are a wealth of social bookmarking sites out there such as Delicious, Diigo which make this really easy. Students can save their website links, tag them and using a shared tag these can be easily seen by others on the course.

You can also create a tag cloud from these links and embed them into the VLE. This then allows learners to access all those links based on the tags, simply by clicking the tag.

This cloud is a live cloud, so will update automatically as new bookmarks are added, or additional tags added to existing bookmarks.

This also adds a visual hook to learners on the keywords for their course and their studies.

Practitioners can of course create their own bookmarks and tag them accordingly for their learners.

Practitioners across a curriculum area can also bookmark useful websites, tag them and share them.

Practitioners from different institutions could also share their bookmarks and embed the tag cloud in their own respective institutional VLEs.

Tag clouds are a different yet simple way of sharing a series of bookmarks. However they are dependent on users tagging their bookmarks with relevant tags.

vle

Hearing the Learner Voice

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For most people, talking and listening to learners is the ideal way to gather feedback from learners as part of the learner voice in FE.

However there are many technologies and services out there that could be used in addition to talking and listening face to face.

I have mentioned on the blog before about using the VLE to gather the learner voice.

There are various tools that can be used for this, there could be an open discussion forum that allows learners to discuss the college and the provision. Though care must be taken in order for this open forum not to be abused and if moderation does take place that it is open and fair.

A closed discussion forum can also be useful in allowing evidence of discussion and feedback in one place. Within this kind of forum the only people who can see the discussion would be the learner and the college.

A further method of using the VLE would be to use something like the Feedback block on Moodle that allows users of the VLE to provide either a poll of some kind or more detailed feedback on the provision in the college.

Most (if not all) learners have a mobile phone and I would expect most (if not all) of these have a camera capable of taking video. You could encourage learners to make short videos using their mobile phones about their experiences at college, what they would like to see different at college as part of learner voice. There needs to be some mechanism for collecting and collating the videos, providing a central e-mail address or MMS text number could be used for remote collection. Another way would be to upload the videos to a college network resource or even the VLE.

SMS is another key way for gathering learner voice and is a technology that many learners will be familiar with. SMS textwalls are one way of collating SMS messages from learners.

Our iMacs in our libraries have built-in webcams and even if you use PCs, using a webcam to capture short video clips from learners can be a simple way of collecting the learner voice.

Online service such as Wallwisher can be used to collect and collate comments from learners as part of learner voice.

By providing a Posterous e-mail address and creating a private Posterous account, learners could just e-mail their “voice” and using Posterous would allow learners not to just send text, but also audio and video too.

So face to face discussions with learners are a valuable way of gathering the learner voice, there are also many different technologies, tools and services that would allow the learner voice to be collected in different ways.

How do you listen to the learner voice?

100 ways, audio, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #73 Hosting audio

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Though there are audio sites out there on the web that will host audio. Sometimes you may not want the recording to be public out on the web. In that case hosting audio on the VLE may be an ideal solution.

If the audio is of a lecture on a tricky subject, or contains licensed content that you can place on the VLE, but are not allowed to freely distribute then placing the audio on the VLE may be a better option than uploading to a public site such as Audioboo. Sensitive recordings of research subjects, or patients, are more reasons why you may host the audio on the VLE.

The final key reason you may want to place the audio on the VLE is that the recordings are of or by learners and they may not wish to have their work or their views available publicly. Of course there are sites out there that can be password protected, but at least the VLE does most of that hard work for you.

Audio can be useful to enhance and enrich learning, one lecturer I know records short summaries of the lessons and the assignments. Some learners find this more engaging than reading them on paper or on the screen.

Recording debates and discussions, allows learners to reflect and review them at a time and place to suit the learner, rather than just relying on notes and memory.

By placing the audio on the VLE, you can place it in the context of learning, enabling learners to clarify how the recording works in respect of the rest of the course or topic.

For ease of access, by placing the audio on the VLE, the learners will be able to click and download the audio file to place it on say a mobile device.

Though the server may not be configured to deliver or stream video, it is often much easier (and places less technical demands on the server) for the server to stream audio. From a learner perspective, audio requires less bandwidth than video, so can often be easily accessed on poor internet connections such as mobile internet.

Teaching has had an oral tradition that goes back for thousands of years. With a virtual learning environment, using audio recordings can allow learners a choice on how they access content, instructions and advice.

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #21 Providing access to resources

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In a traditional learning session learners will often be provided with resources. These will often consist of a presentation (OHPs or Powerpoint), a handout or three (some will be photocopies from books, printed Word documents and “handwritten”) and possibly some references to additional resources. Now these classroom resources are in many ways for learners the “minimum” they need to complete and pass the course. If a learner is to achieve a higher grade, and help them prepare for HE, then they will need to do more than just the “minimum”. They will need access to extra resources and guidance on what these are. In the past (or the present) we would probably give learners a reading list of text books and journal articles we would want them to read. The learner’s only way to access these resources would probably be through the library.

The VLE is a prime place to provide access to resources, enabling the learner to use the resources at a time and place to suit them. With the growing increase in the use of e-journals, e-books, digital and online resources it is much easier for practitioners to create a digital reading list. Yes such a list could be e-mailed, but by holding a “copy” on the VLE, it can be easily updated, new resources can be added, and learners can be assured that the version they are reading is the most recent version.

As a VLE can track usage of resources, then this would enable the practitioner to see who and what is been used, and then use this information in class to direct learners who may be struggling or need more of a challenge.

The list can be a simple list, but with many resources been multi-media it would be possible to create a reading list that is also a listening list and a watching list. It would also be possible to add additional learner development resources that show learners how to make best use of such lists, how to read and takes notes from resources and how to reference resources in their assessed work. It makes sense that those kinds  of supportive resources are created by the library or other information professional and shared across the institution.

If a learner wants to get the best grade possible, either in exams or assessed work, they need to use a much wider range of resources than what is made available in the classroom, the VLE is an ideal location for those resources.

100 ways, vle

100 ways to use a VLE – #58 Uploading a Word Document

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Now before you read this blog post go and read this one. Update: Alas the blog post has been deleted…

Uploaded documents consistently create more workload. So why is it that staff are encouraged to waste their time by uploading documents and then, at a later point, are expected to invest even more time into re-learning processes for doing roughly the same thing only more efficiently? Promoting the uploading of documents as a basic skill really drives me nuts! There, I’ve said it. And I am not going to apologise for doing so. Technology should save people time and not create even more work. And it is far harder to unlearn bad habits than it is to learn good habits in the first place!

Also check out the comments.

There is a very valid argument against uploading Word documents to the VLE. It does make much more sense if you need to add text to a course that you add it direct to the VLE. This makes sense from the learner’s perspective, they don’t need to have Word, they don’t need to download and open the file. If a Word document contains links this can cause issues to the learner.

From a practitioner’s perspective it also makes sense, much easier to update text that’s already on the VLE, then find the original Word document, or download another copy from the VLE, upload and then ensure that the links back on the VLE now work okay.

So to summarise it actually makes much more sense to enter text direct onto the VLE than upload a Word document. It’s better for learners and better for practitioners.

However…

What is logical and rational isn’t necessarily always the best way forward for some practitioners, or benefits the learners.

I agree we should use text where text can be entered, however very few practitioners come to the VLE with a blank canvas of resources, they would have already made an investment (hopefully) in using the computer to use Word to create documents for assignments, handouts and briefings. In an ideal world it would be great that these were added to the VLE as text, however in an unideal world if uploaded to the VLE quickly and easily, for the practitioner they can see that their resources are now available to the learners, whilst for the learners they can now access those resources at a time and place to suit them. They will see the benefits of using the VLE, hopefully they will. Of course if does make sense to avoid this step if possible, but it’s not always possible. At this point, the training on in the future just using text and not Word documents should take place, hopefully avoiding some of the problems noted in the linked blog post.

However…

Sometimes using a Word document actually can make much more sense then using plain text.

Really?

Yes!

Sometimes there are features in Word (such as hotspots) that require the use of Word to use them effectively. Uploading an image or text to the VLE wouldn’t work, and not all practitioners have the skills to necessarily repurpose an interactive Word document using a tool such as Flash.

Sometimes you want learners to manipulate a Word document and again it makes sense to start from the Word document rather than a copy and paste. Learners working together on a collaborative document for example may prefer using Word, even over such tools as Google Docs or a wiki which make more technical sense. Using technology is not always about making the right technical choice, sometimes an emotional choice or preference can work for some learners.

At the end of the day it makes much more sense for practitioners to use plain text on the VLE rather than a Word document. It is more accessible, it is easier (in some respects), it is much much easier to update later or next year and of course remember not everyone has Word.

Photo source.