Wednesday, 26 March 2008
What is the future for HE?
A little while ago I went to a presentation by Martin Williams, Director of HE Strategy at the DIUS.He spoke about the future of Universities at a time when the Government wants to continue to grow numbers in HE – to enable more potential students to benefit from HE.
So far as research is concerned, there is an emphasis on more quality of research – the current RAE exercise is the last of its kind and the future of research funding may be based on linking assessment of research to available metrics such as citations, in some disciplines.
It seems to me that whatever way research is funded some people will lose out. Researchers n the sciences for example may publish less than researches in the humanities because the latter are more comfortable with writing. Obscure mathematical theorems may have huge impact on their field but that field is very small with very few people who can even understand the research, compared with say, a study on internet use which can be more accessible to those outside the field.
Universities and colleges have to adjust to demographic change – start to focus on improving the skills of the current workforce. It's a challenge for the education sector to support acquisition of high level skills by those already in the workplace – and it is a challenge for employers to support their staff in acquiring these skills.
If people are to be upskilled, acquiring new skills throughout their working lives, then there has to be much more of a culture of learning in the workplace and in the community – a perception that learning is part of work and does not stop when one leaves a place of education. There is likely to be a good deal of resistance to this: many people identify learning with a school experience they did not enjoy, and do not want to undertake any further learning.
So how can universities adapt to a student body that will NOT be the traditional 18 year old coming into a 3-year full-time degree? And how will they be funded?
In the FE sector, a lot more of the funding that used to go via the Learning and Skills Council is now going to be distributed through local authorities.
Some scary(?) statistics:
- The average graduate today will have 7 different careers, 3 of which haven't been invented yet. (A Scottish study he quoted which don't have the reference for)
- 70% of the 2020 workforce are already in the workplace...
Labels: FE, HE, learning futures
posted by Helen Whitehead 11:13 AM
Wednesday, 19 March 2008
Free learning objects to use in your courses
Reusability and tools for designing reusable learning objects
Best resources
CETIS
http://www.cetis.ac.uk/ JISC centre for educational technology and interoperability standardsIntute
http://www.intute.ac.uk/ is a free online service providing you with access to the very best Web resources for education and research. The service is created by a network of UK universities and partners.
Jorum
Collection of reusable learning objects contributed by UK HE
MERLOT
http://www.merlot.org/Home.po MERLOT is a large, high-quality repository of learning materials for teachers and students in higher education worldwide. Resource types include tutorials, animations, and simulations, as well as books and websites. Each resource is peer-reviewed to ensure that it's of sufficient quality for inclusion. Resources are sorted by categories and sub-categories, with the categories probably of most interest to School staff being Health Science and Biology.RELOAD
http://www.reload.ac.uk/ is a project funded under the JISC Exchange for Learning Programme (X4L). The project focuses on the development of tools that are based on emerging learning technology interoperability specifications. (See also tools section)
Re-usable Educational Software Library
http://www.resl.ac.uk/ Re-usable Educational Software Library
Welcome to RESL - a library of resources to support good practice in the re-use of educational software
Came out of the SoURCE project: http://www.source.ac.uk
RLO-CETL
Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning in Reusable Learning Objects (RLOs)
has a showcase of RLOS http://www.rlo-cetl.ac.uk/rlos.htm
Sharing the Load
http://www.ucel.ac.uk/load/index.htm A JISC-funded project exploring the reusability of learning designs. It is creating a learning design taxonomy based on designs implicit in existing collections of mature reusable learning content. Using these designs as a starting point, 'real-world' learning designs will be captured in workshops, and exemplars will be created using the ones that are the most shareable across subjects.TASI - Technical Advisory Service for Images
http://www.tasi.ac.uk A JISC-funded service to help people use digital images for teaching and learning materials. TASI provides online advice documents, image sites, a helpdesk, training, consultancy services, and a mailing list. For help see their website, or email info@tasi.ac.ukWisconsin Online Resource Center
http://www.wisc-online.com/ A large, searchable repository of learning objects in wide range of subjects, all implemented in Flash (as is much of the website). You have to register to use the site, but this is free, and you can deep-link to objects within the site.Tools for creating Reusable Learning Objects
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/xerte/ free tools for creating rich, interactive elearning content for the Flash platform.
RELOAD tools (ww.reload.ac.uk)
RELOAD Metadata and Content Packaging Editor
The key aim of the RELOAD project is the implementation of a reference-standard Content Package and Metadata Editor. The RELOAD Editor enables users to organise, aggregate and package learning objects in standard IMS and SCORM content packages tagged with Metadata (in various subsets) and vocabularies. Also supported is Level A Learning Design. The editor page links to all the downloads and further information.
RELOAD Learning Design Editor
The Learning Design Editor (based on the IMS Learning Design specifications) allows the creation of re-usable "Pedagogical Templates" allowing the user to define a set of Learning Objectives, Activities and Learning Environments. These templates can be re-purposed with the user's own content to create on-line Learning Design compliant resources. The LD Editor is available from the download page.
RELOAD SCORM Player
Also available is an ADL SCORM Player. This toolkit allows the playing of SCORM 1.2 packages within a developer edition of the Player. The player page links to all the downloads and further information.
Repositories
List- http://www.jimmyr.com/free_education.php
AEShareNet. Australian Web site that connects those looking for learning objects to those who have them, with an online facility for licensing.Apple Learning Interchange. Apple Computer's effort to encourage the interchange of ideas related to learning objects with "a museum of online exhibits created by educators for educators." http://edcommunity.apple.com/ali/
Connexions is a place to view and share educational material made of small knowledge chunks called modules that can be organized as courses, books, reports, etc. Anyone may view or contribute.
http://cnx.org/content/Consortium-based Portal for Online Objects in Learning (POOL) formed to develop an infrastructure for learning object repositories. It addresses the issues of building the architecture and makes its tools available for download. http://ilearn.senecac.on.ca/lop/
Internet Archive’s library of Open Educational Resources and university lectures. - http://www.archive.org/details/education
Maricopa Learning Exchange (MLX). Maricopa Community Colleges' (AZ) "electronic warehouse of ideas, examples and resources" (more than 500) presented as "packages" of reusable information.
MIT OpenCourseWare
http://ocw.mit.edu/OcwWeb/web/courses/courses/index.htmNational Digital Learning Repository
http://www.ndlr.ie/
The NDLR is a HEA funded pilot project between all Irish Universities, Institutes of Technology and their affiliated colleges. The NDLR is an online resource bank to support collaboration and sharing of teaching and learning resources within the Irish Third Level Education sector.OER Commons is a teaching and learning network, from K-12 lesson plans to college courseware, from algebra to zoology, open to everyone to use and add to.
http://www.oercommons.org
Open-Of-Course is a multilingual portal for free online courses and tutorials. (Biult in Moodle)
http://www.open-of-course.org/
The OpenLearn website gives free access to course materials from The Open University. The LearningSpace is open to learners anywhere in the world.
http://openlearn.open.ac.uk/Podcasts
http://webcast.berkeley.edu/courses.php
SMETE Digital Library. RLOs assembled by the Society for Mathematics, Engineering and Technical Education for students studying in those fields.
Stngyscholar Learn for free on the Web
http://stingyscholar.blogspot.com/
Tufts University OpenCourseWare
Educational content, tools, and infrastructure to educators, students, and self-learners.
http://ocw.tufts.edu/TuftsOER
Wisc-Online. http://www.wisc-online.com/Collection of open-access RLO's produced by higher education institutions in Wisconsin, plus guidelines for creation and use in instruction.
Tools for sharing
There are tools that already exist for sharing your materials. These include:
* Open SLedware an initiative of SL educators to make course content accessible to all
* List of 2.0 Apps
* TeacherTube (think YouTube for teachers)
* Zoho show
* Common Content: a open catalog of Creative Commons licensed content
* Poll Daddy
Labels: e-learning, elearning tools, free elearning, reusable learning objects, rlos
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:38 PM
Using del.icio.us with students in a course
Social bookmarking can be used in a variety of ways to support students taking a course. Here are some helpful links on how to use del.icio.us in education;
Using del.icio.us As a Class or Department Resource
http://www.teachbabel.com/...del-icio-us-bookmarking.html
Here's how one tutor used del.icio.us for a course on Computers and Writing course in 2005: http://wrecking.org/...delicious-and-teaching/
And another, more recent: http://jenverschoor.wordpress.com/...delicious.../
Homework-casting using del.icio.us http://teaching.mrbelshaw.co.uk/...homework-...-delicious/
Why save web sites to your computer where they can not be accessed by your students? Using a social bookmarking site such as del.icio.us teachers can bookmark web pages to be used in the classroom or for student to reference at home for homework. A screencast by Jeff Utecht about using del.icio.us. http://k12online...delicious.htmlLabels: del.icio.us, education, elearning, social bookmarking
posted by Helen Whitehead 5:27 PM
Wednesday, 12 March 2008
E:LESIG - for researchers of the student experience
I've just welcomed the 71st member to the new Ning community for ELESIG. It's great to see so many e-learning researchers and practitioners who have an interest in the learner experience. The take up for the community and for the inaugural workshop - was it only last week? - has been excellent and just shows what a need there is for a network of practice in this area.
Next job will be to get the directory of projects up and running - that's in pbwiki so that those associated with each project can edit and update the information about their work.
If you are interested in this Special Interest Group for studying the student's experience of e-learning, join us at ELESIG.NingLabels: elesig, learner experience, Ning, online community, social networking
posted by Helen Whitehead 10:48 AM
Thursday, 6 March 2008
ELESIG - a community for researchers into learners' experiences of e-learning
The inaugural ELESIG workshop takes place today in Birmingham. ELESIG is a Pathfinder network project: the Experiences of E-Learning Special Interest Group is intended for those involved in investigations and evaluations of learners' experiences of e-learning.The three collaborating institutions: Oxford Brookes University, University of Bradford and University of Greenwich are all actively involved in research in this area. Other investigators and practitioners are cordially invited to join our network.
ELESIG will support the investigators as they develop their research, building capacity within the sector as well providing rigorous research to support evidence informed practice. The work of ELESIG will be made public, the benefit of practitioners and researchers throughout the sector.
More about ELESIG: https://mw.brookes.ac.uk/display/elesig/About
Join the ELESIG community: elesig.ning.comLabels: elesig, learner experience, learners, Ning
posted by Helen Whitehead 9:29 AM
