@guy75 @iLearningUK next time 😉 there might be an #ocTEL session at the ALT conference in Sept https://t.co/1aCFbq1Gvm— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 24, 2014

@guy75 @sonyamcchristie mid course survey highlight time as major factor http://t.co/vz4grJtKD7 #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 24, 2014

I was not expecting to meet an #octel participant at #geug14. Great to finally meet @iLearningUK in person :)— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 23, 2014

@jojacob_uk @megacolour @MarenDeepwell yes – #octel will still be active in July. After that we’ll move website into a more read-only mode— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 20, 2014

The answer to the big question “Is there one preferred platform for learning online?” Is… http://t.co/lkkpWUMnKA #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 20, 2014

@mhawksey it has been 🙂 might write a semi-lurker’s blogpost reflecting in #octel to help make my learning more explicit, show appreciation

— Maha Bali (@Bali_Maha) June 19, 2014

This type of auditing role is common in courses like ocTEL. One of the questions we posed participants in the mid course survey was what influenced their level of engagement. A summary of the responses (n. 42) shown below indicates, not surprisingly, that time is a factor in level of engagement. Interestingly for us as a course team, and the Association, is the indication that digital badging had such a positive influence on engagement. In some ways it is perhaps not surprising that this type of gamification managed to hook some people.  Another question raised internally was the apparent lack of influence tutor support had on ocTEL participants to engage. One factor that might have influenced this response was the visibility of tutor support, a number of our tutors having a dual role of participant AND tutor.

One issue this type of quantitative evaluation has is respondents are reporting level of engagement against a set of predefined factors. So what influenced you level of engagement in ocTEL?

@jojacob_uk hard to capture people auditing the course. Seeing who is catching up is a nice side effect of using badge submissions #ocTEL— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 19, 2014

@Bali_Maha yes no magic tech to capture that but glad you found peripheral participation useful #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 19, 2014

What influenced participants level of engagement in #ocTEL? http://t.co/vz4grJtKD7 http://t.co/hQp1eByW88— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 19, 2014

@FernFaux can’t automate Mozilla Backpack as far as I know but you can host your own backpack instance which might permit #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 18, 2014

@romieh have you seen ‘Evidencing Employability Skills with Open Badges’? http://t.co/vcaZZ28eoL Touches on these issues #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 18, 2014

Evaluating #octel 2013 with this year: What do the numbers tell us? http://t.co/sIYwO3t1ys http://t.co/VfEUJzpDGe— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 18, 2014

“We choose formative as it was early in the course and the topics were new to the students” http://t.co/7P1fd71UUd #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 17, 2014

#ocTEL Week 4: TEL one Badge < eSubmission, and eFeedback http://t.co/kb00evYrJE&mdash; Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 17, 2014

TEL One: Experiences or expectations of e-assessment and e-feedback › Tutorial questions practice http://t.co/Xq0rawlzkp #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 17, 2014

#ocTEL Explorer activity 3.5: http://t.co/m8VBHY4Udt < ‘Comparing and contrasting Jorum resources and YouTube content’— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 17, 2014

Watch the webinar using Blackboard Collaborate: http://go.alt.ac.uk/octel2014-week6-recording
Watch the recording of Blackboard Collaborate live stream on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7c2QzMVq3b8
About the webinar
This webinar includes three guest speakers who talked about the enhancement and evaluation of a major example of TEL which they have been involved in. Our three examples include one at module level, one innovation based on introducing new devices, and one based on an overall institutional strategy.

Our three speakers:

Mark Kerrigan is the Director of Teaching, Learning and Assessment in the Faculty of Health Social Care and Education for Anglia Ruskin University. He will be talking about the enhancement and evaluation of the iPads in Science initiative, a project by the University of Greenwich (where he used to work). More information and a case study on the project can be found here:

http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/bestpractice/Copy_of_publications/effective_use.aspx

James McDowell is University Teaching Fellow in the School of Computing and Engineering at the University of Huddersfield. He will be talking about the development of work which won him the 2011 ALT-Epigeum Award for the Most Effective Use of Video. This award recognized the important contribution he has made to the enhancement of student learning through his use of video feedback – http://eprints.hud.ac.uk/19915/ .

Keith Smyth is a Senior Teaching Fellow and Senior Lecturer in Higher Education at Edinburgh Napier University, where he leads the MSc Blended and Online Education and works on TEL-related strategic initiatives. Keith will be talking about the development, dissemination and evaluation of the 3E Framework for technology-enhanced learning, teaching and assessment. Since being introduced as the basis for Edinburgh Napier’s Benchmark for the Use of Technology in Modules, the 3E Framework has been adapted and implemented by over 25 institutions within and beyond the UK. http://3eeducation.org/3e-framework/

@MrMiNiKi indeed. I wasn’t even aware of the legislation for visually impaired let alone that it’s been extended #ocTEL— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 13, 2014

Join me and @cogdog at 4.30pmBST as we hangout and talk #thoughtvectors and #octel cyberinfrastructure https://t.co/HmLKigAAIN&mdash; Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 13, 2014

Martin Hawksey

Fri, 13 Jun 2014 07:46:50 GMT
– Events
– Public

Another one of our informal chats exploring the use of WordPress to support classes/courses!!!WARNING!!! This hangout will contain scenes of gratuitous coding and technobobbery

Martin Hawksey and Alan Levine talk #thoughtvectors and #octel cyberinfrastructure

Martin Hawksey

Thu, 12 Jun 2014 18:32:47 GMT
– Google+
– Public

Loving this student hierarchy of needs from Ellie Russell at NUS shown in today's #octel webinar

Loving this student hierarchy of needs from @ellierussell (@nusuk) #octel http://t.co/Bu5T4c07fO&mdash; Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 12, 2014

@FernFaux does the login to Backpack work? #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 12, 2014

@FernFaux does your #octel email badge your mozilla backpack email?— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 12, 2014

Interesting question from @paulsmry. Where do you go after #octel for formal qualifications around TEL? http://t.co/a6SbY6AWwo&mdash; Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 12, 2014

The Answer to Project-based Work in MOOCs is Federation http://t.co/tVInb47sCa by @holden <interesting stuff #ocTEL— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 12, 2014

@FernFaux ‘funnel of participation’ – it’s very hard to break the trend #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 12, 2014

Leading people
One way to think about this is to concentrate on people. The way in which human beings and technology interact, particularly in learning, teaching and assessment, is complex. Our relationships with people are similarly often mediated by technology and using tools effectively to create productive working or teaching relationships is always a challenge. If I was going to write about leading people, this is where I would start. I would ask, what do I use technology for in this context? How can I give examples of this? Does is work? How could I improve? What are the limitations? Audio snapshots of “Hello, can anyone hear me?” would certainly feature in this section for me.

Leading projects
As Julie and Brian, the lead tutors for this week’s topic, mentioned in their introduction, projects involving Learning Technology can easily get off track, become expensive or otherwise change direction. My experience is that the more distributed a project team, the more technology plays a part in making things work – the harder it can be to get things done (let alone on budget and on time). While I realise there are accomplished ambassadors of intelligent project management software I am not one of them. So if project management or leadership in delivering or steering projects would be my focus I would personally write about how getting people motivated, tools to work and deadlines not to slide… with a lot of reflection on the kinds of tools I found work in different contexts.

Leading innovation
A final example, leading innovation, for me is all about the concept of getting decision makers involved and understanding how innovation using Learning Technology works and why teachers, learners or technologist want to do something. I have had so many experiences of change happening, a technology or gadget getting adopted because someone tried it out first hand – got a personal experience of the potential of a new technology. These moments, when you see someone discovering for themselves how exciting [insert a more appropriate term as needed] something is or could be – these moments can shape the way of things to come. Taking risks, and innovation always involves risk, is much easier when those who manage the risk can understand why they are doing so – what the potential they are supporting or promoting is.
Whatever your specialist area, whatever your experience the key point is that the process of drafting your CMALT portfolio will encourage you to reflect on what you do as a leader and on your own learning.
I hope that for the remainder of this week #ocTEL across the forums, your own platforms and at this week’s webinar on Thursday at 12.30 (BST) you will find your inspiration for adding to your own CMALT portfolio in the making.

Badges designed and awarded using BadgeOS are now exposed as Open Badges compliant Assertion – Assertions are the DNA of Open Badges. They are data files which describe the badge and identify who it has been awarded to. Behind the scene the add-on is using the BadgeOS created data turning it into the required object recognised as an Open Badge. Critically this data existing in the host site. For example, one of my ocTEL badges exists here and is shown below in a formatted view.

The creation of an interface for the user to add badges awarded using BadgeOS to the Mozilla Backpack – this is technically made a lot easier as the add-on uses the existing Issuer API which provides most of the code to get the job done.

The rollout of this plugin in ocTEL is complete as detailed in ‘ocTEL digital badges are now Open Badges: How to add them to your Mozilla Backpack’. I’ve also submitted the plugin as a recognised BadgeOS add-on. The add-on will also shortly be appearing in the official WordPress Plugin Directory. Hopefully this add-on will make it easier for others to issue Open Badges through their WordPress powered site.
Like all projects this development greatly benefits for your feedback, which may include coding suggestions or improved functionality, so we appreciate your feedback.
Download the Open Badges Issuer Add-on for BadgeOS

Martin Hawksey

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 19:53:05 GMT
– Community
– OCTEL Open Course in Technology Enhanced Learning (Discussion)

Good news if you are interested in converting your ocTEL badges into Open Badges 

ocTEL digital badges are now Open Badges: How to add them to your Mozilla Backpack

One of our aspirations for this year’s ocTEL was to experiment with issuing digital badges. It was clear from the mid course survey that many of you also found the badges available had a positive i…

@guy75 we need to follow example of @PHONARNATION ‘built on a mobile device, to be taught from a mobile device to a mobile user’ #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 10, 2014

#ocTEL digital badges are now #OpenBadges: How to add them to your Mozilla Backpack http://t.co/DVM9Yd0CHh&mdash; Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 10, 2014

OcTEL week 4: Reflections from @lcreanor < http://t.co/G7yuNnfgkh Roll on #ocTEL week 5!— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 09, 2014

Thanks to Martin Hawksey for his useful summary of the webinar in his blog post, which includes a link to the recording and the list of resources.

There have also been some very interesting forum and blog posts on supporting students through assessment and feedback. In the week 4 forum, Worldexpos highlighted the challenges in overcoming resistance among colleagues to marking and giving feedback online, to which Rose Heaney responded with a useful list of advantages for both students and staff. The benefits of online MCQs were also debated, with arkmba sharing creative ways of using them to engage learners in the classroom as well as online, and Tom Franklin exploring the possibilities of designing them in a way that would also address deeper levels of learning. Other approaches were also considered, such as the reflection by Fern Faux in her blog ‘Thinking Space’ on the use of InStep, an Open Source video database assessment tool. Grant Douglas used his blog ‘gdougblog’ to summarise the key points he had taken from the reading for week 4, including the quote from Race, Brown and Smith (2005) which aptly summarises the importance of this topic:

‘Nothing that we do to, or for, our students is more important than our assessment of their work and the feedback we give them on it. The results of our assessment influence our students for the rest of their lives and careers – fine if we get it right, but unthinkable if we get it wrong.’ Race, Brown and Smith (2005), 500 Tips on Assessment

It’s been another interesting week on ocTEL – please do keep those comments, tweets and blog posts coming!

Regards,

Linda, Sheila and Jim

@msars @sheilmcn 😉 when laughed there was also going to be auto-timing which allows users to upload a text file with their video #octel— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 07, 2014

Interactive COLLABORATE Tech Trumps (edtech assessment top trumps) !!! 😉 http://t.co/7UPTL3g0Dm #octel http://t.co/ObP6NJQxOx&mdash; Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 05, 2014

the assessment and feedback landscape
feedback and feedforward
assessment and employability
electronic assessment management; and
the use of assessment and feedback principles as a driver for change

A welcome theme from the session was the usual of visual aids to explore and explain assessment and feedback practices. From assessment loading:

to system design.

My favourite has to be COLLABORATE Tech Trumps

COLLABORATE Tech Trumps http://t.co/n0ptyB5YoG < edtech assessment top trumps – fun for all the family 😉 #octel pic.twitter.com/C3L3V8E4Nn

— Martin Hawksey (@mhawksey) June 4, 2014

You can watch the Blackboard Collaborate recording or the live stream recording of Blackboard Collaborate session on YouTube (also embedded below). Lisa has also kindly prepared a document of all the links mentioned in the session:
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXgR0HG5PvI%5D