Category: Newsletter Archive

This is an archive of the 2013 version of ocTEL.

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June 12, 2013
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Action plan and case study activities: your feedback please

June 11, 2013

When we designed ocTEL we reasoned that anyone who was still with us in the three to four weeks at the back end of the course would, by definition, be fairly earnest and committed to Technology Enhanced Learning. Therefore we created activities that would give you the opportunity to relate the areas of study to your own circumstances and embed them in your practice. Hence the practical activitiesaction plans, case studies.

There hasn’t been much take-up of these activities so far (kudos to James Kerr for being the exception). Fair enough. We’d like to understand, if we can, a little more about why that is. A first hypothesis — with the benefit of hindsight, and a little of our own experience — is that anyone who is still with us in the three to four weeks at the back end of the course is, almost by definition, fairly tired and short on spare time…

Is that right? Are there other reasons? We’d really like feedback, especially from those stalwarts of you who have stayed the course, so that we can adapt the design of the activities if necessary. For example, is it the case that the action plans and case studies are interesting-but-not-urgent, so you might make a note to come back to them at a time when they’re directly relevant to a phase of your work? Or are these activities simply asking too much, so we should consider something simpler instead?

At this stage it’s unlikely that we’ll be able to make changes to this run of the course, but we’d love to know what you think so we can amend our approach in ocTEL 2.0, if there is such a thing (we are reasonably optimistic that there will be). Read more >>

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#ocTEL Week 2 – Digital Literacy Questionnaires

June 11, 2013 | Emily’s Blog

Looking at the examples given e.g. Penn State University of Houstonthere seems to be some confusion as to the purpose of these questionnaires. If the purpose is for an individual tutor to assess likely barriers to learning at the start … Continue reading → Read more »

Thoughts in motion

June 11, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

  (Image: Keep the thought in motion – Olimpia Zagnoli) Some strands from ocTEL are beginning to slice together today.  As a course team we are preparing for course planning next month.  We had a useful pre-meeting and have agreed to map out through all the modules of the course Read more »

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June 11, 2013
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Wrapping up Week 8: the E in TEL

June 10, 2013

Last week’s theme on ocTEL focused on a fundamental question in Technology Enhanced Learning: why are we doing this? In what ways is TEL better than other forms of learning? Many remain suspicious that it isn’t better, so we need good, robust answers to this challenge. If we’re saying learning is enhanced, what kinds of enhancement could we, and should we, be aiming for?

Contributions are still coming in on these question, so perhaps it’s premature to declare a ‘wrap-up’ — I certainly don’t want to discourage further thoughts — but Week 9 on managing TEL projects and risks is now under way, so a little clearing of the ground is in order.

The first activity kicked off with by encouraging you to review some recent examples of new TEL models that purport to make learning cheaper and/or more accessible, with a view to identifying implications for your own teaching and learning practice. Much of the debate tended to start from an assessment of whether these models are either inspiring or irrelevant.

Joseph Gliddon has a natty technique with his to-camera video blogs, demonstrated to good effect in his slightly dystopian extrapolation from Open Educational Resources to widespread job losses in higher education (do check the comments as well, presenting a few different sides of the argument, including a startup business: “We question the added value of a university and think that there’s more to e-learning than watching one-way video. We can do better and we will do better.” Hmmm, well at least there’s one bit of that we can all agree on.) Read more >>

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#ocTEL week 9 TEL project management

June 10, 2013 | alicesadventuresinedtech

This week is interesting as I wouldn’t usually describe my forays into edtech as full-blown projects!  However, I am involved in a bigger project due to planned rollout of iPads for various student cohorts.  However, this project is at quite an early stage so I am trying to take everything Read more »

Reading: Chapter 15 HEA / TEL – Learners in Control

June 10, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

As earlier postings,  the OcTEL orientation resources takes you to this publication: Transforming Higher Education Through Technology Enhanced Learning Publication Date: 23-12-2009 Available at http://www.heacademy...  I’ve put the full link in again after being unable to find it for 10 minutes!  The chapter 15 link is here too: http://www.heacade... I don’t know Read more »

Reading: Chapter 17 HEA / TEL – podcasting for pedagogic purposes

June 10, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

Chapter 17 by Newton and Middleton Podcasting for Pedagogic Purposes: The journey so far and some lessons learned http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/a... I really liked this chapter.  I think I was influenced by the early inclusion of CoP, Biggs’ constructive alignment and a whiff of ‘it’s not napster’ in the opening paragraphs. P236:If we aspire to a Read more »

Reading Chapter 16 HEA / TEL

June 10, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

Chapter 16: http://www.heacademy.ac.uk/a... higher education through technology-enhanced learning is about DeMonfort’s pathfinder project It describes how Web 2.0 technologies have transformed the learning context and argues for a debate on the challenges that have emerged. Case studies are also provided. Page 225: How can an HEI begin to make sense Read more »

Information Obesity: Why it’s not just about having too much

June 10, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

In the webinar for week 4 (I think) the term ‘information obesity’ (Andrew Whitworth) made sufficient impact for me to note it down, along with the term info-whelmed (see youtube clip: http://www.youtub... as I think we really need to give our learners the heads-up on this.  This takes me back (yet Read more »

ocTEL week 4 – resources (activity 4.1)

June 10, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

Activity 4.1 challenges us to compare resources.  I chose to do this using Jorum and open-learn.  I listed design thinking, textile testing and textile properties as the resources to search for.  Obscure but needed, this is no easy task… Design Thinking – neither did well, but I could take a Read more »

ocTEL week 3 – 3E Framework (Keith Smyth webinar)

June 10, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

I know ocTEL advise us to keep jogging along and I am already on catch-up from week 7 but I’ve decided to head back to week 3 in order to capture the 3E framework which I think is a brilliant resource.  I have just watched the webinar again and got Read more »

ocTEL week 3 resources – Best Practice Models for e-learning

June 10, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

From Keith Smyth webinar (ocTEL week 3)This page gives more information about the Best Practice Models project run in the Learning Development and Innovation team at Staffordshire University and details of how you can get involved.Helen Walmsley http… Read more »

[Event] ALT Scotland event – 20th June, Glasgow

June 10, 2013 | Jisc CETIS MASHe

On the 20th June I have the pleasure of presenting some of the work around open courses I’ve been doing as part of ocTEL. The event is free and has a great list of other presenters working on open education in Scotland The ALT-Scotland special interest group will be hosting Read more »

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June 10, 2013
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[OCTEL] Daily newsletter

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June 9, 2013
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[OCTEL] Daily newsletter

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June 8, 2013
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ocTEL Week 9 Webinar

June 7, 2013

Join our weekly webinar at 12.30 on Wednesday 12 June, via Blackboard Collaborate 11.

You can access the Week 9 webinar via this link.

This week’s webinar

In this week’s webinar we have two presenters from Imperial College London who will discuss their experiences of project management. Julie Voce will introduce a two-year institution-wide project to review and implement the new College virtual learning environment. Lisa Carrier will give an overview of a three-year Department of Medicine project to create and evaluate a blended multidisciplinary postgraduate programme. Both presentations will introduce the projects and the methodologies used and discuss topics covered during week 9 such as planning, risk assessment, key successes and failures, and lessons learned.

About the presenter

Julie Voce is the E-learning Services Manager at Imperial College London. Prior to this she was the Learning Technologies Support Co-ordinator at UCL and a Research Assistant in Computer Assisted Language Learning at UMIST. For ALT, Julie is involved with ALT’s Online Newsletter (http://newsletter.alt.ac.uk/), the ocTEL MOOC and was Co-Chair of the 2012 ALT conference. In addition she is Chair of the UCISA Academic Support Group (http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/en/groups/dsdg/asg.aspx) and is involved in the biennial Technology Enhanced Learning survey (http://www.ucisa.ac.uk/bestpractice/surveys/tel.aspx). Alongside her role at Imperial, she is in the second year of a PhD in Technology Enhanced Learning and E-Research at Lancaster University.

Lisa Carrier’s background is in psychology, pedagogy and management. Lisa has extensive teaching experience in Further and Higher Education, and in the last 8 years she has been involved in designing and promoting e-learning best practice in HE. In her current role as e-Learning Manager at Imperial College London, Lisa helps academic and clinical professionals design postgraduate blended curriculum. She has managed a number of projects in Postgraduate Medicine, which have become showcases for innovative education, and received awards for enhancing student experience. Lisa is a qualified coach and an experienced manager, with specific interest in change management and organisational learning.

We will make the recording of this session available via the Course Materials page.

Webinar help and FAQ’s

For help prior to the webinar and some frequently asked questions please visit our help page.

If you have any questions contact octel-tech@alt.ac.uk.

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#ocTEL week 7: your place or mine?

June 7, 2013 | Open Plan Publishing

I’ve not been the best at interacting with other participants on this course (mainly due to time constraints). But by the looks of it I’m not alone. The small group for distance learning forum, to which I subscribe, hasn’t seen … Continue reading → Read more »

#ocTEL Week 8 Enhancement

June 7, 2013 | The Virtual Leader

If you didn’t already realise it, I am a big fan of virtual learning, TEL, MOOCs, PLEs etc so I have enjoyed this week’s assignments – especially the videos about Saylor and Udacity.I admit I haven’t  really thought in terms of reducing costs as f… Read more »

Catching up , ocTEL week 7

June 7, 2013 | Jo Conlon #OcTEL 2013

I am a bit gutted at missing week 7 even though a holiday was lovely.  The running to stand-still feeling comes back too quickly, doesn’t it?  Anyway this week’s (week 7) content is my ‘thing’ so I am attempting to get straight.  I have reviewed the webinar but would have definitely Read more »

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June 7, 2013
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So they asked me to put my course on-line, now they’ve sacked me! #octel

June 6, 2013 | More than just Content

I was looking at the #octel video on the Saylor Foundation and my first thought was – oh there are no lecturers at all. This made me realise that a fear that academics have been telling me about for years has … Continue reading → Read more »

iTunesU vs OpenLearn: packaging matters

June 6, 2013 | E-learning Observations

iTunesU vs OpenLearn – the difference it makesocTEL speaker of week 8, Fernando Rosell-Aguilar, in his YouTube video, says:    –  iTunesU hasn’t led to much enrolment; it’s been great for the brand, though.    – By contrast, he… Read more »

Filtering Blogger posts

June 6, 2013 | E-learning Observations

Filtering Blogger postsFiltering my blog by a label, in this case ‘octel’:http://elearningobse... my blog’s RSS feed by a label, again using ‘octel’ for the example of a label:http://elearningobserv... Read more »

Response to the ‘one thing’ in ocTEL week 8

June 6, 2013 | E-learning Observations

If you only do one thing… Week 8Write down in short bullet point form a list of:elements of the Saylor or xMOOC approach that you think could be applicable to your context (what you’re involved in teaching, to whom, with what goals and constraints), andproblems you might anticipate with the Read more »

Viewing the ‘one thing’ in Octel’s week 8

June 6, 2013 | E-learning Observations

If you only do one thing…Task: WatchOption: 1: Saylor video Michael Saylor:”We’re reached an inflection point where it’s now cheaper to teach someone to read on a tablet computer than …on paper…. You’ve got this…Profound,Disruptive,E… that’s blowing through everything…””Our contribution is design” 12 Academic majors, including: Art HistoryHistoryPsychologyThe elective courses Read more »

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June 6, 2013
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Week 8 webinar recording now available

June 5, 2013

Thanks to everyone who took part in ocTEL’s weekly webinar yesterday afternoon.

If you missed all or part of the week 8 webinar, the materials from the session are now available on the Course Materials page, which is updated weekly with materials from each live webinar.

Join us next Wednesday at 12:30 BST for the week 9 webinar on keeping things on track and cheating Murphy’s Law. Check the Course Materials page for more information.

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June 5, 2013
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Free education part 1: Saylor

June 4, 2013 | Sue’s ocTEL

I found the 13 minute video about the Saylor Foundation and how they have developed 241 degree-level courses, available free of cost, free of accreditation and largely free of professors very inspiring. Of course the proof of the pudding is in the eating so to get a really good idea of what Read more »

Domains of Learning – ocTEL Week 7

June 4, 2013 | The Digitally Literate Learner

One of the Week 7 Tasks for http://octel.alt.ac... How you would you implement one or more kinds of support in some learning provision in which you are involved?· &nbsp… How would these meet the needs of your learners (you may find it useful to refer to any work you did on Week 2),·  &nbsp… Read more »

MSc in Learning Innovation #mscli

June 4, 2013 | Technology Enhanced Learning Blog

Regular readers will know I’ve been writing about what I think it is to be a Learning Technologist in a series of posts I’ve been calling ‘What is a Learning Technologist?’. Welcome to part 10 in that series. Read the previous part, part 9: ‘Ignorance is bliss?’ Part of my journey Read more »

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#ocTEL week 6: assessment for the longer term

June 3, 2013 | Open Plan Publishing

When you learn to drive, your instructor makes sure you know how to parallel park, do a three-point turn and an emergency stop. In other words, they give you exactly what you need to get through the driving test. But … Continue reading → Read more »

Induction Weeks

June 3, 2013 | Online Learning Online

Induction week.  Week Zero.  Course Orientation.  Different names for similar activities.  Course orientations can be such a critical time for students, they may even drop a course during the induction week because of a poor experience. (Jones, Jones, & Packham, 2009; Schofield & Sackville, Read more »

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