Digital Tools for Learning

If you’re on campus next week, why not visit our ‘Digital Tools for Learning’ stands in the Library, James France and the Student’s Union between 12-2pm. Come and tell us what your favourite digital tool is and give us feedback about your experience with Learn – don’t forget to grab a freebie from us too! Below are the details of the dates and locations for the Digital Tools for Learning stands:

  • Monday 23rd – Library
  • Tuesday 24th – Students Union
  • Wednesday 25th – Library
  • Thursday 26th – James France
  • Friday 27th – Library

If you can’t make it to any of the stands, you can still contribute by answering a simple question here about your favourite online resources.

That’s not all! The library is hosting a workshop on ‘Learn Smart with Lynda, Digital Tools and Apps’ on the 27th April from 12-1pm. Click here to book now.   This session will introduce you to a range of web tools and apps which will help you with your studies:

  • Learn about the free online video tutorials available from Lynda.com
  • Discover a variety of apps which will help with all sorts of tasks from communicating and collaborating to problem solving and analysis

Creating online resources: a look at tools used across campus to create interactive materials

Seminar Room 1 Pilkington Library 22 April 12.30-2.00

 

There are many ways to engage students these days from using voting tools in lectures to an interactive video with embedded quiz housed on Learn.

 

This joint CAP / Library event is an opportunity to hear about a range of tools you can use to create online resources. Speakers include Rachel Challen from Loughborough College who will talk about Articulate, Geoff Hodgson from Civil and Building Engineering on Camtasia, and Phil Wilkinson-Blake from the Business School who will talk about developing materials for the Futurelearn MOOC platform.

 

Whether you are new to all this or are interested in who is using what on campus you will have the opportunity to hear from experienced practitioners as well as engage in group discussions.

 

Light refreshments will be provided.

 

Please e-mail CAP@lboro.ac.uk if you’d like to attend so we know numbers for catering

Showcase Success!

We’re pleased to report that the E-Learning Showcase yesterday was a raging success, and that the Library stands have never been busier – we even had people lining up to discuss copyright with us at one point!

The stands covered copyright and e-learning, development of students’ academic skills and in particular the Academic Practice module, encouraging students to read for academic purposes, and plagiarism avoidance. 

If you missed the event (shame on you!) but have any concerns about any of the topics covered, don’t worry – you can catch up by contacting your friendly neighbourhood Academic Librarian. The photograph above shows but a small selection from our extensive knowledgeable & cheerful range!

Visit the Library stand at the E-learning Showcase on Wednesday 1st February – Win A Kindle!

If you would like to discover how the Library can help your students further develop their academic skills, avoid being a plagiarist or undertake more effective reading to suport their studies, then visit our stands at the annual staff E-learning Showcase, E-learning Essentials on Wednesday 1st Feb from 11.00 am – 2.00 pm in Keith Green Building.

Prior registration is NOT required and a buffet lunch including hot and cold drinks – and wine – will be provided.  In addition to the Library, there will be a  range of stands, poster presentations and live demonstrations on other e-laerning trends, so whether you’re interested in finding about more about the ReVIEW lecture capture system, or you have a specific query about Learn, this event is for you.  As you may be aware, the University is planning to migrate Learn this summer from Moodle Version 1.9 to Version 2 which is a major upgrade, so there will be colleagues from the E-learning Systems team in IT Services on hand to answer your questions and give you a sneak preview of some of the new features.

Professor Chris Linton, Provost and DVC, will be giving a welcome at 11.30. At 1pm there will be a half-hour debate on the future of e-learning in HE in the context of rising fees and student expectations. The debate will be introduced by a short ReVIEW video presentation by Jayde Savage, VP Education of the Students’ Union.

And in case the subject of this announcement caught your eye – if you come along with your business card and have it stamped by 5 or more stands, you can enter a prize draw for a new Kindle e-book reader!

A Year in the Life of an Undergraduate

 The first year in the life of every new undergraduate can be a heady time of confusion and uncertainty (mixed with a little fun… and learning, of course!). So we in the Library have come up with something that we hope will help new students navigate between milestones during the formative twelve months of your tenure.

A Year in the Life of an Undergraduate is a time-line that recreates the likely course of a first-year undergraduate, highlighting key events and periods and where the best places are to go for help with them. Charting not just academic events such as term & exam times but social and Student Union events, we hope this will prove to be a handy guide for all new students (and maybe a few old ones too!)

The time-line has been created using the Make History E-timeline Authoring Tool (or Make History for short), which is a software package developed by e-Learning and History staff at Loughborough University. We’ll be updating it as & when new & relevent information is made available, and we’re very keen to get your feedback too, so feel free to post your comments using the link below.

The time-line is available via Learn and directly via this link. To find out more about the Make History tool, visit the e-Learning blog here.

Library well represented at excellent e-learning showcase

e-learning showcase 2011The e-learning showcase gave the Library a wonderful opportunity to highlight how we can support learning and teaching across campus, especially in relation to:

* the new version of the online reading list system

* use of QuestionMark Perception to assess students understanding of information handling and plagiarism

* e-readers and how they may be used in an academic environment.

If you want to know more, why not contact your Academic Librarian?

We also learnt about the exciting intiatives happening elsewhere around campus, so if you didn’t make it, why not come to the next one?

Creating an online assessment test: e-learning showcase, 12 January

Last semester saw a collaborative initiative between English and Drama, the Library and E-Learning. As a result, a three-part, fully revamped online assessment test has been successfully incorporated into the First Year programme for undergraduates. The main aim of the test is to raise student awareness of what constitutes plagiarism and how to avoid it, as well as ensuring familiarity with the Library’s resources and services. If you’d like to learn more about how this was achieved (warts and all!) come along to the E-learning showcase on Wednesday January 12th 11:00 to 3.30 in the James France building where a series of demonstrations and case study presentations will be taking place in CC011/CC029a.