Web conferencing update

As part of the current round of Distance Learning Fund projects (about which more in due course), we’re been looking over the last few weeks at which web conferencing tool best suits our needs in supporting teaching and learning at Loughborough. The 15-strong longlist of contenders included several tools which are already used by differentRead more

Web 2.0 for teaching and learning

There has been much debate in the HE sector recently about the use of Web 2.0 services to support teaching and learning. (Here is one definition of Web 2.0 on Wikipedia, itself one of the best-known examples of a Web 2.0 site.) We all know how popular social networking sites such as Facebook are with students,Read more

Lammy calls for technology to enhance student experience

[JISC Press Release]  Senior MPs for higher education called last night for better use of technology to enhance the student experience in a pre-election debate at the Royal Geographical Society. David Lammy, the minister of state for higher education and intellectual property, David Willetts, Conservative shadow universities secretary, and Stephen Williams, their Liberal Democrat counterpart,Read more

New JISC e-learning call

The JISC have just released details of the latest (5th) round of the Learning and Teaching Innovation programme and are inviting bids for up to £50,000 – deadline 19th April. More details can be found at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/fundingopportunities/funding_calls/2010/02/ltig5.aspx . Loughborough has a project currently in development as part of the 3rd round of this programme – ProjectRead more

Giving students the vote

A good example of a learning technology that’s gaining increasing favour on campus with academics and students alike is Electronic Voting Systems, otherwise known as Audience Response Systems or Clickers. Here at Loughborough we use the Turning Point system, which has the significant advantage of integration into Powerpoint which keeps the learning curve to aRead more

Recording lectures from your desktop

Just been working with another academic (Lara Alcock, from MEC) on the use of Camtasia to pre-record a lecture to be made available on Learn. There is increasing demand from academic colleagues for support in the use of screen recording applications, with Camtasia and Captivate (the Adobe alternative) being the most popular. I’m a realRead more

The Learn Suggestion System

Continuing with a long-standing tradition of being driven by demand and user need, we have recently launched the Learn Suggestion System. The system allows academic staff to make anonymous suggestions and comment/vote upon other people’s suggestions. This will help us to prioritise future development work, and give academic staff the opportunity to have their sayRead more

TurnItIn UK User group meeting

49 delegates attended, with more representation from the FE sector than before.  HE were represented by Edinburgh, Reading, York, Cardiff, Cranfield, Keele and Oxford Brookes as well as Lboro.  Cranfield have issues with the removal of student submissions, some of which are sensitive material.  If you want a submission deleted, the request has to beRead more

Thinking about podcasting?

If you’ve been thinking about the possibility of using audio podcasts to support students, you might be interested to watch an interview with Helen Drake, a Senior Lecturer in PHIR, talking about her experience of introducing podcasts to her Semester 1 European Union module. In this interview she talks about her reasons for introducing podcastsRead more

University Second Life Special Interest Group

Loughborough has an island in Second Life and members of the university’s Second Life Special Interest Group have been building on it. In these pictures, you can see a black-box theatre studio that English & Drama students can use to plan productions in the department’s Leonard Dixon theatre, its equivalent in meat-space. Below it youRead more

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