FOLEYG

About Geraldine Foley

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So far Geraldine Foley has created 68 entries.

How at home are you online?

How do you use digital tools? Are you constantly online and using social media or management tools to record your every action, or do you just dip in and out of online resources using them as and when you need?

Visitor by Bill Smith on Flickr

 

LSE students who have recently taken part in the Students Ambassadors for Digital Literacy project were asked to map their digital footprint to find out more about how they fitted on the Digital Visitors and Residents model (V&R).

 

 

 

Sofa

The students found significant difference in their use of institutional tools, such as Moodle, LSEforYou, LSE email and their library accounts and personal tools such as Google, Skype and Dropbox.

The exercise encouraged students to think about the overlap with these tools and perhaps how they could utilise them more effectively.

 

“Drawing a pair of axis, one ranging from Visitor to Resident and the other outlining the nature- Personal or Institutional, we populated the graph with various tools- social media, organisational, entertainment and fitness- from all realms of our being and analysing where we stand for each of them. This method of analysis offers a refreshing way of looking at digital engagement- capturing both the extent and the nature. It allows for subjective interpretation of each tool and hence is not limited by strict definitions. For example, I could put in Microsoft OneNote which I exclusively use for work related documentation.”

Simran map
However, it may still be too simplistic since it does not account for overlaps well and does not factor in the nature of some tools that are only meant for visitor purposes- eg Moodle. No tool could be on two extremes of a dimension without sketching it in twice- making the chart less succinct. Furthermore, there are other characteristics of engagement that could be factored in with more dimensions: regulated use, open source, within the personal space (entertainment or personal development). These are things we take as banalities and its not until we stop, think and categorise that we can alter and optimise our use of these tools and this would be the biggest takeaway for me from the task”

Simran Masand

 

“This process was stimulating as it was good to take a step back from our normal online activities and to understand the extent to which we personally interact with these services.  By creating the map, it was significant for me as I noted how we do not always need to act either as a “Visitor” or “Resident”, but rather, this model should be viewed as a continuum. For instance, in my map, I noted how Facebook, even as used as a residential tool, both was within the personal and institutional category due to the fact that I have joined LSE specific groups whilst also having a personal interaction with it.

Alex map

One point that I came away with from this task was the questioning the extent to which it is possible to be off the scale on the map (i.e. is it possible to be anonymous). However, thinking about this, even for users who may not login to services at all, they will still be classed as a “Visitor” on this model. Therefore, perhaps it is not possible to be completely anonymous whilst we are using online services.”

Alex D’Arcy

Most of the maps showed that students were more likely to act in a visitor mode when accessing institutional tools and behave as residents when using tools to manage their personal lives.  This indicates something about how students are engaging and learning at the LSE but also how these tools are presented to them by the School.  There is a wider debate about the place of personal tools such as social media in teaching, but perhaps some of the institutional tools are not being used to their full potential.  For example Simran mentions in her post that Moodle is “only meant for visitor purposes” yet in fact Moodle is designed using social constructionist pedagogy with the idea that learning is a collaborative cultural event which would encourage ‘resident’ use.  Moodle supports the use of discussion forums, peer assessment and feedback, collaborative writing, group submissions, anonymous Q&A, Wiki’s, blogs, and many more activities.  If designed well a Moodle course can encourage an online community which supports and extends beyond face to face work carried out in the classroom.

The maps raise several questions about how we separate out our behaviours and identities online.  LSE students appeared to leaving a large digital footprint with their use of external applications in their personal life but did not seem as comfortable in creating a professional persona on apps like Linked In or Twitter.  One of the aims of the SADL project is to work with students in order to discuss strategies to build a positive online presence and expand their networks.  Workshops involve sharing and testing online tools to see how they can be adapted from personal use to manage their academic work.

The student blogs about the workshop and more information about the SADL project can be found on the SADL blog.

Celebrating LTI’s Moodle men!

AwardThis week two members of the LTI team were recognised for their work at the 2016 IMT awards.

Chris Fryer the LTI Systems Manager was awarded ‘unsung hero’ for his behind the scenes efforts to ensure that Moodle is always up and running and working well with other LSE systems.

 

He is a very deserving recipient of this award as LSE Moodle has the highest rates of ‘up time’ across the whole of the UK compared to other HE institutions.  Over the last academic year it has been online 99.99% of the time, this means that the system was ‘live’ for all bar 42 minutes in 2015/16!

LSE Moodle has supported the running of 1651 active Moodle courses across all departments, the IPA, language centre, TLC, HR and LSE Enterprise (a 50% increase from the previous year and that doesn’t include those courses in the Summer School and TRIUM).  Moodle courses were accessed by over 22000 unique users and facilitated over 15.5 million ‘participating actions’ (actions where students and staff click to do something on Moodle).

His work has not gone unnoticed by those in IMT with staff recognising his dedication to the job:

Awards2016_CF

“Chris Fryer doesn’t seem to ever truly take a holiday.  Regardless if he is hiking through Italy or looking after his kids, if there is an emergency he will take time to fix it”.

 

 

 

In addition, our very own ‘Moodle Man’, Milan Popovcic was awarded “Excellence in Customer Service” for his work on responding to LTI.Support@lse.ac.uk emails.  Recent analysis of the LTI emails has illustrated that LTI responded to queries from every academic department, centre and institute across the school from staff and students alike.  Moodle is the most common query but topics also included questions on online assessment, the use of forums and social media, how to record audio feedback and requests for training.  The number of emails received has gone up year on year, with 4667 emails received for September 2015 to June 2016.

LTI support emails

Awards2016_MPMilan is often the member of staff that responds to these calls for help and was one of the most nominated colleagues across several categories with positive comments from customers and colleagues.

“Delightful manner, patience of a saint, really cares about helping academics with their problems, not just answering their queries but also developing them to help themselves.  Milan is a joy to work with”.

We are currently working on developing more resources and support to go on our new website which should be up and running before the start of Michaelmas term 2016.  In the meantime if you have any queries, Moodle or otherwise please contact lti.support@lse.ac.uk

June 23rd, 2016|Announcements, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on Celebrating LTI’s Moodle men!|

Student Innovation projects

CoGobstopperlightbulb _by Joe Loong on Flickrngratulations to the LSE students who came up with winning ideas on how to use technology to make life better for staff and students in Higher Education.

The Summer of Student Innovation competition asks for student technology solutions to improve education, research and student life.  Now in it’s fourth year, students are asked to submit a 2 to 5 minute video pitch on the Jisc Elevator website.  Entrants must receive at least 250 votes to go through to the development stage.  The 15 winning teams will receive £2000 of expert support, with the possibility of an additional £3,000 funding to develop their projects.

See the 2 LSE submissions below and view all 15 successful projects on the Jisc website

Augmented Reality App: to provide visitors and students with digital content enhancing campus experience.

 

Stutor: Get help from other students in the UK through our application.  Everybody can be a tutor!

 

 

 

June 22nd, 2016|Announcements, innovation, Student projects, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on Student Innovation projects|

‘Assessment and Feedback with technology’ project 2014/15

Over the academic year 2014/15 LTI have led several projects  in order to try and improve assessment practices with technology at LSE.

The following are the outcomes of the work carried out as part of the assessment and feedback with technology project:

Research

e-Assessment Practice at Russell Group Universities report Read e-Assessment Practice at Russell Group Universities report

A survey distributed to Russell Group universities to identify level of engagement with e-Assessment practice and factors conductive and critical to e-Assessment engagement.

Assessment and Feedback with technology at LSE report Read Assessment and Feedback with Technology at LSE report – please request a copy of the report.
Interviews with LSE Departments were carried out to identify the level of engagement with e-Assessment practice and understand the factors that encourage participation as well as barriers involved in this regard.

Pilots

A series of pilots with various departments to explore pedagogical benefits of assessment and feedback with technology 

Government e-assessment Pilot study report Read GV100 e-Assessment pilot study
Government (GV100)
Characteristics:
Timed, on-campus invigilated and typed formative exam, followed by online Self/Peer review and face-to-face Student-Teacher feedback
Technologies used: Exam4, Bring Your Own Device (BYOD), Moodle-TurnItIn (TII) PeerMark
Law e-assessment Pilot study report Read Law e-assessment pilot study
Law (LL205 & LL4K9)
Characteristics:
Timed, take-home and typed formative mock exam
Technologies used: ExamSoft
LSE100 portfolio assessment Pilot study
Read LSE100 portfolio assessment pilot study
LSE100
Characteristics:
e-portfolio for summative assessment
Technologies used: Moodle assignment
Moodle- TII integration Pilots  

Read Moodle-TII integration pilots report
Moodle – TurnItIn integration

  • Statistics (ST327)
    Characteristics: Originality checking
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration
  • Philosophy (PH400 & PH201)
    Characteristics: Originality checking, TII GradeMark
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration, ipads
  • Media and Communications (MC425 & MC419)
    Characteristics: Originality checking, TII GradeMark
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration
  • Government (GV100)
    Characteristics: TII PeerMark
    Technologies used: Moodle-TII integration

DECISIONS MADE for Moodle-TII integration: Where the Moodle-TII integration worked, the feedback was largely positive.  In the instances where the integration did not fully work, the issues identified were significant and cannot be ignored.  In most cases, workarounds provided solutions; however as a result of the relative uncertainty associated with the functionality of the plug-in, LTI will not scale Moodle-TII integration but continue supporting the integration in the form of pilots.  As such, the plug-in will be made available upon request to those who want to use it (i.e. teachers will have an opportunity of requesting the plug-in from LTI for any given Moddle course(s)).

If you want to take part in Phase 2 of Moodle-TII integration (i.e. use the plug-in for your Moodle course(s)) please email us on lti.support@lse.ac.uk

Visit our Moodle site for details of the Moodle-TII integratin phase 2, database of issues identifies and participating pilot users

LTI Grants

The following LTI Grant projects are related to e-Assessment. Find out more about the LTI Grants (e-Assessment innovation strand) and  LTI Grant winners or apply for an LTI Grant.

  • The social construction of human rights violations: e-Bricolage project,
    Pete Manning, Department of Sociology
    Use of peer assessment for an e-bricolage project, using resources produced for exam preparation and essay preparation.
  • From E-marking to E-feedback: training, applying and evaluation,
    Catherine Xiang & Lourdes Hernández-Martín, Language Centre
    Exploring new ways of marking and giving feedback (Moodle, iPads+annotation apps, Snagit).
  • Integrating offline marking and online moodle feedback using iPads,
    Ellen Helsper, Media & Communication
    Teachers using iPads and the Moodle-Turnitin integration to mark and give feedback on formative coursework (uploaded by students on Moodle).
  • Global perspectives via documentary and peer-assessment,
    Catherine Xiang, Language Centre
    Use of videos in continuous assessment with peer review of the documentaries created  – fully embedded in the continuous assessment.
  • Using film in urban planning analysis,
    Nancy Holman, Geography
    Creations of short interpretative films along with written work and presentation following fieldwork. The student produced films are formatively assessed by a panel of staff in the department. The films are part of the presentation students make at the end of the course.
  • Moodle-based group assessment for regression analysis using the R software,
    Sarah Geneletti, Statistics
    A project looking into replacing written report with a three part assessment: i)R Script ii) stats Moodle quiz iii)Moodle quiz report based on the analyses.
  • Electronic marking and feedback with iPads (Phase II)
    Lourdes Hernandez-Martin & Mercedes Coca, Language Centre
    Explore iPad apps to improve assessment and feedback

Guidelines

The following guidelines were produced to cover needs of innovative practic:

Testing and evaluation of technologies and tools

October 30th, 2015|Assessment, eAssessment Events, eAssessment News, innovation, LTI Grants, Reports & Papers, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on ‘Assessment and Feedback with technology’ project 2014/15|

NetworkED – Maggie Philbin – 12/11/15

image by Rain Rabbitt - Teapotty on display in V&ATea,Tech and Teens …

Introducing our next NetworkED seminar on Thursday 12 November at 3pm

 

When Maggie Philbin accepted a role on Tomorrow’s World in 1982, she had no idea what a life changing decision it would prove to be.  Immersed in a high tech playground, meeting inspiring innovators behind the technology we all now very much take for granted, it was a dream job.  It also gave her deep insight into what might make a difference to teenagers without any real understanding of where digital skills might take them and in 2008 the TeenTech initiative was born.  TeenTech now work with over 4000 young people face to face every year, giving them opportunities to explore their own ideas, turning teenagers into powerful ambassadors for science and technology.  Come and find out more. As Maggie says “It’s a great game but we need more people”

As always the event is free to attend and places can be reserved via Eventbrite.
All our talks are live streamed and recorded for those who can’t attend in person.  For more information, check out our YouTube channel.

 

September 16th, 2015|Events & Workshops (LTI), NetworkED, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies, Uncategorized|Comments Off on NetworkED – Maggie Philbin – 12/11/15|

New features for Moodle

Moodle

 

Moodle was upgraded to version 2.7 as part of the reset process.  The changes to Moodle are minimal and can be seen below along with some features of Moodle that you may not be aware of.

 

 Changes to Moodle

New text editor
Atto is the new default text editor in Moodle from version 2.7 onwards.  Clicking the top left icon (highlighted in red below) will expand it to three rows.

The previous text editor (‘TinyMCE’ shown below) contains additional font style settings and the paste from word button.  If you prefer the old editor you can select the TinyMCE as your default text editor from your profile settings.Tiny MCE editor

Go to Administration > My Profile settings > Edit profile.

Then select ‘TinyMCE html editor’ from the drop down list for Text editor, then click ‘update profile’.

Improvements to Quizzes
2.7 sees the introduction of new features to quiz question banks, including question duplication, moving questions and save changes and continue editing buttons.  The essay question now allows students to add an attachment with no accompanying text.

Improvements to assignments
Teachers can now comment directly on students work when they submit via online text.

Some features you may not be aware of:

Turnitin plugin

This plugin allows work to be submitted automatically to Turnitin, ( the plagiarism checking software ) directly from the assessment activity.  Teachers can then mark and give feedback using the Turnin GradeMark features.  If enabled students can also see their originality reports and use this information for plagiarism prevention training.

Student view of turnitin submission

 

 

 

 

This feature is being enabled to individual courses on request.  For more information about using this tool or to take part in a pilot please contact LTI.Support@lse.ac.uk or see the Moodle-Turnitin Integration Moodle page.

Activity completion

This can be set up to record the completion of various activities in your course.  A check (tick) Checkbox imageappears    against the activity when the student meets the criteria you have set (e.g. viewing an activity, submitting an assignment, or passing an assignment).

Activity completion

 

 

Once you have set up your assessments with activity completion details you can then set up the completion details for the whole course. Go to ‘course completion’ in the administration block and, select ‘Course is complete when all conditions are met’ and then select all activities to be completed.

You can then access a quick view to see if students have completed the activities in your course by going into ‘Administration’, > ‘Reports’, > ‘Course completion’.

Activity completion report2

 

 

 

 

 

This report can be filtered by course group or student name.

You can also allow students to view if they have completed each activity according to the settings chosen.

Student view of activity completion

To find out more details on how to use these features or if you have any other Moodle queries contact LTI.Support@lse.ac.uk

September 8th, 2015|Assessment, eAssessment News, Moodle, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies, Uncategorized|Comments Off on New features for Moodle|

‘NetworkED 2020: The London University’

What if all of London were a networked University?

What do we do when we gate-keep our spaces?  

What if everyone could work in everyone else’s spaces?

What if there were no tiny little islands in London?

Or, in a University?

Digital can be a mechanism for breaking down barriers-learning spaces are digital and physical. Let’s talk about the present, and see what it might tell us about what’s possible in the future of teaching and learning.

Introducing Dr Donna Lanclos

Donna Twitter AvatarDonna Lanclos is an anthropologist working with ethnographic methods and analysis to inform and change policy in higher education, in particular in and around libraries, learning spaces, and teaching and learning practices. She is Associate Professor for Anthropological Research at the J. Murrey Atkins Library at UNC Charlotte.

Her research includes how students and staff engage with the nature of information and knowledge, how ethnography and anthropology can be used as tools in academic development and can influence policy and practice in higher education, physical and virtual spaces in academia, and how technology impacts learning, teaching and research. She collaborates with librarians, engineers, anthropologists, sociologists, education technology professionals, architects, and designers.

Dr. Lanclos has conducted anthropological research on academic practice in libraries not only at UNC Charlotte, but also University College, London. She collaborates with colleagues in the US and the UK investigating the nature of learning landscapes and academic taskscapes, so as to better contextualize the behaviors that take place and problems that erupt in library spaces. She has conducted workshops for professional development at Imperial College, Kingston University, NUI Galway, Parsons the New School (NYC), and Carnegie Mellon University.

Details about this work and other projects can be found at www.donnalanclos.com

Dr Lanclos will be presenting a NetworkED seminar ‘NetworkED 2020:  The London University’ which will discuss these themes on Wednesday 16 September at 3pm in Parish Hall, room PAR.2.03.  The event is free to attend and places can be reserved on Eventbrite

Tweet your questions and join the debate #LSENetED

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The recording of the event can be found on the LTI Youtube channel

Moodle training

LSE_stock_2015-08_eva-photography_resizedIf you are a Moodle editor and would like some support with redesigning or updating your Moodle course LTI are running various sessions on:

Moodle basics training – for a basic introduction to updating and editing a course in Moodle.

Moodle refresher training – a flexible session covering any Moodle topic that you would like assistance with (users should have completed Moodle basic training).

Moodle quiz training – an introduction to creating quizzes (users should have completed Moodle basic training).

Click on the links above or log in to the Training and development system to book a place.

Preparing for the new academic year

See our checklist on preparing courses

Remember that once you have prepared your course you need to make it available to students.

August 20th, 2015|Announcements, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Moodle training|

End of year arrangements for Moodle

Each year, Moodle courses are reset to remove old student data and make the courses available for the next cohort of students.

This year Moodle will be reset on 18th August 2015 for the majority of courses, and on 15th September 2015 for courses used to submit dissertations.

Students will not have access to any materials from 2014/15 courses through Moodle after these dates.  You must have downloaded any materials you wish to keep before the relevant reset date for your course.

See the LTI ‘Moodle end of year arrangements’ page for more details.

August 4th, 2015|Announcements, Tools & Technologies|Comments Off on End of year arrangements for Moodle|

Interview with Dr Suki Ali about course design and LTI grants

rsz_1ltig-logoLTI grants allow academics and students to integrate the use of new technologies in teaching and learning.   We are currently accepting applications for projects for the academic year 2015/16.

In order to get people thinking about how they could use the grants to innovate their courses we spoke to USSC Chair Dr Suki Ali about her experience and advice regarding innovative course design.

Q1. As Chair of the Undergraduate Studies Sub Committee (USSC) you see all new course proposals for Undergraduate students at the school.  What type of innovative course designs or uses of technology have impressed you most?

I’m most impressed by the willingness of people to try new things and to think about different forms of teaching and assessment.

“I am most impressed by courses that have moved to include active modes of learning and which employ less traditional models of assessment.”

There is of course great variety of teaching and assessment practices across the disciplines, so it’s not like only one stands out.  I am pleased to see courses that have moved to include active modes of learning and which employ less traditional models of assessment.  You can tell they’ve been thought through!  I like seeing course proposals with a clear rationale that informs the whole course design, including the aims of the course, the learning outcomes and the final assessment, and which incorporate feedback properly, from formative tasks to summative assignments. Those courses also utilise technology to engage students in creative ways and to enable giving more comprehensive feedback to students.  For example I think there are exciting possibilities for e-portfolio assessment which ask students to build their work in a formal way over the span of a course.

Q2. Have you noticed any trends in course design (including assessment) between departments and over time?

Yes, there appears to be an increased number of half unit courses which reduces the amount of contact time that students receive and makes the issue of getting students to engage early on and attend even more vital.  There has also been a move away from the traditional model of 100% exam and towards more essay assessment and some new types of assessment.  New course designs from many departments have included assessment such as projects and case studies or group work.

Q3. What are the key challenges and opportunities in creating innovative course design? 

One of the key challenges is being aware of inclusivity issues when designing courses and reconsidering or rethinking forms of assessment.  It is extremely important to involve students and explain why they are they being asked to complete tasks and how they meet the aims of that specific course.  Students need to be given guidance and support particularly with regards to alternative forms of assessment that they may not have experienced before.  You need to give students freedom to take risks and get excited about learning but you can’t make assumptions about what they already know.  It can raise anxieties if it is not clear what is what is expected of them.

One of the key opportunities is to explore possibilities to refresh and innovate your own teaching.  You shouldn’t be afraid of making changes as there is lots of support and guidance to help in the process.  Also I would point out that innovation doesn’t have to be on a huge scale as quite small changes can make a big difference to the students’ experience of a course.

“One of the key opportunities is to explore possibilities to refresh and innovate your own teaching”

Q4. What advice would you give to those thinking about submitting an LTI grant application?

I suppose it goes back to the first question, about good course design.  Innovation and technology should be appropriate to a need, don’t just try and fit something in, go back to the course design and ask yourself what are the course aims? Do your learning outcomes match the aims? and how are you assessing the learning outcomes?  Then consider how this changes for each stage of learning.  Innovation should not be a ‘stick’ to beat people with, but something useful that enhances learning experiences and outcomes.

Course design does involve some trial and error so you perhaps use formative tasks to test out alternative forms of assessment and lessen the risk to students as you find out what works before making changes to summative assessment.

LTI grant applications  now open until Friday 29th May.

More information about the different types of LTI grant projects can be found on the grants section of the LTI blog or by clicking on the images above.

 

May 19th, 2015|Announcements, innovation, LTI Grants, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies, Uncategorized|Comments Off on Interview with Dr Suki Ali about course design and LTI grants|