Teaching & Learning

Meet Maggie Philbin

LTI meet Maggie Philbin earlier this year

Next week, Thursday 12th November we have Maggie Philbin, CEO of TeenTech and former TV presenter, coming to LSE to give a NetworkED Seminar: Tea, Tech and Teens at 3pm. We still have a few tickets available for this event, but it is proving extremely popular, so hurry if you wish to attend.

I caught up with Maggie earlier this week at the TeenTech Awards at Buckingham Palace, where the winning student projects got to meet the patron of TeenTech, HRH the Duke of York. I was attended as a sponsor of the Research and Information Literacy Award, which was launched this year to recognise good practice in finding, evaluating and using information to underpin the project. I asked Maggie a few questions ahead of next week’s seminar at LSE.

Jane: Can you tell me a bit about what inspired you to set up TeenTech and why you think it matters?

Maggie: We set up TeenTech back in 2008 because I was aware of a yawning gulf between companies who were crying out for people with the right skills and a generation who had never had so much access to technology but hadn’t realised they could be building and innovating rather than simply using it. Setting TeenTech up as a collaborative organisation was very important as I’d seen so many initiatives working in silos and unwittingly undermining good work done by others. So TeenTech is all about bringing together companies and organisations who share the same aim of helping young people understand they very much belong in the world of technology and the skills that will help them take advantage of more opportunities. We work with some very brilliant people who make TeenTech very special.

Jane: What are some of the most inspiring products or innovations that young people have developed as part of TeenTech?

November 5th, 2015|innovation, NetworkED, Research Skills, Teaching & Learning|Comments Off|

‘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

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.

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

	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
	Read Law e-assessment pilot study Law (LL205 & LL4K9) Characteristics: Timed, take-home and typed formative mock exam Technologies used: ExamSoft
	Read LSE100 portfolio assessment pilot study LSE100 Characteristics: e-portfolio for summative assessment Technologies used: Moodle assignment
	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:

Guidelines for delivering student feedback in non-traditional ways (i.e. audio, video)

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|

An alternative to text essays?

Replacing a 2,000-word formative essay with a short video or visual presentation. That’s the challenge that Dr Sivaramjani Thambisetty set to undergraduate students on her Intellectual Property Law course.

But why do that?

September 29th, 2015|Student projects, Teaching & Learning, Tools & Technologies, Uncategorized|Comments Off|

Tea,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|

New features for 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.

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.

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) appears against the activity when the student meets the criteria you have set (e.g. viewing an activity, submitting an assignment, or passing an assignment).

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’.

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.

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|

‘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 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

#LSENetEd Tweets//

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

September 1st, 2015|Announcements, Events & Workshops (LTI), Learning Spaces, LSE 2020, NetworkED, Open Education, Teaching & Learning, TEL Trends|1 Comment|

Moodle training

If 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|

Don’t just copy: copy it right!

In a few weeks LSE will be rolling out a fleet on new MFDs (multi-functional devices) that allow printing, photocopying and scanning and I have been advising the project team on copyright issues. As part of this project IMT have a range of new marketing materials to promote copyright education across the School including posters, postcards and fortune cookies! This project coincides with some work I’ve been doing with my counterpart at the University of Kent, Chris Morrison, to investigate levels of copyright literacy among UK librarians and related professionals. Last week we wrote a blog post on why copyright is a fundamental part of digital and information literacy on the CILIP blog. We feel copyright education is often perceived as being dry, boring and all about telling people what they can’t do. We are trying to change that to equip people with the knowledge and skills so they can see how understanding copyright and licensing might be empowering. We worked together earlier this year to develop a new game-based approach to copyright education which has been transforming our copyright training sessions. Tomorrow at 2pm there is an opportunity for LSE staff to play Copyright the Card Game as part of an IMT Tech Talk. There is still time to book a place, so if you are interested email IMT.comms@lse.ac.uk. If you would like to find out more about copyright then also look out for the new guides to Copyright for LSE staff which are available from LTI from the end of the week. And do look at our guides to copyright pages. Queries and bespoke training is available on request. And don’t forget – don’t just copy – copy it right!

August 17th, 2015|Announcements, copyright, Events & Workshops (LTI), Teaching & Learning|Comments Off|

LTI meets…. Maggie Philbin

LTI have started regular lunch time catch ups with inspiring people who are working in the field of innovation and technology. The first of our talks was with Maggie Philbin, co-founder and CEO of an initiative in schools called TeenTech, an award winning organisation helping young people understand the opportunities available in Science and Technology. Some of you may also recognise Maggie from her presenting work on Swap Shop, Tomorrow’s World and more recently Bang Goes the Theory. Maggie is also Chair of of the UK Digital Skills Taskforce which published a report last July on the digital skills gap.

Maggie talked to us about why she started TeenTech; the programme aims to inspire young people, particularly those who might not have traditionally thought of a career in science and technology. She is passionate about encouraging girls and children from lower income backgrounds to widen their career options. TeenTech run events around the UK to bring in young people from schools to be inspired by those from industry, commerce and the HE sector. The TeenTech event in London which is held at the Olympic Park in December, is open to Year 8 and 9 students from schools across London and they have a chance to meet 200 scientists, engineers and technologists and engage in fun but highly participatory learning.

July 29th, 2015|Announcements, innovation, Research Skills, Teaching & Learning|Comments Off|

Our first SADL Graduate

Student Ambassadors for Digital Literacy (SADL) has now run for 2 years, coordinated by Learning Technology and Innovation (LTI) and the Library. It is aimed at undergraduate students and this year was offered to students in Statistics, Social Policy, International Relations and Law. Students were recruited to attend 4 workshops over the course of the year to develop their digital literacy skills, in terms of finding and evaluating information, improving their reading and research, managing and sharing information and managing their online identity.

This year four students who completed the programme in 2013/14 acted as Senior Ambassadors to help develop and teach the workshops and provide peer support for students. This year we had our first graduate from the programme, Seow Wei Chin, from the Department of Statistics, who had been involved in the project from the start and acted as a senior ambassador while in her final year at LSE. Seow Wei also attended several national conferences where she spoke about her involvement in SADL. Here she is pictured with Maria Bell, who is the library lead for the programme, on the day she was awarded her first class honours degree. Read Seow Wei’s reflections on her SADL experience on the SADL blog. Seow Wei recently told us:

“I am glad I joined SADL because I wouldn’t have known anything about copyright or any qualitative skills …. [SADL] really helped me a lot like research and managing information. It helped me through my second year. In my third year I am doing a half quantitative half qualitative module, so I feel more confident, being able to extract the skills from SADL to work on that. And I could actually teach others when they needed help as well.”

July 29th, 2015|Research Skills, Student projects, Teaching & Learning|Comments Off|