Do you have an interest in games, gamification and games-based learning?

If so we would be really interested in hearing from you, we are looking to put together a special interest group at UCL around these areas. The aim of the SIG will be to encourage interaction and discussion on these topics and others, ranging from research on games and play to their implementation within teaching practice (plus hopefully have a bit of fun along the way).

Please join via our Moodle page if you are interested in taking part along and we will arrange an initial meeting of the group soon.

A presentation by Rocío Baños Pinero (Deputy Director, Centre for Translation Studies), Raya Sharbain (Year 2 undergraduate, Management Science and Innovation) and  Mira Vogel (E-Learning Environments) for the UCL Teaching and Learning Conference, 2015. Here’s the abstract, presentation graphics embedded below and in case you can’t see that, a PDF version of those.

See also the UCL Women’s Health Translatathon write-up.

Recently two UCL staff from Management Science and Innovation (MS&I) attended a JISC workshop that covers learning theories and shows how technology can be usefully applied in practice using Scenario based learning methods. Matt Smith is the Learning Technologist for MS&I and came away with useful ideas that he has been able to share with his colleagues to develop technology-rich, scenario-based learning.

Sarah Warnes also attended the workshop and emerged from the workshop feeling enthusiastic about e-learning. She has since been granted an E-Learning Development Grant to develop a scenario based programme for her students in Moodle in collaboration with Matt Smith and a student developer. Sarah explained that every teaching technology “has to be about how it’s adding value to the learning experience” and not just used for technology’s sake. This point became even more evident during the JISC workshop.

The 3 day workshop is called ‘E-learning Essentials’ and upon completion participants receive a BTEC Certificate. “[It] teaches comprehensive techniques, methodologies and tools to enable you to confidently design, develop, assess and evaluate e-learning” (JISC NetSkills 2014).

The next workshop runs from 25th – 27th November 2014 at Euston House, London. Read more and sign up here: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/products/workshops/event/euston-nov14-elrness-r1/index.html

Find out more about the course…

Sources:

JISC Netskills (2014) E-learning Essentials: BTEC Certificate

Providing you with the skills to create high-quality e-learning solutions [online] Available from: http://www.netskills.ac.uk/content/products/workshops/range/elrness.html [Accessed: 18-09-2014].

Last month I attended a 3 day JISC Netskills workshop at Newcastle University entitled ‘e-learning Essentials’. Based on this particularly uninspiring title, I was prepared for the course to cover already well-trodden ground. However, I quickly found it to be the antithesis; within the first hour the unexpectedly inspiring trainer Danny McAtominey was making me think about e-learning in a way I had not considered in some time.

The course focussed heavily on learning theory and rationale with the first day spent entirely away from technology (in fact during the three days I did not learn about a single new tool or piece of software). We looked at educational taxonomies, instructional design cycles and pedagogical frameworks (the kind of diagrams I do not doubt we all have copies of but so rarely dig out and consult) and how these align with and inform course design.

So often it feels as though we are tagging technology onto current practice (technology enhanced learning?) and although this can (and does) positively impact teaching and learning, I can never help thinking that we are only really scratching the surface. Danny really helped to shift the focus away from the technology and a tool driven approach to the learning and course design. He put forward a very strong argument for scenario based, multi-disciplinary courses that put the online delivery on an equal footing with the classroom teaching.

Since attending the course I have been much more considerate and analytical when approaching even the most seemingly simple of requests from teaching staff; really thinking about the motivation behind using technology and how it may allow all types of learners to access higher levels of engagement.

In all, the course has at most changed the way I view e-learning or at least recalled to me a perspective I have held in the past (a little like being shown a photograph of a place you once visited). This being so, by the end of the course, I had revised my opinion and felt ‘e-learning Essentials’ was a wholly accurate description. I would therefore highly recommend it to even the most experienced practitioner, as much for the time it provides to reflect on e-learning in general, as for the content covered.

Please note, there are currently no workshops scheduled but I have been informed by JISC that there will be deliveries taking place at Euston and Newcastle later in the year and next year. More information can be found at e-Learning Essentials.

The archive for this year’s excellent Bartlett Pedagogy conference, MOOCs, e-learning and beyond: Exploring the future of virtual built environment teaching, held on 1 July 2014 at UCL’s Bloomsbury Campus is now open.

Videos of the keynotes and presentations / audio files of the speakers can be accessed at bit.ly/bartlettmoocs.  “This exciting conference brought together over 70 participants from across the UK, Europe, Australia and the US, both professionals interested in E-learning and MOOCs and architects/built environment teaching staff interested in the future of pedagogy”.

Although the focus was on built environment teaching and learning, participants saw a wide range of interesting and often inspirational ideas that will be of interest to everyone who teaches and is interested in the future of learning.

What does e-learning look like in UCL from your perspective? What is working really well? What isn’t happening? What frustrates you as an E-Learning Champion? What are you particularly proud of?

Following on from the recent UCL E-Learning Champions Summits and Horizons event, this session on the afternoon of Thursday 17 July is designed to capture the views and opinions of UCL E-Learning Champion in order to baseline where we are now and to generate insights into what the next phase of e-learning at UCL should look like.

The workshop will be facilitated by Professor Stephen Brown (above).  Stephen is professor of Learning Technologies at De Montfort University, a visiting fellow at the Centre for Distance Education at the University of London, International Programmes, a registered expert in Technology Enhanced Learning with the European Commission, former President of the Association for Learning Technology and a higher education consultant with over 35 years of experience.

The session is the first in a series of planned collaborative design activities that will ensure that key stakeholders are in the driving seat for the next phase of e-leaning futures at UCL.

This will be an activity based workshop in which participants will be invited and helped to draw a so called “rich picture” that depicts personal perspectives on the UCL e-learning scene. These rich pictures will expose inevitable differences in the way participants view things and the differences will be used to spark a debate about what needs to be done to take forward e-learning policy and practice.

No drawing skills are required to produce rich pictures and no preparation is needed for the workshop.  Just turn up and be prepared to share your thoughts with colleagues. We will formally invite Champions to participate next week.

This short Flash animation by The Open University provides an interesting Rich Picture about Rich Pictures.   (Click on Rich Picture in the top menu bar)

Bibliography

Bronte-Stewart, M. (1999) Regarding Rich Pictures as Tools for Communication in Information Systems Development.  Computing and Information Systems 6, 83-102

Bartholomew, P, and Freeman, R. (2010) The T-SPARC Stakeholder Engagement Model