Realising the Benefits

The previous post of images from our recent conference uses a number of web2.0 technologies. Practice what we preach is the mantra in our office and I'm rather pleased with myself having uploaded to Flickr and embeded the slide show in my Blog. It's a slick way of doing things and means that our collection of images can be used in a variety of different ways. Hope you enjoy them.

Flickr photstream from Realising the Benefits conference

A banking scheme that's paying off

"Very useful, informative & motivational"

Last week we finished the initial phase of our Bank on Success project based training initiative with 35 individuals taking part over the 4 days we ran our workshops.

The deal that in exchange for a free training day delegates would send back 2 x 10 question assessments seems to be a sound model and we'll be busy processing everyones' hard work and putting them on our web site over the next 6 weeks or so. These assessments just keep rolling in!  In fact the enthusiasm was such that many participants managed to complete one of the assessments on the day. We were also able to include images and hyperlinks in questions and feedback  using the template used for question design.

"An excellent session - I feel entirely confident that I could now go back and develop e-Assessments and also show the rest of my staff group how to go about it"

The opportunity to consolidate new skills learned on training days provided by the project model is what it's about really with the bank of questions that will become available to the sector an additional positive outcome but not an end in itself.

The feedback has been very encouraging and we'll be rolling the concept out in the new academic session so if you're from an institution we support in the West of Scotland and interested in finding out more about e-Assessment contact me or support@rsc-sw-scotland.ac.uk and we'll keep you informed.

"Just the right mix of theory & practice"

Creative Commons - The answer to our Copyright prayers?

While delivering a briefing on copyright recently I realised that copyright had not featured on my Blog. The danger when talking to staff about copyright issues associated with digital resources is that in effect you cannot copy and paste anything from the Internet without breaching copyright law. Case closed - and that's not what staff want to hear!

Our approach here at the RSC however is to focus on how you can find resources that you are at liberty to use. Creative  Commons (CC) is a not for profit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright and for me has become the most useful tool to use to help find materials that you can use. Essentially Creative Commons allows you to assign usage rights to your work before it is published indicating how your work can be used. Unless this, or something similar, is done the default position is that the work is copyright as soon as it is published to the web.

Google (for websites) and Flickr (for images) now have advance search tools which allow you to filter your search to resources which have a Creative Commons licence already assigned. You should click on the CC icon and read the licence but really all 4 licences do tend to cover use in the mainstream, non-commercial education sectors with just a simple attribution note.

Advanced search in Google:click advanced search / enter your search term / expand date and usage rights section / choose one of the 4 appropriate usage terms that suits you needs. All 4 reflect the CC licences.

Advanced search in Flickr: enter your search term / click search / then choose advance search / check box that says "Only search within Creative Commons-licensed content".

The returns you get using either of these techniques will provide you with materials that you can use without breaching the copyright legislation but you should check out the CC license terms for every resource you find.

It is worth noting that you may not be in a position to assign a creative commons licence the work you develop yourself for your students as the intellectual property rights are likely to rest with your employer. Check it out

http://creativecommons.org/

How Creative Commons works

JISC Legal Webcast on “Digital Copyright with Confidence”

Banking on Success

We've started to roll out our latest project based training initiative this week with a full house at the first of our 4 sessions. I enjoyed the day. It's good to work with teaching practitioners again as these days I seem to have had more contact with curriculum managers and senior staff in our supported institutions and it's good to get back to my roots.

Bank on Success is aimed at showing staff the most painless way to create eAssessments that can be uploaded and integrated into their learning platform. In fact processing and uploading can be quite a tedious operation that follows routine procedures that I'm not sure many teaching staff would want to do. The focus of our project is on the design of good, reliable eAssessments rather than the technicalities of getting them to work ( in my opinion a task more appropriate for a learning technologist unless the lecturer is a hybrid model with sufficient skills to ensure that ROI time-wise is practicable). Demonstrating the processes involved though is undoubtedly helpful to staff and allows them to see what's involved from start to finish.

If I'm honest I think e-Assessment is something that we've struggled to support effectively. Perhaps it's the term that puts people off as we've had plenty of offerings over that last couple of years but not many takers. In terms of learning materials it really is (technically speaking) eAssessment that provides interactivity. Looking at materials, even those that include multimedia is a rather passive activity and it is the activities such as web-quests, crosswords and quizzes that engage learners and provide the interactivity. All are technically forms of eAssessment. Maybe finding and alternative name for these types of activities that form such a critical part of the learning process is needed. I'll get my thinking cap on!

Anyway feedback from the day was great and my colleagues and I are greatly encouraged by the positive response we've had to the initiative so far.

Bank on Success - more information