In this series of articles, the Educational Technology team will be providing an insight into existing practice using technology for learning and teaching at Falmouth University and also at projects being undertaken within the wider HE sector. Our previous articles have looked at the process of Feedback and Open Education.As we enter the summer term it seems only right to have a look at the process of assessment. This time of the year is heavily associated with assessment as students hand in final pieces of work before the end of the academic year. As a University specialising in creative arts, the submissions from our students are as diverse as the courses studied, it’s our role as technologists to support a wide range of submission formats when it comes to online hand-ins.  As with 98% of Universities, Falmouth uses Turnitin as a tool for online submissions. Turnitin allows students and staff to check work for citations and text matches across a variety of sources including online journals, websites and books. Although the tool can be used to identify potential plagiarism it also allows students to understand how to correctly cite referenced work by visually identifying any text which has been matched to another source. Allowing students to view ‘originality reports’ in this way has received some criticism in the past, although others feel it’s a useful aid to develop academic writing.  In addition to Turnitin, a file upload function is in place at Falmouth University that handles a variety of formats submitted for assessment via the VLE. This can include data, image and video files and facilitates commenting and feedback from academic members of staff. In the past we have also used external media platforms such as Vimeo to handle assessed materials. In the case of Vimeo, students uploaded video content and tagged work with unique module codes so staff could easily search and mark material.As the methods for documenting, collecting and recording work diversifies, it’s our job as a team to ensure the digital assessment process is as streamlined as possible. We’re always interested to hear from other Ed Tech teams who have implemented successful assessment methods or tools, if you’d like to share a workflow that’s worked well for your students please get in touch!       

Over the last couple of months, we’ve seen the emergence and rise of two technology tools that are competing to win us over with real-time, on-demand, video streaming/broadcast with a social media twist. Meerkat and Periscope offer the ability for mobile users to broadcast and view live video from all over the globe with the added function of connecting with other viewers using Twitter.Both apps do similar things, but at the time of writing only Meerkat is available on Android as well as iOS, so we’ll be looking at the experience of Meerkat to begin with.Creating a new live stream on Meerkat will present you with a screen like this:At the top you see user and location details, across the video you see message details and at the bottom you have a few controls; post a message, switch on the flash, flip the camera and stop the stream.When you start a new stream, it will post a link to your Twitter feed and then when you make any comments you have the choice for them to appear just in the app, but also on your Twitter feed: Whereas previously, live video streaming apps have been designed around the Desktop use (Skype, Hangouts), Meerkat and Periscope are specifically focusing on the mobile experience, by having full screen video and a commenting overlay with just a few buttons for interaction.Potential Learning and Teaching ApplicationsI’ve written before about DIY Lecture Capture and these new apps offer similar possibilities for mobile users. With the addition of a Swivl for example, you could stream a live session and have an automated camera operator following you around the room. You could use this for CPD in the form of a lesson observation, have colleagues comment live with their thoughts/feedback.Live streaming might also be great for field trips. You could connect with other staff/students and potential students in real time and learners could choose to document the video through Twitter/Storify and discuss this when back on campus.These examples are off the top of my head, the technology is new and many streams will be of people’s kitchen’s as they get used to the app, but there will be educational practitioners already putting this technology to use, so if you have an idea or learning activity that might benefit from  on-demand streaming, get in touch with the team.

As the end of another academic year draws to a close it’s the perfect time to reflect on another years worth of teaching and perform some housekeeping on your learning environment module areas. In the course of the year external links to other areas may have changed and assignment briefs might have altered so it’s important to check your modules to make sure all content is up to date and relevant to a new cohort. The temptation might be to hide content or move it to the bottom of the page, ultimately this will become confusing for other staff and students in the long run so we’d recommend deleting any content no longer relevant to keep your pages looking fresh and up to date. As part of our archive process a snapshot of the environment is taken every August so there will always be a reference to past content if needed, a module’s content evolves from one year to the next so the addition and amendment of material is to be expected.For parity of student experience across the learning environment all modules should adhere to the minimum module content guidelines; further details and tips on how to implement these can be found in Learning Space.To add any new documents simply ‘turn editing on’ and drag and drop files onto the page, external links can be added by choosing "Add a resource or activity > Add URL". Section text can be amended by selecting "Edit this section". Detailed guidance can be found in our help documentation if needed. If you’re not sure where to start or would like some additional information regarding Summer Housekeeping please get in touch with the team - etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk  

Billed as a list which depicts "the smartest and savviest bloggers in Higher Education" the Dean’s list is an annual compilation of Educational Technology blogs from around the world.The 2015 list features many well known and respected blogs and we’re chuffed to be included, thank you EdTech Higher Ed!"The technology team at Falmouth University in the United Kingdom regularly blogs about the deliberations, musings and evolving thoughts on education technology. It’s a great peek into the inner workings of the challenges and successes within a higher education technology team."Here’s to another year of thought provoking posts and ponderments from the ET Team! 

Team ET have recently been considering how to get the best use from our data analytics so when JISC recently invited ideas for small projects to explore the advanced use of learning analytics we were ready to join in!With a focus on retention and attainment JISC were hoping for projects that would take the use of learning analytics a step further than usual … maybe using data sources not normally consulted or exploring the use of learning analytics in activities that would build upon the current understanding in this field.We felt this was a great opportunity to build upon work we will be doing next academic year, which involves supporting the co-creation of innovative, interactive resources by students and staff on the BA in Business Entrepreneurship. Students on this course have a large amount of theory to digest and then put into practice, Team ET were approached to see if we could help make this content more accessible and palatable! By incorporating the use of learning analytics we hope to provide students with an insight into how the resources they help create are being used as well providing teaching staff with information regarding how students work through the new resources. The hope is students will be active participants from the design of the resources right up to the analysis of their effectiveness, with data from learning analytics informing and guiding the process.Ideas were all to be voted on by members of the learning analytics network with the top 6-10 ideas being invited to pitch at the network meeting in Nottingham on 24th June.This week we received the fantastic news that the idea Team ET submitted has been shortlisted and Mark will be travelling to Nottingham next week to deliver our pitch. JISC aim to fund just three projects and we’re up against some great potential projects. Details about all the shortlisted ideas can be found on the JISC analytics blog, wish us luck!!

With greater access to educational resources online, learning will become a lifelong dedication for the majority of people. Sebastian Thrun, the founder of online course provider Udacity, describes the future of learning as akin to a "toothbrush technology", one which you will pick up, twice a day for five minutes and not just confined to the walls of the educational institution.If you’re a graduating student you need to think about the data that you have amassed and the resources you have created whilst at University, as it’s likely that you may want to reference it in learning contexts later in life. You may already be in the process of creating a portfolio of work developed during your studies, or thinking about setting up your online portfolio, so it’s important to take a backup of files that may be held on University machines or in Learning Space and also any data that your institution has amassed about you as a learner.First up, you’ll need to backup your files. Online/Cloud storage solutions are offered by a lot of the companies you’d associate with the web, like Google and Apple, but if you’re concerned about privacy and long term availability (and a bit more technologically confident) you could set up your owncloud. Here a list of some cloud storage options  and the benefits of each. In terms of backing up your data in Learning Space, such as forum posts, you might copy and paste the text/images into a Google Doc, which will immediately be available within your associated online storage. If you’re doing this through owncloud or backing up to a physical hard drive, you might look at pasting into a document that uses the Open Document Format or .odf extension as this is likely to be compatible with most ‘Office’ software in the future.If you’re in the process of developing a portfolio, there are a range of online options that will allow you to upload images and text and display these publicly. Each one will have it’s merits and you might look to see which is popular within your area of professional practice. For example, Tumblr is widely adopted by the art community and Wordpress by writers. Ultimately, it’s your decision so choose what best fits your workflow, but it’s advisable to pick an option that allows you to export your work, or at least keep an alternative backup so that you can remain flexible as the technology changes.The two lists associated with this post are public and collaborative, so please add any more tools that you are aware of to:Cloud backup/storageand/orBlogs/portfolio Services for staff and students

25th June 2015 saw the 3rd meetup of the JISC Learning Analytics Network; an opportunity for educators within FE and HE to learn and discuss uses of Learning Analytics across the sectors. The day focussed around ways that Learning Analytics support engagement, academic interventions and aid retention. We were also invited to present our micro project proposal, ‘Transparent Analytics to Support Co-Creation’ to a panel of experts to decide which projects were to be funded by JISC. Our project focus is around empowering students to be engaged in an informed discourse about the data that can be and is collected about them through a process of co-creation. On this occasion, we weren’t what the judges were looking for, but we are still committed to delivering a form of the project as planned.We received some really positive feedback from colleagues at the event that our student centred, technology agnostic and open approach was bold and sector leading and we’re really looking forward to work with other institutions and with JISC in Learning Analytics projects in the future.JISC’s Michael Webb introduced the architecture that they would support institutions with and the stages that they might want to get involved, presenting opportunities to make use of Open Source technologies that present a lower total cost of ownership for institutions, or proprietary solutions they may use already. As Falmouth are already exploring many of these connections it seems appropriate to get involved as early as possible in the project.Using these tools together, institutions can build a map of learner activity and make appropriate interventions to support learners.We also heard from Ed Foster, Student Engagement Manager at Nottingham Trent on their engagement dashboard, that draws information from a range of institutional systems and presents it in chart format for staff and students to give them an idea of progress.Ed encouraged attendees to explore the institutional issues they were trying to solve and promoted the idea that "learning analytics is only as useful as the action it instigates".Many institutional Learning Analytics solutions are top down and technology driven, Nottingham Trent have a student focus as well as an institutional one, which is a positive approach.If used in an open, transparent and ethical manner, learning analytics could drive deeper engagement in the learning experience for everyone involved in education. It’s encouraging that the sector is starting to shift towards a more inclusive approach and though JISC are only supporting the most popular institutional technologies at the early stages of the project, they are acknowledging the ‘other’, so that we find it easier to make use of modern web tools in the future.  

[Imgur viaMacgasm viaUbergizmo]It’s the height of summer; the rain is pouring and the last holiday is a distant memory or a faraway utopian dream. Dwell in your melancholic funk no further though colleagues, as the Educational Technology team invite you to a get together at cottage 8. Wednesday 22nd July 12-2pm(ish) sees the Educational Technology Bring Your Own Barbecue. It’s a chance to chat with the team about opportunities in the field of enhancing learning and teaching through use of technology, and to take some time out to have some refreshments. Bring something to cook stuff on, or just turn up and hunt for an odd sausage. It would be great to see anyone that’s on campus at this time of year. If that sounds like something that you might like to attend, then please sign up below and add it to your calendar. Online ticketing powered by Eventjoy

The beginning of July is synonymous with Falmouth University’s PGCHE Summer School; this week long event marks the final stage of the course and is an enjoyable few days for those taking part.Workshops, practical sessions and activities make up the timetable for the week, visits to Tate St Ives and the Foundation Art Studios were included as part of this years programme.Mark and I were fortunate enough to be asked to contribute from a learning technology perspective, in partnership with course lecturer Elfréa Lockley we contributed to two of the five days.The first session focused mainly on theories of learning technologies and how these can be applied as part of every day teaching. Participants were asked to Google each other as an introduction exercise which in turn produced lively debate around digital footprint and online identity. Participants were also introduced to David White’s Visitors and Residents model and invited to map how they engage with digital tools. Comparing where individuals felt they resided proved for some engaging debate and allowed the group to compare fluency with different apps and tools in relation to professional practice.  The day concluded with a quiz to gauge understanding and the promise of something a little different come Friday’s session… Fréa had previously used a Hunger Games style activity to engage her Creative Writing students and wanted to adapt the concept with a digital twist for the PGCHE group. This game worked on a similar premise as the books/film in that you had teams scavenging in an ‘arena’ and others in the ‘control’ with an overview of where the prizes lay. Mark and I had been working with Fréa to find a way to introduce a digital element to this scenario, finally settling on using tools as a means of communication between those in the arena and those in the control. Once a prize was found, claim could only be made by means of a photo, uploaded to a dedicated District1 twitter account. The Hunger Games activity used technology in a more immersive engaging way, with participants choosing their own apps to compete in the hunt for prizes. Reporting back at the end of the game there were comments on app functionality and the reliability of wifi on campus; worthwhile contributions and very relevant to student expectations of a connected HE environment.       All in all we thoroughly enjoyed being part of this years Summer School and will look forward to 2016! 

At a time when funding cuts top the agenda for most managers in FE & Skills and the common solution is to slice even deeper into depleted budgets. It makes even more sense to maximise the resources that you already have and is quite likely to be underutilised. For example, even if it was not […]