Professional highlights - looking back

Highlights of some of the things that I have done at Coventry University. These are of international, national and University-wide impact.

Accessibility in online learning and resources

Presented nationally and internationally on inclusion - accessibility and IT issues. I presented in the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London in TechShare. My poster presented at ITiCSE in Dundee won outstanding poster prize.

I presented a paper in Anchorage on work (Create interactive accessible e-learning) that I completed for CIPEL.

Asked to edit the Teaching Disabled Students guidelines.

The Naked Lecturer my blog won a University award.

I created Coventry University's guidelines on Inclusive e-Learning.

e-TALIA

Asked by Rosario Kane-Iturrioz to join the e-TALIA project which enabled me to work with European partners in their countries and to present results at conferences. The 2012 Universal Learning Design conference in Austria where I also chaired a session, had a gala dinner and I sat next to Evelyn Glennie.

studies have highlighted the need for enhancing language skills and intercultural awareness training of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) ...
The e-TALIA project seeks a greater understanding through transnational cooperation of the specific language and cultural awareness needs as well as of the learning culture of SMEs in the Hospitality and Leisure sectors. 

Canada 

I was a Visiting Fellow at the University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada for three months. Having kept contact with colleagues there and hosted a reciprocal visit from Alan Wright, Vice-Provost, there are also links being forged between some UWin students and Coventry University students of Forensic and Investigative Studies.

CUOnline

Student guides for the University's virtual learning environment - there's an archive for 2000 - 2008 of the guides that I wrote In subsequent years, guides went to single pages. I also wrote tutor guides.

I wrote and updated a Mahara e-portfolio guide for tutors and students.

Resources

In view of my imminent departure from Coventry University (I'm retiring!)...

Colleagues at Coventry University will be able to access my Mahara resources via the Mahara Group named Anne Dickinson's Group.

YouTube movies are in my channel.

There are many CUBA blogs but some are out of date. The Naked Lecturer has been reclothed and is in the Acdev site, but to date is still there for reference.

Other resources are in the Acdev site: http://www.coventry.ac.uk/acdev

Don't forget THIS BLOG!

Curve

The items that are in Curve digital repository (University Collection) are available for people in Coventry University to find.

Some examples:

Teaching Disabled Students (Edited. Open Collection)

Mahara e-portfolio at Coventry University - an introductory guide

Inclusive e-learning

Spring 2014 Technology Enhanced Learning courses

Other items are scattered to the cloud

Just one or two examples:

It's not about the Technology from Goanimate (Pirates no longer available)

Homework not handed in from Goanimate

PowerPoint Alternatives - using Spicynodes. Beautiful rendering of a mindmap.

Cricket Season from my Audioboo list.

Robert and Marvin - I rescued an example, modified it and it's in YouTube.

Thank you, USask

Dear GMCTE U of S:

I really enjoyed the TOOC "Introduction to Learning Technologies"...

listen to ‘Personal feedback for the TOOC 2014’ on Audioboo

It's not about the technology

Using an analogy of painting materials. Well I do use technology rather a lot but I'm beginning to realise that this is my favourite way of producing a blog. First, here are the items that I refer to in my message:
GMCTE UofS video that I use as a starting point
It's not about the technology - using the pirates in goanimate - by Yohohoho (me)
C4LPT Tools for technology in learning - a great resource

More images (Painting Materials and Painting Time) are below.

Here's my message - as an Audioboo

Here's the original message... handwritten and photographed using my phone

Painting materials

A young artist..."Painting time"

Mahara pages: formatting (in short: don't)

Formatting – students were asking re formatting ie font size spacing etc    I wonder if there is any guidance generally re creating pages/ blogs etc that we could share with students as guidance?

I received this question by email from a colleague and there were many others who were copied into it. It was in the context of creating Mahara pages and in particular, adding text entries such as Journal entries. So I thought that it would be of interest to more people than just those copied into the email. Here's my response... 

I'm looking at this from an accessibility perspective... 

The specific style that Mahara gives is there for a reason! For example, have you looked at a Mahara page using a mobile phone? Try narrowing the width of your browser showing the examples. Also, you should be able to enlarge the text yourself, as a reader, by holding down ctrl and typing + (ctrl and 0 will bring it back to normal size).

I would suggest that you say to your students: 

• Consider your readers and don't stop them from being able to make their own adjustments. 
• Concentrate on the content of the pages and don't be diverted into changing the appearance of text. 
• Don't change the size of the font to a fixed size because it may prevent your readers from changing it for their own preferences. 
• If you want to use headings in their text, use the heading styles that are built in the editor. This is helpful in signposting the meanings of the following paragraphs to the readers. 

Examples of Mahara e-portfolios 

(try viewing these in a narrowed browser window and larger text size)

http://mahara.ulcc.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=1 

http://mahara.solent.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=55 

http://mahara.ulcc.ac.uk/view/view.php?id=8 

http://mahara.tdm.info/view/view.php?id=4 

TechDis Accessibility

Note this is for printed (Word) documents, but is an excellent resource: http://www.jisctechdis.ac.uk/techdis/resources/word

Hope this helps!

Asking the question

I was preparing to share the delivery of a workshop entitled "Ask the audience". This has given me the opportunity to explore some different types of personal response systems that are available.

I decided to create one question and then see how it looked within each application.

This post is a discussion about the question that I used, what made it a good question and some limitations with the question.

The question

I created a map that included some of Europe. On that I placed arrows pointing to specific places with ABCD or E indicating the different places. One of the places that an arrow pointed to was Sochi in Russia. The question was: Where is Sochi?

What's a good question?

Let's take the Sochi example … what makes it good? Here are some points...

• The text is short
• It offers precise visual options
• The question can be used in other contexts as the arrows on it all pointed to real places, for example Moscow, Minsk
• It's current: I could add a prefix to that as "The Winter Olympics 2014"
• It doesn't offer too many options for response

What are the limitations of the question?

• Visual issue: I might need to explain where the pointers were without giving it away, for example, is it by the Black Sea? Is it as far north as Latvia? Is it in Belarus? And so on.
• Fortunately all of the response systems used images. However, one of them produced an image that was pretty small. In this case, I might present the image alone beforehand.
• It assumes that you know it's in Russia or thereabouts. I could have presented a map of the world and stood back to see where the answers went.

Response systems

Some response systems enable you to point to the location so I didn't even need to have put the letters A to E there. Others didn't enable the image to be resized; one in particular produced an image that took up less than a quarter of the screen.

Presenting - note!

Unless you wanted them to go to the Internet and to do a quick search the Sochi then and non-Internet system would be best to this.

Finally

The question that I delivered: where is Sochi is one that is a recall type of question, that is, one that tests knowledge. What I could have done was to ask people to apply the knowledge. Something that might ascertain their conceptual understanding or even a question that would test their knowledge and understanding. I could have asked them: if you were holding the Winter Olympics where would be the best location out of the 5 suggested?

I await comments from the workshop group….

(By the way, there follows a Creative Commons map that shows Sochi... it's one of the locations that is marked with a black dot!)

Why blog?

I think I should answer this question by speaking about why I create blog messages. 

I've used different types of blogs over the years. The ones which are the most successful for me are those that are easily accessible and where I can remember the password! If I don't remember the password, at least there should be a way of getting it quickly. I tend to think better onto paper, using pen and paper and (according to my old  school friend) this puts me into a certain age group!

Having said that, what I'm doing this occasion is using DragonDictate. This is the first time that I've used DragonDictate to create blog messages. But if I close my eyes,  hopefully the text isn't going to make too many mistakes. I've recently found that this software is better in recognising my voice than it used to be. 

I found that I need to close my eyes when I'm speaking, so that I'm not distracted by  the recognised text and all the text that starts to flow. Have you ever been in the situation where you've had an online conversation with somebody and you can hear your own voice on the system a fraction of a second after you have spoken? Well I think that it's very much like that. So closing my eyes helps with the flow of my thoughts.

listen to ‘Firemen, time difference, toaster technology’ on Audioboo

So I would suggest the first way that I recognise is the way that I can capture my thoughts quickly. so, in 2012, when I went over to Canada I had a little notebook that I wrote diary entries in and I felt again that things are better when I use a diary entry in writing. Then I had a little notebook with all these diary entries. Unfortunately my typing skills are such that I would not enjoy transcribing the information. Neither would I want just to take photographs of my diary entries because that's not very accessible. So I found Audioboo which was wonderful; it's like a voice version of Twitter. It's not taken off  so much as Twitter, and I would suggest that because of its ease of usage as well as the fact that people probably don't like listening to their recorded voices. So why aren't I using audio at this moment? One of the reasons is that I can adjust the paragraphs around having spoken into DragonDictate and is working with the text. Editing recorded speech is not the easiest thing to do. And I'm not typing at the moment very much because I want to give my shoulder a rest having damaged it recently. 

So… Going back to why I have created blogs in the past: where there has been a fixed amount of time in which to produce blogs for example enforced being in a certain location or as part of a course. In addition, I've used Twitter best during a conference, especially when I had been able to text for tweeting. However repeated texting by me who was not used to texting caused injury! 

I have also found that I've been successful when I've focused on the certain areas for my blogs. I don't intend my blogs to be read by hundreds of thousands of people, but there are very useful place to put things like my thoughts and also I've used them for responses to questions that I been asked, with the thought that I might be asked that question again and can refer people to that blog posting. 

I've also used a blog posting for putting resources for workshops or demonstrations that I have presented University-wide.

So, in conclusion, I would suggest the following:

How do you capture your thoughts the best? Dictate? Type? Pencil or pen?

Have you got an overall arching topic that you want to use for your blog posts? It helps if you do otherwise there's no aim!

And finally what's your own voice? If it's a blog it can be personal, so… it's your own voice! How do you speak? How do you explain something over a telephone to somebody in a telephone conversation? Your blogs can be as formal or as informal as you wish! 

It's up to you…

(And this is informal. I just thought of this out of my own head! So there aren't any references.)

Quizzes in Moodle

… is there any learning resource on how to set-up Online Test or Quiz on Moodle?

There is a lot of help within Moodle for using quizzes.

When you start to set up a quiz, you would turn the editing on and then from the Add an activity or resource option, click quiz. When you've clicked quiz, you'll see a list of useful information about the quiz activity. At the bottom of that list you'll see an information link that says more help. When you click this you go through to Moodle documents. This will automatically take you to the correct version of Moodle documents which is now 2.5 at Coventry University. Here you will find some information about how to set up a quiz in Moodle.  Here's the link anyway:
http://docs.moodle.org/25/en/mod/quiz/view

Gavin Henrick provides a useful introduction to Moodle quiz in his presentation on Slideshare. Note that some of the later slides show some hints and tips for the settings.
http://www.slideshare.net/ghenrick/moodle-quiz-presentation

In addition to that information, you will find several useful YouTube videos. Here are two examples:

The quiz activity by Moodle is actually part of the Learn Moodle 2013 series using Moodle 2.5 and it was recorded by Mary Cooch, who is known as Moodle fairy. It talks you through different types of questions and again is a great introduction to the quiz:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kziLSNK4MzQ


Creating a quiz in Moodle 2.5 by Japan Eric is very useful because it talks you through a lot of the settings:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_h1Gzm7Rh44

Tools for a Flipped Classroom - the basics

What is a Flipped Classroom?

Very basically, it's an alternative method of learning and teaching, where the classroom time is replaced from being a lecture and what might have previously been allocated as "homework" resembles that which is done in classroom time.

Here's some information that I've collated if you want to know more about the Flipped Classroom.

The result of this thinking is that tutors are creating resources to deliver in advance to their students.  Such resources might include podcasts, YouTube videos and collections of information.

However, what if you don't yet want to create your own materials? There are plenty of resources out there.

In the true spirit of flipped learning, this blog post gives you information about where you can look and some things you need to be aware of when searching the internet for materials. I would on request, be able to provide a workshop for Coventry University tutors who wish to explore this further.

Searching for resources - guidelines

So you want to search the internet for resources but need to be aware of some of the procedure and possible snags? This JISC tutorial, Internet Audio Resources is an excellent place to start. Similar tutorials are also available in the Virtual Training Suite.

If you want to know more about the copyright aspects of audio-visual use, here's some help from JISC Digital Media.

(Coventry University: you can ask your subject librarian. Note that CU has a licence to record some TV and Radio programmes too).

Open resources

Open resources are available for you to find. As well as examples listed in the JISC tutorials, take a look at inspirational words in TED Talks, Khan Academy for learning resources and, instead of YouTube, try TeacherTube. 

Coventry University Open Collection

CURVE digital repository has an open collection of digital resources (as well as an internal collection where staff can view and add items).

Creative Commons

You can find and use Creative Commons resources according to the licence. For more information, here's a wonderful resource from tagseoblog that tells you "What means Creative Commons"

Creative Commons Search - DIY resource

Finally, here's a YouTube video (quick and dirty, but complete with transcript) about how to search for a Creative Commons image and use its attribution.

Start it and stop it to see the captions options and settings. It's best viewed full screen and Settings - Quality in 1080 high density.


I prefer to do videos without scripts and in one take.

It was created using Snagit; Camtasia was used to add the additional labels.

Finally, the captions were automatically created within YouTube.  I only needed to perform some minor edits on it. It was excellent in working out what I said.

PgCert - Sketches

In preparation for the Pg Cert session that I'm delivering on 17th Dec, here are some sketches of things that might be in there:

My Prezis 

 Technology Enhanced learning at Coventry University -
 http://prezi.com/2qpkwxfldyh3/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy

 Finding Technology - includes my technology-wise criteria
http://prezi.com/kmnquf2e4rnz/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

  TIPS from the above

• Make it your own by using your photo
• Make it easier for yourself by using a template

A Source 

C4LPT Top 100 tools for Learning: 
http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools

Etherpad

From this I looked at etherpad.  It's like using a very simple wiki.
http://c4lpt.co.uk/top100tools/etherpad/
pick one of publicly available instances that friendly people from everywhere around the world have set up.
So I chose this:
 https://piratepad.ca/

Then I have to suggest a name of a pad that I've already started (or at least get everyone into one). Everyone/group needs to be in the same one.
Then I gave everyone a little exercise to do...

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013

Top 100 Tools for Learning 2013

Moodle Tip - New icons

For people with teacher access: if you're not sure what an icon does, then just hover your mouse over it - in Moodle that is.

There's a slight difference: the "pen in hand" icon's been replaced by a cog, but that's it.

More information on the new icons is here in Moodle docs

Introduction to blogs

Today I gave a half-day workshop to colleagues in Coventry University London Campus.

Topics

• Defining the purpose of your blog and its messages
• What is a blog?
• Best Practice
• Writing a blog post
• What makes a good blog?
• Twitter
• RSS feeds
• Components of a blog

Here's one of the resources that I created for the workshop. Its purpose was to show many links so I put it into a blog. http://introductiontoblogs.wordpress.com 

Blogs are excellent for showing links but if there are links on a blog, people visiting it may soon disappear! But I want visitors to explore the links.  And to do other things.

Add a picture to your profile

If you don't have an image in your profile, it shows up blank. Although you might prefer anonymity, it would enhance your students' experience if you added a personal image.

First, get your picture:

You might want to use a photograph. Unless you have a square image, you will need to crop the photo. Here's how you can edit the photo, ready for your profile :

Then add the picture to your profile in Moodle as follows:

1. To access your profile, click your name (at the top)
2. Then on the left, under Settings, click Edit profile
3. Scroll to User Picture, add your image (JPG or PNG) then
4. Click Update Profile at the bottom of that page

Using Moodle gradebook and assignments

Coventry University: This is a recommended procedure for adding your marks to Moodle and uploading them to Universe.

Summary of the steps to take

1. Find out the assessment components
2. Set up your online assessments
3. Does the Gradebook have the required columns?
4. Are the columns hidden until the release date?
5. Mark your assignments
6. Upload your marks from Moodle to Universe

More details and guides are in the online resource (CU login needed).
Briefing sessions for this are taking place throughout the academic year 2013-14.


The resource was created using Mahara e-portfolio.

My demonstrations and workshops for Oct to Dec

This is the schedule so far of events for Coventry University staff. It includes:

DEMONSTRATIONS

• Moodle 2 essentials for new tutors
• Mahara e-portfolio for your students
• Alternative presentation technology
• Using Moodle gradebook and assignments
• Moodle and media for beginners
• Communicating with your students using Moodle

WORKSHOPS / HANDS-ON DEMONSTRATIONS

• Your new Moodle Course: This is for course directors and tutors who need to edit courses
• Enhancing your students’ Moodle experience
• Tidying up your Moodle
• Moodle for technophobes
• Adding Content to Moodle2
• Moodle and Mahara with your Tutor Group
• Alternative presentation technology
• Moodle and media for beginners

I hope to branch out. Watch this space for a wider range of events...

LearnMoodle first experiences

It's great to be at the other end of a course!  I like the fact that the video could be played this morning - I was definitely busy earlier this week.
Oh - I'm on this Moodle MOOC...Teaching with Moodle. It started on the first of September and I'm catching up quickly. I have a badge already!  This version of Moodle (2.5) has the capability of giving out badges. So here's a reflection, based on the guidance suggested in the course:

• one thing we've learned
• why we consider it important
• how we can use it later
• which other questions it raises

I've found so far (compared with the Moodle I've been using):

1. There's an extra condition on the topic... FIELD.  Wonderful.
2. The editor for Page is different for the Description and the Content.  The number of times that I've put Content into Description...
3. The GORGEOUS dropdowns for the settings to de-clutter a page.

So one thing that I've learnt is that Moodle continues to evolve. The evolution is important because of the street cred of a system.  Technology is continually moving and this needs to be reflected in the applications that are available. It's great to see that Moodle is alive and continues to move. I'll be using this later to watch out for other snags that tutors might have that prevents them from using Moodle. I'm still thinking about the questions that it raises. Probably... if more people are aware of the wonderful facilities that are available in Moodle 2.5 then they will push for that to happen much more quickly.

Get another internet browser

If you have only used Internet Explorer (IE) to browse the Internet, you might like to consider some alternatives. Especially as the commonly used version of IE does not do some fundamental things that work with other browsers. You may like to know that according to GS Stat Counter, IE is no longer the most frequently used browser. Here are the most commonly used browsers, together with links to their download pages:

• Google Chrome
• Internet Explorer
• Mozilla Firefox
• Safari  (Mac and iPad users have Safari)

Portable browsers from PortableApps

If you want to use a browser that is self-contained (would run on a memory stick or an independent drive), there are portable versions of web browsers that are available here:
http://portableapps.com/apps/internet

All sites give free download and you don't have to log in or create an account.

Alternative Presentation Technologies - demonstration and workshop

This was first presented in September 2013 as both a demonstration and a workshop. In demonstration mode, the SpicyNodes was used.  For the Workshop, some applications were highlighted with the view of getting members to creates something, either from their own PowerPoints or from scratch.

So this time, the resource is a Mahara page. Note that I used one column at the top, three in the middle and two near the bottom.  Can you guess how?

September schedule

Technology Enhanced Learning events: September 2013

Here's a list of some of the demonstrations and workshops that I'm delivering next month:

DEMONSTRATIONS

• Moodle 2 essentials and new look
• Mahara e-portfolio for your students
• Alternative presentation technology
• Communicating with your students using Moodle

WORKSHOPS / HANDS-ON DEMONSTRATIONS

• Enhancing your students’ Moodle experience
• Tidying up your Moodle
• Holiday Reading Open Workshop
• Preparing to teach with Moodle 2
• Moodle for technophobes
• Adding Content to Moodle2
• Moodle and Mahara with your Tutor Group
• Alternative presentation technology

More information and how to book

Adding audio to a PowerPoint presentation

Adding audio to a PowerPoint presentation can be done but it needs some settings that are subtle, there and I often forget them.

Here are instructions:
https://curve.coventry.ac.uk/cu/file/50961da8-ac28-47e0-bc4c-284773dbf633/1/Adding-audio-PowerPoint-presentation.pdf
Coventry University only, I may make them open later.