Events

We regularly run internal and external events about technology enhanced learning. You can read about some of these here.
I just wanted to thank you so much for the [UoL UXG] meeting today… It was such a breath of fresh air to have you facilitating in a direction that acknowledged the challenge but also focused on actual action.”
​Participant, King’s College London
BLESS Meeting
3 December 2019

Staff working in libraries across the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange and beyond came together to look at current best practice with Xerte and H5P for content creation.   Below are some useful notes and links taken at the event.
Demos of Xerte by Peter Leffek (BBK) and H5P by Ben Audsley (Queen Mary)
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Xerte
  • Developed by a team at Nottingham University it is open source software, and has been around for more than ten years.
  • You can upload SCORM package into MOODLE and if you use quiz then the results can be captured in the Gradebook
  • Does have a learning curve to become familiar with it and start to produce interactive content
  • You can create an individual account and start using it straight away, a well developed community of users, with detailed documentation and variety of learning objects with interactivity.
  • Xerte is great for accessibility, see the accessibility guide 
  • Bootstrap template is equivalent to creating a website
  • Xerte online toolkit can be embedded into Bootstrap
  • Quick Marks (category) can be used to link to other objects from the feedback
  • It is easy to update learning objects 
  • Peter Leffek’s presentation  

H5P
  • Free, open source software, the H5P Forum is very responsive
  • H5P stands for HTML5 Portable!
  • There are upto 50 content types to choose from
  • Content can be reused and uploaded elsewhere
  • H5P integrates into MOODLE Gradebook
  • MOODLE 3.8 H5P is part of the core build
  • H5p.org - can create an individual account and has good examples and detailed documentation 
  • Learning curve is almost non-existent in learning to use this tool
  • In MOODLE you would select activity type (H5P) and then select content type (50 to choose from)
  • Note from Ben: “As I mentioned, I also have a course on H5P and Moodle on Udemy.com which shows learners how to create and use every content type in H5P - This link to the Udemy course will allow anyone to enrol in this course.
  • Ben Audsley’s presentation

The BLESS group discussed the demos and what these could be used for, the following points were made.
  • Interactive information literacy teaching for face-to-face session and independent learning
  • Research data management
  • Other content that needs to be taught but considered ‘dry’ e.g. academic integrity, citation methodology, etc.
  • There was a query as to whether H5P can be embedded into LibGuide and the answer is yes you can.

Next session:  Spring Term 2020

Pop up session 
Julian Bream is considering arranging an event to bring together learning technologists and librarians to reshape the conversation around learning technology. We agreed that this would be of interest.  Julian will keep us informed as this develops.

Useful Links
Accessibility Regulations and Institutional Websites
4th July 2019

This term's meeting of the BLE/UoL User Experience Group focused on the the impact of the new accessibility regulations on the websites managed by our institutions. Huge thanks to our speakers and all who participated. Please find below the recording of the meeting, the slides that were presented, and links to some useful materials that were referred to during the meeting (thanks again for those who have contributed to the list!).

Meeting recording (2 hours)
Presentation slides
Setting the scene: Fiona Strawbridge, UCL (Accessibility Regs overview)
Kings Online Accessibility Compliance: Danielle Johnstone, KCL

Useful links referred to during the session: ·         Mathematic resources:  
Online course from UCL
  • UCL has a 2 hour hands-on course covering Word, PowerPoint, Excel and PDF creation (in Word and PowerPoint).
  • The materials are available on the ISD Digital Skills Development Moodle course https://moodle-1819.ucl.ac.uk/enrol/index.php?id=10049 
  • You can get guest access using the code dsdguest if you don’t have UCL credentials.
  • The materials are all in the ‘Creating accessible documents’ topic.
  • They’ve created a quick guide with a checklist of things to do and a resources sheet and there are some files for people to play around with. 
    Anything with the word BEFORE in the title has accessibility issues that have deliberately been added for people to fix.
  • Contact Caroline directly if you have any queries: caroline.norris@ucl.ac.uk
 
Free events coming up – both on 18th July:
Twitter feed from the meeting:
BLE Webinar: Group Mentoring
25th June 2019

Purpose
The purpose of this webinar was to share the method employed at LSHTM to recruit and train alumni mentors in order to enhance students’ learning experience. This has transferability across different HE contexts.
 
Aims of the session
  1. To present key findings from the group mentorship scheme in which alumni support Public Health MSc students undertaking a research project via distance learning through LSHTM
  2. To discuss the relevance for other contexts of the transferable lessons learnt
  3. To outline and share resources (e.g. mentor training slides www.bit.ly/m150319, code of conduct and template emails) that may be adaptable to other contexts
  4. To gain insights from participants on whether these resources are useful / adaptable to different contexts, and whether this mentorship scheme is likely to be transferred elsewhere

​Webinar recording
Resources
MOOC Delivery for Beginners
21st May 2019

This workshop was aimed at staff who are prospective MOOC developers; colleagues who are keen to design and develop a MOOC but were not sure quite how to start or where to go for help. The objective was to share experiences and top tips from own BLE group of MOOC developers. 

Our agenda for the afternoon was as follows:
 
Welcome & Intro (Sarah Sherman, BLE)
Activity: why are you here?
Case Study 1: MOOCs at LSHTM (Josie Gallo, LSHTM)
Case Study 2: MOOCs for Global Eye Health (Sally Parsley, LSHTM)
Case Study 3: MOOCs – Some Perspectives (Tim Neumann, UCL Institute of Education)
Case Study 4: Collaborative MOOC Delivery for Beginners (Eileen Kennedy, UCL Institute of Education)
Activity: Getting started
Wrap-up
(Illustrations from the workshop, courtesy of Sam Martin from SOAS)
Addressing the Accessibility Regulations for the VLE
20th May 2019
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This workshop focused specifically on addressing how to make our Moodle instances and content comply with the new accessibility regulations which come into force in Septmber 2019. It was aimed at colleagues who support, influence or lead on the design of online course materials. 

Policy Connect
We were delighted to welcome Geena Vabulas Policy Manager for Assistive Technology at Policy Connect who opened the session with an overview of the regulations. You can access her presentation here.
 
Blackboard Ally
Following Geena, Richard Gibbons – a Solutions Engineer from Blackboard – demonstrated the Blackboard Ally, a tool which works within Moodle to help ensure content is accessible. You can find out more about Ally here.
 
Event recording
Both presentations have been recorded and the links are hyperlinked in the text below:
  1. Workshop introduction (Sarah Sherman) and regulations overview (Geena Vabulas)
  2. Blackboard Ally demonstration (Richard Gibbons)
 
Accessible VLE Checklist Activity
During the workshop activity, delegates began to identify the key tasks required to action each of the six recommendations reported on p.7 of the Policy Connect guide regarding the accessible VLE. If you would like to add to this spreadsheet, you will find the link below. Each recommendation is separated into its own worksheet. The final version of the checklist is here.
 
Other resources
  • Accessible Virtual Learning Environments: Making the most of the new regulations:
https://www.policyconnect.org.uk/appgat/sites/site_appgat/files/report/436/fieldreportdownload/appgatreport09-18finalweb.pdf
Photo of the participants
Photographs taken on the day of Geena Vabulas (right) and some of the participants (above)
Demonstration of online tutoring services
25th Feb 2019

A demonstration of two online tutoring solutions took place in Bloomsbury primarily for academic support staff. 

Please find below links to the presentation slides and recordings for each product.
 
Studiosity
www.studiosity.com
Contact: Sami Eltom seltom@studiosity.com 
Slides: Studiosity @ BLE - February 2019.pptx
Recording link for Studiosity 
 
Smarthinking
www.pearson.com/us/higher-education/products-services-institutions/smarthinking/for-students.html
Contact: Jo Corwood jo.corwood@pearson.com
Slides: BLE 250219 presentation.pptx
Recording link for Smarthinking
ABC Learning Design ‘Training the trainer’ session
Tuesday 30th October

The ABC team at UCL ran a dedicated session for the BLE partners regarding their exciting ABC learning design approach. We joined the growing community of users to find out why ABC is an effective and engaging hands-on workshop, which is used extensively at UCL and now more than a dozen institutions across Europe. In just 90 minutes, course teams can work together to create a visual ‘storyboard’, which outlines the type and sequence of learning activities (both online and offline) required to meet the module’s learning outcomes. More information about ABC is available here.
At this two-hour session arranged specifically for the BLE partners, Natasa Perovic and Clive Young demonstrated how you can deliver the ABC workshop at your own institution. This guide outlines how to facilitate the ABC workshop, which was covered during the session.

The session was really well attended and it is hoped that delegates will offer the workshop to colleagues in their own institutions.