We welcome you all to the ALT Online Winter Conference 2018. This session is an opportunity to get to know the ALT Online Winter Conference site and find out how to get the most out of your online conference experience.more

This session will introduce the University of Hull’s Digital Researcher online course. The Digital Researcher was created to support postgraduate students and research-active staff navigating the territory of online publishing, social media, the collection of research data, data storage, copyright and licensing – all within the context of academic study and research. While essential components of research, students and staff often find some of these to be ‘dull’ or ‘unengaging’, and so the course provided a novel way of addressing these issues through contextual learning with a focus on discussion. The first implementation of The Digital Student had an uptake of over 150 sign-ups with 51 completions, with another session due...more

Challenges Students often feel isolated online Induction can be confusing and overwhelming, for both students and staff Potential students and alumni can often get lost from networking and marketing drives Requirements A space for new students to come together, learn foundational skills and feel supported in their studies A space for potential students to explore what studying online with us is like A space for graduated students to stay in touch, network and share best practice A space to promote the programme and streamline current administration practices A space to welcome and induct new staff onto the programme Solution An...more

To facilitate independent and fully accessible student-oriented learning, I’ve been working with two lecturers from the languages department at Lancaster University (DeLC) who have taken to using Microsoft Class OneNote with the purpose of enhancing the learner experience and developing teaching practices. Some key features when using OneNote are within the ‘Immersive Reader application which include: Enhanced dictation – improving authoring text Voice options – altering the gender and pace of speech Focus mode – sustaining attention on specific sections of written text enabling readers to narrow the focus of their reading experience by highlighting sets of one, three, or five lines within their chosen material in Immersive...more

Nathalie Sheridan and Vicki Dale “Designing active pedagogies” is a 10-credit course delivered as part of the PGCAP/MEd in Academic Practice. In designing this course, we [Sheridan and Dale] took a creative approach, enabling learners to experiment with notions of place, space and active learning using learning technologies, within the context of disruptive pedagogies (Hedberg 2011). The course was developed to be fully blended using Moodle, so that learners could participate fully face-to-face, fully online, or a mixture of both to suit their schedules. The disruptive pedagogies we introduced included digital storytelling (Bernard 2008), object-based learning (Chatterjee 2011)and learning landscapes...more

Although teachers are certainly not alone in classrooms, there can often be a sense that teaching is an isolated role. In our efforts to encourage collaboration outside of the classroom – in our planning, CPD activities and networking, have we overlooked the key element: the teaching? Apart from mandatory observations, teaching staff can often be left to work alone, to cope with the demands of technological pedagogy, largely isolated from the rest of their peers. At SERC, our mentoring model has flipped this concept: by creating opportunities to team-teach, to plan together, and to increase support in a longer-term, supportive...more

Equity Unbound (#unboundeq) is an equity-focused, open, connected, intercultural curriculum that builds critical digital literacies in a global context, highlighting issues of web representation, digital colonialism, safety and security risks, and how these differ across contexts. Educators from Egypt, Ireland, and the US developed this with the motto “the only way to make borders meaningless is to keep insisting on crossing them” (Mounzer, 2016). In this session, we will present the motivations for starting Equity Unbound, and share some reflections on how it has unfolded over the past 3 months. Participants will be invited to engage with the question: “what...more

This showcase celebrates the success of the Blended Learning Essentials courses, which have attracted over 50,000 learners. In this session you will hear from some of the Digital Champions involved in the design and delivery of the course who will share their experiences. Leads from the project team, Bronwen Swinnerton, Lynne Taylorson and Maren Deepwell, will also share key insights from the evaluation of the courses which are currently running on FutureLearn: https://www.futurelearn.com/programs/blended-learning-essentials More about Blended Learning Essentials courses: Technology has fundamentally changed how we learn, making it more engaging but also challenging. The program contains essential knowledge for teachers, trainers...more

During this 30 minute webinar we will explore an ongoing Nearpod pilot at the University of Sussex. Over the past academic year we shared 45 Nearpod licences with teaching staff from different areas of the university. The purpose of this pilot is to see how teaching staff at Sussex would want to use Nearpod, evaluate how useful Nearpod may be, generate different use cases, and make connections and share practice across the academic schools. We will share how we implemented the pilot, including how it was advertised, how licences were allocated and what support and training was available to staff....more

Discussion boards are ubiquitous in many online learning environments, but their effective use is seldom guaranteed (Loncar et al, 2014). There is also sometimes a tendency to evaluate discussion board participation (or lack thereof) without reference to the other online resources that constitute an online course, even though these may have a direct or indirect impact on the quantity and quality of discussion board engagement (Luo et al, 2017). This webinar will look at one intervention to improve student interaction in a post-graduate online module by changing the interplay of discussion boards and course materials. Student feedback, tutor observation, VLE...more

This is a session delivered with Donna Lanclos and Zac Gribble (time is required because of transatlantic participation) When we work in digital spaces, especially open digital spaces, we assume an identity. Some people have carefully curated, distinct and separate identities depending on the community they are engaging or aiming to engage; some have one identity and switch between different aspects of their lives, their personalities, or their passions, in the same space. There is no right or wrong in this, merely a diversity of behaviours and approaches. But how we are perceived frequently matters to us, whether in a...more

We welcome you all to day 2 of the ALT Online Winter Conference 2018. This session is an opportunity to get to know the ALT Online Winter Conference site and find out how to get the most out of your online conference experience.more

I know so many people who want to or have started their CMALT journey, and as a recent CMALT holder I’d like to share my experience of how I passed. During this session I will be talking about: Structure: tools I used to create my portfolio and how I came to choose them Content: the types of evidence I presented Inspiration: where and who I turned to for support and guidance The feedback process: what happens after you submit your application Impact: how the process has impacted on my work and why I can’t wait to renew it! It is...more

Ulster University is piloting Blackboard Predict (Predict), a predictive analytics solution which uses historical student data and outcomes to identify and compare characteristics with the current cohort of students. Ulster is using Predict to help inform interventions designed to increase the numbers of students completing a programme of study within a specific time frame and increase numbers of students who progress in and beyond education. Predict ingests over 200 data elements about each student from Banner, Ulster’s Student Records System, and combines it with interactions in Blackboard Learn to specify a random forest model which is compared against previous students...more

In this workshop I will take you on a guided tour of the new Microsoft Teams features for educators. This will include an exploration of Teams for Classes which includes OneNote Class Notebook and support for Assignments; the Professional Learner Community designed to support staff development; and the Staff Team which can be used to build an efficient admin system. With additional features such as built-in support for chat, collaborative document ceation, video conferencing, I believe that Teams may prove to be the hub of the future modern workplace, and by paying special attention to the education community, Microsoft Teams...more

This session will present two segments of my PhD proposal – the proposed area of the research study examining user-created poetry in New Media and MMO environments as interstitial forms of creative writing that reflect our communities and society-at-large in possibly unique and under-appreciated ways. In order to present the thesis itself as both an organic text and as an interstitial work, certain segments of the thesis will attempt to evoke Prendergast’s (2006) experimental study on Found Poetry as Literature Review, coining the methodology “ekphrastic inquiry” as part of a pedagogical vision for an educational curriculum in performance studies, through crafting a...more

Dyslexia is a Specific Learning Difficulty (SpLD) and is identified as a disability under the 2010 Equality Act; the act protects dyslexics from discrimination (British Dyslexia Association, 2018). It is the largest category of disability at HE institutions and in 2013/4 nearly half of all disabled HE entrants declared having an SpLD (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2015). At the University of Bedfordshire SpLDs affected around 4% of our total student population in 17/18 (Management information, 2018). Changes in funding to the Disabled Student Allowance (DSA) have been made since 2015 (Department for Business Innovation and Skills, 2014), due...more

In October 2017, Nottingham Trent University (NTU) commenced a successful one-year pilot scheme to use PebblePad, with a remit to explore a new digital technology that would enable wider opportunities to support formative, summative and synoptic assessment as well as continuing CPD and Degree Apprenticeships. By April 2018, it was clear that PebblePad was the preferred tool to support NTU’s innovative learning and teaching ambitions and it was announced that NTU would move from pilot to service.  From September 2018 onwards, PebblePad has been rolled out institution-wide, offering a self-service option for all NTU staff and students to access via...more

Many institutions are involved in VLE reviews and often want help to get this right. The UCISA VLE Review Toolkit is a new, authoritative resource in an easy-to-understand form that, we hope, will help institutions in this important activity and reduce wheel reinvention.  Without the foundations of careful planning reviews can be costly, waste staff time, create unrest in the academic and student community, and even end up with the wrong product being purchased. Those who have led reviews are often asked for advice so UCISA has gathered together the collective wisdom of some seasoned VLE review veterans. The veterans...more

Certified Membership of ALT (CMALT),  is a peer-based professional accreditation scheme developed by ALT, which enable people whose work involves learning technology to have their experience and capabilities certified by peers, and to demonstrate that they are taking a committed and serious approach to their professional development. As technology becomes ever more central to teaching, learning and assessment at all levels of education, the relevance of learning technology-specific accreditation increases. CMALT is an established and widely-respected framework that allows individuals to evidence their experience and understanding regardless of their job role or context. ALT works across the education sector, with...more

The value of peer learning in higher education is now well recognised. Just as we continually learn from eachother in our everyday lives, so our students also learn from eachother as part of informal and formal learning experiences. Within educational programmes, peer learning is facilitated through a variety of pedagogical strategies which promote active participation, collaboration and the sharing of knowledge and ideas.  With the increasing ubiquity of social networking and online learning platforms, new opportunities for facilitating peer learning, have emerged. Within online courses – where students often study at geographically disparate locations – peer learning strategies assume arguably...more

The use of video has increased dramatically over the years with the general reduction in cost of production and distribution. Today over 300 hours of video is being uploaded to YouTube every minute. The continued advancement of technological capabilities has enabled videos to be accessed easier than ever before on a variety of devices making it an increasingly popular medium for education. This increased use of video in education as an instructional medium can be observed especially in online courses. Captioning and/or transcripts, make these resources accessible to people with disabilities and they also help all students including international learners....more

The #openedsig would like to bring together some leading open practitioners to share their insights into the challenges which the open movement still needs to address, and also to ask them to share examples of their practice that seek to overcome such challenges. Building on conversations facilitated at #OWLTEH18 by @virtuallyconnecting we will explore: How to ensure fairer access to learning for all, developing a critical approach to the nature of knowledge How we as learning technologists we can support safe and meaningful experiences of connected learning, making space for wider participation through congruous pedagogy and technology How as an...more