Vision On

A few posts ago I mentioned the Infuse Radio site and how this could lead to learners uploading their work to C_Space (our intranet) independantly and the ability for peers to review and comment on the published work.

With the Initial Teacher Training Gallery site we have taken our first definite steps in this direction.

Working closely with the teaching and Learning Development team we've knocked together a simple site which allows learners on the Certificate of Education and PGCE to upload images of posters they've created to a gallery page. The posters are all themed to highlight inequalities or misconceptions within education and are used as a basis for further discussion around the topics raised.

The posters themselves are displayed as thumbnails, framed as if hanging on a gallery wall and visitors to the gallery can click on an image to view the full sized version of the poster. The artist can also upload a commentary about their creation, detailing why they chose their subject and how their poster reflects the issue being highlighted.

Peers viewing the posters and reading the commentaries can then add their own comments, reviewing the affectiveness of the artist's work and the validity of their topic. The project has proved to be a great success and a bank of work has been collected for display as well as running commentaries critiquing the work.

We've now got a gallery even Tony Hart would have been proud of!

Hopefully, we'll now be able to roll this idea across the curriculum and get more learners involved in uploading their work for peer evaluation and a demonstration of their achievements whilst studying at the College.

The Early Bird!

Converting prospective students into fully fledged, signed up members of the College can be a difficult and frustrating task. On paper a large number of eager applicants can lead to a false sense of security and conversion rates during ernolment time can be disappointing despite the early promise. Ultimately, a tutor's valuable time can be wasted phoning round and chasing up applicants who have suddenly changed their minds, disappeared off the face of the planet or, worse still, enrolled at another institution.

To try to ease this situation and maximise on the conversion rates of applicants we've been working closely with our colleagues in Information Systems, IT Users, Marketing and the Faculties to bring applicants into the fold as early as possible...a truly collaboritive effort to solve a difficult problem.

What if we create logon accounts for applicants so that they can access our network, systems and information before they even step foot within the building? What if we make them feel part of the College and its culture and give them the opportunity to ask questions, engage with our online environment and each other before they've signed on the dotted line?

The plan was hatched...

Each FE applicant now has a logon account created for them pre-enrolment, enabling them to logon to C_Space (our intranet) from anywhere off-site. Marketing have sent mail shots to each applicant giving them their unique credentials and instructions on how to logon via our website.

We can identify the 'pre-enrolled' learners via their credentials and also the faculty inwhich their course is based. This enables us to automatically re-direct them to specially created faculty homepages, filled with useful information and links, messages from tutors, examples of specific events and trips, contact points and FAQs.

We've also set up a special forum where applicants can ask questions and engage online with each other forming a shared sense of community.

Perhaps most importantly, applicants can access C_Space and explore the wealth of information, applications and features it contains. The knock-on effect is that they will already be familiar with our online environment and know how to access information and resources online before they start their course. In effect, they can 'try before they buy'and the induction process has been initiated well in advance of the learner coming in for their initial orientation and thus aleviating some of the anxiety they feel on those nerve wracking first few days.

Hopefully, the early bird really does catch the worm and we'll see an increase in the number of applicants converted into full time students at the start of the new academic year.

There's Something in the Air!

We're ready to rock!

For some time now we've been working closely with the tutor for BND Media Production (Radio) and his learners to broadcast some of their radio recordings and podcasts around the College.

The first challenge was how are we going to do this without spending a small fortune on high maintenance, expensive broadcasting equipment; without setting ourselves up as an illegal pirate radio station taking up valuable radio bandwidth or interfering with air traffic control at Southend airport!

Fortunately, the answer was simple! We'll build a dedicated radio station site, place it on C_Space (our intranet), upload the recordings of the shows and podcasts and stream them across the network to the learners on demand.

To get the message out there we set up a number of forums so that the Radio students could advertise their shows, ask for requests and gauge interest in their productions. The news spread fast and it was clear there was a huge demand for the shows. Learners would no longer need to whistle while they worked but instead plug in their headphones, choose a show which interested them and rock away to their heart's desires, all with their tutor's consent of course!

To stay on the right side of the law, we've purchased the appropriate broadcasting license and to get the ball rolling we started airing the shows in Scoff our student refectory. Again, simplicity is the key and we've merely hooked up a laptop to an LCD screen positioned on the wall in Scoff and the shows play via i-Tunes. So far the reaction has been great and the shows are certainly more popular than the derivative MTV drivel we used to pump out of the screen!

Now the site containing pre-recorded shows and podcasts is live and learners can stream the show of their choice at tghe click of a button.

This, however is just the beginning.

If the site is successful we can allow the learners to upload their own podcasts and radio broadcasts without our direct involvement and perhaps allow other learners to rate their favourites. We can also use this idea across the curriculum and work with other tutors and learners to showcase their work by uploading it to a dedicated site on our intranet which they can control. This will not only give the learners ownership of their own intranet pages but also allow them to demonstrate and showcase the work they do. We can allow our learners to create content for each other which is relevant and make the online environment really work for them while their studying with us. This notion could completely change the face of our intranet and the way in which we think about content control and content creation.

There's definitely something in the air and its signalling a clear change in the way we think about our intranet and the ownership of the content it contains!

Testing Times!

Nope, not a reference to the current economic climate and all the woes that brings but, instead, some thoughts on e-assessment and how this technology could potentially aid us in these troubled times.

At South Essex College we've been using TOIA (Technologies for Online Interoperable Assessment) for a number of years. The system allows tutors with the aid of our support to set up online exams, quizzes and assessments which self-mark and store results and reports in a number of formats for later digestion. Initially funded by JISC, TOIA is, unfortunately, no longer supported but has proved to be an invaluable tool in delivering curriculum outcomes, assessing learner progress, saving tutor time and helping shape and define the very nature of e-learning and online curriculum delivery within the College. Indeed, in a world where definitions of e-learning are at best hazy and understanding of the concepts limited, online assessment has proved to be the star of the show. It's easy, for example, to demonstrate and justify why going 'online' is more advantageous than using traditional pen and paper and it can clearly open up the curriculum to blended learning solutions.

This year we've been using TOIA to run online assessments for Bricklaying and Carpentry courses and so far we've set up and run over 40 separate assessments for 11 groups of learners. The results for each assessment are sent off to the examining body in order to evidence the learner's progress and count towards their final grades. It's clear that this would have been a logistical nightmare to organise using printed question sheets, pens, exam halls and invigilators, not to mention the huge amount of marking involved for the tutors.

Unfortunately, TOIA is past its prime now. Browser updates have rendered some of its features impotent, the clanky database back-end occasionally throws a 'hissy fit' and the process of setting up assessments can be lengthy, complicated and laborious...BUT...it is still an essential and well loved tool. Ideally we'd like to replace it with something 'shiny and new' but alternatives which offer the same set of powerful features are prohibitively expensive especially in these days of budget shrinking, cost saving and cut backs. The irony is, tools such as TOIA can save both time and money. Tutor time is liberated from hours of marking, courses can be delivered off-site reducing 'on' costs and tutor costs, class sizes are no longer dependant on room size or tutor availability, learners can complete a course at times which suit them etc etc...the benefits are many and clear.

So JISC, any chance of a TOIA resurrection? The timing couldn't be any better.

Jim

Video Conferencing

Working in a distributed environment, it's important to keep in touch with colleagues who are either based in a different location, or frequently on the move between sites.

At South Essex College we have 4 dedicated Video Conferencing suites spread across the 3 main campuses, a mobile unit and a number of desktop clients and HD webcams. Having access to these facilities means that less time and money is spent on travelling between locations, and also eases the difficulty of bringing together large groups of people that work on different sites.

Enrolment

Enrolment time is creeping up on us again, and it’s no mean feat to ensure the smooth running of such a large operation across 4 locations.
Enrolment involves the deployment and use of

• over 100 pcs


• 14 printers


• 15 photocopiers


• 17 water coolers


• 4 video conference centres


• 21 deskphones


• 7 tills


• 7 air con units

And that's just the basics!

Once again we will be using Audrey, our custom built queue management system. Audrey is directly connected to our Student Information Systems, and to our courses database. This means that when an applicant arrives, we can straight away allocate them to see someone directly related to the course they wish to enrol on, minimising their overall waiting time.

Outlook Live Single Sign On

Once again we have Single Sign On (SSO) working again for our students. This means that once students are logged into college systems, they can access their Outlook Live email inbox without having to enter a second username and password, thus upholding our ‘log-in-once, access-everything’ principle. Continuously having to enter usernames and passwords to navigate from one resource to another is a serious hindrance to the learning experience, and we’re committed to making resources as accessible and highly available to students as possible.

Students also have available to them:

• 25gb of free, online storage via skydrive


• access to Microsoft Office Web Apps