ALT-C Reflections: Days Two and Three
Day Two of ALT-C began with something quite unexpected (I suppose I should have read the online bio...) Ian Livingstone! THE Ian Livingstone! His keynote, "Code Create Collaboration" was one of the conferences highlights. There is far too much in what Ian said to be neatly summarised; his keynote was inspiring, nostalgic, challenging, contemporary and very insightful. It is well worth watching in its own right.
The first stream of Day Two consisted of five(!) sessions back to back, each 15 minutes' presentation and five minutes' Q&A. The parallel consisted of Embedding digital identity and employability in the HE curriculum: a case study, which reported on the development of Jisc's Viewpoint cards; Putting the learner in control: creating a more user friendly video tutorial, which demonstrated a very effective use of Captivate, using a format of intro (read first), demo (learn how), and practice (have a go) using step-by-step clips; Different aspects of the emerging Open Education discipline, overviewing the development of OER research from 2001; Investigating 3D CAD learning and teaching of fashion students, about what it says on the tin (an excellent combination of CAD with design); and Using learning technologies to extend personalised situated learning opportunities to part-time, online distance-learners, a well-grounded expose of using Mahara to help facilitate the sharing of student work and perspectives.
I spent the next two sessions networking (several important and useful conversations) before attending Tracking students’ digital experience: development and use of a cross sector benchmarking tool based on the Jisc Student Digital Experience Tracker project. Frequent snapshots of the student experience is incredibly useful, and the various case studies presented demonstrated the benefits of the approach for improving online services for on-campus universities. The final Jisc report is available here [pdf]. It would need some customisation for a DE student group.
The conference dinner was fairly low-key, and with great table conversation. The dinner followed the awards to the Learning Technologist of the year session. Congratulations to all whose work was recognised!
Day Three started with the keynote "Copyright and e-learning: understanding our privileges and freedoms". It was interesting to see how similar the NZ and UK compliance issues related to copyright and IP are... it was a balanced and useful session.
The first stream of Day Three featured my own presentation, which followed Embedding ePortfolio in the curriculum; scaffolding and supporting personal and professional development through collaboration and conversation. The ePortfolio presentation (Pebblepad this time) was an excellent example of how embedding an ePortfolio across a full programme of study improves student engagement with the platform. My own presentation, Reading and studying on the screen, was well attended and led to some interesting questions. The actual journal article is available here.
The final parallel stream I attended consisted of Gone in a Flash: adapting to new technologies, Into the Open – an critical overview of open education policy and practice in Scotland, Secrets of scale and adoption: the value and impact of open, common data definitions in student success research, evaluation and implementation, Developing literacies of ‘open’ across an institution, and beyond…, and Love, hate and online collaboration (yes, another marathon session!) The 'Secrets of scale and adoption...' presentation reflected on the outcomes of a shared data project exploring student retention. The findings were not overall surprising, with previous success emerging as the greatest positive and negative predictor. Taking development courses, age and being fully online were 'variable factors', meaning that they were not necessarily positive or negative predictors.
The final keynote, "Being human is your problem", was a bit bewildering; the format didn't work for me, and the main message(s) were lost on me. Perhaps, as the tin says, being human is my problem there!
Overall a very worthwhile event. It was wonderful seeing colleagues contribute so well... I suspect in Liverpool 2017 my team will have much more to share! The conference certainly affirmed our experiences and the value of our ongoing work.
The first stream of Day Two consisted of five(!) sessions back to back, each 15 minutes' presentation and five minutes' Q&A. The parallel consisted of Embedding digital identity and employability in the HE curriculum: a case study, which reported on the development of Jisc's Viewpoint cards; Putting the learner in control: creating a more user friendly video tutorial, which demonstrated a very effective use of Captivate, using a format of intro (read first), demo (learn how), and practice (have a go) using step-by-step clips; Different aspects of the emerging Open Education discipline, overviewing the development of OER research from 2001; Investigating 3D CAD learning and teaching of fashion students, about what it says on the tin (an excellent combination of CAD with design); and Using learning technologies to extend personalised situated learning opportunities to part-time, online distance-learners, a well-grounded expose of using Mahara to help facilitate the sharing of student work and perspectives.
I spent the next two sessions networking (several important and useful conversations) before attending Tracking students’ digital experience: development and use of a cross sector benchmarking tool based on the Jisc Student Digital Experience Tracker project. Frequent snapshots of the student experience is incredibly useful, and the various case studies presented demonstrated the benefits of the approach for improving online services for on-campus universities. The final Jisc report is available here [pdf]. It would need some customisation for a DE student group.
The conference dinner was fairly low-key, and with great table conversation. The dinner followed the awards to the Learning Technologist of the year session. Congratulations to all whose work was recognised!
Day Three started with the keynote "Copyright and e-learning: understanding our privileges and freedoms". It was interesting to see how similar the NZ and UK compliance issues related to copyright and IP are... it was a balanced and useful session.
The first stream of Day Three featured my own presentation, which followed Embedding ePortfolio in the curriculum; scaffolding and supporting personal and professional development through collaboration and conversation. The ePortfolio presentation (Pebblepad this time) was an excellent example of how embedding an ePortfolio across a full programme of study improves student engagement with the platform. My own presentation, Reading and studying on the screen, was well attended and led to some interesting questions. The actual journal article is available here.
The final parallel stream I attended consisted of Gone in a Flash: adapting to new technologies, Into the Open – an critical overview of open education policy and practice in Scotland, Secrets of scale and adoption: the value and impact of open, common data definitions in student success research, evaluation and implementation, Developing literacies of ‘open’ across an institution, and beyond…, and Love, hate and online collaboration (yes, another marathon session!) The 'Secrets of scale and adoption...' presentation reflected on the outcomes of a shared data project exploring student retention. The findings were not overall surprising, with previous success emerging as the greatest positive and negative predictor. Taking development courses, age and being fully online were 'variable factors', meaning that they were not necessarily positive or negative predictors.
The final keynote, "Being human is your problem", was a bit bewildering; the format didn't work for me, and the main message(s) were lost on me. Perhaps, as the tin says, being human is my problem there!
Overall a very worthwhile event. It was wonderful seeing colleagues contribute so well... I suspect in Liverpool 2017 my team will have much more to share! The conference certainly affirmed our experiences and the value of our ongoing work.
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