E-Learning Annual Event

It’s that time of the year again! We would like to invite you to join us at our annual summer event on Wednesday 14th June at 14:00. This is an opportunity not only for us to share what is happening over the summer but to celebrate all of the work that has gone on over this academic year, not just our work but yours too. It’s also an opportunity to chat to colleagues from across the institution who are engaged in e-learning, while enjoying a drink and canapés. The event is open to all staff, so please feel free to pass this invitation on to your colleagues. We’d love to see as many of you as possible. Please let us know that you’re coming by registering via Eventbrite.

What makes a good quiz?

The annual MoodleMoot UK and Ireland conference took place in March.  This event gives Moodle users, such as ourselves, a chance to find out what is coming and what developments have been carried out by other institutions. Richard Chantler from the E-Learning Unit attended some sessions which focussed particularly on creating engaging quizzes for students. The Open University shared their experience of ‘What makes a good Moodle quiz?’ giving insight into the processes involved, questions which course convenors/teachers should be asking themselves and suggesting best practice. You can read more in Richard’s quiz article.

A reminder about upgrades

We will be upgrading several of our e-learning applications over the coming months, this is just a brief reminder of the timescales:

• In mid-June we will be upgrading QMplus Hub, our group working and e-portfolio system. This will introduce a number of improvements and new features. We will provide more information in next month’s newsletter.
• The annual upgrade of our main online learning environment, QMplus, will take place between 10-12 July. You can find further details on our QMplus upgrade page.
• Our lecture recording system, Q-review, will also be undergoing an upgrade this summer, bringing an improvement in the service and some new features. You can find more information on our Q-Review upgrade page.

Turnitin GradeMark becomes Turnitin Feedback Studio

If you use the Turnitin GradeMark tool to provide grades and feedback to your students you should be aware that it will be changing during our summer upgrade in July. Turnitin have recently redesigned their interface for users to view originality scores, grades and feedback, introducing new features but also changing the layout slightly to improve usability/navigation. The tool has been renamed as Turnitin Feedback Studio.

You can find out more about the changes in our Turnitin Feedback Studio article including details of how you can try it out before the summer upgrade.

Let’s make copyright right. Right now. For education

Do copyright issues give you a headache?

• Do you want to have the freedom to teach without breaking the copyright law?
• Do you want to be able to use materials that will tell stories in an unbiased way?
• Do you want a law that will allow you to embrace the digital opportunities that are available today?

The Communia Association has prepared a European campaign with the purpose of improving the situation in copyright for education in Europe. Please visit the campaign’s website to get more information and to sign the petition.

MOOC: Get Interactive – Practical Teaching with Technology

The Bloomsbury Learning Environment (BLE) will be running a new Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) launching on 1st May 2017. The course is a 3-week romp through some of the popular technologies that educators use to make their learning engaging, interactive and dynamic. Each week will focus on a particular topic:

1. Using multimedia for teaching and learning
2. Encouraging student collaboration
3. Formative assessment and feedback

The course will be running several times over the coming months. You can find more information on the MOOC website and you can register on the MOOC Coursera site.

Staff development opportunities during May

Now that easter is well and truly behind us we are running a number of face-to-face workshops during May on a variety of of different topics:

• Getting started with QMplus – Friday 5th May, 14.00-16.00 – aimed at those who are new to QMUL’s online learnning environment, this hands on session will get you started creating your own QMplus area and showing you just a few of the many possibilities it offers.
• Getting started with video in teaching with QMplus Media – Tuesday 16th May, 14.00-16.00 – come and find out about the many ways in which you can use our in house media server to create and share videos
• Ask the audience – Thursday 18th May, 12.00-13.00 – come along to this short session to experience a number of different audience voting systems which can be used to engage audiences of various sizes. Bring your phone, tablet or laptop!
• Grapple with the gradebook – Thursday 25th May, 11.00-13.00 – this session will show you some of the useful functionality provided by the gradebook in QMplus areas
• Designing quizzes in QMplus – Tuesday 30th May, 10.30-12.30 – come and learn how to create powerful and engaging quizzes on QMplus

Log on to our online booking system to book yourself a place on any of our E-Learning workshops.

Drop-in sessions and Book a Learning Technologist

If you have a quick question that you’d like to ask us, our drop-in sessions continue to run on Tuesdays and Thursdays from 1-2pm, pop in and have a chat. If you’d like to discuss something in a bit more detail, why not book a one hour slot with a member of the team? See our Book a Learning Technologist page for more information.