Summer 2002 Volume 1 • Issue 1

the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands

Welcomefrom the Editor

Welcome to the first edition of the termly newsletter from the JISCRegional Support Centre in the East Midlands.

Our aim, through this newsletter, is to provide you with useful information on ILT related issues

and to inform you of any relevant events taking place both within our region and nationally.

The majority of the articles in this first issue have been written by the staff of the RSC EM.

However, we hope that future editions will contain news and articles from you, the staff

working in the colleges within our region. We would also like you to use it as a forum for

the exchange of ideas and best practice between colleges within the region. To help us to

do this we would very much like feedback from you on this edition and your contributions

for future editions would be most welcome. Email us at support@rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk.

Judi Millage, ILT Advisor

USER GROUP FORUMS

Greetings to all from Loughborough College. I’m Clare

Holden and I am the Learning Resources Manager at the

College. In addition to managing the Learning Resource

Centre, I am also responsible for Computer Services, AV

& IT support and am actively involved in encouraging

the uptake of ILT across the College.

Loughborough College is pleased that the Regional

Support Centre is based here as it gives us the

opportunity to share best practice.

Loughborough College has a fast connection to

SuperJanet via a 10Mbit fibre optic cable that provides

Internet connections for 450 student and 300 staff

computers. We upgraded the backbone to a gigabit last

summer and are currently working towards providing a

switched 100 Mbit connection to every computer.

All support and teaching staff are encouraged to apply

for a user name and password to the computer network,

following which they are given an e-mail address. This

has resulted in a move away from the circulation of

paper-based memos and reports as most internal college

communication is now electronic.

All students are given user names and passwords and an

e-mail address when they register with the Learning

Resources Service at the beginning of their course. This

includes students who study at one of the four college

outreach centres - all of which are connected back into

the college system by a mixture of Radio, Laser and

ADSL Links.

We purchased Lotus LearningSpace as a VLE in 1998

and are still using it to deliver on-line learning to

students as far away as Greece. We have mainly

delivered the European Computer Driving Licence, and

NEBs Management Modules on-line.

We are using the Student Intranet to deliver ILT within

college and are still undecided about which MLE/VLE to

purchase as the Intranet and templates work well. We

have designed discussion areas and forums for our

Intranet and are piloting it in curriculum areas that

include Sports Science, Accounting, Science and

Computing.

Our Staff Intranet is developing rapidly - at the last count

there were 1500 pages and over 1000 documents -

many using ASP technology to hold College

documentation and guides for staff.

The College Website contains over 350 pages with the

prospectus dynamically updateable using ASP.

(http://www.loucoll.ac.uk)

Our ILT Champion, Dave Foord has a 0.5 post, to date

his main focus has been to help curriculum teams

develop their ILT skills. We also have a Learning

Materials Development Technician who works closely

with the ILT Champion and Curriculum Teams in

developing Learning Materials and in setting up software

on the network that teams can use in delivery.

Clare Holden, Learning Resources Manager,

Loughborough College

Loughborough College

COLLEGEFOCUS

Forthcoming

EVENTS

April23rd Netskills: Using the Internet for

Learning and Teaching in FE24th Netskills Internet Training Skills

Workshop24th Inclusive Learning and the SEND Act30th Successful Strategic Development

May8th Netskills Internet Training Skills

Workshop (this is a repeat of 24thApril training)

21st Technical Forum

June13th LRC Forum

Web Developers Forum(date to be confirmed)

July ILT Fair (date to be confirmed)

For further details see our websitewww.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk

intouch

COLLEGEVIS ITSDuring this academic year staff from the

JISC RSC East Midlands have been

visiting all the colleges in the region to

inform staff about JISC Services and

provide staff with support and advice as

they work towards integrating ILT into

the Curriculum.

If you have not heard from us yet and

would like us to visit you, please call us

on 01509 618110 or email us at

support@rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk to set

up a meeting.

The RSC has arranged a number of User Group

forums to encourage Teaching, Learning Resources

and IT Staff to discuss common problems and share

best practice. There will be three forums per year

(one per term) for each of the three groups. The

inaugural meetings of the Learning Resources,

Technical and ILT Curriculum Forums took place at

Leicester, Loughborough and Chesterfield Colleges

respectively and their success was followed up by

three further events at Mackworth, West Notts and

Daventry Colleges during the Spring Term.

Feedback from all the events has been very positive:

‘A very good meeting, I look forward to

future events’

‘Continue with the Forums’

‘Excellent initiative,

well worth coming to’

were just some of the comments we received.

In view of the success of these events we are now in

the process of setting up User Group Forums for

College Web/Intranet Developers and Inclusivity

Officers, thus extending the opportunity for staff to

participate fully and have the opportunity to

exchange ideas and share good practice on a regular

basis. So if you haven’t made it to any of the forums

yet, make sure you don’t miss out on the next round

due to take place during the summer term.

Keep an eye on the ‘Local Events’ section of our

website www.rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk for details

about the forums and other events taking place in

the region.

Judi Millage, ILT Advisor

I N S I D ETHIS ISSUEWelcome

User Group Forums

College Visits

JISC Services: What’s on offer?

Netskills Training Materials

Quia: Making your learning materials

more interactive

University for Industry (Ufi)

College Focus: Loughborough College

Forthcoming events

Hints & Tips: Hyperlinks

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What can you link to?

• Files on the Internet• Files on your local computer• Slides within your PowerPoint presentation• An email address

How do you create a link?

• Highlight the text you want to use as your hyperlink• Go to Insert on the menu bar• Scroll down the list and click Hyperlink• This will open the Insert Hyperlink window• From the menu bar on the left select the type of link

you require

You have decided on the type of link - what now?

• Simply select a file, slide or web page from thedisplayed list or type in an email address and press‘OK’ on the Insert Hyperlink window.

• Now run the Slide Show to test your link

You have now produced a fully interactive PowerPointpresentation in which you can move effortlessly betweenslides or between your presentation and the Internet.

Sam Eliyas, ILT Development Technician.

H I N T S & T I P SHow to: Put hyperlinks in a PowerPoint presentationDid you know that you can make PowerPoint presentations interactive by using hyperlinks?

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Last September, the East Midlands RSC started a

six-month pilot project to widen its remit to

provide technical, network and connectivity

advice and guidance to 6 Ufi hubs across the

region. Working closely with hub managers and

technical staff this ‘one-stop’ support extends to all

learndirect Learning Centres and Access Points

contained within the hubs.

Ian Houseman, point of contact for the pilot , has

been busy visiting the hubs in the region raising

awareness of the RSC and how they can assist

hubs in working towards ICT strategies. Early

contact has proved positive with those involved

being very keen to work with the RSC and

welcoming the support as a complement to

existing technical knowledge. In fact the project

has been so successful, that it has been extended

for another six months. If you would like more

information about this service, please contact Ian.

Ian Houseman, Ufi Technical Support Officer.

(Technologies for Disabilities Information Service).

Did you know that under the Special Needs

and Disability Act, which will begin to come

into effect from 1st September 2002, it will

become unlawful for colleges to discriminate

against disabled students?

So, for example, from 2002 institutions will be

required to change policies and practices to:

• Allow disabled students more than the usual

‘one hour at a time’ access to college

computers.

• Allow disabled students to use computers

for examinations.

• The usual charge for access to the college

intranet from students’ home computers

can be waived for disabled students who

need it.

• Make disabled students wait no longer

than other users to get their computers

fixed by technical support staff.

• Introduce a policy of checking all new

electronic courseware to ensure it is

accessible to disabled students.

These are just some of the requirements of the

Act. Additional responsibilities will come into

force in 2003 and 2005.

If you are concerned about how the Act will

affect your college, or you would simply like

some advice and assistance on how to make

your ICT facilities conform to the requirements

of the Act, then TechDis can help you.

TechDis is a JISC service, which has been set up to

provide advice and guidance to colleges on how to

improve and enhance access to teaching and

learning, research and administration for those

with learning difficulties and/or disabilities,

through the use of information and

communications technology (ICT).

TechDis services and resources are available to

all staff within both HE and FE. It can advise on

the accessibility of current technologies with

regard to the needs of learners with disabilities

and aims to ensure a co-ordinated and

coherent UK wide approach to enhancing the

use of technology to support students and staff

with disabilities.

To help bring people up to speed with the new

legislation, we are holding an event on the

24th April, in association with TechDis and the

Royal National Institute for the Blind (RNIB).

You can get more information about this event

by looking at the local events section of our

website or by telephoning our office.

To find out more about TechDis go to

www.techdis.ac.uk/

Gwen Callaghan,

Administration & Events Co-ordinator.

intouch intouch

JISC Services:What’s on offer?If, like me, you are confused about the array of JISC

Services on offer and wonder exactly what each serviceactually provides, then read on. One by one I will try toexplain each one in successive newsletters.

UNIVERSITY for industry

T R A I N I N GM AT E R I A L SJust to remind you that the RSC,East Midlands has purchased aNetskills ‘Gold Scheme Licence’ forall colleges in the region for atwelve month period commencing1 August 2001.

Netskills provides high quality Internettraining services to promote effective use ofthe Internet and associated technologies. Thegold licence entitles you to access all themodules currently available and any newmaterials that are released throughout thetwelve month period.

This service, which would normally costcolleges £1400 per annum, is now availablefree of charge in your college until 31 July2002 and I would urge you to make full useof the materials for the remaining period ofthe licence, after which time normal chargeswill apply.

To access the materials you must firstregister. To do this:

• Go to the Netskills home pagewww.netskills.ac.uk

• Select Materials

• Select Use materials

• Select Register

• Select your college name from the List ofRegistered Institutions

• Register your own username and password.

You should then be able to access thematerials directly.

If you experience any difficulties with thisprocess or require further information, pleasedo not hesitate to contact me.

Judi Millage, ILT Advisor.

http://www.quia.com offers a variety of services, including easy-to-use

templates specifically designed for educators at all levels to create

online learning activities, exercises, and quizzes, as well as

informational Web pages. The site is well laid out and contains many

examples of the different kinds of materials that can be created. The

activities themselves are simple and easy to generate and even those

with very limited IT Skills can very quickly design interactive materials.

As well as providing templates for a range of activities, their site

contains access to a directory of thousands of activities categorised

into 40 subject areas. You can find out lots more details as well as

demonstrations on their web site. http://www.quia.com/findout.html

Perhaps what makes this site an even more useful resource is that

tutors can follow up practice activities with quizzes and tests. The

system allows the tutor to choose from a variety of different types of

questions including multi-choice, fill the gap, true/false, multiple

correct and short answers. The system has various options for grading

- either the system can grade and record automatically, the tutor can

grade everything or you can have a combination of both. The system

is very simple to use, students log into a session, complete the quiz,

their names and scores are then recorded and analysed. Tutors can see

quickly and easily not only see which students have completed the

test, but when they completed it, how long it took them, details of

their scores, and view individual student test papers. This information

can then be printed out along with the question paper as evidence of

completed work.

There is another section in Quia that allows you to set up class pages

where you can post messages to your students and let them know about

the different activities you would like them to complete. The system also

has a facility that will allow you to send e-mails to a list of students so that

you can inform them about new activities, changes to your class pages or

new quiz sessions you would like them to take part in.

Up until fairly recently this was a free service, however, Quia has now introduced

a subscription system. It is my understanding that site licenses are available and

the cost is not prohibitive. The RSC has developed a half day training workshop

on Quia, if you would like more information about this, please contact

Judi Millage on 01509 618110 or e-mail support@rsc-east-midlands.ac.uk

Lesley Price, RSC Manager.

more interactiveQUIA:

Making your learning materials

Looking for ways to make your materials more interactive?