Summer 2006 Volume 4 • Issue 3

the termly newsletter produced by RSC East Midlands

Welcome from the EditorThis summer, the Regional Support Centre will complete six years of supporting e-learningin the East Midlands. Many things have changed in that time – many teachers have addede-learning to their toolkit; managers have a better awareness of the strategic andoperational place of e-learning; there is much more kit and it is now largely reliable.Significantly, expectations have changed too. Learners expect to use e-learning. It enthusesthem and meets their individual needs and learning styles.

A recent review for JISC asked staff in different learning providers about the impact theyconsidered the RSCs had had on their organisation - and RSC East Midlands had the highestlevel of any RSC. Our annual Survey shows consistently good levels of customer satisfaction.However, we are not complacent; the task is by far from complete. The support needs arechanging but still challenging.

What about the future? Our funding has been confirmed for another year and discussions aretaking place about the next three year Round from 2007. What we do will certainly evolve,but the core services will also continue - and you can read examples of both in this newsletter.

You can see and celebrate the continuing development of e-learning in the East Midlands atour second annual e-fair on June 22nd. See you there!

Chris Hill, Manager

I N S I D ET h i s i s s u eWelcome

Leicester City Adult Skills and LearningService Inspiring and practical support

Joining the RSC team

New services from your RSC

e-portfolios - did you know...?

This could change your life

The second annual e-fair

New build in the East Midlands

Forthcoming Events

Focus on: Broxtowe College- Simpletechnology that benefits tutors and students

Hints and tips: Learning and Skills Web is live

Elaine Jenkins celebrates “Inspiring andpractical” support from the RSC. Contact us ifyou would like us to do it for you - free.

Since January 2006, Leicester City Adult Skillsand Learning Service with the support of RSCEast Midlands has run four successful trainingsessions as part of their e-guide cascadetraining programme. The sessions were wellattended by tutors from a variety of curriculumareas including ESOL, Basic Skills, ICT, Visualand Performing Arts, Modern ForeignLanguages and Community Languages.

The four sessions comprised:• two workshops on using Moodle and

its features.• an ILT training/awareness session that

consisted of 3 workshops:• Accessing and using NLN materials.• The use of data projectors and laptops

(incorporating the use of wireless mice and keyboards)

• Interactive Word (using sounds and images in Microsoft Word to create interactive learning materials).

• a session showing how to createWebQuests using Microsoft Word.

Sharon Hutchings, RSC Advisor for Adult andCommunity Learning, played a key role in thesuccess of this training, supporting both theILT leader and e-guides in the planning anddelivery of the sessions. Sharon was also thekeynote speaker at the ILT awareness trainingevent. In the opening session, she grabbed theinterest of the tutors with her examples ofinteractive learning materials and uses of ILT.The zeal and commitment Sharon providedthroughout the delivery of these trainingsessions has enthused our tutors who are nowusing their newly acquired skills to developlearning resources that support differentiationand add fun and interactivity to their sessions.Feedback from tutors is very encouraging;they are very committed to developing theiruse of ILT and are requesting further trainingand support in this area.

Tutors who attended the training sessions said:

“Excellent training - enjoyed all the workshops!”

“It will help me improve my teaching resourcesand class presentation. I am now able to designmore materials to help with differentiation.”

“Inspiring and practical.”

“I will now create more innovative resourcesto make learning more interesting and fun.”

“The training made me aware of all the freeresources available and different ways of creatingnew resources and sharing them with other tutors.”

Elaine Jenkins, Leicester City Adult Skills andLearning Service

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Leicester City Adult Skills and Learning ServiceInspiring and practical support

ICT tutors planning a WebQuest Activity

The RSC team has three new members – Ben Williams who isour new Advisor and Diane Gardiner and Mark Andrews whoare on short term secondments to the RSC. Diane, fromLeicester College, will be both updating our staff developmentneeds analysis and piloting our proposed placement servicewhilst Mark, from Grantham College, will be developing our useof Moodle. Details of these developments are below. Here Benintroduces himself.

Hello, my name’s Ben Williams. I joined the RSC team in earlyMarch this year and am currently standing in for my colleague,Rachael Pearson, while she’s off on maternity leave.

My background is varied, ranging from aerospace research toclinical psychology, but I’ve spent the last 15 years exploringhow technology can be used to support and enhance thelearning process. This has involved a number of yearsresearching advanced learning technologies in H.E. and, prior tomy joining the RSC, four years in F.E. as an ILT co-ordinator and

teacher. This background has given me an acute awareness ofthe challenge of matching rapidly evolving technologicalopportunities to the real-world needs of educationalpractitioners and their learners. This challenge is at the heart ofthe work of the RSCs, so I’m pleased now to be part of the team.

I’m currently focussing on two key areas, Specialist Colleges andHE in FE, and have spent my first month making initial visits tothe relevant providers in the East Midlands. I’m also working ona number of events to be held over the coming weeks, includinga collaboration with Foundation Degree Forward, and aworkshop to help colleges interested in bidding for forthcomingJISC project funding.

As a previous customer of the RSC, I have been very encouragedby the quality of the service provided and look forward tocontributing to this over the coming year.

Ben Williams, Advisor

Joining the RSC Teamintouch

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You probably do not know that, of all the UK regions, the EastMidlands has the highest percentage of the population whoown a mobile phone.

You may however know that the East Midlands is at the forefrontof e-portfolio development. On May 8th 2006, the RSC,together with NILTA, Nottingham University and CETIS areorganising an event for the post 16 community to bring you up

to date with what is happening and help your organisation toask the right questions about e-Portfolio at the right time. Therewill be opportunities to see a live demonstration of the newNottinghamshire Passportfolio system and to find out moreabout the new UCAS admissions process.

Visit www.rsc-em.ac.uk for more information and to book

In the RSC we strive continually to find new ways of supporting your e-learningdevelopment. Here are some of the new things we are doing.

1. This term we are piloting a scheme to broker short-term placements for staffworking in post-16 learning providers within the region. It is open to everyone withan e-learning element within their current role and provides the opportunity to gaindirectly by exchanging ideas and effective practice. Staff on placements experience atfirst hand what works - and doesn’t work – elsewhere. They return better informed,enthused and ready to improve their own practice. A learning provider hosting aplacement will benefit from the skills, knowledge and perspective of their visitor. Itraises their profile and enables others to benefit from their experience and effectivepractice. If the pilot is successful, we will introduce it as a regular service.

2. We have been able to sponsor delegates from our learning providers to nationalevents so they can cascade what they have learned to the community. GaynorNorsworthy from Chesterfield College attended the Child Exploitation and OnlineProtection (CEOP) Road Show and Marek Barc (Whitegates) and Paul Drage(Hoemfield) attended UKERNA Networkshop.

3. We are starting to use our Moodle learning platform to make sure events, such as the recent Learning Journey at West Notts College, are morethan just a day out. We make reading and activities available beforehand and afterwards we run discussions to give the chance to explore theideas met on the day. And rather than evaluate at the end of the day to find out whether the car parking was any good, we evaluate a few weekslater to see whether there has been any impact on practice.

To find out more about these or any of our services, contact support@rsc-em.ac.uk

New Services from your RSC

e-portfolios - did you know...?

Mark AndrewsMark AndrewsDiane GardinerDiane GardinerBen WilliamsBen Williams

intouch

This could change your lifePotentially the JORUM repository could allow all FE andHE institutions to share resources. It has been a long timecoming, but now it is open for business. You can find outmore about JORUM at our e-fair

Further and Higher Education institutions in the UK can nowregister for the Jorum User Service. Jorum User allows stafffrom registered institutions to search, browse, preview,download, review, reuse and repurpose resources in Jorum.This free online repository service hosts a range of learningand teaching resources, covering a variety of subject areasand educational levels.

JISC views Jorum as a long term venture and as the servicedevelops, the type, breadth and subject coverage ofresources available in Jorum will depend on contributionsmade by the community. Jorum’s success will be built on thesupport surrounding the service by the team, the long termview taken by JISC and the commitment and enthusiasm ofboth Contributors and Users.

Institutions must register first before staff are able to gainaccess. Institutions can register free for the Jorum User

Service on the JISC Collections Website:http://www.jisc.ac.uk/index.cfm?name=coll_jorum. A SiteRep and a Technical Rep must also be nominated, providinga local point of contact for staff within the institution and forthe Jorum Team.

The Jorum Contributor Service, allowing institutions andprojects to donate resources to Jorum, was launched inNovember 2005. Since then an initial collection of resourceshas been submitted, from over 20 institutions who havesigned up. The current collection reflects the projects andinstitutions which have contributed material so far. There area number of sizeable collections including engineering andESOL (English for Speakers of Other Language).

The newly updated Jorum Website (www.jorum.ac.uk) has acomprehensive new section on Jorum User(www.jorum.ac.uk/user) offering support in registering andlogging in, as well as a useful selection of support, trainingand promotional materials.

Susan EalesProgramme Manager, Exchange for Learning

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Second annual e-fairPlans are well advanced for the second annual East Midlands e-fair on June22nd. The theme is “Learning as a social activity”. We invite you to comealong and be inspired - find out what other people are doing, pick up ideasto use in your own setting, see what is available (often for free!) and get aglimpse into the future and how it can work.

Keynote speakers are Professor Gilly Salmon and Terry Loane. There are at leastfifteen separate sessions for you to choose between and an exhibition which currently has twenty seven stalls.

Last year, nearly 150 people attended, so it is a really good opportunity to mingle with people from all over the region. If thatis not enough, we are even planning a treasure hunt and prizes!

The e-fair will be held at the University of Derby and admission is free. For more details and to book your place, visit our website.

New build in the East MidlandsThere is much new building taking place in colleges and ACLin the East Midlands and the RSC is working to support it.Our initial audit, although not yet complete, shows at leasttwenty one learning providers have projects being planned,in progress or recently completed. James Higham leads RSCsupport in this area.The projects vary considerably in terms of scale, time framesand costs, from complete new build projects involving theconstruction of entire new premises and facilities to therefurbishment of individual learning areas to cater for modernlearning requirements. For the learning providers supported bythe JISC East Midlands Regional Support Centre, the range ofnew build projects covers all supported sectors: FE, Sixth FormColleges, Specialist Colleges, Adult and Community Learningand HE Colleges. The only variation across the academicsectors appears to concern the scale of projects undertaken.

As a result of all of these new build projects, a large pool ofknowledge and experience has become available across the

East Midlands, concerning new build, and similar pools ofknowledge and experience are being gathered across the restof the UK as a whole.

In order to encourage the sharing of new build best practiceamongst the region’s learning providers, the JISC EastMidlands Regional Support Centre is organising a new buildevent at the brand new location of Stephenson College inCoalville on Friday 16th June. The event will featurecontributions from regional learning providers who haveundertaken (or are undertaking) new build projects, theregional LSC and the JISC E-Learning and InnovationProgramme, who will provide a national and regional contextfor new build projects.

For information about this event please check online atwww.rsc-em.ac.uk or by emailing support@rsc-em.ac.uk

James HighamAdvisor

Forthcoming

EVENTSMay4th Learning Resources Forum

8th e-portfolios (jointly with

NILTA/Nottingham Uni)

10th ACL (NLN R4 materials)

(NIACE)

11th Moodle Users Group

16th Learning Styles and

concept mapping

18th ILT Forum

23rd Staff development and

ILT strategy

24th Online Assessment

26th Technical Forum

June8th HE Forum

8th NLN R4 Materials

into Moodle

12th e-learning for teachers

in training

13th MIS Forum

16th New build

22nd e-Fair

See our website for further details

www.rsc-em.ac.uk

intouch

Mike Puls, a Broxtowe College sessional tutor inthe community, describes how a long rangeremote keyboard and mouse he discovered as adirect result of attending an RSC course hasgreatly improved the teaching resources for his classes.

Broxtowe College has a wide variety of communityvenues around Nottinghamshire and high-techequipment is not always possible at each of thesesites. The 9 metre range Gyration GP1200 Ultrasuite keyboard and mouse has enabled me tointeract with a datashow presentation from

anywhere in the room, with the added bonus of notobstructing the screen. The Gyration mouse can behand held so can be used without a surface to reston and the keyboard is also fully functional fromanywhere in the room. All the benefits ofinteractive white boards can be simulated with thisdevice (at a fraction of the cost). There is no needto create special white board resources or find timefor white board training.

Students can, if they want to, remain in their seatsand manipulate the computer without theembarrassment of standing up in front of the class.They become more involved with the lesson becausethey are included and are having fun. I have used itsuccessfully for group completion of Hot Potatoesquizzes, for mind mapping and for demonstrations oftechniques learnt in Office programs and digitalimaging programs. Off line internet can also be usedto demonstrate internet principles.

This small piece of inexpensive hardware (it costsless than £90) together with a portable dataprojector has enabled me to incorporate manynew strategies in the learning process.Community e-learning has been given a boost.

Mike Puls - Sessional Tutor, Broxtowe College

Hints and Tips:The government’s e-strategy identifies the need for an “integrated online educationinformation service”. This is it.

www.learningandskillsweb.org.uk

Learning and Skills Web is a new service for busy education and training practitionersworking in all areas of the learning and skills community.

It offers a convenient point of access to the array of existing online resources,information and news currently serving the sector. Or, as one registered user put it, “Justwhat we needed. A website that links all the websites!! You’ve saved me loads of time,thank you”.

Register OnlineRegistered users will be able to influence and shape this developing service. Simply register at www.learningandskillsweb.org.uk

What to expect when you visit Learning and Skills Web• easy access to e-learning resources• quality education and training search results from trusted, reliable sources• registered users can save search results, select news feeds and much more

Coming soon• Visit the site regularly to keep up with all the ongoing developments.• more resources from more sources• user reviews• find relevant events• online communities • enhanced and even faster search results

Learning and Skills Web is managed by Becta and funded by the LSC. It was previouslyknown as NLN Online

Broxtowe CollegeSimple technology that benefits tutors and students

F O C U SON...

Learning and Skills Web is live

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Mike Puls using the wireless mouse