by Julia Ault

The VLE in

UNIVERSITY OF WALES

Trinity Saint David

by

Julia Ault

The VLE in TSD

Trinity University College has been

using Blackboard as its only VLE

since September 2003.

University of Wales Lampeter began

using Moodle in September 2009

The VLE in TSD

It is of course recognised that the new University of Wales Trinity Saint David should ideally have just one VLE for all students..

…and discussions are ongoing about how to achieve this.

The VLE in TSD**Present situation 2010/2011**Lampeter Campus:

Moodle is directly hosted, administered and supported in–house on the Lampeter Campus. It is currently only available to staff and students studying or teaching on the Lampeter Campus and as it has only been in place for 12 months is still in development – a decision on the future of the VLE in TSD will decide if this development continues.

The VLE in TSD

The VLE in TSDCarmarthen Campus

Blackboard has been provided to Trinity Saint David for Carmarthen based courses under the eLearning Strand of the SWWHEP Project since 2008 (and previously via an SLA with SU from 2003/4) and this will continue at least until July 2011 when the existing consortium contract with Blackboard is due for renewal. A decision has not yet been taken on renewal options.

Swansea University hosts and provides technical support for the TSD Blackboard with a local systems administrator and Information Services staff dealing with enrolments and on the ground support and training on the Carmarthen Campus.

The VLE in TSD**Brief History of SWWHEP**£7.5 million was approved by the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) in 2007 under its "Reaching Higher" agenda to support HEIs in Wales to improve performance, enhance competitiveness and value-for-money in public services.

This was awarded by the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) to Swansea University, Swansea Metropolitan University and University of Wales Trinity Saint David to implement change in key administrative services - under the South West Wales Higher Education Partnership (SWWHEP) Reconfiguration and Collaboration project - and was the first of its kind in the Welsh higher education sector.

The VLE in TSDThe eLearning Strand of the SWWHEP Project has allowed the

eTeam to build and develop the Blackboard installation in TSD to

become a bilingual Learning Portal for Staff and Students on the

Carmarthen Campus and beyond.

The Trinity Saint David Blackboard was upgraded to Blackboard

Learn 9.1 during the summer of 2010. The new Tab Groups and

fully supported Cymraeg Language Pack in 9.1 enabled us to

further develop a fully switchable bilingual portal and make full

use of the tab structure and community system to add more

resources, social media and community pages for all users.

The VLE in TSDYou can Login in Cymraeg:

Or in English:

And have the same experience..

The VLE in TSD

It was also decided to keep the Help, Learning

Resources (CAD/LRC) and Technology Enhanced

Learning (TEL) tabs open to all without a login - to

specifically enable staff and students on the Lampeter

Campus to access the available resources - as well as

interested parties in the wider world.

The VLE in TSD

The VLE in TSDAnd the Learning Resource Centre (CAD /LRC) Tab Group

The VLE in TSDThe

TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) Tab on Blackboard is accessible to all with or without a login

The VLE in TSD

The VLE in TSD

The Resources Tab on Blackboard is also accessible to all without a login (via CAD / LRC Tab Group) in English and Cymraeg

The VLE in TSDResources (English)

The VLE in TSDAdnoddau (Cymraeg)

The VLE in TSD

If you do have a login for Blackboard, you can choose English or Cymraeg at login and the relevant Tab Group (English or Cymraeg) where many tabs and modules are available in both languages.

The VLE in TSD

The VLE in TSD

The VLE in TSD

So what happens now?Until firm decisions are made on the future of the VLE in TSD, those of us on the ground are trying to build bridges across the two different VLEs to ensure parity of experience for all TSD students, regardless of mode or place of study.

The VLE in TSDWe are now exploring the use of other software and social media available to us (some initially provided via the SWWHEP Project) to help build these bridges.These include: PebblePad Learning Objects Facebook / Twitter / Blogs

The VLE in TSDPebblePadPebblePad enables the learner to create an online personal learning environment (PLE) and was originally provided to TSD under the Careers Strand of the SWWHEP Project. PebblePad Mobile is also now available for students on the move.

Further opportunities for Work Based Learners and the new FE Partners in the Trinity Saint David Group to build their ePortfolios for APEL (Accreditation of Prior and Experiential Learning) and as part of their general course work are now actively being explored using PebblePad - and other related software such as Wimba Create and Xerte Online Toolkits (which can both be used by teaching staff to create interactive learning materials which can then be embedded into PebblePad as webfolios as well as within the VLE as learning objects).

The VLE in TSDLearning ObjectsOriginally used as a locally installed Building Block within the Blackboard VLE to provide blogs, wikis and podcasts, this software has now evolved to become a hosted SaaS (Software as a Service). This can either integrate within the VLE or be used as a standalone Personal Learning Space to “build and implement assignments and activities from a palette of re-usable social media tools and provide assessment functionality through rubrics and participatory metrics”Advantages for TSD include the fact that separate external logins can be given to users as well as integration via LDAP and group spaces can be created to facilitate collaboration across campuses and subject disciplines. This software can also be licensed independently from a VLE at a much reduced cost.

The VLE in TSDSocial MediaTrinity Saint David is actively engaging with social media with a general University presence on Facebook and Twitter. We also have well maintained TEL and Learning Resource Centre blogs, Delicious accounts, YouTube channels and more....

We intend to continue and deepen this engagement - integrating social media within the VLE and University website, developing a mobile presence and exploring the use of txt tools as a communication medium as all students (and some staff!) still seem to be surgically attached to their mobile phones - if not their iPads quite yet!

The VLE in TSDUseful Links:Learning Objects Campus Pack Learning SpacesTSD Blackboard TSD BlackboardTSD Moodle TSD MoodleTSD Website TSD WebsiteXerte Online Toolkits Open Source eLearning ToolsWimba Create Interactive course contentPebblePad ePortfoliosTEL BCP Blog TSD Building Capacity ProjectEducator’s PLN Useful PLN resourcesSlideShare TEL Presentations JAYouTube TEL Videos JATEL Blog JA@juliadesigns (JA on Twitter)

The VLE in TSD

Julia Ault

Technology Enhanced Learning OfficerUniversity of Wales Trinity Saint David

November 2010

Contact:j.ault@tsd.ac.ukjuliadesigns@gmail.com@juliadesigns on Twitter