Minutes of the
meeting of the E-learning Advisory Group held on Wednesday 28 October 2009 in
the Library Meeting Room
Present: Morag Bell
(Chair), Paul Byrne, Adam Crawford, John Dickens, Ruth Jenkins, Phil Richards,
Charles Shields, Jan Tennant.
1. Apologies
Tony Croft and Martin Harrison.
2. Minutes
The following items were noted from the minutes of the meeting of 30
April 2009:
Morag circulated a SUMS report.
3. Matters arising
None.
4.
Strategic issues
Morag identified a
number of strategic areas relating to e-learning where the Group would need to
discuss the issues and generate policies over the coming months. These areas
included distance learning; e-assessment; open educational resources; the use
of 3rd party web 2 services by academics; other technologies to support
learning including lecture capture; the long-term vision for Learn; and the
relationship between e-learning and teaching styles / physical learning spaces.
·
Distance learning
Charles talked through his discussion paper on online support for
distance learning that had been circulated before the meeting. He listed some
of the technological, institutional and political drivers behind increasing the
online component of distance learning. He also drew attention to mistakes made
by the sector in the past with respect to online distance learning initiatives,
particularly the UK E-Universities. There was some discussion as to how best to
identify market opportunities for online distance learning. Paul Byrne noted
that the Group and institution needed to be clear about the distinction between
online distance learning and blended learning with an online component.
The paper was considered by the Group in the context of the £250k fund
set aside by Neil Halliwell for use this year in supporting the further development
of distance/blended learning. The Group
felt that it was important to focus on placement students as this was a
strategically important area for Loughborough and one in which it had done more
than any other institution. In addition, the Group identified WEDC and the
Business School, both of which have existing programmes with a distance
learning component, as potential beneficiaries of the fund.
ACTION: Charles to
produce a summary sheet on distance learning at Loughborough and the resource
needed by 30 October to be raised at Operations Committee on 2 November.
·
E-assessment
The Group supported Phil’s request to replace Martin Ashby,
enabling e-assessment at Loughborough to move forward.
TQEF funding will be sought to increase the hours of Tim Baseley to full
time until the end of the year initially.
This bid will be submitted to Robert Bowyer by 10 November, along with
bids from the faculties and support services for one-off ideas that will
enhance the learning experience (maximum of £30k per bid).
·
3rd
party Web 2.0 services
Charles explained that this referred to online tools such as Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, iTunes U etc which, aside from being extremely popular with
students, are now being used increasingly by academics across the sector to support
teaching and learning. He noted that not all Web 2.0 services fall into the
category of social networking sites where the content remains permanently on 3rd
party servers; there are also useful tools such as Udutu (marketed directly
towards academics) which allows for e-learning content to be authored then
exported as a learning object that can be downloaded onto the academic’s
PC and uploaded to Learn. Several members of the Group questioned whether it
was necessary or appropriate for academics to use such services given the risks
(defamation, copyright infringement, etc) and the significant investment in
Learn. Charles argued that, while there was a need for academics in particular
and the institution in general to be cautious about using such services, they
offered opportunities for teaching and learning which should not be dismissed.
ACTION: Charles and Adam
to produce draft guidelines on the use of 3rd party Web 2.0 services
based on the toolkit from JISC Legal.
·
The remaining strategic issues will be discussed over the
next couple of meetings.
ACTION: Tony and Carol
Newbold to provide feedback on their experience of using technologies to
support learning.
ACTION: Adam to provide a
checklist on engCETL technologies.
5. Electronic questionnaire phase 3 pilot
The final pilot will be carried out at the end of this semester. The questionnaire has been improved enabling
students to tick the boxes more easily, however further work needs to be done
on uploading to LUSI and advertising the questionnaire on Learn, by
mid-November. The Group supported the
need for the survey to have a link on Learn.
ACTION: Phil to follow up
on modules set-up and LUSI connection and contact Caroline Smith once this has
been done.
6. Any other business
None.
7. Date of next meeting
10 December 2009, 2.30pm.