Those of you who’re observant may have spotted that we have had a bit of a revamp. We know that LearningX is used by a number of staff, but we’d like to get more staff involved.
We’re currently working to get Enhance your Module, currently a MyDundee module into a LearningX format, for those of you who aren’t able to access My Dundee – and/or prefer the structure of LearningX.
We’re also hoping to revisit and update “Innovative Assessments” – if anyone would like to contribute to that LearningX, let us know. You might want to write a post, or perhaps you’d prefer to have a short interview with one of the team, discussing some of your innovations in assessment.
We have 2 live sessions planned to accompany #creativeHE.
In each, we’ll make time for people to speak about ideas they’ve had as a result of the activities they’ve done so far in the session = and start to develop networks across the University that you may find useful for gathering more ideas. Given the nature of these sessions, we’ll make them a drop in sessions, so come for as long or as short as you want.
We’ll meet in the Strawberry bank ideas lab – I’ve got it booked from 2-4, but, rather than using the whole room, we’ll just use the two tables at the right hand end as you enter (i.e. where the main display is) – unless there are lots of people – in which case we can spread!
These sessions are formed by having a series of web posts during a single week on a particular theme.
January 22nd – 26th #creativeHE – to tie in with a session that’s being run by a number of others across the UK – encouraging us to think about how we might engage creatively with students. As the Google+ introduction says “Creativity will help us get through the bad times and create good times!”
February 5th – 9th
Innovative Assessments – how can we be innovative in the way we assess students.
In March, we’ll be starting to think about the upcoming academic year, and how you can start to look at the way your modules are structured online. It’s going to be more, though, than just combining the Module Makeover and Searching, Using and Sharing sessions we did last year, we hope to go into far more depth.
Live Sessions.
We have a number of live sessions, mostly linked to related Learning X online sessions
When we first came up with the idea of Learning X, we hoped to be able to involve other staff, both for the blog based seasons, but also for the idea of Learning X Live, the series of face to face sessions held in the Strawberry Bank Ideas lab. We have had a number of locally arranged sessions (such as one looking at visitors and residents ). This session was, however, the first when we had presenters from the rest of the University.
Susie Schofield, from the Medical School, and Jenny Woof from Biomedial Sciences joined with us to look at the benefits for both markers and students when staff use rubrics to help them with the marking. Susie outlined the benefits of rubrics generally, while Jenny looked at her experiences of working with a large team of markers, using rubrics.
The presentation is available to Dundee staff via Office 365.
Groups discussing rubrics
In groups, staff then started to look at the different ways that they are using rubrics already in their disciplines – or how they might apply them. To help with the discussions, we made available examples of rubrics and generic criteria from Dundee and other Universities. (Examples in Box – Dundee staff only). We had staff from most schools in the University – Medical School, DJCAD, Humanities and more, this lead to lively discussions, clearly there are some expectations in student performance that differ greatly across the university, but there are others that all expect their students to be able to do as graduates.
Looking at different criteria.
From my point of view, I felt that the session went very well; and the comments invited from staff seemed to show that they also found it beneficial (see the last few slides on the presentation).
If you have any ideas for other sessions you’d like to see as part of the Learning X series, please let us know.
By Cleonard1973 (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0], via Wikimedia CommonsAs part of the Learning X – Live sessions we would like to invite you to our first session with guest presenters.
We welcome Jenny Woof and Susie Schofield, who have both used rubrics for marking students work.
The outline for the session will be:
An overview of the benefits that using a rubric / grading form can bring to the marking process (Susie)
Case study of the way they have been used in Biological and Biomedical Sciences. (Jenny)
Group activity – looking at existing rubrics – whether on paper or electronic, and to start to develop new rubrics / grading forms.
Technical – short overview of the process of getting from a paper rubric to a Turnitin one. (Emma)
Time / Date: Tuesday November 28th, 2:00 till 4:00 in the Strawberry Bank Ideas Lab (mid floor of the library)
All staff welcome, but please register your intention to come via Eventbrite
Don’t forget, we also have a “How to” session on Wednesday 22nd, looking specifically at using rubrics and quickmarks in Turnitin. (Bookable)
Building on the success of last semester’s first Learning X series theme on Copyright, we’ve planned a whole Season of Learning X for the 2017/18 academic session. If you missed our first series, Learning X is our online approach to supporting learning and teaching in a digital world and consists of short and snappy online guided learning activities relating to everyday learning and teaching practice. By developing a themed approach we hope that groups and individuals can learn together and develop learning conversations and networks. The beauty of delivering this online is that you can join in when you want and the content will always be available. We’re developing Learning X as a hybrid pedagogy approach and each series will be accompanied by a complementary workshop so that staff can meet up and ask further questions, get additional advice, tips and support.
The new season kicks off on Monday 7 August with a Module makeover series designed to help you get your modules ready for the start of the new session. Module makeover will encourage you to think about developing a module checklist to ensure you have all the key information ready to view for your students. It will also point you to online learning on the web to help inspire you and highlight some tools and approaches that you might not be aware of. There will also be a Module Makeover workshop/surgery on Wednesday 9 August from 10.00-12.00hrs in the Eduzone in the Library.
The Learning X 2017/18 season Semester 1 schedule continues as outlined below.
28 August: Copyright – this series returns refreshed for a rerun with an accompanying workshop on 7th September.
2 October: Learning Footprints – this series will explore concepts such as digital residents and visitors together with personal learning environments and networks and also discuss privacy and safety in digital learning habitats.
9 October: Digital Scholarship – here we’ll be making use of the Open University’s OpenLearn module on the Digital Scholar to help highlight how we can harness digital approaches to our work around the scholarship of learning and teaching here at Dundee.
In semester 2 we’ll go on to explore themes such as learning design and assessment and we’ll publish dates for these once they’re confirmed. In between our Learning X series we’ll also be publishing one-off episodes to in response to direct requests we receive from the learning and teaching community and also focussing on innovative teaching approaches.
If you have suggestions for other topics and themes that we should be looking at over the next year please let us know.
Welcome to a new online, informal, programme we’re calling Learning X. It will look at various topics in learning and teaching, and should give you food for thought, as well as some practical tips.
Over time, Learning X will publish “seasons” of blog posts, each running over the course of a week or so. They’ll contain activities focusing on learning and teaching activities (usually, but not exclusively, using technology).
