1,126 research outputs found

    The Blended Learning Unit, University of Hertfordshire: A Centre for Excellence in Teaching and Learning, Evaluation Report for HEFCE

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    The University of Hertfordshire’s Blended Learning Unit (BLU) was one of the 74 Centres for Excellence in Teaching and Learning (CETLs) funded by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) between 2005 and 2010. This evaluation report follows HEFCE’s template. The first section provides statistical information about the BLU’s activity. The second section is an evaluative reflection responding to 13 questions. As well as articulating some of our achievements and the challenges we have faced, it also sets out how the BLU’s activity will continue and make a significant contribution to delivery of the University of Hertfordshire’s 2010-2015 strategic plan and its aspirations for a more sustainable future. At the University of Hertfordshire, we view Blended Learning as the use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) to enhance the learning and learning experience of campus-based students. The University has an excellent learning technology infrastructure that includes its VLE, StudyNet. StudyNet gives students access to a range of tools, resources and support 24/7 from anywhere in the world and its robustness, flexibility and ease of use have been fundamental to the success of the Blended Learning agenda at Hertfordshire. The BLU has comprised a management team, expert teachers seconded from around the University, professional support and a Student Consultant. The secondment staffing model was essential to the success of the BLU. As well as enabling the BLU to become fully staffed within the first five months of the CETL initiative, it has facilitated access to an invaluable spectrum of Blended Learning, research and Change Management expertise to inform pedagogically sound developments and enable change to be embedded across the institution. The BLU used much of its capital funding to reduce barriers to the use of technology by, for example, providing laptop computers for all academic staff in the institution, enhancing classroom technology provision and wirelessly enabling all teaching accommodation. Its recurrent funding has supported development opportunities for its own staff and staff around the institution; supported evaluation activities relating to individual projects and of the BLU’s own impact; and supported a wide range of communication and dissemination activities internally and externally. The BLU has led the embedding a cultural change in relation to Blended Learning at the University of Hertfordshire and its impact will be sustained. The BLU has produced a rich legacy of resources for our own staff and for others in the sector. The University’s increased capacity in Blended Learning benefits all our students and provides a learning experience that is expected by the new generation of learners in the 21st century. The BLU’s staffing model and partnership ways of working have directly informed the structure and modus operandi of the University’s Learning and Teaching Institute (LTI). Indeed a BLU team will continue to operate within the LTI and help drive and support the implementation of the University’s 2010-2015 Strategic plan. The plan includes ambitions in relation to Distance Learning and Flexible learning and BLU will be working to enable greater engagement with students with less or no need to travel to the university. As well as opening new markets within the UK and overseas, even greater flexibility for students will also enable the University to reduce its carbon footprint and provide a multifaceted contribution to our sustainability agenda. We conclude this executive summary with a short paragraph, written by Eeva Leinonen, our former Deputy Vice-Chancellor, which reflects our aspiration to transform Learning and Teaching at the University of Hertfordshire and more widely in the sector. ‘As Deputy Vice Chancellor at Hertfordshire I had the privilege to experience closely the excellent work of the Blended Learning Unit, and was very proud of the enormous impact the CETL had not only across the University but also nationally and internationally. However, perhaps true impact is hard to judge at such close range, but now as Vice Principal (Education) at King's College London, I can unequivocally say that Hertfordshire is indeed considered as the leading Blended Learning university in the sector. My new colleagues at King's and other Russell Group Universities frequently seek my views on the 'Hertfordshire Blended Learning' experience and are keen to emulate the successes achieved at an institutional wide scale. The Hertfordshire CETL undoubtedly achieved not only what it set out to achieve, but much more in terms of scale and impact. All those involved in this success can be justifiably proud of their achievements.’ Professor Eeva Leinonen, Vice Principal (Education), King's College, Londo

    A study on the usage of mobile devices in collaborative environments vs desktops: An approach based on flow experience

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    The teaching method using the computer is an added value, it is certainly very appealing to students and more motivating, stimulating them to interact with different situations and depictions of real life, forcing the student to think creatively and independently new subjects and materials. New technologies have created new spaces of knowledge. Now, besides the school, also the company and place of residence became places of education and learning. The number of people in their homes using the Internet to increase their knowledge is increasing. The combination of a personal atmosphere, together with the ability to manage their time and what to learn, makes the use of courses of e-learning increase. In order to evaluate the use of mobile devices and desktops and the potential of mobile devices in collaborative environments vs desktops, it was performed a experiment involving students of higher education. This study has the main objective to validate if the students that use laptops or desktops are in the flow experience and witch of them are more in the flow experience. This study is based on the flow experience introduced by Csikszentmihalyi (1975). The main purpose of this study is to establish whether the user is feeling the flow experience when using Google Groups when using laptops or desktops. In the context of this study, information has been gathered through a survey, applying the five dimensions of the flow state. The sample used consisted on one hundred and twelve students. At the end of the study, after analyzing the gathered information, it was possible to conclude that students have experienced the flow and that it had a positive effect on their learning experiences both by students using laptops or desktops, but having the students that used the laptops more engaged in the flow experience than the students that used desktops.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

    A study on the usage of mobile devices in collaborative environments vs desktops: An approach based on flow experience

    Get PDF
    The teaching method using the computer is an added value, it is certainly very appealing to students and more motivating, stimulating them to interact with different situations and depictions of real life, forcing the student to think creatively and independently new subjects and materials. New technologies have created new spaces of knowledge. Now, besides the school, also the company and place of residence became places of education and learning. The number of people in their homes using the Internet to increase their knowledge is increasing. The combination of a personal atmosphere, together with the ability to manage their time and what to learn, makes the use of courses of e-learning increase. In order to evaluate the use of mobile devices and desktops and the potential of mobile devices in collaborative environments vs desktops, it was performed a experiment involving students of higher education. This study has the main objective to validate if the students that use laptops or desktops are in the flow experience and witch of them are more in the flow experience. This study is based on the flow experience introduced by Csikszentmihalyi (1975). The main purpose of this study is to establish whether the user is feeling the flow experience when using Google Groups when using laptops or desktops. In the context of this study, information has been gathered through a survey, applying the five dimensions of the flow state. The sample used consisted on one hundred and twelve students. At the end of the study, after analyzing the gathered information, it was possible to conclude that students have experienced the flow and that it had a positive effect on their learning experiences both by students using laptops or desktops, but having the students that used the laptops more engaged in the flow experience than the students that used desktops.info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersio

    Advancing the m-learning research agenda for active, experiential learning: Four case studies

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    This article reports on an m-learning research agenda instituted at our university in order to explore how mobile technology can enhance active, experiential learning. Details of the implementation and results of four areas of m-learning are presented: mobile supported fieldwork, fostering interactivity in large lectures with mobile technology, using mobile devices to learn about mobile technology and, finally, podcasting. These directions are informed by a concern for achieving m-learning practices consistent with sound educational theory and the needs of the contemporary, technologically aware student body. All four implementations have been successfully embedded in mainstream subjects on a continuing basis. Therefore they represent a departure from the project based approach of much m-learning reported in the literature. This outcome was achieved through a focus on the economic sustainability and feasibility of each case. An evaluation focusing on how well each case assisted students' learning found that, with the exception of lecture podcasting, all supported high quality experiential learning

    ALT-C 2010 - Conference Introduction and Abstracts

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    Application of podcasting in online engineering education

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    Applications of mobile technologies for engineering education can be found in the literature, but, many of the reported applications are aimed at the online (wirelessly), on-campus, synchronous and proximal use of mobile technologies. Mobile technologies in engineering education can encompass more than the proximal teaching and learning environment-they can be offline, asynchronous and at a distance from the classroom. This paper reports on the initial application of `podcasting\u27 in a wholly online engineering study unit. It presents the rationale for, technical development details of, and, limited evaluation of this initial podcasting trial.<br /

    The survey on mobile library services in Hong Kong and Singapore academic libraries

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    The captioned survey wasco-organized by libraries of The Chinese University of Hong Kong, The City University of Hong Kong, Nanyang Technological University and The University of Hong Kong in October 2011. The primary objectives of this survey are: 1. To identify the needs and preferences of students with regard to mobile library services; and 2. To recommend a suite of pertinent mobile library services for students. In this survey, the mobile library services are referring to library online contents and resources, which can be delivered and accommodated for display in mobile devices. We hope that the results and responses to this survey will be useful to participating libraries in order to plan and deliver pertinent mobile library services. Thank you to colleagues fromthe participatinglibraries who contributed and helped with this important survey. Last but not least, we would like to express our gratitude to Annie Talve and Monica Redden, our facilitators of Next Gen /Next Decade 2011–the Staff development programme for university librarians in Hong Kong, Singapore and Shanghai. This project could not have happened without Annie and Monica’s inspirations and encouragementto bring four academic libraries from two cities to work together on this survey

    ALT-C 2010 - Conference Proceedings

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