E-Learning eZine - Content Issue

We would like to welcome you all back after the October holidays. In this edition of our ezine, we will be looking at some of the many useful online educational resources available to staff at the college - They are all free!


COLEG Materials & Jorum Update

The new Re:Source platform will launch on 9 November. When this becomes available, we will send you the new link.

This will replace the existing repository at coleg.intralibrary.com, which will remain open until this date. In addition to the Scotland’s Colleges collections, Re:Source will provide access to resources shared by SQA, JISC RSC Scotland, colleges and Jorum. Re:Source will be open for users to search and download, but users will need to authenticate/log in to deposit resources to the repository.

In the meantime, if you want to access materials from coleg.intralibrary.com, you can do so by clicking on “Sign in via UK federation”. Type in Adam Smith and login with your full college email address & network login to access the repository.

There are also excellent free recourses via the Jorum website. To have a look at these materials, please go to http://www.jorum.ac.uk


SQA SOLAR e-Assessment

Interested in e-Assessment? There is a great range of materials available via the SQA Solar project for e-Assessment. Click here to view the available assessments on Solar: http://www.sqasolar.org.uk/mini/29832.1478.1483.html

If you are interested in this or would like to find out more, please contact the elearning helpdesk.


Khan Academy

Khan academy offers excellent free resources online. They have a variety of videos and interactive learning materials across a range of subjects. Users can create free accounts and save their progress as well as subscribing to learn about the latest courses. Click on the link below to explore more.
http://www.khanacademy.org


SQA Academy

SQA offer free online courses on their SQA Academy site. You can sign up for free and access some of the materials that they have available. Please click on the link below to find out more.
http://www.sqaacademy.org.uk/course/category.php?id=17


Open University

The Open University have made a range of excellent courses available for free on their Open Learn platform. All the materials on this site have been developed by experts at the Open University. Click on the link below to explore.
http://www.open.edu/openlearn


NLN materials direct from iLearn

NLN materials are also available via iLearn. These can be found under the “resources” section when you click on “Add an activity or resource” on your iLearn course. Please feel free to browse through the materials available and if you have any queries about adding these to a course, the eLearning team will be more than happy to assist you with this.


November iTrain

Our iTrain sessions are continuing to run until the end of November. If you are interested in booking into one of these sessions, please contact Leah Christie on 3845 or via email leahchristie@adamsmith.ac.uk.


Content Creation

If you would like to create new learning objects or have ideas for any new pieces of content you would like created, please get in touch with the elearning team to discuss this further https://learn.adamsmith.ac.uk/els/default.aspx

iTrain eZine



We would like to welcome you all back from holiday and thank you for attending our iLearn V2 launch events. As we said at our sessions, we are now launching our iTrain initiative, which will run until the October holiday in the first instance. iTrain consists of a number of sessions, described in detail below, which allow you to chose which level is suitable for you and/or your team.


Session Description


Session 1. What is iLearn?

iLearn is the colleges online learning platform, based on the popular Moodle software. The heart of iLearn is courses that contain activities and resources. There are about 20 different types of activities available (forums, glossaries, wikis, assignments, quizzes, choices (polls), scorm players, databases etc) and each can be customised quite a lot. The main power of this activity-based model comes in combining the activities into sequences and groups, which can help you guide participants through learning paths. Thus, each activity can build on the outcomes of previous ones. There are a number of other tools that make it easier to build communities of learners, including blogs, messaging, participant lists etc, as well useful tools like grading, reports, integration with other systems and so on. In this session, elearning staff will give you a comprehensive introduction to iLearn and prepare you for your own iLearn journey.


Session 2.  Hands on introduction to iLearn

A complete beginners guide to our exciting elearning platform, iLearn – In this session, you will be shown how to log in, how to create your own course and how to upload materials. You will be given the chance to play around with an existing course and talk to eLearning staff about how you can use iLearn to support your learners.


Session 3.  iLearn - Next steps

OK, so you have some courses and you have uploaded your course materials. That’s it, then ?? Well, that’s about 1% of what you can do with iLearn. . In this session, eLearning staff will outline some of the more advanced features of iLearn and help you embed it into your arsenal of teaching approaches.


Session 4.  Advanced users iLearn

In this session, eLearning staff will outline advanced features of iLearn and support advance users, who want to maximise their use of the College’s eLearning platform


Session 5.  The pedagogy of iLearn

The design and development of iLearn is guided by a "social constructionist pedagogy". This session unpacks this concept in terms of four main, related concepts: constructivism, constructionism, social constructivism, and connected and separate. Come along and find out how to unleash the true power of iLearn.


Session 6.  iPortfolio

One of the most exciting pilots we will be running this year is in the use of eportfolios for our staff and students. In this session, eLearning staff introduce our new iPortfolio service and get you thinking about how this could be applied with your student group. Then, it’s up to you !


Session 7.  Turnitin

Turnitin is plagiarism detection software, embedded within iLearn, which provides originality checking & online grading to engage students in the writing process. Turnitin encourages best practices for using and citing other people's written material and offers lecturers ways to save time and improve their feedback on the writing process. The service offers a complete web‐based service to manage the process of submitting and tracking papers electronically, providing better – and faster – feedback to students. In this session, eLearning staff will give you a comprehensive overview of Turnitin and get you started using it.


Session 8.  Book

A powerful new feature of iLearn is the book module, which makes it easy to create multi-page resources with a book-like format. Previously created websites can be imported directly into the Book module. Books can be printed entirely or by chapter. The book module allows you to have main chapters and sub chapters, but it goes no deeper. In other words, sub chapters cannot have their own sub chapters, as the module is intended to be a simple resource for teachers and students. The book module is not interactive. You can, however, link to choices, forums etc., from within a book. Also, Flash movies and other multimedia may be included in a book
In this session, eLearning staff will introduce you to this powerful new feature and get you started in creating your own books.


Session 9.  iAssess

The latest version of iLearn has massively improved functionality in both the assignment and quiz modules. In this session, eLearning staff will introduce these features and provide you will the knowledge  you need to get started with these tools.


All of the above sessions will be hosted in venues and at times to suit either individuals (within groups of 6 min and 12 max), or within Departments as requested. Details of these sessions are attached. Please contact Jillian Mack on (22) 3840 or jillianmack@adamsmith.ac.uk.


Alternatively you can contact the elearning helpdesk to book in, and let us know which session, date/day and your availability for a one hour slot. Sessions will then be arranged to suit.


Feel free to book into several sessions over the next few weeks.


Welcome Back eZine

 

iLearn V2

 

We would like to welcome you all back for a new academic year and give you some exciting news about our new iLearn plaftform, which we launched last week. As well as a new, college-brand look & feel, iLean also comes with the following new features:

 



- Update Assignment Module

- Restructured quiz engine developed by the Open University

- Turnitin integration

- Integrated AT Bar Accessibilty tool

- Drag and Drop functionality

- New integrated Book tool

- Much much more!

 

 

Take a look for yourself

 

https://ilearn.adamsmith.ac.uk/

 

 

eLearning Roadshows

 

Look out for us in the near future - As part of our soon to be launched "iTrain" initiative we will be bringing an e-learning Roadshow, direct to your team. This will feature and outline of our new platform, examples of how you can use iLearn in your teaching approachs and a chance to pilot some of our coming devlopments before they are rolled out across the College. Keep your eyes peeled for us!!

 

 

eLearning Helpdesk

 

If your require any further eLearning assistance regarding training, course setups or any other eLearning queries, please contact us via the eLearning Helpdesk

 

https://learn.adamsmith.ac.uk/els/default.aspx

 

 

 



The eLearning Innovation and Devlopment Unit is happy to welcome our new colleague, Andrew McGregor. Andy brings a varied and interesting skillset to the unit and is looking forward to meeting all the teaching staff as part of our Roadshow series this semester. Please give him a friendly ASC welcome when you see him.





Testimonial – Sport & Fitness Department

"I have been using iLearn all year, and every week or so. I'm learning something more about how to use it to support me in my teaching and the learners with their learning. I've just discovered how to produce a learner progress record, that is brilliant. I used the function to monitor learner progress on an IT unit last semester and I am now playing around with the function to see how I can use it across a whole course rather than just one unit. It will provide learners with a report card to monitor their progress on their course which is something they always seem to lose track, with minimum amount of effort required to set up, it's a great function that we've had to collate manually in the past".

Sharon McGuire

ePedagogy - Resource based learning

If one views the Internet as a vast collection of resources, then it naturally lends itself to an approach which encourages students to use a variety of resources to develop their understanding, rather than a specified few provided by the educator. Being able to analyse, select and critique resources is a major educational benefit. Such an approach may be realised through the creation of one or more activities, which the students perform as individuals or in groups in which they must solve a problem or produce an output by working with a range of resources. To support this pedagogy would require the use of a threaded discussion board. Support and dialogue between peers and educators is vital and this approach also benefits from sophisticated library facilities. Students are likely to spend time searching online repositories and databases. Other common tools include an online note-taking tools and the personal area for organising resources.

Making eLearning work for you

Coming Soon!
Drop in eLearning Workshops

Informal hands on sessions, suitable for complete beginners or those with some experience of eLearning. These are drop-ins you don’t need to attend, but can dip in and out as your interest takes you.

Members of the team will be in attendance to help with iLearn, eLearning Objects, Audio, Video and Podcasts etc…

Sessions take place on Wednesday afternoons - next dates: 7th, 14th, 21st & 28th March.

When: Wednesday

Where:

7th March – Priory Campus, Kirkcaldy – PH24
14th March – Stenton Campus, Glenrothes – Brightspace Area, Future Skills
21st March – Priory Campus, Kirkcaldy – PH24
28th March – Stenton Campus, Glenrothes – Brightspace Area, Future Skills

Between: 12:00 and 14:00

The above sessions are open to all staff, If you require a session to be organised at an alternative campus not listed, please get in touch with Sarah Geddes on 01592 223212

Contact Information: For any further information or to let us know your requirements in advance, can you please submit a request on the eLearning Helpdesk or email elearningsupport@adamsmith.ac.uk

iLearn Help Facility

If you require instant help on using iLearn why not try the Help Facility first. From within the Help link at the top right hand side of iLearn you will find access to both Student and Staff help files (as shown below).

If you additional suggestions for this area, please feel free to let us know by putting a request on the Helpdesk.