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More on E-learning in the Biosciences
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Event reports
E-Learning: Developments in the Biosciences
Tuesday 11th December 2007
Islington City Learning Centre, Highbury New Park, Islington, London, N5 2EG.
Building on the success of last year's e-Learning meeting, this one-day event provided a further opportunity for the non-technical e-Learning novice and those with more experience of e-Learning to discuss effective practice and share ideas on e-learning within the biosciences.
The day included presentations illustrating effective support of learning through the use of Web 2.0 technologies and selected e-Learning mini-projects funded by the Centre. There was also a choice of two hands-on and demonstration sessions and a general swapshop session showcasing further examples of e-Learning practice from the Biosciences.
Programme
| 10.00 |
Registration; Tea and Coffee |
| 10.15 |
Welcome and Introduction to the day |
| 10.20 |
Keynote: e-learning in the biosciences: where are we now?
Alan Cann, University of Leicester |
| 10.50 |
Podcasts: two examples of practice
1. Bill Ashraf, University of Bradford (withdrew from the event)
2. Tim Barry, University of Cumbria
Tim presented the findings from his recent project investigating the impact of providing exercise physiology podcasts to level 1 students. Read more... |
| 11.40 |
Refreshments |
| 11.55 |
The wonderful world of wikis
Viv Rolfe, De Montfort University |
| 12.20 |
Personal response (clicker) systems and learning
Jo Badge, Web Resources Development Officer, School of Biological Sciences, University of Leicester
Lecturers have been asking students questions in their lectures for many years, gauging responses by using coloured cards, hand raising or just listening as students shout their answers. Asking questions encourages student engagement with the material and can provide a lecture break to increase concentration. Personal response systems can provide the same effect and offer instant feedback on whether a particular topic has been understood.
This presentation reviewed why you may want to ask questions in lectures and demonstratde the system being used at University of Leicester. This year, all first year undergraduate bioscience students at University of Leicester have been given handsets for the duration of the academic year. A report of the progress of this new initiative and its effectiveness was presented.
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| 12.45 |
Lunch |
| 13.30 |
Parallel workshops - demonstrations and hands-on opportunitities
Choose from either:
- Workshop 1: Web 2.0 technologies, led by Alan Cann, University of Leicester
In this workshop participants were guided through the range of web 2.0 services available with the intention of enabling participants to set up a PLE (Personal Learning Environment) or plan a web 2.0 course.
- Workshop 2: Producing your own e-learning resources to meet your students’ needs, led by Stephen Gomez, University of the West of England
In my experience, students prefer bespoke e-learning materials which are relevant to the modules they are studying. I produce video pod files (short video files) to support my lectures in the neurosciences.
In this workshop, Stephen shared his experiences of learning the techniques to produce and deploy these files and gave a demonstration of some of the tools that he uses.
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| 15.00 |
Refreshments |
| 15.15 |
Swapshop - experiences of e-learning in the biosciences
Short contributions (10 mins max) from delegates, including:
- Student perspectives on the use of audio and video pod files to support their learning, Holger Andersson and Chris Lush, University of the West of England
- Undergraduate use of PDAs for collection of field data, Glenn Baggott, Birkbeck, University of London
- AQUATIC ECOSYSTEM SIMULATOR - bringing community dynamics to life, Peter Randerson, Cardiff University
- ENGAGE in research – an interactive website for life science undergraduates, Julian Park, CETL-AURS, University of Reading
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| 16.15 |
Reflections on the day and looking to the future
Terry McAndrew, C & IT Manager, Centre for Bioscience and University of Leeds |
| 16.30 |
Close |
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Summary of the day (link to pdf document)
Publications
E-learning resource list (an updated version of the list included in delegate packs)
Engage website (a resource for students) www.engageinresearch.ac.uk/
Mobile assessment evaluation project
Tim Barry's paper published in Bioscience Education: The Quantitative Effect of Students Using Podcasts in a First Year Undergraduate Exercise Physiology Module
Reports from related Centre for Bioscience events
Effective E-Learning: IT's about pedagogy as well as technology
Manchester Metropolitan University, Wednesday 13 December 2006
www.bioscience.heacademy.ac.uk/events/mmu06.aspx
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