by Scott Redrup | Aug 6, 2018 | Learning Space Upgrade
The Home Stretch
Whilst we have all been distracted by football coming home, heat waves and barbecues, August has crept up on us and we are just less than a month away before the new Learning Space will go live. Don’t forget, the ET team will be running a second audit in the middle of the month so you still have a week or so to make any changes before they’re reviewed.
Support For Updating Your Modules
Whilst we appreciate that many of our colleagues are on leave at this time of year, rest assured members of the ET team will be around throughout August to answer questions, visit your team and provide prompt feedback on modules for you – all you need to do is ask! The best way to contact the team is etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. For anyone returning later in the month or early September, we will also be running the support sessions below:
August
- Tue 28th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – TH Seminar W
- Wed 29th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – TH Seminar W
- Thurs 30th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Falmouth – Seminar F (Treetops)
September
- Tue 4th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – Exchange Blue
- Wed 5th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Falmouth – Seminar F (Treetops)
- Thurs 6th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – Exchange Blue
Support Guides
The Learning Space upgrade has provided us with a great opportunity to review and redevelop the support documentation that staff can use to get to grips with different elements of Learning Space. Learning Space comes with everything needed to help support students with their studies while at Falmouth and we would highly recommend exploring some of the activities below to help enhance teaching.
| Activity |
What is it? |
Guide |
| Workshop |
A peer assessment tool built into Learning Space that allows students to upload work and have other students review it. |
View |
| Database |
A collection of data about a specific topic that both students and staff can contribute to. For example records of information about famous artists, links to favourite animated films and more. |
View |
| Wiki |
Similar to Wikipedia, a blank collection of pages that both students and staff can contribute to. The tool could be used to create a collection of tutorials or as a development blog. |
View |
Theme deployment
In our last post we gave you a sneak peak of what the new Learning Space will look like. The eagle-eyed amongst us may have noticed the ‘collapse all’ button which confirms that sections in the new Learning Space can be collapsed and expanded. This will provide a simpler navigation for users accessing the Learning Space on their mobile phone and is helpful for modules and resource pages which contain a lot of information!
by Adel | Jul 23, 2018 | Learning Space Upgrade
We’ve been busy bees over the last couple of weeks, writing guidance for the new Learning Space and ensuring it matches with existing processes and procedures as well as the new tools within the system. We’re still doing a bit of training, and engagement has been really good. If you haven’t had training please get in touch.
Audit point 1 (w/c 16th July)
We have been auditing the content within modules. So far, around 30% of modules are ‘In progress’, or ‘meet audit requirements’ based on this set of criteria. We have got in touch with module leaders (recorded on the student record system) to notify them of the audit criteria that are yet to be completed. If you have received a message about a module that you are not a leader on, please could you pass it onto the relevant member of staff, and let us know. The record will need to be updated on the student record system, and the student records team should be notified through qae@falmouth.ac.uk.
More Drop in sessions
Additional drop in sessions have been requested by a few staff before the start of the new study block. As we’re expecting the bulk of the materials and activities to be created in the new Learning Space before then we’re hoping the sessions will be mostly for finishing off. But, whatever stage you’re at please feel free to drop into the rooms below on the following days:
August
- Tue 28th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – TH Seminar W
- Wed 29th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – TH Seminar W
- Thurs 30th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Falmouth – Seminar F (Treetops)
September
- Tue 4th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – Exchange Blue
- Wed 5th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Falmouth – Seminar F (Treetops)
- Thurs 6th, 9:00 – 17:00 – Penryn – Exchange Blue
Theme deployment
We’re still working on the design for the look and feel of the new system. We’re getting closer to the final testing phase now and plan to have it ready for around mid-August for the live system to go live on 3rd September. Here’s a sneak peak!
by Amy Sampson | Jul 5, 2018 | Learning Space Upgrade
As students leave for the Summer break we’re increasingly busy in the team as we prepare for the launch of the new Learning Space on September 3rd.
Course Sessions
We’ve been continuing with our course specific sessions over the last few weeks so staff feel orientated in the new environment, and understand the expectations of modules come launch. There’s still time to book in a session if you feel you’d like more support, please email etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk to make an appointment.
Release Cycle
After launching in September we’ll be planning in a regular release cycle to ensure tools and activities are updated and new functionality included. We’ve been working with next years academic calendar and the availability of our new service provider to ensure dates are chosen that are suitable for all. We’ve also been looking into the best ways of communicating these updates and will have more information in the coming months.
Theme Deployment
After finalising designs and building a local version, a working theme is now available on our development environment. We’ll be testing the new theme internally in the next few weeks before rolling out to the live environment.
Help Guidance
Progress is also being made in updating our support documentation ready for the start of term. We’ll be updating all of our guidance to reflect the new environment, starting with common activities and resources.
by Amy Sampson | Jun 25, 2018 | Learning Space Upgrade
It’s been another busy few weeks as we prepare for the September launch of Learning Space. Many of you may have seen us at one of our drop-ins or attended course specific sessions. Attendance to the events has been really good and provided an opportunity for discussion about the upgrade and any concerns that have arisen.
Theming
We’re continuing to work on getting a more Falmouth looking theme in place in the new environment. This has included working with Brand Comms to ensure colours and fonts are in line with the Falmouth style guide. This is one of the more extensive areas of work as part of the upgrade project and we’ll be releasing this once ready to the new environment.
Audit Point 1 – 16th July
To ensure that all modules contain relevant materials and links in preparation for the new academic year, we’ll be auditing all modules from the 16th July. Each module will be assessed against a list of set criteria to ensure it’s as informative and useful as possible for students. We’ll make contact with any module leaders with incomplete modules or those leaders who have yet to start building after this audit point.
Additional Drop-ins
We’ve had requests from a number of staff requiring some extra sessions come the end of the Summer to finish off any work they have to complete their module areas. As we’re expecting the bulk of the module will be created before this time we’re anticipating the focus of these sessions to be finalising any modules. Sessions have been booked for the following dates/times:
by David Pollard | Jun 11, 2018 | Learning Space Upgrade
Deadline: 3rd September
3rd September is the go live date for the new environment meaning the “old” Learning Space will be archived and users will no longer have access to the 17/18 content. You’ll need to ensure that any module content you wish to use in the new environment is retrieved before the 3rd September.
Training
Over the last few weeks we’ve been holding course focused and drop-in training sessions, many staff have attended these sessions and are now working on designing their modules for 18/19 in the new Learning Space. If you have yet to receive training, please contact etsupport@falmouth.ac.uk to arrange a session. There are also 3 remaining drop-in sessions where you can come and work while one of the Ed Tech team is on hand to help:
- 09:00-17:00 – Mon 18 June – Penryn – Exchange Blue
- 09:00-17:00 – Tue 19 June – Penryn – Exchange Blue
- 09:00-17:00 – Thu 21 June – Falmouth – Seminar F (Treetops)
Talis List Integration
We’ve now implemented the Talis tool within the new environment to enable teaching staff to a link to a relevant reading list in the Overview section of their modules. The academic liaison librarians have produced a PDF “how to” guide and a “how to” video on adding lists using this tool.
Scheduler: New feature
With the upgrade comes updates to current tools. A new feature that many staff members have expressed an interest in is now available. It is now possible to require students to submit either files or text at the point at which they book a slot. For example this might be used to upload an essay for discussion within a tutorial. Here are instructions on creating a Scheduler activity.
We use the
by Adel | May 25, 2018 | Learning Space Upgrade
We’re pleased to say that staff now have access to the new version of Learning Space and if you have attended one of our training sessions you will have seen it and hopefully you have started working on your modules for next year.
Over the last couple of weeks we have been meeting with staff and getting them up and running on their modules, and we will continue to meet with staff over the next month or so. If you haven’t got a session planned in for your course please get in touch to arrange one, or drop in to one of our all day sessions (details below).
Just to let you know, we will carry out an audit of the areas on Learning Space in mid July, and mid August. This is just to get an idea of how many modules have not been started yet, are in progress, or look to be complete. We plan to get in touch with module leaders who have modules that are not started after the audits to check if they need some more training.
Our designer has been working on the look and feel of the new environment to make it more in line with the Falmouth branding, and also to enhance the experience for users. He is now starting work on getting the designs built so they are in place for the start of the 18/19 year.
Drop-in sessions:
Falmouth
- Thu 07 June* – Seminar F
- Tue 12 June – Seminar F
- Thu 21 June – Seminar F
Penryn
- Tue 05 June – Exchange Green
- Wed 06 June – Exchange Green
- Mon 11 June* – Exchange Blue
- Mon 18 June – Exchange Blue
- Tue 19 June – Exchange Blue
*Library present for help with Talis resource lists
