This paper looks at how UCA employed the VLE to help address government cuts in Disabled Students' Allowance (DSA). A toolkit was developed to advocate independent and self-directed learning which essentially delivers on a point-of-need basis and sits centrally in Blackboard.
The toolkit aims to demystify assessment practice and introduces appropriate technologies and strategies for different learning approaches through interactive tasks (quizzes and exercises) and web resources.
- Get your head around course documents
- Make sense of assessment and feedback
- Understanding your commitment to learn
- Try new learning approaches
- Discover new tools for learning
- Watch how other students learn
- A-Z list of academic terms
Working alongside student focus groups, the 13-strong project team led by Maria Tannant was made up of faculty, library, student union, digital development and 2 student designers.
The toolkit is a product of the project's research; these findings address what new students see as common challenges when acculturating to HE. Essentially, Learning to Learn project's resources builds independence by offering learning technologies that support preferred ways of working, or offer opportunities for students to practice and develop new learning skills at point of need. These tools are offered alongside the course's teaching materials so they are in context to the learning and not sitting somewhere remotely where the student might find them by chance.
Learning outcomes:
• Attendees will gain a better understanding of how to employ key learning and teaching resources throughout Blackboard in a timely and appropriate manner.
• In a world where image is king - attendees will see how a more 'visual cut-to-the-chase' approach addresses students' often short attention spans and avoidance of wordy explanations.
• Learn from student feedback which helped steer the project and remind staff about the real customer.
• See an example of a collaborative cross-discipline university initiative in which Trello was the perfect project management tool.
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