Update and invitation

Keith Smyth

For over a decade, the University has been strongly committed to developing good practice in the area of Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL), both as a means to provide an effective learning experience for our students through increased choice and flexibility in their studies and as an enabler in meeting wider support needs and key strategic priorities.

This has resulted in a rich range of TEL activity across a number of areas. In terms of our taught provision, use of the Virtual Learning Environment is well embedded in our programmes and modules and we are also seeing an increasing number of staff looking beyond the VLE to support their students through a range of other technologies, including handheld voting systems, blogs, wikis, simulations, podcasts and social networking platforms. 

In terms of pedagogical issues, we can see in our undergraduate programmes excellent examples of where TEL is being effectively harnessed to better support large cohorts, improve assessment and feedback, and enable effective collaboration within and across different cohorts. TEL is becoming increasingly central within our taught postgraduate provision too, with a number of fully online Masters programmes currently in development.

For our staff, we have a rich Professional Development programme offering hands-on workshops and ‘bite sized’ online opportunities for exploring and engaging with TEL. Many colleagues are also enrolled on our SEDA accredited MSc Blended and Online Education, some as part of an initiative to ensure there is an accredited online educator in every School. 

Finally, in terms of meeting wider student support needs, we need look no further than TEL-based initiatives like Getting Ready for University Study; A message of support: exploring the potential of mobile technologies to enhance support for articulating students; and Edinburgh Napier University Podcasts. This is to mention only three of several such projects!

Yet in what is still a relatively young area of educational practice, challenges remain around engaging those who have yet to think about what TEL could offer within their own teaching and student support activities, and in bringing to the fore the good practice of colleagues who have much to share that could benefit others but who perhaps don’t yet realise this!

We are also in a transient period relating to TEL within the institution, as we prepare to make the move to a new VLE and introduce the new Benchmark for the Use of Technology in Modules which emphasises, as a starting point, all modules making one or two ‘active’ uses of technology to enhance key aspects of the learning, teaching or assessment experience.

It is against this backdrop, and with a view to what lies ahead, that the Teaching Fellows Special Interest Group in Technology-Enhanced Learning came together for their first formal meeting in late September 2011.  Following previous communications, the purpose of this first meeting was to agree the purpose of the SIG and the activities it could most usefully dedicate itself to in such a broad area. The meeting was a productive one, with the SIG identifying their main objective as being ‘To promote and facilitate good practice in technology-enhanced learning, teaching and assessment’. Other key decisions taken at the first meeting included:

• Organising a ‘TEL Fair’ event open to colleagues across the University and which would also help introduce the SIG to the wider institutional community.
• Having an initial main focus for 2011/12 and into 2012/13 on supporting the cascading and embedding of the new Benchmark for the Use of Technology in Modules.
• The importance of working with colleagues already heavily engaged in TEL, and of widening the membership of the SIG to any colleagues within the University who have an interest in TEL and a willingness to get actively involved!
• Establishing an online home for the SIG on the Edinburgh Napier Education Exchange.

At the time of writing, work is well underway in meeting each of the points above, and the SIG will be in touch with colleagues in the Teaching Fellows Community and beyond as plans become clearer. For now, this article should also be read as an open invitation to any colleagues who would like to join the SIG.  Come and get involved – you’d certainly be very welcome!

To join the SIG, or to ask about the work currently being planned, please contact the SIG’s co-ordinator, Keith Smyth, in the Office of the Vice Principal (Academic), or alternatively speak with the current SIG member for your Faculty. Faculty SIG members are Karen Campbell and Karen Strickland (FHLSS), Robert Mason (FECCI) and Joan McLatchie (The Business School).

Write-TEL Online supported scholarly writing in technology-enhanced learning

Keith Smyth, Senior Teaching Fellow, Office of the Vice Principal (Academic)

Nicola Whitton, Research Fellow, Education and Social Research Institute, Manchester Metropolitan University

Julia Fotheringham, Lecturer in Academic Practice, Office of the Vice Principal (Academic)

With the strong emphasis across the sector on research-informed teaching, scholarship of learning and teaching, and of course the upcoming Research Excellence Framework, writing for publication is an issue on many an academic’s mind. However, finding the time and support to write up our own learning and teaching related initiatives, and knowing where to start if we are new to this particular area of scholarly activity, can be a daunting prospect.

The Write-TEL project (Writing for Publication in Technology-Enhanced Learning), which was funded by a Teaching Fellowship Grant, was developed as an online staff development initiative to support scholarly writing in technology-enhanced learning (TEL). Aimed primarily at colleagues within and also beyond Edinburgh Napier who had yet to disseminate their TEL work through peer-reviewed publication, Write-TEL was led and facilitated by Keith Smyth and Julia Fotheringham (Office of the Vice Principal, Academic), and Dr Nicola Whitton of Manchester Metropolitan University, who also led all the online workshops.

The concept for Write-TEL originated within Edinburgh Napier’s MSc Blended and Online Education (MSc BOE). Within the first run of the module Customised Study for Blended and Online Education, several participants on the programme expressed an interest in writing up TEL initiatives they had undertaken as part of their coursework for publication through relevant journals or peer-reviewed conferences. This was enabled through an approach that involved participants negotiating a focus and outlet for their work, and a plan of activity including further research or evaluation, drafting, review, and preparation for submission to a suitable peer-reviewed outlet. One of the Write-TEL team, in their role as Programme Leader for the MSc BOE, facilitated this process while Dr Whitton provided expert input into the process via an online workshop exploring key issues in writing for publication in the area of technology-enhanced learning. When several of the cohort for the first run of the CSBOE module had full papers accepted for international conferences and publication in associated peer-reviewed proceedings, there was a commitment to explore the possibility of broadening the approach to encourage other educators to write their first TEL-related publication.

Write-TEL ran as a series of four synchronous ninety-minute writing for publication workshops, held in Elluminate at monthly intervals between April and July this year and structured around the themes: Preparing to write for publication; Writing for your chosen outlet; Drafting and review; and Preparing for submission. Interspersed between the workshops were a small number of peer review and other activities, which took place in a Write-TEL group space that was set up within the Edinburgh Napier Education Exchange (Figure 1). Each participant was also supported by one of the Write-TEL team in a ‘critical friend’ role.

While originally limited to 12 places, of which six were to be offered internally and six externally, the interest in Write-TEL led to sixteen places being taken by Edinburgh Napier staff and colleagues from a number of other HE and FE institutions across the UK. All participants were active in technology-enhanced learning, but with the exception of two participants none had published their TEL-related work through peer-reviewed channels.  

At the time of writing, almost all of the participants who completed Write-TEL (thirteen of the original sixteen) have tangible published outputs or are working towards this with the continued help of their ‘critical friend’. Published or peer reviewed outputs and work in progress include:

Three papers accepted for publication in the proceedings of the 10th European Conference on e-Learning (ECEL 2011) to be held in the UK in November.

• One short paper presented at the recent ALT-C 2011 conference.
• Two recently-completed final drafts ready for submission to chosen journals.
• Short paper presented at an internal conference on learning and teaching.
• Conference poster with follow-up written paper about to be undertaken.

The TEL-related topics covered across these outputs include enhancements to classroom-based teaching, student and staff adoption of educational technology, design of collaborative cross-cohort online projects, and gamed-based learning. In addition, as a result of connections made during Write-TEL, two participants have also had proposals for a forthcoming edited book accepted. Furthermore, a requirement for all who participated in Write-TEL is to produce a case study for Edinburgh Napier’s LTA Resource Bank.

Evaluation of Write-TEL is ongoing and about to enter a qualitative stage involving interviews exploring the nature, challenges and benefits of Write-TEL for participants. However, our initial evaluation through an online survey has highlighted very positive experiences overall, with one participant nicely capturing the entire point of Write-TEL in stating that it “has significantly moved me forward from believing I could be a published scholar to actually being one”.  

Our evaluation work has also highlighted key areas for enhancement for any future running of Write-TEL, and with considerable interest from prospective participants and institutions who would like to become involved in the delivery Write-TEL 2 is almost certainly on the cards!

So too is exploring how the Write-TEL format could be adapted to supporting writing for publication in other discipline areas, and, perhaps unsurprisingly, writing up Write-TEL itself for publication is also an important priority for the Write-TEL team. We’re off to a good start here, both with this tfj article and also a case study on Write-TEL that will feature in a best practice guide in engaging academics with technology-enhanced learning to be published shortly by UCISA (Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association).

tfj october 2011, news, sig tel, technology enhanced learning

Last updated 195 days ago by TFJ