Category: Educational Technology

  • Early-career learning technologists professional development: What is the role of a learning technologist?

    Early-career learning technologists professional development: What is the role of a learning technologist?

    This month, for the Early-Career Learning Technologist professional development group on LinkedIn, which I coordinate with Daniel Scott and Sandra Huskinson, our starter posts are on the theme of ‘the role of the learning technologist’. What is already apparent is that the role definition of a learning technologist can be very broad, and has been…

  • Scaling up online learning during the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic

    As universities begin to mitigate against risks posed by coronavirus (Covid-19), with some such as Durham and LSE indicating a complete shut-down of face-to-face teaching, online learning is coming to the foreground as a route for continuing business as usual. In this post, I’ll look back briefly at a similar situation ten years ago with…

  • BETT 2020 Review – A learning technologist’s perspective

    I managed to get to #BETT2020 for the Friday afternoon. It’s only my second time going to BETT, the massive expo for educational technologies and the like, even though I’ve been a learning technologist for quite some time now. I go in knowing that BETT is geared up for schools, and FE/HE/professional education providers are…

  • Learning harder, for longer

    Opinion piece. Open online learning has a huge part to play in addressing the skills and education needs of a growing population, a workforce requiring re-skilling and economies shifting as a result of technological developments. It is no surprise then that one of the topics of discussion at the FutureLearn Partners’ Forum, kicked off by…

  • Guidance for processing data from FutureLearn

    This document outlines the method for data processing learning participation data in the form of .csv files available to course developers and educators running MOOCs on the FutureLearn platform. Guidance for processing learner participation data from the FutureLearn MOOC platform [PDF] This method was used to create the data set for analysing learner engagement as presented…

  • Lecture capture study advice

    While most use of lecture captures by students occurs during revision windows prior to summative assessment, institutions have an opportunity to encourage students to think about how lecture recordings can support learning during term time, as an integrated enhancement to their study practice. The study advice that follows aims to achieve that. Building into student…

  • Durbbu 2016 – Blackboard’s Journey

    Comment on VLE provider Blackboard’s keynote at #durbbu 2016 presented by Alan Masson and ponderings over whether the ‘journey’ is about technology or about ourselves. Masson outlined Blackboard’s view of a journey shared by both institutions and the company to increase adoption and increase innovation. Whilst this is certainly a view that echoes with learning technologists, both objectives…

  • Three insights into student use of lecture capture supporting independent learning

    This post summarises three conclusions arising from a mixed methods study of students’ use of lecture capture, drawing upon the detailed experiences of 12 students from the Department of Biology and the Department of Psychology. Participants provided diaries of how lecture capture was used to support private study, records of their use of the system…

  • Student Technology Survey Results – Desktops, laptops and tablets

    This is the second of a series of posts which look at data collected from the surveys of Year 1 students who attend my induction sessions. In this post I look at the way students’ desktop, laptop and tablet ownership have changed over three years.