What do "scale" and "mainstreaming" mean in higher education?

@marksmithers has just written a blog post that makes the following point that talks about a new fund to promote innovation in highered. I know $5M isn’t a huge amount but the principle just seems so misguided. There is no problem with innovation in higher education. The problem is adopting and mainstreaming innovations across a higher ed institutions. @shaned07 raised […]

"Me as teacher" – the 2015 focus for NGL

NGL is a course I teach. Participants are asked to spend the semester engaging with networked and global learning as: student, learner, and teacher. They are asked to blog and reflect on this mishmash of experiences throughout the semester. I’m trying to do this as well. Not only to model one version of expectations, but also because I find it […]

Updating "more student details"

“More student details” (see image below) is the most visible part of the additional systems I’ve put in place to make teaching bearable (this presentation talks more about it). The problem I’m dealing with here is that a new semester has started, which means I need to re-configure these feral systems to work with the new semester. And while I’m […]

How might a Book module search function work?

What follows is some explorations of the technology behind Moodle to see how the mockups of a Book module search function might be implemented. Building my own knowledge of how it works and testing whether it might be possible. It’s largely an exploration of how the Search forum block works on the assumption that mirroring that will be a reasonable […]

Mocking up a search facility for the Moodle book module

Time to start generating a mock up of one of the itches identified in this presentation and from the Moodle “open” book project. Perhaps best summed up from this comment from a past EDC3100 student It is impossible to go back and remember where to find information…At least on a PDF I can use the Find function There is no […]

Predicting System Success using the Technology Acceptance Model: A Case Study

Behrens, S., Jamieson, K., Jones, D., & Cranston, M. (2005). Predicting system success using the Technology Acceptance Model: A case study. In 16th Australasian Conference on Information Systems (Paper 70). Sydney. Retrieved from http://aisel.aisnet.org/acis2005/70/ Abstract Determining what makes an Information System (IS) successful is an ongoing concern for both researchers and practitioners alike. Arriving at an answer to this problem […]

Me as learner: 2015 and learning analytics

It’s July 2015 which means two things. First, Semester 2 is about to get underway and thankfully (though it’s a two-edged sword) EDU8117, Networked and Global Learning (netgl) is running again. Second, it’s summer in the northern hemisphere which seems to coincide with another round of xMOOCs running out of the US. Time to combine them both. Week 1 of […]

Revising week 1 of EDU8117 – Networked and Global Learning

The following is a description of how I’ve gone about revising the Week 1 material for EDU8117, Networked and Global Learning. The intent is to demonstrate how a tool can be used for something a little different. The problem The content for week 1 is a longish web page. It was created in a hurry last year and could use […]

Digital learning: It's déjà vu all over again

Below you will find resources associated with a talk titled “Digital Learning: It’s deja vu all over again”. The slides below are the near final set to be presented at the #dLRN15 conference (abstract available below). Due to time constraints a slightly longer version of the slides has replaced. Abstract The initial steps of my university teaching career commenced in […]

Does branding the LMS hurt learning

The LMS used by my institution is Moodle, but the institution has “branded” it as “Study Desk”. Meaning students and teachers talk about finding X on the “Study Desk”. They don’t talk about finding X on Moodle. The following suggests that this branding of the LMS may actually hurt learning. Update: Via twitter @georgekroner mentioned his post that has some […]

Re-using a #moodle course design

This semester I’m course examiner for a new course on Secondary Computing Curriculum and Pedagogy. As the name suggests, the course is intended to help pre-service teachers who are aiming to teach computing in Secondary schools. While I’m the course examiner, the course is being developed and will be largely taught by a couple of practicing and experienced Secondary computing […]

Can the Moodle book module be made open and other enhancements

Next week I’m off to Melbourne to Moodlemoot’AU 2015. This post will hold the details and resources associated with this talk which is talking about how the Moodle book module might be enhanced, including by making it more open. It’s the first public talk about the USQ funded Moodle book project. There’s a Moodle site associated with the Moot presentation. […]

Re-building results processing

It’s once again time to process final results for a course and return the final assignment. A process that involves Checking overall student results for a course, before returning the final assignment. Identifying all of the students who won’t have final results available by the required date. Analysing this offering’s performance across the course and comparing it with prior offerings. […]