SideCap Project

Edublog Awards 2010 - My nominations

2010-11-15T15:16:00.008+13:00

I came across this last year for the first time and added my vote to whoever I thought was deserving of the award although I am fully aware of the so many excellent ones out there but I am limited to only those I use on a regular basis and of course those that have impacted on me as a person in the learning & teaching spectrum extending to those that I have shared these resources to in my context - the South Pacific region; within my institution, University of the South Pacific and educators at large in the region. This has greatly impacted the enhancement of the dissemination of knowledge and skills that has much to do with enabling a developing region like the South Pacific to achieve its targets in as far as the UN Millenium Development Goals (MDGs) are concerned.

Here goes:

Best Individual Blog: The Ed Techie, Professor Martin Weller,Open University, UK.
Best Individual Twitter: mweller
Best Resource Sharing Blog: "Jane's Pick of the Day", Jane Hart, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies
Best New Blog: COL Blog, Commonwealth of Learning Blog
Lifetime Achievement: Jane Hart, Centre for Learning & Performance Technologies

OER Debate: Why Re-Invent the Vaka - Use OERs

2010-11-03T12:07:00.005+13:00

EDULINK-SideCAP project - Wrapping Up

2010-11-01T18:46:00.005+13:00

As Louise and I wrap things up for the project, we have decided to make a presentation during the CDD OPS Meeting scheduled tomorrow, Tuesday 2nd November, 2010 in which we will share, reflect on our experiences during the project that will also serve as documentation for those that may be involved in such projects in the future. This also serves as Louise's last few contributions towards the project before she takes on her new position at the SPBEA next week. I only but wish Louise the very best in her future endeavours! I will surely miss our moments together in the project.

RCDF Presentation

2010-03-19T16:15:00.006+13:00

Louise and I made a presentation at the USP Regional Campus Directors Forum today at the Communication Conference Room. Our presentation titled, Regionalising Quality HE through OERs: EDULINK-SideCAP Experience focused on background information about OERs, a showcase of the repurposed module that we worked on; Essay Writing with Readings and how OERs can play a significant part in enhancing the campuses. Our presentation is largely repurposed from a presentation in Slideshare by Sunnie Kim, MSU Global.

Open resource on essay writing from the University of the South Pacific

2010-02-15T14:24:00.001+13:00

Open resource on essay writing from the University of the South Pacific

Posted using ShareThis

Countdown to Finale Event

2010-02-06T20:57:00.003+13:00

Tomorrow the first partners arrive at 5.10 am. Monica and Elia from the University of West Indies lead the group into Suva. Frank and Martin arrive at 2.55pm and then our University of Mauritius partners arrive at 6.35pm.

UWI Presentation - Day 2

2009-11-20T03:44:00.002+12:00

Day 2 we got busy with our presentation on USP's preparations for the final dissemination event. Everyone were quite pleased with the way it has been organised and are all looking forward to this.
There were several amendments to be made as follows:

For the programme - amend Friday session (12/2/10) from a summary presentation to USP community to a panel discussion
Typos to be corrected re:website; reference to Lews Castle College

Timeframe for writing up book chapters

2009-11-17T15:41:00.000+12:00

Here is what the project agreed upon as per the completion of a book as one of the outputs of the project.

Case studies to Frank by end Nov, 09
Frank to circulate to all
Analysis chapters by approx. 14 Dec, 09
Initial draft by 11 Jan, 2010 to all
Feedback and accuracy by 18 Jan, 2010
Aim to send to “publisher” by 21 Jan, 2010
Copies available by 8 Feb, 2010 in Fiji
Post-final event – submit to athabasca for publishing as an e-book.

UWI Workshop - Day 1

2009-11-17T14:28:00.002+12:00

Today, Louise and I ventured onto UWI Mona Campus for Day 1 of our workshop. It was an opportunity to know more about UWI and also to touch base on what has been done from each of the project partners. Here, in the pic shows Louise and I presenting on USP and specifically our progress on the project. Day 2 beckons tomorrow.

UWI Meeting Action Points

2009-11-09T16:23:00.002+12:00

As we prepare for the next leg of the project we recognised a need to record the action points we needed to deal with at our Jamaica meeting. They are as follows:

Sustainability aspect of the project: to embed the OER resource page embedded into the institutional library portals; sharing of courses developed on this project;
Research Network: the establishment of the ACP partners network;
Informing team about their part in the finale event programme;
Final reports for project.

Cascading Event @ USP Open Day 2009

2009-09-25T21:42:00.003+12:00

Above is a slideshow of activities at the USP Open Day 2009.

What is this booth about? preview to our Open Day display

2009-09-24T09:18:00.003+12:00

Louise and I are gearing up for the annual USP Open Day which is to be held tomorrow, Friday 25th September beginning at 8am. We are expecting about 18,000 people to come through on the day mostly from high schools, certain tertiary institutions and members of the general public.
The EDULINK-SideCAP project is allocated a booth which we are going to showcase the course that was repurposed from OERs - Essay Writing with Readings.
Also, we thought we'd promote OERs in general so we have produced this short clip from extranormal which we will also showcase on the day. Check this out!

Presentation @ VC's Learning & Teaching Forum

2009-09-18T14:27:00.004+12:00

This morning, Louise and I presented on Re-purposing course materials for enhanced student learning support – Lessons from EDULINK and this was very well received by the USP community that were present. A cascading event informing the university community about the project.

Presentation to LLF11 students continuies..

2009-09-09T16:13:00.001+12:00

Today, a presentation was made to LLF11 students in C11 lab (11am-12pm) on the repurposed course.

Presentation to LLP13 & LLF11 students

2009-09-08T14:05:00.001+12:00

Today, two sessions (9-10am & 1-2pm) on the Essay Writing with Readings module were conducted for LLP13 and LLF11 students (both preliminary and foundation level courses) at the C11 Lab. There were about 15 students that attended both these sessions.

Presentation to HY205 students

2009-09-02T12:04:00.003+12:00

This morning at 9am, Louise and I made a presentation to HY205 (Pacific History: Contact and Response) students on the repurposed course - Essay Writing with Readings. This session was initially to be held on Monday 31st August at the 014-025 room however due to technical problems encountered, it was then moved C11 Lab. Louise took the students through the module and highlighted the key features and the additional support through the Student Learning Support (SLS) email that they could use whilst using the module. We have emphasised the importance of feedback and we certainly look forward to this. HY205 is one of two courses that are being used for the pilot phase and the C11 Lab has been booked for 2 days per week till the end of Semester 2 for students to be able to use the module effectively with consideration of the applications required to use it.

Using Google Analytics to monitor the repurposed course

2009-08-31T18:43:00.002+12:00

Over the last two weeks we worked on embedding html coding within each of the pages in the course so that we can get valuable site statistics. Google Analytics is a great tool for this. The embedding was completed today at 6.35pm.

SLS OPS Meeting Show & Tell

2009-08-28T17:06:00.003+12:00

Today, from 11am-12pm, Louise and I presented during the Student Learning Support (SLS) OPS meeting held in Room S113. The presentation was focussed on background information on the project, upcoming events and in particular the study skills module that has been repurposed and currently piloted. The tutors were encouraged to use the resource for their EL001 classes as well as the drop-in sessions and plans were already abuzz during the presentation of how they will fully utilise this resource. We certainly look forward to the feedback on this.

Finalising financial statements & timesheets

2009-08-26T18:07:00.002+12:00

At 10am today we met to finalise the financial requirements for the UHI meeting as well as to complete the monthly time sheets. This has been time consuming as it has required us to return to our various sources of documentation such as this blogsite, google calendar, grouphub, reports & presentations made and emails. We managed to complete the 2008 timesheets at 6.09pm.
The UHI statement spend needs a few more hours of work to complete the information in collaboration with the Finance office. We will schedule another date to finalise these pending tasks.

Meeting with Graphic Designer

2009-08-24T18:05:00.000+12:00

After our marathon meeting to discuss open day plans, we met in the afternoon at 2.45pm - 3.15pm with Lasarusa, our in-house graphic designer to discuss ideas for a banner to be used during the open day as well as the final dissemination event.

USP Open Day planning

2009-08-24T17:59:00.000+12:00

Today, we attended a meeting from 11am-12pm comprising of USP Open Day team leaders in our department, CFDL
During this meeting, we had to provide progress reports on our plans for the USP Open Day. The project has been allocated a booth where we intend to continue piloting the course and this time with high school students that we expect on the day that is scheduled on 25th September. This will be one of the many cascading events that we undertake as per project goals.
After the meeting from 12-2pm, we sat to discuss and finalise our plans, budget and equipment list for the day. We communicated with Renee regarding budgets.

Its LIVE!!

2009-08-18T12:15:00.006+12:00

I guess you probably wondering what's the shouting about but today our repurposed course goes live and can be accessed from here.

Finalising course for pilot phase

2009-08-12T08:51:00.003+12:00

The course, "Essay Writing with readings" is finally ready to be linked up for students to participate in and provide us feedback on. The University IT department has agreed to allocate one computer lab for students use for the purposes of this project.

The university is moving into offering a generic English course in academic skills to be implemented in semester 1, 2009 and this module will be of benefit to everyone who has internet access across the university region.

The groups which have been invited to participate in this trial are the Foundation Program students and a 200 level Politics course.

We look forward to great evaluations.

QR Codes in Education

2009-07-07T16:45:00.003+12:00

We stumbled across this on the web on potential ways of using QR codes in learning and teaching.

Create a treasure hunt in the city of the bush that have QR codes stuck onto them that link students with questions or information that is important to that place they have actually arrived at.
Create a Multiple Choice test that has QR codes in the place of answers with the students required to scan their answers for automatic correction of test results. http://www.semapedia.com/ generates your codes into a PDF document.
Have the students create their own QR codes or submit an assignment as a QR code
Include QR codes on printed worksheets to allow students to link to further reading online

Also refer to this paper by Professor Andy Ramsden of the University of Bath on QR codes in education for further reference.

CFDL QR Code

2009-07-07T16:27:00.005+12:00

QR (Quick Response) Code designed by the Japanese which enables people to respond quickly to information. Mobile phones with a camera will be able to read this code generated.
For a demonstration of this technology go to: http://reader.kaywa.com/
If you have a mobile phone with the latest technology, try and unravel the QR Code below.

Creating Social Communities in LLC

2009-06-26T20:53:00.006+12:00

An interesting initiative made by Lewis Castle College (LCC) is the creation of a LLC social community using ELGG application (similar to Facebook). This is done in the effort to create a sense of community amongst students and staff especially when they are dispersed across Scotland and abroad. It has been very effective so far in connecting all those associated with LLC. This is a worthy idea to explore at USP, creating that sense of community amongst our staff and students sprawled across the 12 member countries.

Online Learning Philosphy at LLC

2009-06-25T14:24:00.004+12:00

An interesting comment made by the Head of Educational Technology, Mr. John Smith with regard to online learning is Lewis Castle College's (LLC) focus on having a blended format in its delivery. This is mainly due to:
(1) Maintaining that competitive edge in contrast to other key players in the field - Open University, UK for instance in other words by offering courses fully online means that they are in direct competition with big players such as Open University, UK.
(2) offering courses in blended formats ensures that it caters for varying learning styles as opposed to offering courses purely online which may not be necessarily appropriate for all learners.
They have recognised the appropriateness of applying the "purely online" format for the postgraduate level but this is applied to specific programmes only. Note that all students of LLC have good internet access. Food for thought for your deliberations...

Just Blurb it!!

2009-06-25T10:33:00.000+12:00

Blurb is an application that lets you self publish your own photo book, cookbook, portfolio, and more with free software. And its reasonably priced as well! The project will be using this application to publish its findings towards the end of the project. We saw a product of this application on books that Professor Frank Rennie published. Check out samples of the book below.

Technology Training, Stornoway Scotland

2009-06-23T23:39:00.003+12:00

Louise and I are in Stornoway, Scotland currently working from Lewis Castle College which is part of University of Islands and Highlands (UHI). We are currently involved in technology training as per the project activities. We have picked on some applications for possible use as follows:
Articulate which can be used for creating synchronised presentations, interactive quizzes and animations and you don't need to be a animation expert!!!
Camstudio which is camtasia's open source version
The one Louise and I are using for repurposing the course is call Magnolia, an open source content editing suite that is so easy to use. UWI is at this moment testing it after we gave a demonstration yesterday afternoon.
We are meeting with the Head of Educational Technology here in Lewis Castle this afternoon, Mr. John Smith and more tidbits later!

Tribute to Professor Robin Mason

2009-06-23T22:25:00.005+12:00

(Professor Robin Mason - left back)

Louise and I would like to take this opportunity to relate our deep felt sympathies to Professor Robin Mason's family and friends for her untimely passing away.

We have gained much from her during interactions of this project. She will surely be missed.

To view tributes to Professor Robin Mason go to: http://iet-public-wiki.open.ac.uk/index.php/Robin

Course Development work in progress

2009-05-25T23:16:00.000+12:00

Here is a summary of the schedule that we worked on to complete the repurposing of the course that we have been working on.

20/5/09, 12-4pm, SID Room
21/5/09, 9am-4pm, CDD Meeting Room
25/5/09, 9am-4pm, SLS Room

In addition to this, we have also assigned work to complete on an individual basis.

Press Release

2009-05-21T18:03:00.000+12:00

Louise and I provided input to a press release written up by Theresa for the USP Beat and other media outlets. This is an effort to enhance the profile of the project leading up to the final dissemination event in February 2010.

USP Beat Press Release
Fiji Daily Post Press Release

Presentation to Support Sections of USP

2009-05-20T16:00:00.001+12:00

Today, Louise and I made a presentation to the support sections of USP namely ITS, Marketing and Public Relations, Security, Physical Planning, Library and CFDL. These sections will form the core of the steering committee and we were very pleased with the positive feedback. You can view the presentation here. [to be linked]

Steering Committee Meeting in May, 09

2009-05-13T17:59:00.000+12:00

We had a meeting today. You can view the minutes here. [to be linked]

Project Presentation to Faculty Deans

2009-04-28T17:56:00.001+12:00

Today, Louise and I made a presentation to the faculty deans; Professor Bruce Yeates of FAL and Dr. Kesaia Seniloli of FBE. Unfortunately, Dr. Anjeela Jokhan was not able to attend as she was away on work-related trip abroad. However, we will be rescheduling a time with her to make the presentation. We appreciate the feedback that we got from this presentation and we look forward to further presentations with faculty.

Steering Committee Meeting in April, 09

2009-04-27T22:55:00.000+12:00

A meeting was held today at SLS. View the minutes here [to be linked]

Steering Committee Meeting today in SLS

2009-03-31T22:53:00.000+12:00

A meeting was held today at SLS. You can view the minutes here. [to be linked]

Steering Committee Meeting today @2.30pm

2009-03-05T15:49:00.001+12:00

A steering committee meeting was held today that was attended by the deputy chairperson, Theresa Koroivulaono, committee secretary, Evonne Inia and project participants; Louise Vakamocea and Alanieta Lesuma-Fatiaki.
For more information on this meeting, you can view the minutes here [to be linked].

Steering Committee meeting - setting the groundworks

2009-02-27T17:17:00.001+12:00

Further to PVC-LT's endorsement of our recommendation to set up a steering committee to oversee the planning and organisation of the final dissemination event, the first meeting was held today at 2.30pm, CDD Meeting room to set the terms of reference of this committee. We have begun discussions on this but will finalised this in the next meeting. In attendance were Theresa Koroivualono (Deputy chairperson), Louise and I and the appointed secretary, Evonne Inia. 2 members of the initial group have withdrawn their membership; Valentine Hazelman and Eileen Tuimaleali'ifano and we thank them for their support at the initial stages. Dr. Jenny Evans related her apologies attending to other matters at this time. The next meeting will be held on Thursday 5th March at 2.30pm in the CDD Meeting room.

Presentation to PVCA

2009-02-05T12:22:00.004+12:00

This morning at 10.30am, Louise and I made a presentation to PVCA in the New Admin. conference room. Also in attendance were Jenny Evans, Valentine Hazelman, Eileen Tuimalealiifano and Theresa Koroivulaono. The purpose of the presentation was basically to give a background of the project, progress to date and discussions on the setting up of a steering committee to spearhead the preparations for the final dissemination here in USP in 2010.
We are very delighted with the expression of support by Dr. Nabalarua and her sound advice towards the next steps to undertake for the project. She has suggested that we determine the composition of the steering committee and its terms of reference and have this communicated to her.

Scheduling to meet PVCA

2009-01-28T08:50:00.005+12:00

Since Monday 26th January, Louise and I have been busy trying to schedule a meeting with Pro-Vice Chancellor-Academic, Dr. Eci Nabalarua. This is based on a recommendation after our presentation to our VC and after doing so, the formation of a steering committee will eventuate that will begin the mammoth task of organising the final dissemination event to be held in early 2010 here in USP. We are now confirmed to meet with the PVCA next week, Thursday 5th February 2009 @ 10.30am in the New Admin Conference Room. Those that will be in attendance from CFDL are as follows:
Jenny Evans, Valentine Hazelman, Eileen Tuimaleali'ifano, Theresa Koroivulaono, Makarita Erasito and Louise and myself of course. We will be posting an article on this after the meeting.

Show & Tell presentation @ OPS Meeting

2009-01-27T12:19:00.003+12:00

Today, I did a presentation during our show & tell segment of our operations meeting held from 10am-12pm at the Green Room. This was simply to give an update of the project. Those in attendance come under the course design & development section of the Centre for
Flexible and Distance Learning (CFDL).

Cost Statements (UK & Mauritius) submitted

2009-01-16T10:46:00.003+12:00

Whew! What a relief! After painstakingly slaving off compiling the statements for UK and Mauritius, its FINALLY finalised and the statements with its supporting documents were sent via email to Nigel as follows:
UK - 15/1/09 (Fiji time)
Mauritius - 16/1/09 (Fiji time)

Lessons learnt - For the upcoming cost statements we will finalise these immediately after each event is complete and of course solicit more input from our finance department.

Still trying to wrestle with the monthly timesheets! To be finalised soon!

Meeting with Finance

2009-01-13T13:40:00.004+12:00

As per the project requirement of providing cost statements, I had a meeting with Raksha Ben from our Finance Department today at 10am at her work station on behalf of Louise and I. .
The meeting was to make clarifications on cost statements for the UK and Mauritius trip. It has been quite an experience collating the statements but nevertheless learnt a lot about financial reporting in the process. We are aiming to submit the cost statements to Nigel before the week ends. Louise by the way is currently in Tonga conducting Success@USP orientation training for campus staff. Hopefully, she gets back safely amidst the tropical depression/flood conditions that Fiji is currently experiencing.

Post Mauritius Workshop - presentation

2008-12-23T13:38:00.005+12:00

Today at 11am, we made a presentation to the Vice Chancellor , Professor Rajesh Chandra, Michael Gregory from the Planning and Development office and Helen Lentell, Director of CFDL on the SideCAP project and its current progress. We felt a sense of relief at the end of the presentation that we have been able to share our experiences with the VC and also highlight the significant benefits our university will derive from such a project.

Post Mauritius Workshop - report compilation

2008-12-17T14:19:00.001+12:00

We are now back at our work desks and we met today from 11am-2.15pm to discuss and compile our report to the CDFL advisory group and ultimately for USP SMG. Our report is now compiled with some final adjustments before we have it circulated to the advisory group

Blog updates delay

2008-12-04T22:25:00.002+12:00

You are probably all wondering why there hasn't been much news from us. Its been quite difficult getting internet access here. When we do get internet access, its for a very short time only or access is slow, so we are trying our best to update as much as possible.

Cameleon

2008-12-02T22:44:00.002+12:00

Outside our hotel room, we spotted this reptile which we discovered later to be a Madagascar Cameleon.

Sister Jocel

2008-12-02T22:42:00.005+12:00

During our wait to go through immigration, we met Sister Jocel from Madagascar who was on her way home after a 5 year mission in PNG. As you probably notice from her outfit, she is from the "Missionaries of Charity" founded by Mother Theresa.

Bonjour Mauritius!!

2008-12-02T18:52:00.003+12:00

Finally landed in Mauritius about 8.45pm, Sat 29th Nov (Sunday 30th Fiji time). It was raining and going through immigration was such a long wait. Got out of immigration, collected our baggage and we were out to arrivals an hour later. Our driver Ravin was waiting for us and we zoomed off to Klondike Hotel, an hour away from the airport. Check out Louise waiting outside for our transport in the drizzling rain!

On board Air Mauritius

2008-12-02T18:44:00.002+12:00

We had an unusual experience on Air Mauritius. A passenger sitting beside us coming all the way from Bangladesh, was not feeling too well - had a bout of air sickness and we had to put on our nursing hats. Flight was about 6hours in duration and we were just counting the seconds to touch down in Mauritius.

Sights of KLIA

2008-12-02T18:42:00.015+12:00

We thought we'd show you some sights of KLIA - voted the best airport in the world 3 years in a row...

Taking the KLIA shuttle

2008-12-02T18:29:00.007+12:00

Well, we felt that we'd like you to experience some of what we have experienced. So here is a little video clip of our shuttle ride experience at the KL International Airport. almost comes close to the real thing.

Publish Post

Journey continues..Sydney-Malaysia

2008-12-02T02:25:00.004+12:00

Whew!! What a relief that we found each other on board Malaysia Airlines bound for KL (can u guess what that stands for? quiz buddies!!). Experience on Malaysia Airlines or what they prefer to be referred to MH (nothing to do with MHCC) - its Malaysian Hospitality and its the tag that carries the pinnacle of their tourism promotion. We were constantly fed on the flight and had a great entertainment programme. Experienced indigestion as a result. Getting off KL and into immigration was smooth sailing - no delays at all. We were just so impressed with KL International Airport, the organisation of key processes of the airport was just super perfect which explains why they have been voted 3 years in a row as the "best airport in the world". Finally got a pic here - check out Louise sitting in the shuttle within KL Airport taking us to the immigration area.

Mauritius - The journey begins.... (Nausori-Nadi-Sydney)

2008-12-02T02:14:00.005+12:00

The next activity in the SideCAP project is in Mauritius and our journey began on Friday 28th November (Fiji time) at 6am in Nausori Airport. Delayanism (refer to an earlier article) was the order of the day. Flight on Pacific Sun was due to depart at 6am but was delayed by 30minutes or so. Arrived in Nadi to a long line of passengers checking in to the Sydney flight that we were booked into. Then another long queue to go through immigration. We only went to our gate just in the nick of time to board our Air Pac flight to Sydney. It was a 4hour flight and the flight crew was great in comparison to our earlier experiences with the UK meeting. Arrived in Sydney Airport, Louise and I lost each other for a good 2 hours and fortunately found each other on board our booked flight to Malaysia. Whew!!! Almost had a heart attack there!!! Sorry! no pics to go with this article. it was a really rushed connecting flight experience!!!

More feedback coming in

2008-09-02T02:03:00.000+12:00

We received feedback from the remaining members of the review group. One of the feedback that we received was to narrow down the area of concentration in the chosen topic – Study Skills. We then decided to narrow this down to the following:
Resource 3: Essay Writing and Report Writing
Resource 5: Reading and Notetaking

Repurposing of the Content

2008-08-28T02:11:00.000+12:00

The next task on the agenda was the repurposing of the content. First, a print out and compilation of the OER was made. This involved converting each page to PDF and the eventual print out and compilation. Louise was tasked with repurposing each of the content. What proved quite challenging was the repurposing of the topic used. After much thought, constitution

Content Analysis of OIL

2008-08-27T02:10:00.000+12:00

Louise as the content specialist, carried out a content analysis and the deal was sealed. The results of her anaylsis was positive. The decision was made to use OIL as our basis of the repurposing exercise.

Success@USP Presentation

2008-08-27T02:02:00.000+12:00

Louise and I were asked to make a presentation at the Success@USP workshop. Success@USP is a orientation programme for DFL students. This workshop were attended by orienation trainers by the pilot campuses amongst our 12 member countries. In this presentation, we provided background information abou the SIDEcap project and its benefits for USP.

OER web search

2008-08-25T02:08:00.000+12:00

After the meeting with the review team, we decided that it was best that we look for another OER to work on. We decided to do a web search of OERs within the Australasian region which may have material that will suit the USP context. We were sent a OER site link by one of the review group members. This was an OER in New Zealand. At first glance, it automatically appealed to us.

2nd meeting with review team

2008-08-12T02:06:00.000+12:00

Our 2nd meeting with the review group was specifically focused on how we could possibly place the resources online through Moodle. Suggestions was made to have the following:
Standalone/self-paced study skills modules that can be linked in with online courses
Facilitated study skills modules that can be done fully online or in blended format (f2f & online)
During this meeting, there was discussion about the suitability of the openlearn modules for our repurposing project. The review group were of the opinion that we was not appropriate and that we may consider looking at other OER sites.

Content Analysis of Openlearn materials

2008-08-05T02:05:00.000+12:00

Louise and I carry out a content analysis of the Openlearn materials. This was quite a complex progress. We found ourselves wondering whether or not this was appropriate for our repurposing project.

Content outline submitted to SideCAP group

2008-07-28T02:02:00.000+12:00

Today, we submitted our content outline to the SideCAP group. There was a bit of delay in receiving feedback from all members of the review group so we went ahead and submitted to fulfil requirements of the project.

Feedback sought from review group

2008-07-15T02:01:00.000+12:00

Feedback was sought from the review group via email. The first feedback was provided on 22/7.

All the meetings that we had between us

2008-06-30T02:04:00.001+12:00

There are more dates to add but these are details so far..will update this article later.
30/06/08, DFL Meeting Room 10am-12pm
7/7/08, E-Learning Lab 10am-12pm
15/7/08, E-Learning Lab 10am-12pm
21/8/08, E-Learning Lab 11am-1pm

USP Background presenation uploaded

2008-06-05T02:00:00.000+12:00

Today, we uploaded the USP background presentation that we used in the kick-off meeting to the project website. This was not a straightforward task as it took a bit of time trying to understand the functionalities of uploading. Managed in the end.

Travel arrangements begin

2008-05-29T01:59:00.000+12:00

Today, we begin to make travel arrangements for the next project activity in Mauritius. A request was sent to Evonne Inia, the CEDT secretary to request for an initerary from the travel agent.

Review group setup & first meeting

2008-05-28T01:58:00.000+12:00

Our identified area of concentration is Study Skills. Because this was going to be a resource that was to be used across the university, a review group was created to provide feedback on the work that we were carrying out. The first meeting was held today. The outcome of this meeting tasked us with the responsibility of coming up with a draft of the outline of the areas that we were to focuse on in as far as Study Skills is concerned.

Uploading photos to project website

2008-05-26T01:57:00.000+12:00

Today we uploaded photos from the kick-off meeting to the project website.

Meeting up with Val Clifford

2008-05-22T12:21:00.004+12:00

I met up with Valerie Clifford (former Director of CELT) during the Oxford trip in town. This is Val and Marten in the Oxford University Church.

Val and Marten sent their lolomas to Epeli (their favourite taxi driver) and everyone else who remember them.

Hansel and Gretel find their way home

2008-05-22T11:48:00.005+12:00

On Friday afternoon, after sight-seeing and soaking up the cold London air, we trudged back home and :) lost our bearings. We walked around in circles for approximately half an hour. On one of those return trips, we discovered to our amazement, the shawl that I had been wearing on one of the fences.

Imagine our laughter when we discovered the 'find'.Talk about the Hansel and Gretel experience, leaving behind crumbs so that they could find their way back home! It just needed to be photographed as a reminder of that experience!

Namastey London!!

2008-05-21T17:08:00.010+12:00

Couldn't resist the title being that it is one of my favourite Bollywood movies of 2007. Namastey London is a must see starring two of Bollywood's hottest actors at present; Akshay Kumar & Katrina Kaif. Check out the pics of our tour. Can you recognise the landmarks? By the way, the photos were taken under very cold conditions but we managed!!

Waiting for our ride to London

2008-05-21T17:01:00.008+12:00

We took a taxi to Milton Keynes Central to catch the train but anticipated a delay given the current spate of delays being experienced on the Milton Keynes route. When our train finally came through at 11.23am, it was a full one. It wasn't a pleasant experience for me having to stand all the way to Euston train station in London with my heavy luggage. I guess the train shuttle is not designed for heavy laden travellers such as myself! Because we had a lot of luggage we opted to take a taxi to our hotel in Victoria; The Weindermere Hotel. This is not advisable to do given the hefty taxi fare price but given our circumstances we opted to do this.

Weindermere Hotel is a neat little hotel within walking distance of the Victoria train station in London. Buckingham Palace was also within walking distance!!

As soon as we arrived, we dumped our bags in our room and ventured off to catch one of the tours on open double decker buses. This was the best option for us given the time-frame that we had left in London.

Farewell Stony Stratford

2008-05-21T16:55:00.003+12:00

On Friday, 16th May, we bade farewell to the cosy little town of Stony Stratford and headed off to Milton Keynes central to catch the train to Central London. Here are some of our memories of Stony Stratford!

Snapshots of the meeting

2008-05-21T16:51:00.003+12:00

Farewell lunch @ the Ye Olde Swan, Woughton

2008-05-21T16:47:00.003+12:00

We had our farewell lunch at the Ye Olde Swan and marking the end of our official engagements in as far as the kick-off meeting in the UK was concerned. Following that we were all dropped off at our respective hotels. Check out our OU minibus that was our main mode of transport throughout the course of the meeting. Many thanks & appreciation to our driver, Frank.

Project Key Dates

2008-05-21T15:07:00.003+12:00

The Sidecappers group have set itself the task of repurposing learning materials and here are the key dates up until the next workshop to be held at University of Mauritius in December.

Content outline & list of OER materials to be used - by 1 August 2008
Ist draft of repurposed material - by early/mid November 2008

Moodle @ OU

2008-05-21T14:04:00.006+12:00

We also received a presentation by Niall Sclater, Director VLE Program which looks after the Moodle system at OU. OU has dramatically customized Moodle to suit their context.
Some of the customized features are as follows:

Combined study calendar for students across all courses that they are enrolled in
Assessment information outlined outright on the homepage as per preference expressed by OU learners.
EAssessment - a mention of an open-source plug-in for Math Symbols called Open Mark which is Java based.
Reflective Assessment Rubric- this rubric is designed for reflective assessment. We would get a sample of this from Robin Mason.
Blog module - This is quite a recent addition i.e. blogs has been integrated as a module rather than a separate entity under user profile as is the case in the current version. It is possible to create group blogs and this comes with RSS feed function and commenting facility.
Wiki - OU has recognised the user-unfriendliness of the wiki tool in the current version. Changes have been made accordingly; lock feature - before/after certain date, online comments, list of user contributions, RSS/Atom feeds of changes and a wiki reporting tool
HTML Editor - OU has indicated that the current HTML editor is insufficient for their use and it is working on having Tiny MCE to be built into the HTML editor.
Web Conferencing tool - OU has embarked on a huge project with Elluminate to integrate this into their Moodle system
LAMS - On recollection of the discussions to explore the use of LAMS (Learning Activity Management System) here at USP, I inquired if the OU was using it and what their experience with it was. We were then informed that currently LAMS was not integrated into their system. The interesting observation about LAMS shared by Niall was that it did not perform as required, rather it was found to overlap the Moodle system and it did not remain a separate module in the whole Moodle setup.

Support Offered: Niall indicated that we could contact him if we were interested in using any of the above features.

Day 4 @ OU

2008-05-21T11:26:00.004+12:00

This was the last day of the meeting. The team revisited the issue of course design agreed to at the close of Wednesday's meeting. It was agreed that each institution would focus on re- purposing their own course.

This is a brief summary of each of our focus:

USP - Study Skills
UM - Research Methods
UWI - Instructional Design

In addition to working on our re-purposed learning materials, we agreed to also document the processes that each team would go through in re purposing the course materials. The outcomes for the project would therefore be twofold;

A repurposed course (80% reused, 20% new)
A Manual on How to Repurpose Materials which would be sourced from documented processes & "best practices" experienced by participants throughout the whole repurposing exercise.

A video post

2008-05-21T11:05:00.002+12:00

I haven't tried this before. But there is always a first time for everything ay! Captured
this on our walk in the OU. Tell me what you think.

Walking along the OU trim trail

2008-05-21T11:00:00.003+12:00

After a hefty lunch at the Beale Suite, Frank Rennie from UHI suggested that we take a walk. We took a walk along OU's trim trail. Check out the scenery!

Lunch @ the Beale Suite

2008-05-21T10:58:00.002+12:00

After our morning session, we were treated to lunch at the OU Beale Suite. Nice & classy eatery by the way!

Presentation by OpenLearn Director

2008-05-21T10:40:00.004+12:00

A presentation was made by Patrick McAndrew about Open Learn. It seems that it has added additional features to make it a user-friendly resource with a web conferencing application and most recently "Learning Clubs" which is a fairly new feature involving the formation of learning groups for courses that are available on Open Learn. This could very well be used in our context for the gaining of online teaching skills and experience by our teaching staff.

Day 3 back in OU

2008-05-21T10:37:00.003+12:00

After an exciting tour of Oxford on Tuesday, it was back to serious business on Wednesday. Discussions began on how we were to repurpose materials and this took awhile to be agreed upon by the group. At the end of the day, it was decided that a course be repurposed by the whole group.

Phone Booth

2008-05-21T10:35:00.002+12:00

You probably spotted this in English movies. That cute little red phone booth.

Covered Market

2008-05-21T10:33:00.003+12:00

Pics from our tour of the covered market selling both cheap and expensive items.

Val Clifford and Marten buying fish for dinner.

Oxford University Press Bookshop

2008-05-21T10:30:00.002+12:00

Can your recall all those textbooks used in high school spotting the Oxford University Press? Class 5 or 6 Stories of Famous People text comes to mind. Here is the bookshop associated with it.

1000 year old tower

2008-05-21T10:29:00.002+12:00

Just next to the Tudor House is this tower which is said to be a 1000 years old

Tudor House

2008-05-21T10:27:00.001+12:00

This is a house built in the Tudor era standing in the middle of the city centre in Oxford.

View from the Calfax Tower

2008-05-20T23:55:00.002+12:00

Here we are on a high point in Oxford City Centre and check out the sights of the city.

Where John Wesley preached

2008-05-20T23:13:00.003+12:00

This is Oxford University Church where John Wesley the founder of the Methodist Church ministered.

Dou Bula!

2008-05-20T23:06:00.002+12:00

Strolling along the pedestrian walk in Oxford City centre, we spotted a group of boys who looked very much from home with their t-shirts, shorts and that unmistakable spot of flip flops. Louise did a cassava patch call, “Dou Bula” and heads suddenly turned. The 5 boys were serving in the British Army based in Newcastle. We found out that they were all from Suva; Caubati, Nadera, Namadi Hights, Nabua and Nakasi. They were on leave and doing a bit of shopping for family back home. It was the least of our expectations to meet fellow countrymen here in the UK.

Oxford City centre crowd

2008-05-20T22:59:00.001+12:00

The pedestrian walk in the city centre was certainly a crowd too many!

At leisure in Oxford

2008-05-20T22:57:00.003+12:00

After our visit to the OU regional centre, we were given the afternoon to explore the city centre of Oxford. What follows are some our experiences that afternoon.

Online communication for Sidecappers

2008-05-20T01:56:00.000+12:00

Today, as per the requirements of the project, communication continued online through the group hub with reflections on what had transpired in the kick-off meeting.

Darling Buds of May

2008-05-20T00:25:00.002+12:00

A sight for sore eyes! This is what you would probably see in the TV comedy series, The Darling Buds of May starring Catherine Zeta Jones or All Creatures Great and Small (not one of my favourites)

Tutor Orientation

2008-05-19T23:59:00.002+12:00

They are given a f2f orientation and also have a Tutor Website which has the following:

Tutor procedures and policies

What to do
How to do it

They are each assigned a Tutor Mentor
They receive online professional development
They are also observed in their online and f2f teaching. For this tutors are given the criteria for their evaluation.
DALS – evaluation of tutor support by students. (online and f2f).
In the scenario where students do not approve the marks given on their assignments there is an appeals mechanism which students could use.
Software being used for plagiarism are: “Copy catch” and “Turn it in”

Tutor Recruitment:

2008-05-19T23:58:00.000+12:00

Tutor Managers – who deal with recruitment of tutors-, take applicants through a rigorous interview process. For example, interviewees are given a dummy assignment to mark, they are asked to share concrete examples of how they would teach a sample lesson or deal with a problem in their classroom.

Tutorial Support at Oxford regional centre

2008-05-19T23:55:00.000+12:00

This section deals with management of part-time tutors. These tutors go through two phases for their employment with OU.

1^st phase – First two years probation
Ongoing support.

Presenting to CEDT staff

2008-05-19T01:55:00.001+12:00

Soon after we got back from the UK, one of the first things we had to do given the mountng interest from CEDT staff was to make presentations during our section staff meetings. Louise presenting during her section (CELT) staff meeting and I in our show & tell segment of our fortnightly OPS meeting (DFLSC).