Edublog Awards 2010 - My nominations

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

EDULINK-SideCAP project - Wrapping Up

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

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

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

Posted using ShareThis

Countdown to Finale Event

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

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:

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

Timeframe for writing up book chapters

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

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

UWI Workshop - Day 1

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

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

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

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

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

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..

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

Presentation to LLP13 & LLF11 students

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

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

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

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

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

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!!

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

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

(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

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

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

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

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

Project Presentation to Faculty Deans

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

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

Steering Committee Meeting today in SLS

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

Steering Committee Meeting today @2.30pm

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

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

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.