Post Mauritius Workshop - presentation

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

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

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

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

Sister Jocel

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!!

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

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

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

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

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)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Meeting up with Val Clifford

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

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!!

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

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

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

Farewell lunch @ the Ye Olde Swan, Woughton

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

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.

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

Moodle @ OU

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

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:

1. USP - Study Skills
2. UM - Research Methods
3. 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;

1. A repurposed course (80% reused, 20% new)
2. 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

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

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

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

Presentation by OpenLearn Director

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

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

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

Covered Market

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

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

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

Tudor House

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

View from the Calfax Tower

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

Where John Wesley preached

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

Dou Bula!

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

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

At leisure in Oxford

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

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

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)