E-Learning Townhall and Networking Event Review

The E-Learning Unit held a Townhall and Networking event on Wednesday, 25th April 2012.

The event was largely to reveal updates on two major projects – the transition to the new Online Learning Environment, QMplus and the expansion of Q-Review Lecture Capture.

You can review the presentations on Q-Review and QMplus here…

Student Opportunities Currently Available

The E-Learning Unit is seeking to employ Queen Mary students to work as E-Learning Assistants on QMPlus, the university’s new online learning environment. There are various posts available … The work is expected to start immediately, with the majority being completed over summer 2012. The post will be paid at the rate of £17.47 per hour….

Project Update, March 2012

The project has made considerable progress over the last month, and we now have an initial version of Moodle and Mahara installed and some users have had their first training through “engage in depth” meetings with ELU staff.

The OLE needs a name, because it’s more than just a plain Moodle install (and we don’t want to call it MoodleMaharaTurnItInTalisQ-Review).  Staff are now used to ‘OLE’ but it isn’t descriptive for students. In December we asked students and staff to suggest suitable names, and got over 400 responses.  Over 500 people then voted on a shortlist until voting closed at the end of February.  This resulted in the name… QMPlus.

We are currently working with designers and users to define how the system should look and feel and we have some screenshots of the first drafts in this area.

QMPlus, the new name for QM’s OLE (and some screenshots)

The competition to name the new online learning environment (built on Moodle and Mahara, and replacing Blackboard) has finished, and the votes are in.
The winner is… QMPlus.
The person who suggested QMPlus wrote that it is a “short, simple and effective way to suggest an extended Queen Mary”.  We will get in touch with them shortly to give them the prize – congratulations!

Announcement: A New Online Learning Environment for QMUL

Blackboard, the centrally offered platform for e-learning is being replaced.

The new online learning environment will be an integration of Moodle (for VLE) and Mahara (for student-led learning and group tools for informal learning).

The new platform will be available for previews and training from March, and people will be able to move and enhance (or start afresh) their course areas from April until September 2012).  It will then be available for teaching over the 2012-13 academic year.

From curiosity to confidence: sharing what it takes to ‘go open’ with learning and teaching resources

This event, hosted at Barts and The London Medical school’s Whitechapel campus aims to bring together a group of leading experts in the field to discuss and debate, with colleagues from Queen Mary University London (QMUL) and the wider UK participants, what an institutional approach to openness might look like? What benefits can an open policy to educational resource development bring? What the policy and planning implications are for going open and to disseminate to as wider audience as possible some of the outcomes of the work going on in this area around the sector. To register follow the link below.