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.

Moodle (and Mahara) is a very different beast to Blackboard.  Though it also functions as a traditional VLE, it also offers the scope to think in new ways and encourage student learning within and beyond teaching and learning on modules.

The E-Learning Unit will be running a comprehensive training programme, both to support you in the practicalities of getting used to the new software, and to help you think about how you might use it to enhance student learning over the coming years.

We will also work closely with Faculties and Schools to ensure that we move at a pace that is right for you, and fit in with your strategies and educational priorities.

Some Schools (in Science and Engineering) do not currently use the centrally supported VLE, and they may want to use the new platform in the first year to explore and trial the possibilities to see what educational advantages it offers to support the ways they teach and support their students’ learning.  There may also be courses where the timescales run over the traditional academic year.  In these instances, we want to be flexible, so do get in touch (s.brenton@qmul.ac.uk) to arrange to meet.

Some of the more advanced functions of Moodle/Mahara will be phased in over time, and the platform will grow as it is integrated with other new technologies that QMUL is adopting.   But it will be available for the core business of effective learning and teaching ready for the next academic year, and offers significant improvements on the old platform.

Timescales

The project will run to a detailed project plan with the various technical and support elements, but academic colleagues the most pertinent timescales are:

January 2012: Implementation project starts.  Discussions with Faculty groups.

February:   Discussions with schools and heavy users of the current VLE about how they want to use it to support their teaching next year.

March:  Previews of the platform, access for staff to start playing/building.  Training and development sessions.

April: Small scale pioneer uses (if you’re interested in being a pioneer, please get in touch with Stella Ekebuisi (s.ekebuisi@qmul.ac.uk).  No new courses built in Blackboard.

April – September: Support for all module convenors to move from Blackboard to the new platform (see transition support, below).

August/September:  Live for all students and staff

Over 2012-13: Courses which start later in the year go live; pioneer uses of Mahara for e-portfolio tools, informal learning networks.  Forums for colleagues to share ideas and examples of effective use.  Projects to look at more advanced tools for complex e-admin uses.  Courses with non-standard timescales can ‘teach out’ in Blackboard.

2013-14: Mature use developing as a tool for teaching and learning and e-admin, student-led learning, learning profiles and informal learning networks.

Transition Support

The approach we take to the transition is key to realising the benefits of the new platform over the old.

Simply moving old content to the new system wholesale will in most cases not make best use of the new functionality or interface, though of course colleagues will want to use it for a basic provision of materials, information and course communications.  Rather like moving house, you would not move your furniture and arrange it exactly the same way in your new, better house.  You might choose to arrange your existing furniture in new ways, or get new furniture entirely.  We’ll support you in both these choices, to either get you up and running quickly with a sensibly arranged and useful course area (which you might then enhance over time as you learn more about the tools it offers), or to realise the potential from the outset for using it as part of the fabric of how you teach.

Colleagues moving from Blackboard to the new platform will therefore be offered two approaches:

1. ‘Move and Enhance’. Module convenors/lecturers can attend one three-hour session from April 2012.  Here, you will learn about the new platform, go into your course area, and rearrange your core learning materials in a sensible fashion, so that you can start using it in your teaching and perhaps develop your use over the year. 
2. ‘Start Afresh and Innovate’. This is a chance to re-examine your use of e-learning and use the new tools to create a rich ‘blended’ learning environment for your students.  You’ll work closely with e-learning professionals, and be given an e-learning assistant to help you develop and build your course area.

The aim here is that people who want to start with basic use can do so with a minimum of disruption, while those who want to use it in more advanced ways are fully supported

Outside of these sessions, we will offer other opportunities (online and offline) about how you can use it in advanced ways, e.g. for student feedback, supporting group work, assessment, student-led learning, using open educational resources or adding more interactivity.  There will also be ways for you to share your ideas and experiences with other colleagues, and to see how others are using it.

There will be exceptions to the above: you may be running a programme which requires a more complex approach to ensure that complex processes are realized in the new environment, or a course which depends entirely on the platform (e.g. distance learning).  In these cases, please get in touch so we can plan your transition and the support you’ll need.

Those who already have mature, successful e-learning presences in Blackboard will be given close assistance to ensure their course functions successfully in Moodle without the need to rebuild it from scratch themselves.

Further details will appear on the E-Learning Unit’s website at www.learninginstitute.qmul.ac.uk/elearning.

Overview of the environment

This document gives a brief overview of the main advantages and functionality of the new environment.

Further Information

This website will be used to post more information about the platform as the project progresses.  Over the next few weeks, we will be announcing the training and support provision, and providing details of how to get involved, see previews, give feedback about design and configuration.

Get in Touch

If you have any questions, please email elearning@qmul.ac.uk in the first instance.  We’ll respond directly, and also build a bank of frequently asked questions which we’ll post on this website.  And if you would like to be a pioneer to get in early, or be involved in feedback for the name, we’d love to hear from you.

What will it be called?

‘Moodle and Mahara’ is a bit of a mouthful, and this is more than just a ‘VLE’ replacement, offering as it does more flexible tools for learning outside taught courses, so it needs a catchy, descriptive name.  We’re running a naming competition for students and staff – do suggest something!

Thanks…

… to everyone involved in the project to select and procure the new platform.  It has been chosen because it is much the best fit with the requirements that colleagues and students across QM contributed, and I’m really grateful for all your work and help.  We’re confident that, while this is only software and software by itself does nothing, colleagues and students will be able to use it to help themselves – and QM – realise our educational ambitions.

Sam Brenton, Head of E-Learning

January 2012

Photo Credit

Matt Brown on Flickr.

• Notes
• E-Learning – An Introduction.   This expands on the themes and examples. Chapter in H.Fry, S.Ketteridge and S.Marshall (eds.) A Handbook for Teaching and Learning in Higher Education. 3rd Ed. London, Kogan Page.
• E-Learning Services leaflet
• Some ideas for effective e-learning
• Join the email list

I will also post the materials from the other e-learning presentations here after the event.

- Sam

We have set up an email list for people engaged in or interested in e-learning.  Join in!

It is used to publish information about e-learning developments, and for people who are doing e-learning to communicate, discuss, share ideas and experiences.

We will send a termly bulletin of latest information to the list, as well as regular updates about new services, development and funding opportunities.  We will also use it to consult on new initiatives and ideas, and will organise a termly networking/social event, so that anyone interested in e-learning has the opportunity to meet and talk with others doing similar things.

The focus for this list is on sharing e-learning practice and ideas from an educational perspective (focusing on the ‘learning’ rather than the ‘e’).  Please don’t use this list for support requests or purely technical queries.

We are also always looking for short case studies of innovative uses of e-learning.  These might be an audio interview, or a single page overview of what you are doing.  These are published on our website and linked to in the bulletins we send to this list.  If you’d like to volunteer for a case study, please content Alysa Bramble on a.bramble@qmul.ac.uk.  The most valuable exchange is always when people learn from what other people are doing in practice, so do feel able to share your thoughts, ideas and experiences.

To join the email list (elearning-practitioners@qmul.ac.uk), either:

• go to http://www.lists.qmul.ac.uk/sympa, click on ‘Teaching and Learning’, then ‘elearning-practitioners@qmul.ac.uk’ and click ‘subscribe’ (there are many more QM lists you can join there, too), or
• send an email from your QMUL address to sympa@lists.qmul.ac.uk with the subject as:  subscribe elearning-practitioners <your first name> <your surname>  (e.g.:  ” subscribe elearning-practitioners Joanna Bloggs “).

Next year, we hope to move it fully online, to have a full set of online interest groups for different areas of e-learning.  For now, see you on email!

Image credit: AJC1 on Flickr

PS>  Please ignore all rumours about what the next VLE will be.  The procurement is ongoing, and is based on what solution will best fit the requirements gathered across QM over a year (also considering technical assurance, value etc).  No decision has been reached!  The process will conclude in November 2011.

This post contains various presentations and materials from the event.  More will be added after it runs, and I’ll also add any useful links or bits of information that arise from the discussions.

• Programme for the day
• Guidance notes for distance learning (Word – Sam Brenton)
• Support contacts for distance learning (Pdf – Sam Brenton)
• Models and Techniques (PowerPoint – Sam Brenton)
• Helping with new course development (Powerpoint, Ben Fowler, Corporate Affairs)
• Dr Maralyn Druce Presentation (PowerPoint – intranet)
• Professor Trisha Greenhalgh Presentation (PowerPoint – intranet)
• Dr Virginia Hubbard Presenation (PowerPoint – intranet)

Post-Event Update

The group also agreed that, because there is a critical mass of interest, it would be useful to continue discussions and the sharing of ideas and experiences through an email list.  This has been set up as SMD-distancelearning@qmul.ac.uk.  Colleagues asked that the attendees of the event were automatically subscribed.  Others who may be interested can subscribe by:

• Going to http://www.lists.qmul.ac.uk
• Logging in with your QM username and password
• Browse for the list under Medicine and Dentistry (or search ‘distancelearning’)
• Click ‘Subscribe’

OR: Just send an email from your QMUL address to sympa@lists.qmul.ac.uk with the subject as:  subscribe SMD-distancelearning <your first name> <Your surname>

For example: Subject:           subscribe SMD-distancelearning Sam Brenton

29th November, 2-3.30pm: Content and Communications
6th December, 10-11.30am: Assessment and Course Management

Venue: Room 3.11, Francis Bancroft Building, Mile End (the Learning Institute Seminar Room)

At these sessions colleagues will be presented with an overview of the project and a set of draft functional requirements in the above themed areas, which they will have the chance to add to and refine.

These requirements will later be mapped against viable VLE systems and this will contribute to the selection of the next VLE system at QM.

If you would like to attend, please email s.brenton@qmul.ac.uk to let him know you’re coming. Similarly, do email if you can’t attend but would like to be involved in defining the functional requirements for the next VLE system.

We will post more information about the outage when we have it.

I apologise for the inconvenience caused.  Technical services are investigating the problem and we will publish information here as soon as we know more.

Sam Brenton, Head of E-Learning

1. We’ve dropped the ‘Distance’ from our name, and are to be simply and pithily known as the E-Learning Unit.

We’ve done this for a couple of reasons.

First, some people (external queries, usually) assumed that we ran distance learning programmes for the College, which we won’t.  We provide support for people who do.

Second, the support we provide for distance learning programmes centres on the use of e-learning for those programmes – at the approval stage, in the course design, in the delivery of the course and in supporting the students.  It’s not general support for all aspects of distance learning (which would include financial modelling, market research, business planning etc.).

As such, it makes sense to avoid any potential for confusion about our role – we support (e)learning in all its various forms of delivery.  So if you are interested in distance learning, we are still a good place to start, and indeed can help put you in touch with the other people you’ll need to speak with.

2. Our parent department has changed its identity.

The ELU was part of Educational and Staff Development (ESD) which has undergone a thorough transformation and become The Learning Institute at QMUL.  This is to better reflect the range of services offered, across Teaching, Learning and Assessment (that includes us in e-learning), Professional Development, Researcher Development and Professional Development for all staff.  Have a look at the LI’s new website, which features a (hopefully) more accessible presentation of what we can do for you via offered services.

So: DELU is ELU, ESD is LI, and 2010-11 is upon us.