In this study, 295 (13.8% response rate) first year students from a large, Scottish, Russell-Group university were surveyed on their attitudes to and use of lecture recordings in 2018. Kruskal–Wallis tests were used to compare the ranked responses between students in different categories relevant to monitoring equality and diversity, such as carer status (5% of respondents), learning adjustments (9% of respondents) and non-native English speakers (27% of respondents). Students most commonly watched a full lecture by themselves when studying with 60% watching a full lecture at least once a week. Non-native English speakers were more likely to watch specific parts of a lecture more frequently (H2 = 8.52, p = 0.014). Students with learning adjustments more often reported being unable to find a resource (H3 = 8.356, p = 0.039). There was no effect of students’ language, carer status or learning adjustment status on their self-reported likelihood to attend a lecture, likelihood to change note-taking behaviour or concentrate on a lecture if it was being recorded. Non-native English speakers were still more likely to worry about keeping up with a lecture, even when it was being recorded (H2 = 10.492, p = 0.005). In conclusion, lecture recording has different impacts on students from different backgrounds, and inclusive lecture recording education policies need to consider this impact.

Full message available at: Weekly News Digest - Issue 577, 19 October 2020

This webinar discusses a new report published by SPARC Europe that investigates the copyright retention policy amongst publishers, self-archiving policies and records publisher policies on open licensing, also as relating to the Plan S requirements on rights and licensing. 

Join the authors Chris Morrison, Jane Secker and Ignasi Labastida i Juan, on this webinar. What were their key findings and what – 20 years into OA – do they believe still needs to change to enable immediate OA?

 

SPARC Europe is one of Europe’s key and long-standing voices advocating for unfettered access to research and education — for the academic and education community; for the whole of society Our Vision

Driving to make more research and education accessible to all, and striving to make Open the default in Europe: For the academic community, education, industry, and for society.

Our Mission

To provide leadership to Europe’s research community to enable the conditions, opportunities and rights for more access to Europe’s research for all.

Subheading: 

A new report mapping a child’s digital footprint in the state education landscape in England has just been published. The report, maps children’s digital footprint across the education landscape age 0-19 including the transition year into Higher Education. It argues that core national education infrastructure delivered by the private sector must be put on the national risk register as its fragility has been demonstrated in the COVID-19 crisis and rush to remote learning.

We have now published ALT's written response submitted by Dr Maren Deepwell, chief executive, on behalf of the Association for Learning Technology, registered charity number 1160039. 

Our response is focused on the case studies and input provided by ALT Members. Many of ALT’s Member Institutions have also submitted individual responses. 

The Online Winter Conference 2020, now in its 7th year, features  a full two day programme with an array of speakers from across sectors and brings together experts to discuss the most urgent questions facing institutions and individuals as they scale up the use of technology for learning, teaching and assessment.

The Online Winter Conference 2020, now in its 7th year, features  a full two day programme with an array of speakers from across sectors and brings together experts to discuss the most urgent questions facing institutions and individuals as they scale up the use of technology for learning, teaching and assessment. From creating a framework […]

Blackboard Learn is one of the learning management systems (LMSs), which is used in teaching to manage user learning interventions and assist in the planning, distribution and evaluation of a specific learning process. The purpose of this study was to investigate how the functionalities of Blackboard Learn were used in online courses and how students perceived the benefits of using them. Also, the study was to investigate how students’ perceptions of teaching, cognitive and social presences within the Community of Inquiry and perceived benefits of using Blackboard Learn were related to their learning efforts. The results revealed that students who consider Blackboard tools more beneficial on their learning are most likely to have higher perceptions of teaching presence. Moreover, students’ learning efforts were increased primarily by students’ perceptions on perceived benefits of using Blackboard and secondarily by students’ perceptions of social presences. In conclusion, utilising LMS tools effectively in online courses can benefit students’ course work and would motivate them to put more efforts on their learning.

The ALT Assembly meets monthly online, with two annual face-to-face meetings in March and September.

• Agenda and Notes for the meeting (shared open doc)
• ALT Assembly Terms of Reference (2020)

Meeting venue: TBC

If you have any specific questions about the ALT Assembly please contact Debbie Baff Membership Manager (debbie.baff@alt.ac.uk) 

 

https://eu.bbcollab.com/invite/44831d50044d4c059726209730f66a8a

Microworlds are simulations in computational environments where the student can manipulate objects and learn from those manipulations. Since their creation, they have been used in a wide range of academic areas to improve students learning from elementary school to college. However, their effectiveness is unclear since many studies do not measure the acquired knowledge after the use of microworlds but instead they focus on self-evaluation. Furthermore, it has not been clear whether its effect on learning is related to the teaching method. In this study, we perform a meta-analysis to ascertain the impact of microworlds combined with different teaching methods on students’ knowledge acquisition. We applied a selection criterion to a collection of 668 studies and were left with 10 microworld applications relevant to our learning context. These studies were then assessed through a meta-analysis using effect size with Cohen’s d and p-value. Our analysis shows that the cognitive methods combined with microworlds have a great impact on the knowledge acquisition (d = 1.03; p < 0.001) but failed to show a significant effect (d = 0.21) for expository methods.

Full message available at: Weekly News Digest - Issue 576, 12 October 2020

Weekly online meeting with Jane Secker and Chris Morrision for those interested in talking about copyright challenges at the current time and how we can address them. Jane and Chris have published a summary page full of resources, which includes links to content from previous sessions. No registration is required to join this event which will be hosted in Blackboard Ultra. Follow this link to join the session at the appropriate time.

The webinar will run in Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. If you have not used Collaborate Ultra before, it may be helpful to consult our webinar FAQs. 

CMALT Accelerator Workshop

This 1-day standalone workshop is designed to help CMALT candidates fast-track work on their portfolio in order to submit it to peer review. The workship will provide tailored support for individuals as well as peer support in a group of CMALT candidates all working towards CMALT accreditation. 

Pre-workshop activities

When you register for the workshop, you will be asked to complete a short profile including what accreditation pathway you are on (CMALT, Senior or Associate), which sections of the portfolio you would like specific help with and how far you have progressed overall. 

In the week before the workshop, you will receive pre-workshop activities to complete to start progressing your portfolio. 

Workshop Day

The workshop day has both live sessions and asynchronous activities scheduled from 9.30am to 4.30pm and concludes with networking opportunities with other candidates. The first half of the day will be focused on strategies for writing specific portfolio sections, including practical examples from accredited portfolios. The afternoon session will provide time for individual support and a peer review exercise. 

Post-workshop support

Following on from the workshop day, you will receive the workshop materials to support you as you complete your portfolio. 

Who should attend?

Anyone registered for CMALT who is keen to complete their portfolio more quickly, candidates who are working towards CMALT looking for more support and anyone looking to revise a referred portfolio. If you are not already on a CMALT pathway you can find out more information here, including details on how to register for the accreditation process.

Costs

CMALT candidates discounted rate: £149 

Available dates:

Thursday 03 December 2020 09:30-16:30GMT Register

Wednesday 20 January 2020 09:30-16:30GMT Register

 

Dear Members

Our Online Winter Conference will take place online 15-16 December 2020.
Now in its 7th year, the conference is back to showcase some of the best
Learning Technology from our Members from across sectors, and bring
together experts to discuss the most urgent questions facing institutions
and individuals as they scale up the use of technology for learning,
teaching and assessment. [...]

ALT are pleased to announce the first 3 CMALT Accelerator Workshop dates.

Available dates

Monday 16 November 2020 09:30-16:30GMT Register

Participation in democracy, in today’s digital and datafied society, requires the development of a series of transversal skills, which should be fostered in higher education (HE) through critically oriented pedagogies that interweave technical data skills and practices together with information and media literacies. If students are to navigate the turbulent waters of data and algorithms, then data literacies must be featured in academic development programmes, thereby enabling HE to lead in the development of approaches to understanding and analysing data, in order to foster reflection on how data are constructed and operationalised across societies, and provide opportunities to learn from the analysis of data from a range of sources. The key strategy proposed is to adopt the use of open data as open educational resources in the context of problem and research-based learning activities. This paper introduces a conceptual analysis including an integrative overview of relevant literature, to provide a landscape perspective to support the development of academic training and curriculum design programmes in HE to contribute to civic participation and to the promotion of social justice.

Full message available at: Weekly News Digest - Issue 575, 05 October 2020

ALT’s longest established online conference is returning  for a special celebratory edition incorporating this year’s Learning Technologist of the Year Awards.   The Online Winter Conference will take place online 15-16 December 2020. Now in its 7th year, the ALT Online Winter Conference is back to showcase some of the best Learning Technology from ALT […]

ALT’s longest established online conference is returning  for a special celebratory edition incorporating this year’s Learning Technologist of the Year Awards.