#ALTC Blog

ALT ELESIG is a community of researchers and practitioners involved in investigations of learners’ experiences and uses of technology in learning across all education sectors. ELESIG, formerly the Evaluating Learners Experiences of e-learning Special Interest Group, was established in 2008 to advocate for the theory and practice of researching learners’ experience in the context of technology enhanced learning/e-learning. ELESIG became a special interest group of ALT in 2019.

To apply for any of the roles, you must live in that region.

Officer Roles Available:

• South England Lead
• New Zealand Lead
• Midlands Co-Lead
• North West Co-Lead
• London Lead

These volunteer roles have a tenure of three years and offer excellent opportunities for leadership development, supporting applications for Advance HE Fellowships and other CPD avenues. Nominees must be ALT members, either individually or through an institutional membership.

How to Apply: Expressions of interest should include a statement (up to 200 words) detailing your interest, experience, and potential contributions to the Organising Committee’s role, as outlined in our Constitution, and your ability to attend ALT ELESIG Group meetings. Please submit your expressions of interest via this form by 12:00 noon GMT on Monday 7 April 2025. 

By M25 Member Group

In 2024, the ALT M25 community engaged in dynamic discussions during the Summer and Winter Meetings, covering topics such as e-portfolios, the evolving role of social media in learning technology, AI in assessments, and the significance of empathy in UX design. These sessions emphasized the importance of adaptability and innovation in enhancing educational practices. As we look ahead, stay tuned for the Spring Meeting in 2025 scheduled at 2 – 4 pm on Monday 24 March 2025, where we will continue to explore exciting developments in digital learning.

Thinking Back, Moving Forward: ALT M25 Summer Meeting

The M25 Summer meeting was held in a hybrid format, both online and in-person at the UCL East Campus on 18 July 2024. You may want to watch the recording of the session again. Let’s review the exciting presentations and interactive activities of the day.

MyPortfolio: A Case Study Supporting the Engineering Foundation Year

The first presentation, delivered by Kat Alston-Cole from UCL Faculty of Engineering, explored the use of MyPortfolio to support students in the Engineering Foundation Year. She shared both challenges and successes in integrating this tool, noting that over time, students developed essential skills in collaging their works using MyPortfolio. She also emphasised the need to improve guidance for students and provide clearer examples of portfolio usage.

A key highlight was the improvement in student confidence, as shown in a survey conducted before and after using MyPortfolio. Students felt significantly more confident after introductory sessions, highlighting the value of hands-on support.

Looking ahead, plans include refining support based on student feedback, improving portfolio appearance, and offering more examples. Further research will assess the long-term impact and identify areas for improvement. This case study initiated a constructive discussion on the importance of adaptability, feedback, and empowerment in successfully adopting portfolio tools in higher education.

Social Media in Learning Technology: Where Did Everyone Go?

Sarah Sherman from the Bloomsbury Learning Exchange (BLE) opened a discussion on the evolving role of social media in learning technology. The presentation started by highlighting the shifts in platforms and user engagement, noting the significant changes in popular platforms like X (formerly Twitter) and the rise of new contenders such as Mastodon and Threads. A poll was conducted to gauge current platform preferences, encouraging attendees to reflect on which tools they are using and how effective they find them.

The session sparked a conversation around the advantages and disadvantages of various platforms, such as LinkedIn for professional networking versus X for rapid, real-time updates. There was a notable discussion about whether recent launches like ChatGPT could transform learning technology beyond social media and how these technologies may promote or hinder access to learning communities.

In the open discussion, participants shared what features were missing in older platforms, what they currently find useful, and what gaps remain in their digital toolkits. Sarah encouraged open dialogue on how social media can better serve learning technology in the future, with particular attention to what works and what doesn’t work for both educators and students.

Academic Alliance: Addressing AI and Assessment Adventures

The third presentation, titled “Academic Alliance: Addressing AI and Assessment Adventures,” was led by Tim Neumann from UCL’s Knowledge Lab, with contributions from Jintong Yan, Zhixin Zhang, Sophie Ho, and Jennifer Seon. This engaging session explored various projects focusing on AI and assessment within the Institute of Education (IOE).

The first project investigated AI-related questions within student dissertations, gathering insights from over 140 participants. The second project involved an AI and Assessment Hackathon, where groups of students and alumni tackled six AI-related assessment briefs over nine days. This challenge aimed to foster collaboration and creative problem-solving among participants from UG and PG.

Finally, the projects culminated in a task where participants presented their findings to senior management at IOE. These presentations were designed to inform future AI policy and assessment strategies within the institution. The co-creation ensures that students’ voice is reflected in the IOE’s institutional strategies.

Lessons learnt snowball and Future cards discussion

On top of professional sharing, there were two interactive activities sparking deeper discussions on the year’s challenges, solutions, and lessons to carry forward. During the “Lessons Learnt Snowball Exercise,” participants jotted down key insights from the 2023/24 academic year on post-it notes and shared them. Examples included reflections on the rising importance of VR in teaching, the good practices in managing the change of VLE, and the value of involving students in decision-making. Others highlighted the need to better understand AI’s role in education and acknowledged that changes, while exciting, can pose challenges.

Participants concluded the day with the “Future Card Activity,” where groups discussed trends shaping the future of UK digital learning. They explored ideas like modular, flexible learning replacing rigid degree structures and the expansion of AI-powered personalised education. Some groups reflected on strategies to bridge digital divides and ensure equal access, while others debated the balance between traditional, research-focused learning and digital innovation. This collaborative exercise encouraged creative thinking about adapting to and thriving in an evolving digital learning landscape.

Purposeful UX: From Assumptions to Solutions That Matter: ALT M25 Winter Meeting

The ALT M25 Winter Meeting took place on 18 November 2024 at Chelsea College of Arts. The event focused on UX/UI design in education and how research can improve digital learning.

KCL Integrating Empathy into UX Design

The King’s College London (KCL) UX team, led by Rachel Brown, Andrea Amato, Helena Futerman, and Juliana Matos, delivered a workshop on integrating empathy into UX design. They introduced their approach to improving digital learning applications through user research and iterative testing. The session covered key UX methodologies, including the System Usability Scale (SUS) for usability assessment and empathy mapping to understand user needs and frustrations. Participants explored how data collection, interviews, and student profiles help shape more intuitive learning experiences.

The workshop then introduced “How Might We” (HMW) questions to reframe challenges into actionable design opportunities, followed by Crazy 4s, a rapid ideation method. The team also discussed testing design assumptions to ensure solutions align with real user needs. The session concluded with reflections on practicing empathy in UX, reinforcing the idea that great design starts with deeply understanding users.

UAL’s UX Journey to a Consistent Course Template

Ben Kammerling and Rebecca Cheng from the University of the Arts London shared their approach to creating a consistent Moodle course template. They used the Triple Diamond UX process, including interviews, usability testing, and data analysis, to identify problems like inconsistent page designs and navigation challenges.

The new template, used in 120 courses, has received positive feedback for its simplicity and accessibility. However, issues like finding resources and submitting assignments still need improvement. UAL plans to address these problems through surveys and further testing.

HyFlex and Classroom Technology at Birkbeck

Adele Cushing from Birkbeck, University of London, shared how they are using HyFlex teaching to support in-person and online students equally. HyFlex classrooms include advanced touchscreens and flexible layouts to help students collaborate and participate, no matter where they are.

The HyFlex pilot has shown promising results, but challenges remain. Adele highlighted the need for better support for hybrid participation and smoother technology integration. Future work will expand the use of HyFlex while addressing these challenges.

Lesson learnt

The ALT M25 Winter Meeting provided useful insights into UX and digital education. The presentations and discussions showed how thoughtful design and research can improve learning experiences for students and educators.

Did you enjoy reading this? To become a member of our community, see Membership details here https://www.alt.ac.uk/membership

By AmplifyFE

The Future Teacher network organises monthly webinars aimed at supporting the sharing of great ideas for accessible digital teaching across the tertiary sector. These webinars regularly attract over 100 attendees. They are recorded and captioned with all resources made available through our Xerte platform; covering topics such as using rich media, learning analytics and open educational resources. 

The original Future Teacher project was an international European project funded for two years and that funding ended in 2019. However, the UK team, all experienced educators, valued the enthusiasm of the community that evolved so much that from 2019 to present it has been run on a voluntary basis and the team of volunteers has doubled in size, making us more sustainable. 

What is unique about the community?

From the beginning, we aimed to do things differently. We’ve tried to build the project on an important and valued set of principles:

Pragmatism – prioritising practices that demonstrably work and can be replicated without big budgets or specialist skills.
Cross sector – aiming to be as relevant to both Further and Higher Education.
Openness – entirely open educational resources.  We have used Xerte toolkits (open source) to create the resources. You can even import our resources into your own Xerte installations and adapt them as needed.
Accessibility – digital accessibility is a core value. We’re on the same journey as anyone else and often limited by similar constraints but we’re always mindful of maximising accessibility within our constraints.
Community – a mailing list of over 800 members, a core of regulars and all sessions recorded (with nearly 7,500 YouTube views in total).
Humanity – for the last 5 years, Future Teacher has run as a passion project by a (growing) group of volunteers. We share the desire to humanise technology. Ethics are high on the agenda – whether accessibility, inclusion, copyright or AI – and we love to showcase unknown innovators and get the student perspective direct from student contributors..
Nurture – some of our early attendees grew into early presenters and are now respected experts in their own right. 

Our monthly webinars deal with topics relevant to accessible, inclusive teaching with digital tools. All are recorded and made available with subtitles on our You Tube account and embedded within our Xerte open access resource. Take a look and click to open the topics list – you will uncover many resources which can save you time and support your teaching. 

1. Online learning – what works?

2. The Flipped Classroom

3. Knowing what they know

4. Collaborative teaching and learning

5. Strategies to support reading

6. Strategies to support writing

7. Self assessment and mastery learning

8. Social media for teaching and learning

9. Inclusive Practice

10. Rich Media 1 – Images

11. Rich Media 2 – Audio

12. Rich Media 3 – Video

13. Getting savvy with digital tools

14. Designing appropriate assessments

15. Designing for technology enhanced programmes

16. Designing and creating online learning activities and resources

17. WWW – the wonderful world of webinars

18. OER and Open Source

19. Learning Analytics (for mere mortals.

What next? Get involved!

Everyone is welcome to join the FutureTeacher community.

We are always on the look-out for potential speakers. If any of the following apply please get in touch via the Jiscmail mailing list or fill in your offer on our call for speakers form. 

• You are a practitioner and you’ve focused on one or more of the above themes in your practice and have some reflections to share. This could be a good opportunity to gather evidence for professional portfolios.
• You support and develop teaching colleagues and one or more of them is doing excellent work in one of the above themes and deserves wider recognition. 
• You support a community of practice and you are looking for opportunities to take good practices to a wider audience.
• Your institution does great work but it’s not widely known and you’re looking for a chance to remedy that.

Additionally, our presenters are awarded a Future Teacher open badge in recognition of their contribution to the community which can be shared on your website or social media – wherever you have a professional online presence. Why not add to your portfolio of evidence of professional activity? 

Join our LinkedIn group Follow us on Bluesky

Thanks for reading this AmplifyFE post! AmplifyFE is a strategic partnership between ALT and the Ufi VocTech Trust. AmplifyFE connects over 3000 professionals in Further Education and Vocational Education, providing a strong networking community to share, collaborate and learn. We connect innovators, industry and educators, therefore, AmplifyFE posts may include contributions with a commercial focus. AmplifyFE’s posts are included on the #altc blog to support networking, collaboration and sharing. For more information, please check AmplifyFE’s dedicated submission guidelines.

The #altc blog submission guidelines detail who can post and the type of posts accepted to this blog.

We have doubled the size of our ALT CoOL SIG Communications Group. Read on to learn more about the people behind the news bulletin and social media pages.

Hannah Crago – University of Essex –
Email | LinkedIn | Bluesky

Hi, I’m Hannah, and I work as the Open Research Development Librarian at the University of Essex. I am also a member of the Alt CoOL SIG committee, and am part of two subgroups: Education and Learning, and Communications.

As part of the Communications group, we send out the monthly news bulletins and run the Alt CoOL SIG social media pages. We’re always happy to hear new ideas for content, so get in touch if you have anything to share.

In my role at the University of Essex, I manage our Research Services Team, which includes training and support for researchers, open access publishing, our institutional Repository, the Essex Student Journal, and generally advocating for Open Research across the University of Essex and beyond. I’ve worked at Essex for 8 and a half years now in various different roles, and that time has flown by!

I got into copyright in a previous role within our reading lists team, where I coordinated our digitisation service. My involvement with copyright is now more around publishing, CC licences, and Rights Retention, but I am still regularly in conversation with the reading list team about CLA licences, copyright exceptions, etc. I also created a copyright game a few years ago alongside a previous colleague Katrine Sundsbø. The game is called Copyright Dough, and you can find it on Figshare, and read more about it in our article.

Deborah Ferns – University of Strathclyde  

Hi I’m Deborah and I have been working at University of Strathclyde since 2018 where I currently work as Copyright & Licensing Compliance Manager responsible for producing copyright guidance and training for staff and students, answering copyright enquiries and managing the University’s CLA/NLA/ERA and PRS for Music licences. I also act as Data Protection/FOI and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion contact for the Information Services Directorate.

My biggest challenge is probably communicating the importance of copyright to staff and students in an accessible way and ensuring that copyright law doesn’t become a barrier to teaching, learning and research.  In have been an Officer of the ALT CoOL SIG since its inception and being able to access this community of practice and share idea helps me meet this challenge.

I developed my interest in copyright while working for JISC Legal and have previously worked as Contracts Officer for the Oil & Gas Innovation Centre (OGIC) hosted at Heriot-Watt University and prior to working within Higher Education spent more than a decade working in commercial contracts in the biotechnology and telecoms software industries.

Nikisha Stanton – Defence Academy of the United Kingdom

Hey there! I’m Nikisha Stanton, and I work as a Copyright Officer and Marketing Lead at the Hobson Library, Joint Services and Command Staff College. I am new to Alt CoOL SIG, and I am very excited to be involved with this community and gain further insight into this profession. With a BA (hons) in drama, my start in the information profession may seem unconventional, but my degree and subsequent training have been incredibly beneficial.

In my current role, I focus on processing and raising awareness of copyright throughout the college, while also continuously developing our library marketing. Over the past three years, my training has given me the confidence to delve into topics within copyright that truly interest me. I am eager to expand my knowledge in copyright literacy and AI. I look forward to connecting with more of you in this community!

Shazia Arif – Brunel University of London – Email LinkedIn Bluesky

Hello, I’d like to take this opportunity to introduce myself as the Academic Liaison Librarian for Health Sciences and Medicine at Brunel, University of London. I have recently joined the ALT COoL SIG Communications subgroup but have been a member of the committee since it was set up and previously contributed to the Events Planning subgroup. I am looking forward to working with the Communications team members to publicise and promote the work of the committee.

In my current role at Brunel, I am the lead liaison librarian for Health Sciences and Medicine. Brunel Medical School (BMS) was established in 2022 and it provided me with a fantastic opportunity to work in partnership with academic colleagues to ensure its success. BMS is using many innovative teaching methods such as Team-based Learning (TBL) and it has been great fun to develop the materials for these sessions for my information and digital literacy sessions.

I am also the lead for doctoral researcher development and run a range of workshops and webinars ranging from the use of social media for academic purposes, AI tools for literature searching, designing academic posters and presentation skills.

 My interest in copyright matters developed over the past five years, as I became the copyright contact for BMS subject matter experts and content developers. As this became a more significant part of my role, I welcomed the opportunity to network with librarian peers and work with the committee to raise awareness of copyright issues and also my own knowledge.

Keep up-to-date with ALT CoOLSIG via our new Bluesky and LinkedIn accounts.