ALT Events

The topic is: What’s the top priority for you right now? This is an informal opportunity to share what you're currently working on, get feedback, seek collaborators, discuss any challenging issues, or report on anything you wish. Minimal preparation is required, as we aren't expecting any slides (unless you want to). Just think about what you want to talk about beforehand and any questions you want to ask others. We'll go around the room, and if multiple people are attending from the same institution, we'll address it on an institutional basis. The time allocated for sharing will be flexible, depending on the number of attendees and where the discussion is going. Any contributions who we aren't able to get to in the October session will be carried over to the following session in January. We'll conclude the sharing 4:50 (at the latest). Following that, we'll dedicate 5-10 minutes to setting the agenda for our January meeting. This agenda might focus on delving deeper into topics that arose during the October session, or it could introduce entirely new subjects for discussion.

Have you ever wondered how data science students approach learning analytics? In this session, we’ll explore the unique perspectives of postgraduate students who analysed the Open University Learning Analytics Dataset (OULAD) as part of a four-week innovation project.

What makes this work especially interesting is the combination of methods used to capture the students perspectives. Alongside human-led content analysis, we used AI tools like Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) and Large Language Models (LLMs). This blend provided a richer, more nuanced understanding of how data science students interpret and engage with learning analytics.

Join us as we share what we learned from these students—about their analytical approaches, the themes they explored, and what all of this means for designing better learning analytics in higher education. It’s a conversation about how students see the role of data in their own learning journey and how their insights can shape the future of education.

CPD Webinar Host: 

Raghda Marai Zahran, Newcastle University 

This online conference picks up where OER25 left off, offering a chance to revisit key themes and continue the conversations that shaped this year’s event. Taking place on 16 September, the programme brings together practitioners, researchers and policy-makers from across sectors to explore what’s next for open education.

Themes from OER25, including equity and social justice, open practice during times of change, and the politics of openness in the age of AI, remain at the heart of this event. Whether you joined us at OER25 or are new to the community, this is an opportunity to reflect, share your work and connect with others working in open education.

The conference will be held entirely online, with a mix of live sessions, discussions and opportunities to engage with presenters and participants throughout the day. All sessions will be recorded and made available to registered attendees.

Tickets are available now. We look forward to welcoming you.

Webinar leader: Karishma Punwani

Many maths learners find it difficult to connect with abstract course content, and as a result, not only do they struggle to learn the material, but they can also become demotivated, anxious, and disengaged. Fortunately, learning technologies for maths make lessons much more "touchable", visual, and relevant, offering an effective means of engaging and motivating students, deepening their understanding of fundamental concepts, and reinforcing learning through practice.

In this session, we’ll explore some of the ways interactive maths technology can be used effectively in the classroom, from illuminating visualisations to interactive, learner-led activities that naturally foster investigation, collaboration, and discussion. Demonstrations will be done using Maple Learn, the online maths tool from Maplesoft, with examples taken from the A-Level and GCSE content collections, which conform to the AQA and Pearson exam specifications. These collections make it easy for educators to deliver engaging, interactive maths experiences to their learners through the use of customisable content created to meet the specific needs of their class.

Details to be announced shortly 

Join Jane Secker and Chris Morrison, who will be discussing copyright and audiovisual works with their collaborator and friend, Bart Meletti, who is working on his PhD at CREATe at the University of Glasgow. Together the three of them produced the Code of Fair Practice for Film Educators issued in 2023. We will catch up on where we are with audiovisual works and what the needs of the sector are as many of us rely increasingly on streaming platforms.

Details to be announced shortly. Save the date for the next ALT Online Conference, expanding on the theme discussed at OER25. 

The Sixth edition of Icepops (Icepops 2025) is happening – as another Pocket Edition (meaning on a slightly smaller, but no less inspiring or fun, scale). Icepops will take place at John Rylands Research Institute and Library, University of Manchester on Tuesday 9th September and Wednesday 10th September 2025. The main conference will start mid morning on 9th September and include an evening social. The ALT CoOL SIG AGM will take place on the morning of Wednesday 10th September and we’ll be arranging tours of British Pop Archive at the University of Manchester.

Our confirmed keynote speaker is Monica Westin, Associate Director at Manchester Metropolitan University. The programme will be published in July 2025 and include lightning talks and a world cafe. 

Learn more.

Register here: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/cilipinformationliteracygroup/1699906

Theme: Making Digital Life Better for International Students

As international student populations continue to grow, so too does our responsibility to create more inclusive, supportive, and engaging digital learning experiences. This event explores how we can collectively improve the digital life of international students across the M25 region.

Join us online or face to face at the University of Stirling in the Jisc Interactive Classroom for our annual get-together. We'll hear updates from across the Scottish educator sector (ALT, Education Scotland, College Sector, Jisc, QAA Scotland), and there will be interactive sessions on blended learning, AI developments, and MOOCs and microcredentials. Those participating in person will get a demo of the Jisc learning lab and Stirling's approach to blended learning.

Join Constance Henry, a technology enhanced learning enthusiast, for a friendly and practical introduction to HeyZine flipbooks – a simple but effective way to bring your resources to life. This session will explore how flipbooks can be used across all ages and stages of education, from showcasing student work to creating interactive guides, handbooks, and learning materials. You'll see how easy it is to add videos, audio, links, and images, making your content more engaging and accessible. Whether you're supporting learners in the classroom, online, or in community settings, HeyZine offers a creative, user-friendly platform to enhance what you already do.

We are refreshing the Association for Learning Technology (ALT) East regional group, with a renewed focus is on building stronger regional connections. We are also collaborating with the East Midlands group to widen the opportunities for sharing and collaboration.

Our aim is to set up a regular series of collaborative online sessions. These sessions will provide a forum to discuss key issues, challenges, opportunities, and shared ambitions in technology-enhanced learning within our regional community.

This initial session is a crucial opportunity to gather interested individuals. We will discuss the direction and focus of the revitalised group, identify the most pressing needs and opportunities for our community, and begin building a supportive regional network. If you work (or live) in the East Midlands or East England we would be delighted if you would be involved. Please be prepared to bring any ideas for what you might like to see discussed in sessions, or how we might support each other going forward.

To mark the relaunch of ALT Cymru we will be having a virtual 'coffee and chat'. Our first order of business is to get to know our members and what it is you would like to get from this group. Please come along and say hello and have a virtual coffee. We hope to make these a regular event with a different theme for discussion. FOr this first one as well as a hello we thought it would be great to talk about AI and the Welsh Language! So any concerns, issues or ideas you've got about how AI is working (or not) in Welsh please come and share.

The next meeting of the ALT-ELESIG Scotland group is an excellent opportunity to share practice, evaluation and research into learners' experiences of technology enhanced learning and assessment. We have a great afternoon planned with a variety of presentations across the theme of 'Sustainability in Tertiary Education'.

Read the full programme and presenter biographies here.

Register Here,

Delivered by ALT CoOL SIG Chairs, Chris Morrison and Jane Secker, it is aimed at learning technologists and related staff in education.  No knowledge of copyright is assumed prior to the course. This half-day workshop uses Copyright the Card Game to establish a baseline level of knowledge and to give practical examples and scenarios about how copyright relates to the work of learning technologists and those in the field of digital education.
 
Learning outcomes

By the end of the afternoon, delegates will have:

• The ability to apply the basics of UK copyright law to the primary activities of learning technology
• An awareness and understanding of the main licences and copyright exceptions that are relevant to those working in this field
• An understanding of issues related to copyright and digital education / online learning including: digitising content for online, using born digital resources, using digital media and lecture recording and copyright in the connected environment.
   

Are you keen to engage in research but barriers prevent progress? Professional service staff possess unique perspectives that could transform educational practices, yet face significant hurdles when attempting to formalize, conduct, and share this valuable knowledge as research—even when its potential impact is substantial. ALT-ELESIG + the Heads of ELearning Forum are running this session to share the experience of barriers and enablers to doing research. email:j.c.turner@ljmu.ac.uk to attend.

Three academic years have passed since the release of the ChatGPT. In this workshop I share the lessons learnt over nearly 2 academic years of implementing a set of general guiding principles designed for life science students on the responsible use of generative AI. The guidance is modelled on existing approaches to research integrity and plagiarism, framed in a way to demonstrate how to generative AI can support learning without undermining it. The focus is on encouraging healthy, sustainable behaviours through practical advice tailored to different course components. The workshop includes an interactive session where attendees will discuss particular types of learning activities and consider what sort of student interactions with generative AI might be considered as good practice, poor practice or misconduct. 

Join us on Friday 25th April 2025 at 11.00 for the latest in our ongoing series of webinars on becoming a copyright expert. We are pleased to be joined by two experts and one enthusiastic amateur this time around. Christine Daouti and Irene Barranco Garcia will be jointly talking about their journey to becoming experts, while Kathryn Drumm will be explaining why she isn't an expert, and that's OK. Christine is the copyright support officer at University College London. She has a special interest in creating educational resources on copyright, including the UCL Copyright Essentials online module and the Copyright and your Teaching online module. Irene recently joined Imperial College as their Copyright and Scholarly Communications Librarian, having previously worked at the University of Greenwich as Collaboration, Compliance, and Copyright Manager. Kathryn is an educational technologist at City St George's, University of London. Before moving into higher education, she worked in broadcasting for almost 20 years.