Live elearning » Learning tech

Elearning Innovations Progress Meeting: iQTI projects

Kirsty — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 21:44:27 +0000

Colin Ogden kicked off the current project updates with a quick talk about using the iQTI player for workplace assessment and how it has simplified his work as a workplace assessor. No paper checklists, no separate digital camera, no laptop. He did a comparative day with one teacher using old methods, and another assessor using iQTI on the iPhone, and there was a significant time saving, which means you can spend more time with the student rather than on paperwork. You do have to explain to supervisors in the workplace what you are doing – iee you’re not just standing there sending text messages! Also you need to get signed release forms for taking photos, both from students as well as employer for taking photos in their workplace (eg you will probably need a formal agreement on what can be photographed such as specific workplace practices). A user guide has been developed which helps teachers use the iQTI tool. Option to send the evidence gathered both back to institute, employer and student which helps with keeping people informed.

Janet Fearns talked about the project with the drilling team also using the iQTI player. They also found the simplicity of everything being in the one device very practical in the workplace.
Shared Services Learning Technologies are the gatekeeper in providing the access to the app, it is not yet available directly on the iTunes store.

Corralling gadgets and cables

Kirsty — Sat, 14 Aug 2010 02:31:41 +0000

Measures 19 by 14 cms.
Made from regular elastic, cotton drill as the covering material under the elastic and on the back. Stiffness given to panel by a piece of the plastic that comes at the bottom of reusable shopping bags. Just need to find an A4 sized piece somewhere for the larger version.

This little prototype holds a pocket video camera and desktop tripod, smartpen, cable, USB modem. The next one will be made of more resilient elastic, be larger, have more solid stitching around the edges for holding the thin elastic cords.

This one is a good everyday one for the handbag, gathers the iPod, cables, headphones, smartpen. Pushing it to take the video camera while traveling proved I need a larger one when I am out of the office for longer, or at an event when multiple recording gadgets are an advantage.

Paper Based Recommender Systems

Kirsty — Tue, 26 May 2009 23:28:37 +0000

Went to the library yesterday to pick up Jamie Oliver’s Ministry of Food which I’ve had on request since February.

The holds are placed in a specific aisle with your name on a slip of paper sticking out to make them easy to find.

The addition to the hold slip made me smile.

After that, guess what we had for dinner last night?

See – creating connections and passing on recommendations doesn’t have to be all tech based

Mastering ‘Views’ in Drupal

Kirsty — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 10:49:38 +0000

Well, after making myself dizzy with learning how to customise the arrangement of information on Drupal to support a new group area, I think I’ve got it!

Here was the whiteboard assisted plan. If you go to the live page, you will see it has changed a bit. One aspect I hadn’t appreciated before was the functionality that groups brought to the party – anything attached to a group magically appears in the feed. Making separate areas for blog posts, pages and discussion forums not necessary. It may still be useful to consider highlighting the discussion posts.

We have 6 Elearning Innovation Projects at our institute this year and now each project has a project area (group in Drupal speak) within which they can have their own forum discussions, blog posts, pages of information.

All groups feed into one master “Elearning Innovations” Page at http://elearningcentral.polytechnic.tas.edu.au/node/171

This info can either be direct in the site or brought in from outside – see example at http://elearningcentral.polytechnic.tas.edu.au/node/169 where we brought in the feed from the Micro Business team’s edublogs blog and mix it up with content from the site.

I’ve used views to create blocks of info that either appear on the sidebars or in the content of the page.

Over the past couple of months I’ve been reviewing the content of our general elearning support pages (home: http://elearningcentral.polytechnic.tas.edu.au/ ) and making notes of what has to be done.

Still on the to-do list:

- re-jig the Elearning Processes area – this is the area needing the most content work.

- look at displays of information pulled in from elsewhere. Now I understand how the news aggregator and external feeds and views and blocks work together I think I can get what I want.

- Kick off forums for our Resource Development Advisor Community of Practice

- Have a nap.

Let me know what else should go on the to-do list…

Update: Just snaffled http://tinyurl.com/ei2009 for our shared project area.

Video Summary of projects

Kirsty — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 01:04:49 +0000

The videos are looking great! The messages coming through are interesting – you can really hear the conviction in some of the speakers and less so in others. Up on the screen the quality looks gorgeous and the audio is very clear. The refrigeration project with student comments was great. Some of the fades in bakery were a bit slow but the resources showed up well. Lots communicated in that one. Paul looks very much the part in the metals one. Loved the transitions! Making link between learners work style and learning style. Master Plumbers talked about the process they used through the process. Typo – teasurer when he appears the first time. Pathways ended on a really strong note with Paul Morel’s comments about ‘it cuts through all that (learning difficulties, ESL, 20 year gaps in learning). The Lifeline map/ flowchart looked great on screen. Really pleased with how the DHHS project came across. It’s been a fascinating experience working with them

Group Four

Kirsty — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:04:44 +0000

HACCP: the PFD way
24 hr service, getting food through the warehouse and to the next part of the chain. Need people entering the organisation to get a consistent message for HACCP training also needs to be cost effective for the elearning developers.
Used Gantt charts to make sure they are on track with project. First stage development done in DW and had a signoff from client in terms of broad approach, types of content and pathway. Will then be developed in Flash. (Not sure why – perhaps there’ll be some interaction or animation) Ah – just showed a series of photos that would work better in another format. Quiz at end. Have made spaces for people to insert their own docs, keeping PFD docs in house.

Then it was our turn – One of Lisa‘s lines was ‘when you’ve got tired of saying something, the people who need to hear it have only just heard it’

Glad the day was over! Lots of great stuff happening, but it was a long week.

Group Three

Kirsty — Wed, 30 Jul 2008 05:03:52 +0000

Lifeline Eportfolio
Christopher John
Run down of purpose of organisation, how volunteers move through training as telephone counsellors. Staged approach, including induction and targetted training and a buddy process for new starts.
Explained existing approach to elearning to support class based activity. Masterfile got good uptake for discussions. Needed to build on what we already do, so dealing with units beyond pre-service training. Selected four units for eportfolio process. Recognised that the volunteers are already doing this stuff on the phones – aiming evidence could be gather in about five hours per unit.
Process. Making sure the volunteers were engaged, ran forums to help them understand what an eportfolio was and what it might be like to use. Identified ease of access off and onsite, not duplicating what they were already doing, knowing where they were in the process, how much left to do. Tell us what to do, we’ll do it. Seven tasks have been identified, were mapped to units. Then mockup in flowchart form. Very stable workforce and volunteer base. Obviously privacy issues were critical. Showed the flowchart. After that consultation, decided on Moodle over Masterfile because of cost issues. Demo of Moodle site. Grades section to show progress through tasks. Ability to export materials – useful if they want to show to someone else e.g. anther volunteering organisation. Major Issue was confidentiality, so call id is used to cross reference if needed. Simple process for gathering evidence. Next steps: now filling out all the areas and tasks ready. Will be piloting later in year. Other benefit, time reduction for assessor.

The Way e-Forward
David Dilger
Geographical challenges to being a national organisation based in Hobart. Large number of young workers in retail. Bakers – difficult to train in working hours. Franchise – having everything the same every time you go. So training outcomes need to be consistent. Getting to regional locations is very difficult, needed learning for retail and bakers and franchisees. When new franchises being set up, get around barrier of people having to move to Tassie for 6 months. Having difficulty previously with IP and elearning. Gloria Jeans – talked with them about how they went about it. Current Banjos process is time consuming and huge volume of work needed. Also messy work environment.

Gloria Jeans’ Developers were so concerned about losing their IP that it’s got really difficult and tangled! Need to make sure that all of the franchisees can get what they need.

Room for Improvement
Ben Crothers and Robin McLean
Two streams of project – classroom material and work placements. Materials need to be able to support learners in their work placement. DVDs and also RFID tags with learning tables. Pictorial cues with text fire up the video. Robin got a warm mention for his professional video production work Folded toilet paper video shown to merriment. From first trial, made a larger set of photo cards and numbered the sections, easier to read in larger font and larger image size. Multi layered way of doing and learning. Used technology in the classroom to make sure learners were Ok. Some didn’t want to use and others didn’t need to use. First short trial – didn’t get enough information to evaluate so will do more trials that inform more development or implementation. Woolstore can see value for general training. In Phase 2 might work on one of the units like OHS or Work with Colleagues and Customers. Evaluation is going to be the key, will be working with the Uni for evaluation.
Looking at options for wider use of technology e.g. through placing readers in libraries at end of project. Also will have one in place in the training room at the Woolstore (I think).