{"id":618,"date":"2010-05-25T15:56:30","date_gmt":"2010-05-25T14:56:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.oucs.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/?p=618"},"modified":"2010-05-26T10:31:37","modified_gmt":"2010-05-26T09:31:37","slug":"a-great-practical-example-of-using-weblearn-to-enhance-teaching","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/2010\/05\/a-great-practical-example-of-using-weblearn-to-enhance-teaching\/","title":{"rendered":"A great practical example of using WebLearn to enhance teaching"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dr Scot Peterson, a lecturer in Politics, just gave an excellent and informative talk as part of the OUCS “make<\/em>:” lunchtime sessions.<\/p>\n

Scot also teaches at Reading University where he has to use the Blackboard VLE. My ears pricked up when he described it as “far inferior<\/em>” compared to the Sakai-based WebLearn. He constantly referred to the inflexibility of Blackboard and the advanced collaborative facilities of WebLearn.<\/p>\n

I was so enthused with the whole presentation that I thought I would summarise his key points here – his experiences and tips could be used as a template for others regardless of department or college.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. The ordering of the tools in the left-had side menu is important<\/strong>; put the most useful tools near to the top of the list. This can be achieved via Site Info > Page Order.<\/em><\/li>\n
  2. Keep the home page dynamic<\/strong> – this makes students return again and again. Scot posts pertinent Announcements<\/em> and also changes the main content of the page by replacing the default text with topical web pages (such as recent Election coverage). This is achieved via Home > Options > Site Info URL<\/em>.<\/li>\n
  3. After adding his students Scot creates one internal group per paper<\/strong> that he teaches – this saves time in the long run, he can easily email specific groups of students (using Mailtool<\/em>) and he can control access to certain areas of the site to prevent students from getting confused about what to read. To create internal groups use Site Info > Manage Groups > Create New Group.<\/em><\/li>\n
  4. Once material has been added to the site it is possible to get a rough idea of how it will look to students by clicking on the Switch to access role<\/em> link<\/strong> at the top of the page. (Remember not to do this on an unpublished site as unpublished sites are not visible to participants with the access <\/em>role!)<\/li>\n
  5. The Resources <\/em>tool is the single most useful tool in the system. Scot recommends creating one sub-folder per paper<\/strong> and within each paper, a further sub-folder per topic.<\/li>\n
  6. Rather than make copies of journal articles, it is far better to use the Resources ><\/em> Make Web Links (URLs) <\/em>to link straight to a JSTOR entry<\/strong>. Using a link is far better from the point of view of copyright.<\/li>\n
  7. Scot also likes to use the Email Notification<\/em> option<\/strong> within Resources<\/em> to let the students know of new items.<\/li>\n
  8. Selecting Edit Details<\/em> alongside a folder or individual item allows one to restrict access to one or more internal groups<\/strong> and helps to reduce confusion.<\/li>\n
  9. One tip for increasing site activity and get students thinking is to use the Mailtool<\/em> to send a provocative email<\/strong> on a current topic.<\/li>\n
  10. If a particular tool or activity <\/strong>doesn’t appear to work then don’t be afraid to abandon it <\/strong>and try a new approach. The intention was for students to discuss issues within the Forums<\/em> tool but they were reluctant to do so. Instead the students use the Chat<\/em> tool. They would use it for both synchronous and asynchronous communication at all hours of the day. Scot will often read Chat transcripts and respond to questions that have been raised; if students know that their questions will be answered then they are far more likely to use the tool and return to it later.<\/li>\n
  11. Students also like to use the Chat<\/em> tool as essay deadlines loom<\/strong>. Note that it is possible to set up a variety of chat rooms dedicated to different topics but one should strike a balance between simplicity and fragmentation.<\/li>\n
  12. It is recommended that students be allowed to delete their own messages <\/strong>– sometimes things are said in haste and it is reassuring for students to be able to recant. Do this via Chat > Permissions > access > delete.own.<\/em><\/li>\n
  13. Some of Scot’s students decided to use the Wiki <\/em>tool to help their own understanding of a particular subject<\/strong>. One student wrote her understanding of a particular topic and asked others to correct it or comment. As the Wiki <\/em>tool has version control she was able to see who had made corrections to her original and what the edits contained. This can be achieved via Wiki > History > [Compare] To previous<\/em><\/li>\n
  14. More dynamic content can be added to the site by using the News <\/em>tool<\/strong> to display news (via RSS), blogs or Twitter feeds.<\/li>\n
  15. Scot sets all required Essays through the Assignments <\/em>tool<\/strong> – this allows for (optional) routing via JISCs Turnitin plagiarism detection service.<\/li>\n
  16. The Site Stats<\/em> tool is a great way of seeing what worked. It is possible to see which documents or links within Resources <\/em>are being accessed and also what the response has been to a provocative email – there was a noticeable jump in visits and chat room activity just after an email was sent.<\/li>\n
  17. The final tip was don’t use the browser’s back button<\/strong> – always use the two blue arrows in the main tools area: “Reset the tool to its default state”.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    Links<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. Scot’s slides<\/a><\/li>\n
    2. the WebLearn Community site<\/a><\/li>\n
    3. the WebLearn Guidance site<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ol>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Dr Scot Peterson, a lecturer in Politics, just gave an excellent and informative talk as part of the OUCS “make:” lunchtime sessions. Scot also teaches at Reading University where he has to use the Blackboard VLE. My ears pricked up … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69,90,105],"tags":[409,412,411,399,379,408,389,283,374,385,29,378,386,40504,383],"class_list":["post-618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-e-learning","category-sakai","category-weblearn","tag-assignments","tag-chat","tag-email-notification","tag-groups","tag-home-page","tag-mailtool","tag-news-tool","tag-plagiarism","tag-resources","tag-roles","tag-rss","tag-site-management","tag-site-stats","tag-turnitin","tag-wiki"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=618"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":626,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/618\/revisions\/626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs-new.it.ox.ac.uk\/adamweblearn\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}