Week three: eLearning guidelines for quality

I found the eLearning guidelines really interesting. I was reading them and thinking 'oh yes' thats really important!!! The two that I have decided to use are based on some situations that I have come across recently. I will use the Moodle scenario as this is now what I spend a lot of my time working on.

TO1 Are staff development programmes for e-learning developed in consultation with teaching staff, in order to identify and meet staff needs?
I have noticed that we are doing a lot of staff training and not really thinking about the content and how it is structured. The staff are not asked the level of knowledge they have or whether there is something specific that they want to learn about. I feel that we have the team members and knowledge to made the staff development more dynamic and relevant.

SD5 Do students acquire the learning skills for successfully completing the course?
Another favourite of mine and something I am very passionate about. I am seeing so often students who have been accepted on courses, whether it be f2f or online who are ill equipped to succeed, who eventually give up because it is to hard. I think there is definitely an assumption that students who enrol in courses have a certain level of computer skills and information literacy. I can only imagine how much tougher this would be without being able to come into the library and talk with someone who can physically help you with what you need to know.

Week two: Quality and evaluation

What is evaluation? My initial answer to this question is that it is 'ensuring that the material is suitable for the purpose'. BUT ... thats not really where it ends is it? I guess you have to take into account the different learning styles also. So now I am not so sure.

The Flight of the Conchords video was interesting and to answer the question is it good quality? Well, not to me!!!! I couldn't wait for it to end. Bored me to tears, I just don't get them and don't think they are funny. I am aware however that I am in a minority. So because the majority believe it be be good, does that make it good quality? Mind you I did absorb what they were talking about, so does it matter in the end?????

Hello

Well I have finally gotten back to this after procrastinating for most of last week. Study was the last thing I wanted to do when I got home and had finished running after the kids. I am generally a late night studier and hopefully this will be the case with some of my fellow students.

I have been having trouble with the blog thing as I am not good at putting my thoughts out there to the masses. I always worry I will say the wrong thing!!! The irony of this is is that when I implemented a '23 things' project in our library last year, it was blogs that the staff started to keep track of their learning. But I never did it myself :-)

I have worked in the UCOL Library for nearly 4 years now. I started doing computer support when I was doing my ICT degree and was asked to look after the IT & Electronic services when I completed my degree. The library was then asked to implement Moodle @ UCOL and this is where my involvement with eLearning began. Although this was never a road I intended to go down I find it all fascinating and am enjoying helping to make learning a better experience for our students.

What do I hope to get out of this course? A better understanding of what makes a great course. I guess this is the one skill that I lack with not coming from a teaching background. I have had a few ideas for an evaluation project, but have not yet made a definite decision on this as yet.