A few colleges have expressed interest in using new WebLearn to support their students before they arrive in Oxford.
At the simplest level this could involve hosting an ‘Electronic Welcome pack” in WebLearn; however, now that students receive their login credentials in advance of arrival, WebLearn could be used in a much more proactive way.
For example,
- a Forum, (which is only accessible to members of the college,) could be set up to allow upcoming students to ask question of their peers;
- a set of wiki pages could be created by current students to provide useful information to the new arrivals, e.g., good places to eat close to the college, cheap shops;
- reading lists or ‘catch-up’ teaching materials could be presented to allow the new intake to ‘hit the ground running’.
I wrote a short blog post on this subject: http://blogs.it.ox.ac.uk/adamweblearn/2009/10/02/pre-arrival/
If any colleges would like a face-to-face chat about using new WebLearn in this way then please send an email to weblearn@oucs.ox.ac.uk
