A variety of taught courses are offered by OUCS free of charge, to support the use of WebLearn and (as from this term) the plagiarism prevention and detection software Turnitin. In most cases, the course books can also be downloaded for self study. The courses are all aimed at staff members, not students. Places are limited and bookings are required via the links provided. Bookings open 30 days in advance, but you can express an interest in a course and receive a reminder to book when booking opens.
Thursday 26 January 2-5 pm (week 2)
Tuesday 28 February 2-5 pm (week 7)
WebLearn is a web-based Virtual Learning Environment (VLE), which provides tools to support teaching and learning, assessment, collaboration, communication and sharing of resources. This course is at a basic level, aimed at staff members with little or no experience of the system.
WebLearn: Making your site work
Monday 30 January 2-5 pm (week 3)
After having attended the WebLearn Fundamentals course, and/or having used new WebLearn for some time, users need to know more about the planning, structure and design of WebLearn sites and the effective use of WebLearn tools.
WebLearn: Tools to support Teaching and Learning New!
Tuesday 14 February 2-5 pm (week 5)
This course focuses on WebLearn tools for tutors and lecturers to use in communicating with students, arranging tutorial sessions, conducting course evaluation surveys, providing reading lists, organising learning materials, and tracking site usage.
Plagiarism: Turnitin Fundamentals New!
Thursday 16 February 9.15 am – 12.15 pm (week 5)
Turnitin is an online software application which compares matches of documents and is primarily used to detect instances of plagiarism. This course, aimed at new users of Turnitin, goes through the process of setting up the software and submitting papers to it.
Tuesday 21 February 2-5 pm (week 6)
WebLearn Surveys (beta) can be used by staff members to design and manage electronic questionnaires to be delivered online. Surveys can be created for general data gathering purposes, or for course, lecturer or tutor evaluation. They can be delivered to WebLearn site members, ad-hoc groups or the general public.
Wednesday 21 March 2-5pm (week 10)
This is an invitation for WebLearn users to meet with members of the OUCS WebLearn team to give feedback and share ideas and practices regarding the use of WebLearn. Ensure that your voice and ideas are heard and shared in order to inform the ongoing development and support of the system.
Lunch time sessions:
Plagiarism: WebLearn and Turnitin
Wednesday 15 February 12.30-13.30pm
The Turnitin plagiarism detection service identifies pieces of text in students’ work that match with existing electronic texts. It can be used to screen assessed essays and also for formative purposes to improve student academic writing skills. The WebLearn Assignments tool is integrated with Turnitin.
Wednesday 22 February 12.30-13.30pm
This course demonstrates the award-winning Mobile Oxford platform (m.Ox) and a selection of WebLearn tools that can be accessed via a mobile device. Participants will have the opportunity to use their mobile devices to try out various WebLearn tools via the mobile platform.
Plagiarism: Interpreting Originality Reports using Turnitin New!
Wednesday 29 February 12.30-13.30pm
What do the percentage matches mean? What about direct citations? Should I include bibliographies in the similarity index? This lunchtime session covers Turnitin Originality Reports and how to interpret the results.
