WebLearn Blog

A red carpet event was held at IT Services on 18 June 2014 to celebrate and showcase the use of digital technology in support of learning and teaching. We gave prizes to more than 20 winners from across the collegiate university, in various categories.

The guest speakers included Professor Marcus Du Sautoy and Professor Anne Trefethen, and the event was hosted by Melissa Highton, Director of Academic IT.

The WebLearn winners are in two categories, and you can read all the details on the blog posts linked to below:

Use of WebLearn to support a course or programme of study:

Winners:
* Dr Sharon Mickan and team (Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine, Nuffield Department of Primary Care Health Sciences)
* Dr David Hobbs and the Cyber Security CDT team (Department of Computer Science)

Use of WebLearn for learning support and outreach to students:

Winners:
* Lucile Deslignères & María Barragán-Orte (Language Centre)
* Ian Chilvers (Social Sciences Library)

Come along to the WebLearn User Group meeting at IT Services on 7 July 2014 at 14:00 to learn more about ‘Writing accessible web pages’ (Booking is required at http://courses.it.ox.ac.uk/detail/TOVD).

The following news release is from Jisc: see http://jisc.msgfocus.com/q/112eRgM9oyVzKqK4cdb/wv

“Disabled learners celebrate changes to copyright law

Today Jisc welcomed reforms to copyright law that expand the ability of ‘authorised bodies’, including colleges and universities, to copy work and make it more accessible for disabled people. It does this by removing previous legal restrictions on what can be copied and by whom.

All disabled people, regardless of impairment, are now covered by the legislation where their impairment affects their ability to access work on an equal basis to someone without the impairment. The previous law restricted the exception to visually impaired persons only. This brings the law more in line with the Equality Act 2010 definition of disability and means, for example, that students with dyslexia, are now covered by the exception. All copyright work is now covered, including recordings of performances and broadcasts, film and video clips.

Betty Willder, legal information specialist, Jisc Legal said: “Universities and colleges, as authorised bodies under the reforms, can now make more materials than ever accessible to disabled students. They can for example now subtitle a lawful broadcast or a video clip for disabled learners, where there is no commercial alternative available, without risk of infringing copyright. These changes are a positive step forward in bringing copyright law up-to-date with the digital learning environment and accessibility needs.”

Alistair McNaught, senior adviser, Jisc TechDis said: “These changes are of great significance to library and disability staff in higher and further education. They can now support learners more quickly and confidently because the law is more inclusive and much clearer. The challenge now is to encourage more disabled learners to take advantage of the opportunities presented by alternative formats. Increasing demand will create the incentive for suppliers to make their mainstream products more accessible at source.”

Jisc is providing support and guidance for UK colleges and universities on the changes.”

(Source: http://jisc.msgfocus.com/q/112eRgM9oyVzKqK4cdb/wv)