All messages sent to the WebLearn email address are now routed to the OUCS Help Centre. Help Centre staff will attempt to answer any queries but if they are unable to do so then the query will be forwarded to the WebLearn team. This may result in a small increase in the amount of time taken to process a complex query but has the benefit of freeing up some of the WebLearn team’s time to concentrate on developing the service.
Links:
The “Import into WebLearn” link disappeared from the Google Scholar interface with WebLearn’s Reading List tool some time during last week (17-21 May 2010).
According to Google, this problem was caused by a failure when Google’s crawler last tried to retrieve the registry of Sakai ‘Citations Helper’ implementations from sakaiproject.org. Unfortunately, they also report that it won’t be fixed until sometime this week (24 May 2010) when Google next crawls sakaiproject.org.
The Sakaibrary team plan to work with Google to try to find a better solution for hosting this registry so that this problem won’t happen again.
Sometimes it is very useful to add a level of indirection to your URLs – this would allow you to publicise a single fixed URL but periodically change what it is pointing to (behind the scenes).
This technique is called URL Redirection or URL Forwarding and generally has to be done at the Web server level. (A rule is usually added to the Web Server configuration file to say “when someone asks for ‘This URL’, instead send them to ‘That URL'”.)
We had a similar problem in WebLearn whereby we wanted to have a permanent link to a survey but wanted to renew the survey every academic year so we could export one year’s worth of responses. We didn’t want to keep the keep the survey open in perpetuity as previous year’s results would confuse matters.
Since each new survey in WebLearn has a slightly different URL to its predecessor, we needed a to implement some sort of indirection / redirect.
Imagine our surprise when we realised this could actually be done in WebLearn very easily by creating a publicly visible “Web Link (URL)” in Resources.
The procedure is as follows
We are please to announce the following FREE courses ranging from getting started, to making your site more effective, and migrating your materials
from old to new WebLearn.
The WebLearn Assignments tool is integrated with the Turnitin plagiarism detection service, and the WebLearn User Group is the forum for WebLearn site owners to share ideas and best practice.
WebLearn has a Beta version of a tool that can be used for conducting public surveys.
At the start of the Long Vacation, a new ‘Survey’ option will appear in the list of tools available to a WebLearn site. As well being useful for course and lecturer evaluation, this tool allows public surveys to be conducted.
The tool has an option to grant access to non-WebLearn users. Respondents would access the survey via a link placed in an email or on a website.
The Survey tool allows a template to be created which can contain a variety of question types such a multiple choice, multiple response, Likhert scales and free text. At the point when the template is instantiated into a survey, it is possible to specify whether respondents need to log in to WebLearn or not.
Of course it goes without saying that all this free to members of the University!
Before the Long Vacation users must request that the tool be added by the central team. lease use the usual email address.
For more information about the tool have a look at
WebLearn is the University’s Virtual Learning Environment, it provides a large array of tools to support teaching and learning and course administration.
A new survey tool will be made available at the start of the Long Vacation.
The tool allows anonymous responses to be submitted and provides a means of surveying named users for the purposes of course experience feedback, or delivering research and data collection surveys to named users or the general public. (An example of a data collection survey might be gathering dietary requirements and event or summer school.)
If a survey is delivered to named individuals, the system can send out regular reminders to recipients who have yet to complete the survey (frequency of reminders is either manual or can be configured by the survey author). Although the system can identify those participants who have not yet responded, it is not possible for the survey author to identify individual responses – this assurance of anonymity encourages more candid responses than might otherwise be offered.
Several reporting options are available to help the collation and analysis of participants’ responses. Once a survey is closed, the survey results can be viewed in WebLearn or exported in CSV, Excel or PDF format.
Need to know how to deliver free online surveys? Book yourself a place on the WebLearn: Pilot Evaluations Tool workshop, to be held at OUCS on Tuesday 18 May 2010 (09:15-11:15).
Need to learn how to migrate your content from old WebLearn to new WebLearn? Book yourself a place on the course: WebLearn: Migrating your Content, to be held at OUCS on Tuesday 25 May 2010 (14:00 – 17:00).
Call for nominations: OxTALENT 2010 awards. Category: “Use of WebLearn to support a course or programme of study”
OxTALENT, in collaboration with OUCS’s Learning Technologies Group organises an annual competition and awards for the innovative use of IT in teaching and learning at Oxford. The OxTALENT awards recognise, with financial and other prizes, innovative use of technology in teaching and learning, both online and in physical learning spaces.
Since the launch of New WebLearn in 2009, the use of WebLearn for Teaching and Learning has increased significantly. This category hopes to attract and reward academics or teams who are using WebLearn effectively for this purpose, which will extend the growing number of case studies that have already been documented.
The Learning Technologies Group invites any Oxford academics or teams to apply for the OxTALENT Teaching and Learning Awards in the category: “Use of WebLearn to support a course or programme of study”.
For more details about the awards, evaluation criteria and how to participate please go to the following page (Category 1) http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/oxford/groups/oxtalent/awards.html.
The on-line application form can be found at: http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/oxford/groups/oxtalent/submission.html
OxTALENT, in collaboration with OUCS’s Learning Technologies Group organises an annual competition and awards for the innovative use of IT in teaching and learning at Oxford. The OxTALENT awards recognise, with financial and other prizes, innovative use of technology in teaching and learning, both online and in physical learning spaces.
In the past years, the “student projects” category has attracted, helped and supported a number of excellent ICT related projects conducted by students at Oxford.
The Learning Technologies Group invites any current Oxford students (undergraduates and graduates) to apply for the OxTALENT Teaching and Learning Awards in the “Student projects” category.
For more details about the awards, evaluation criteria and how to participate please go to the following page (See Category 4) http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/oxford/groups/oxtalent/awards.html
The online application form can be found at:
http://www.ict.ox.ac.uk/oxford/groups/oxtalent/submission.html
Eligibility: Current undergraduate and graduate students at Oxford
The prize: winner: £150, runner-up:£50
Application deadline: 5pm 23 May 2010
NOTE: Personal web pages are not eligible for consideration
During this period there have been upgrades to both old and new WebLearn.
There are 56 individuals involved in the pilot, so far there have been 2 training courses and there’s one more coming up. The Evaluations tool has been well received but a few fairly minor bugs have been unearthed. The plan is to release it as a ‘Beta’ at the start of the summer (and rename it as the survey tool). The WL team has met with Jared Hutchings to talk about the role WebLearn can play in University-wide student surveys.
The WL team are currently moving the University Skills Group “Epigeum” (research skills courses) from Skills Portal / Moodle into new WebLearn. This will be completed by the start of next academic year.
The WebLearn team have been involved in discussions with the Director of IT and the 4 Academic Divisions to talk about implementing an on-line course enrolement system for Graduate Student ‘skills courses’.
The Fundamentals course is still being held every month, as is the Migration course; there will be 2 instances of the migration course before the long vac and a single session for ITSS. A lunch time session detailing the use of the Turnitin plagiarism detection service and its integration with WebLearn is run termly.
A second WebLearn ITLP course “WebLearn: Making Your Site Work” was piloted in HT and will be run termly.
“Learning and Teaching: using virtual environments “ is a newly developed course (in conjunction with OLI) and is run once a year at the start of Trinity.
Once more, the team has run a number of customised training sessions within departments and colleges, given numerous face-to-face tutorials, held a surgery at ITLP’s Computer8 every Friday morning in term time.
This is held termly. The last meeting involved “Show and tell” presentations from a handful of WebLearn users and was attended by about 20 people. There are WLUGs every term – booking is via the OUCS ITLP ‘courses database’
Many colleges and departments have now moved their materials. The Test Building will be closed down on 21 June.
Progress has been made with tools for migration in both WebLearn systems. Tests can now be ported to new WebLearn and there are tools to show a summary of what material is owned. Virtually all the tools will be completed by the start of the Long Vac. The 2 outstanding issues will be the semi-automatic migration of surveys and the integration with OUCS’s new Oak Groups store.
The WL team have been working with a couple of colleges showing them how WebLearn can be used to support students after they have agreed agreed to study here but before they arrive.
The WebLearn team have run 2 training sessions for the OUCS Helpdesk with the idea being that the Helpdesk take over ownership of the WebLearn RT queue. The final session will be held very soon at which point administration of the queue will be handed over.
WebLearn User Group talks Technology-enhanced learning and teaching Turnitin at Oxford Sakai in UK HE LTG Case Studies LTG Likes OxTALENT