1c
Supporting the deployment of learning technologies
In this section I have chosen four examples of how I have supported the deployment of learning technologies.
These are:
- training and guidance for staff;
- guidance for students;
- the Surveying Technician Diploma;
- the UCEM Online Academy.
As supporting evidence here is a testimonial from UCEM's Learning Technology Innovation Manager, who was my line manager from 2013-2017.
"Since Ian joined UCEM in 2013 he has worked for me in the Learning Technology Content Development team (formerly Content Development). During this time he has played a key role supporting UCEM's use of and deployment of learning technologies. The guidance provided to students and staff is fundamental to the adoption and success of a learning technology. Ian has been instrumental in supporting this and on our VLE (Moodle) Ian has updated the theme, created general module resources guides, instructional videos, guides for staff and trained new members of the team on certain administrative VLE tasks and processes. More recently he has been solely responsible for the UCEM Online Academy, which was initially implemented on Canvas before a strategic decision was made to move to Moodle. Ian was the administrator on both platforms, optimised their set-up to ensure the Online Academy processes were efficient and the user experience exceptional. All of this work has been over-arched with the provision of excellent support to internal members of staff so that they are able to maximise their use of learning technologies and therefore provide improved support to students."
In addition, my LinkedIn profile includes recommendations from former colleagues.
Training staff via group sessions, one-to-one training, and documentation
Since 2014 I have trained multiple new starters on various aspects of learning technology, from using authoring tools to using a specific function within a VLE. This may take the form of individual or small group training, or documentation.
Training: Depending on the complexity of the task I take different approaches, but I always encourage people I train to take their own notes and try to explain technical concepts in plain English. I try to pitch sessions based on prior knowledge, but I adjust quickly if it becomes clear that someone is either less or more knowledgeable than I expected.
- For complex process-based tasks, like teaching new starters how to code study papers, or how to use Camtasia or Premiere Pro to edit a video, I give a live demonstration, then ask them to produce a sample piece of work with me watching, and then assign them a piece of work of suitable difficulty, with some documentation I have written for them to refer to.
- For less complex tasks where training is on-demand, I might simply demonstrate, assign a similar task and ask them to try with me watching, and then leave them with instructions to speak to me if they have questions.
- With small groups, I find that as I cannot observe everyone performing the task afterwards, I try to anticipate questions in advance so I can cover them in the training itself.
Documentation: I have produced many guides for the department. These include administration tasks for the main VLE and the Online Academy.
During my secondment to the Online Academy I was aware that I was the only person in the organisation with knowledge of how the various platforms worked, and as a result I decided to document the Academy in great detail and offered training to staff so that it could operate in my absence.
Online Academy VLE admin processes
In 2014-15 I wrote a set of new processes for study paper production. I try to ensure documentation is as user-friendly as possible, with a checklist for users to refer to once they have learned the process in detail.
The more complex the task, the more detailed the guidance needed, so I find that breaking guides down into bitesize steps makes a daunting job seem easier.
Study paper production process #1
Study paper production process #2
I have been inspired by experiential learning theory in my training practice. While training others I have consistently found that learning by doing is much more effective than learning by reading. Written documentation is useful as reference material or if nobody is around to speak to. This chimes with my own experience – I have come away from “training” sessions in the past that were effectively lectures, and felt none the wiser. When I learn a new tool via a video course on Lynda.com, I use the tool as I follow along.
Guidance for students
I reactively deal with student enquiries as part of my VLE administration duties – for example, issues accessing particular resources or queries about coursework submission – but in addition, I have created guidance to assist students:
Module resources guide: In 2016 I was given the task of producing an at-a-glance guide to all Moodle resource types used in a module. As study papers declined in popularity, many different resource types replaced them, and there was a need for a simple introduction to what each resource type was, and how students might use it. I wrote summaries of every resource type in use. I chose InDesign as the tool as it allowed information to be both visually appealing and, vitally, could produce templates which are easy to customise. I was aware that non-designers would need to produce dozens of these every semester, as every module has a different mix of resource types, and there is only one graphic designer in the department. With this in mind, I created templates with elements all of the same size which can be dragged and dropped into place.
A screenshot is below. I am aware the black text on blue needs altering to be more accessible - this will be redesigned.
A module resources guide produced in 2017
Instructional videos: In 2015 and 2016 there were two VLE upgrades and one theme change which substantially changed the look and functionality of the site. I took part in team discussions to decide the topics we needed to cover in guidance for our users. Without proper guidance there was a risk that we could alienate some, especially those less confident with technology.
I produced the videos in Camtasia, covering various topics. Colleagues wrote scripts for the videos and gave voiceovers. Videos are deliberately short – no more than a few minutes each – to give students the answer they need quickly and to avoid cognitive overload.
I also created transcripts for each video, including screenshots.
Instructional videos
I have learned a lot from the student guidance I’ve produced. One issue with recording instructional videos to guide users around an interface is that when that interface changes, it may become necessary to re-record the videos depending on the extent of the changes. This necessarily means production of new scripts, voiceovers and transcripts. In UCEM’s January 2018 Moodle upgrade and theme change from BCU to Adaptable I have tried to minimise the impact of the theme change by writing custom CSS styling to mimic our BCU theme as far as possible. As a result, our old videos are largely still accurate.
Moodle front page (BCU theme)
Moodle front page (Adaptable theme) with my custom CSS
Alternative tutorials – for example, documents with screenshots – are less labour-intensive to produce, and while it is still necessary to review them and replace parts if an interface changes, it is far quicker to rewrite text or take a new screenshot than to produce a new video. For the switch to Adaptable I have helped create guidance using text and screenshots:
Guidance for students using text and screenshots
Level 3 Surveying Technician Diploma
In late 2015 and early 2016 I worked with an external lead designer, internal content authors, and an in-house editor to develop the Level 3 Surveying Technician Diploma, a two-year blended learning apprenticeship course consisting of ten modules. I advised the lead designer on Moodle functionality, and did all necessary development work on the learning material.
I used the Level 3 work to pilot a new way of presenting commonly used study material by introducing Bootstrap and HTML5 code. I will elaborate on this in section 3a.
I also contributed to the guidance material for students. For example, I drafted the guide to using the VLE e-library:
My e-library guide for Level 3
For me personally this was a great project to work on; I learned a lot from this project about collaborative working, which I discuss in section 4, and although we didn't win, our small team thoroughly enjoyed the Learning Technologies 2016 awards evening where we were shortlisted for 'best blended learning project in the public and non-profit sector'.
The diploma was well received by students: see examples of feedback here and here. See below for initial feedback from students and on my involvement.
Level 3 thank you note
Student feedback on Level 3
UCEM Online Academy
The Online Academy site mentioned in section 1b originally used Canvas and sold courses via Canvas Catalog, a simple ecommerce system. Since 2016 I have regularly advised the Product Manager and Marketing department on the functionality of the various platforms used. After the decision to switch platform, I worked with an external consultant to design the Wordpress site that the course listings are hosted on. Drawing on my digital marketing experience at Yell, I have advised on the far more advanced ecommerce functionality possible with Woocommerce.
Unsurprisingly I again found that a more complex system needed more guidance – for example, staff require more guidance to use Woocommerce than they did for Canvas Catalog, but students required more guidance to use Canvas than they do to use Moodle. We have been able to do away with the detailed student guidance we created for Canvas.
When it came to setting up a new Moodle instance, I customised the core Boost theme to make it hard to tell that two different websites are involved. Moodle functionality is stripped down to the bare minimum. Thanks to the single sign-on system, courses are accessed from Wordpress via a single click, and learners can return to where they were on Wordpress by clicking a link called 'Return to My Courses'.
Online Academy Moodle interface
I have included a testimonial of my work on the Online Academy from UCEM's Online Academy Product Manager in section 2a.