LearnUCS 2013/14 Module Roll Out

We are pleased to announce the start of the 2013/14 module roll out in LearnUCS.  The data integration between SITS and LearnUCS has been tested over the last 5 days and the data is robust enough to allow us to start the roll out.

Modules will be appearing in LearnUCS this afternoon and will be available for Course Administrators to start adding lecturers when required.

Lecturers should request access from their Course Administrators.

For students: after enrolling or re-enrolling you will gain access to your 2013/14 modules once your lecturers have added their materials and made them available.  If you believe that modules have been made ready, but you are still unable to access them, you should contact your lecturer or course administrator in the first instance.

LearnUCS - Issue with accessing modules for some lecturers

The Elevate team have become aware of an issue for staff who are enrolled on more than 99 module/course areas.

The "My Modules" box can not display all areas and offers access via the Course Catalogue, unfortunately there is a software bug that prevents the Course Catalogue giving access to the remaining areas.

Below is the message we have received from Blackboard:

Our Product Development organization has verified this issue as a software defect. The next step in our process is to determine the target release for fixing this bug. Depending on the severity of this issue, it could take up to 30 days for us to make a determination. We will follow up with another email to let you know our plans for including the fix in an upcoming service pack.

Basically, the "My Courses" module no longer shows more than 99 courses and refers users to the course catalog to search for the courses.

Tier 3 are working on this problem at this moment. I have linked this case to the BUG report so you can receive updates about it as soon as they are available.

If you are enrolled over 99 modules and experience this problem, the Elevate team are able to run an internal work-around by removing any unwanted modules.  Too many modules become unmanageable and a number of staff will have hidden these modules and may have forgotten they have access.

The Elevate team will be looking at batch disabling the 2010/11 modules this week, which will hopefully help alleviate the issue.

We apologise for this inconvenience and will update once we hear from Blackboard.

Issue with long file names and uploading assignments in LearnUCS.

A recent issue has been raised when a student uploads a file into an assignment area with a file which has a very long file name on LearnUCS.

In uploading a file with a large file name a large red error will occur. The file does end up submitting, however lecturers can't view or do anything with the file. If this has happened to you, please contact your course admin team.

---------------------------------------------------------

Here is a bad example for a file name to upload:

This is my assignment for - the research i did for a certain topic including works by other authors and contributors - this is some more example text to show the length of the filename.doc

Here is a good example for a file name to upload:

Short Assignment Name.doc

---------------------------------------------------------

This is also affecting students retrieving feedback, but only for those who have uploaded previously long file names before the LearnUCS upgrade. If you are having issues viewing your feedback please contact your course admin team.

This has been raised with BlackBoard and we will be working with them for a solution.

Apologies for any inconvenience.

You said, we did (SARE Interim Report 2013)

This post reports on progress from the Elevate Team SARE (2012/13). This is an interim report as the full review will be completed in October 2013 in preparation for the next year operational plan.

I have clustered a number of the actions under common questions and themes.

If you have any questions about the following, please contact Andy Ramsden (e-Learning Development Manager, UCS)

---

How can I find out what are the supported e-learning tools at UCS?

To help staff and students identify the available e-learning tools at UCS for 2013/14, and the level of support, we have published the e-Learning Tool Landscape 2013/14.

The supported Tools within the e-Learning Tool Landscape have a set life-cycle of their own. For instance, an annual evaluation, potential annual upgrade and a review of the online and face to face support materials. A really useful way to find out what are the supported tools at UCS, and an overview of what they do is to read the annual reflections for each tool. These are available through the Elevate Team blog (http://ucselevate.blogspot.co.uk/p/reports-publications.html).

How do staff use e-learning tools to enhance their teaching, learning and assessment?

A key role for the Elevate Team is (collaborating with other teams) to foster a community of practice to share experiences and ideas of the appropriate and effective use of technology enhanced learning (teaching and assessment). We do this through a number of ways, including our face to face presentations, workshops, events, and online reports and other materials. In response to regular requests we have started two dissemination initiatives:

Discussion and positioning papers

These papers are written by various members of the Elevate Team. They aim to provide more detail on approaches and learning technologies to help staff make more informed choices. Two recent papers include;

• Using and ePortfolio as a reflective learning tool
• MOOCs: What are they and what might they offer UCS?

Case studies ... In discussion with

The aim of these short (3 minute) audio interviews are to build a pool of available resources for staff to access to appreciate how other staff have been using technologies in their teaching, learning and assessment. These stories are mapped to the e-Learning Tool Landscape to ensure they are supported. They are available from;

• Elevate Team YouTube Channel: Playlist - In discussion with

How connected are the Elevate Team to developments at other UK HEIs?

An important role of the Elevate Team is to act as a conduit for transferring appropriate ideas and developments across UK HE to inform teaching, learning and assessment models at UCS. To help us provide this role, we interface with a wider community, including;

1. Attendance and presentations at the Heads of e-Learning Forum (including steering group member)
2. Attendance and presentations at JISC RSC Eastern events (e-learning & VLE forum)
3. Steering group member of Augmented Reality Special Interest Group
4. Member of Media Enhanced Learning Special Interest Group (including steering group member)
5. Attendance at Vendor events

Can users (staff and students) have a voice in the Elevate Team's direction?

The Elevate Team have been rolling out opportunities for various stake holders to have a voice in the direction we take in terms of the staff development on offer and the services we provide. The initial area of development has been the creation and management of the LearnUCS Administrators Advisory Group. There is also emerging a regular meeting with Academic Services around the course administration and e-submission. We are hoping to create advisory groups around a number of upcoming projects, including the VLE Review (due for 2013/14).

With respect to the student body the Elevate Team are further develop relationships with the Student Union, and aiming for regular presentations at Student Council.

As a member of staff / student, how can I improve my digital literacy levels?

The Elevate Team have been working closely with the Library and Learning Development teams to create a new digital literacy course for staff and students. This course will be rolled out from September 2013 onwards, and will include both face to face and online delivery. The aim of the programme is to ensure you are an effective resident of a digital world. For some background information, see

• Enabling you to be an effective resident in a digital world

Can you help me create interactive learning materials?

We have started to explore good practice in terms of creating interactive learning materials using the Xerte software. This involves the course team and the Elevate Team working in collaboration on the learning design, creating appropriate multimedia and the final tutorial.

The Elevate Team have also been providing an audio visual service for the creation of multimedia to be included in learning activities. This includes, recording presentations, creation of talk over powerpoint and role play videos.

In discussion with ... Sally Payne on recording student presentations

This is a discussion with Sally Payne (Lecturer in School of Applied Social Science). The discussion is around her use of video recording student presentations for formative feedback and self-reflection.

Some key messages I took include;

1. positive feedback in student evaluations, where they identified it was very helpful and worthwhile.
2. positive perception from course team as they plan to integrate it further and widen use to other modules.

LearnUCS Upgrade - Complete

The LearnUCS upgrade is complete and login is now active again.

To see some of the new features please visit the Elevate Team blog http://ucselevate.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/LearnUCS

As will all upgrades we have tested the site as much as possible and believe the system is working as expected.  If you do find any issues please contact the Elevate Team at elevate@ucs.ac.uk

LearnUCS Upgrade - 8.00pm Update

Tier II are continuing to work on the problem. 

We will update again at 10.00pm. 

LearnUCS Upgrade - 6.00pm Update

Tier II support are still working on the issue, we will update again at 8.00pm. 

LearnUCS Upgrade - 3.00pm Update

The support team have identified the issue and have passed this up to Tier II support, we have taken the decision to give Tier II more time before we release the system.

We will update at 6.00pm this evening.

LearnUCS Upgrade - 12noon Update

Phase 3 testing is complete and we have just the 1 issue mentioned previously, we are currently waiting on the support team whilst they investigate the issue.

Please check back at 3.00pm, if the support team has not been able to rectify the issue, we will release the software with that feature disabled.

LearnUCS Upgrade - Phase 3 Continued

We are progressing well with the final phase of testing.  This testing has raised one issue that we have reported to the upgrade team.

We hope to have this issue fixed today allowing us to open the system this afternoon.  If we are unable to fix the issue today, we will disable that functionality and allow access back to the system.

Check back here at 12noon for further details.

LearnUCS Upgrade - Phase 3

Phase 2 has been completed after the issue we had experienced was corrected, the system is now working as expected.

The team have moved on to phase 3, new feature testing.  This phase may take longer than phase 2, we will report here with progress.

Thank you.

LearnUCS Upgrade - Testing Phase

We are pleased to be able to announce that phase 1 of the upgrade has completed an hour before schedule.

This now means we can move to phase 2, the testing phase.  The Elevate team are currently testing the upgrade to make sure the system is responding as expected.  

Early stages of phase 2 has picked up one issue, that has been reported to the support team.

Phase 3 will be testing the new features, ready for allowing users back on to the system.

Check back later this afternoon for further updates.

OMR Service Report: Administering objective tests in assessment and feedback models using optical mark reader software

The Elevate Team have been running an Optical Mark Reading Service (OMR) since 2011-12. The aim of the service is to provide an opportunity for course teams to use Objective Testing (low and high stake) in their assessment and feedback models at UCS. This service complements the use of the Quiz (Test) Engine in LearnUCS.

The usage can be divided by the following broad activities.

Admission for Radiography

• As part of the admissions process the Radiography Team run a Literacy Test (20 questions) and Numeracy Test (24 questions). During 2012-13 the Elevate Team administered 20 tests.

Examinations and assessed work

• IMDEC103 - January 2013 exam & resit
• IMDPSY111 - January 2013 exam & resit
• GCC00016 - February 2013 exam
• IHRDIR115 - June 2013 exam

For more information see, https://docs.google.com/document/d/1n4Lj-fuyFlhckGdE-RTAk5as-CyaTDOqYsuNHgPL5Os/edit?usp=sharing