All equipment was purchased over the Christmas and whereby this represented a significant task for the IT team the machines were still issued as planned on the first day of term. Wireless provision was extended within the City Center site although we are still waiting for the print stations to be installed. The equipment has arrived but network points need to be installed first.
The table below illustrates how the 65k of funding has been deployed;
Not all students elected to take the ASUS machines home. On ND A&D 95% of the group opted to take them on long term loan, on ND Graphics 65% took them away. Many of the ND Graphics students already have IT equipment at home. Graphic Design as a discipline is more digitally focussed than Art & Design which may account for the difference in uptake. All students utilise the machines when in College.
ND Fashion elected to treat their ASUS provision as a resource rather than loan them to YR1 students as outlined in the project plan. This does however give us the opportunity to measure the success of a different approach.
Several machines have developed hardware issues which we hope will not become an evolving problem. Only 10% (20 machines) were purchased as spares and a number of these were deployed to staff involved in the project.
Staff Development
The project manager conducted a two day training event during the January staff development week. This involved;
• project recap
• showing good examples of e learning
• tuition on using the Moodle system
• group discussions on the potential of m- learning within curriculum areas for forthcoming projects
• presentations of m –learning intentions
A follow up meeting this week (28/01/09) saw significant online developments in both ND Graphics AS and Contextual Studies.
Summary of proposed M Learning Activities
ND Graphics
• Forums – for students to share research
• Blog – used to replace summary boards for AS work.
• Galleries – to showcase student finals for each project
• Links made to external sites of relevance.
• Co-ordinate a field trip, maybe to a gallery. Students to make use of video, audio, imagery to upload and share.
• Embed youtube videos that are of relevance
• Students to develop presentation skills through video based presentations, pitch work, crits etc.
• Interactive task sheets, possibly ebooks.
• ILP (Moodle system)
• Digitise and upload all handouts and relevant T&L material
• Use video capture software to teach design applications
ND Fashion
• Video demonstrations to students on practical techniques, safe operation of machinery etc.
• Quiz to check learning
• Online evaluations
• Image analysis and analysis guidance sessions
• Summaries of discussions
• Peer review through forums
• Digitise and upload all handouts and relevant T&L material
• Show case examples of best practice
Contextual Studies
Enhance learning through the use of forums.
Homework activities set for students to comment upon uploaded imagery/video.
• Digitise and upload all handouts and relevant T&L material
Create a revision zone with a summary of content covered in lectures
Tasks set online
Embed you tube video
Utilise quizzes to measure learning
Extension activities to be uploaded for G&T cohort.
War of the Worlds project to utilise M learning to help with student presentations – eg uploaded Powerpoints
Great Tales project to share design work online for peer review and to receive student essays.
Student support tips
Helpdesk interface, FAQ’s etc
ND Art and Design
Links to film sites, relevant video (youtube)
Gallery and peer critique
Zone of unexpected things.
Used for research guidance and student research.
Measuring Impact
Focus groups have been arranged to commence WC 02/02/09. The Molenet consent form for Video footage of students was issued last week with a slow return rate from students. We are confident that we will have enough returns to conduct the activity but would have preferred to have been more selective as to who was involved. This ideally should have been considered earlier as 1 week was clearly not enough time for students to fill in and return the documents. Initial focus groups will measure student perception of their educational experience at LCAD prior to the implementation of the MNet project.
Focus Group Questions
Students (Prior to M-Learning)
The following questions apply to the AS and Contextual Studies sessions only.
1. Do you find that studio based resources are supporting your learning?
2. Do you have the opportunity to continue learning in-between class sessions?
3. Do you have access to your individual learning plan and achievement records?
4. Are there opportunities to link the information you learn in-class to your studio practice?
5. Are opportunities provided for you to learn from each other? E.g. see each other’s work and/or hear each other’s ideas and opinions?
6. Do you always have access to learning materials in and outside class? E.g. handouts, PowerPoint slide shows?
7. Do you have access to computers, printers, Moodle and the internet?
8. Do you have access to facilities which support the development of your research skills?
9. Is there enough variety of learning activities: lectures, tutorials, quizzes, group work, discussions (with peers and tutor) and image analysis exercises?
10. a) Are there enough opportunities for you to work on briefs in-class? B) Is there enough variety in the ways you are asked to evidence your learning?
In addition staff have been asked to consider similar key questions through a reflective wiki. http://molnetlcad.wetpaint.com
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