Category: Learning, teaching and web services

Athena Swan win -assessment and feedback

I am delighted that my team in LTW at University of Edinburgh have gained a Bronze Athena Swan Award. I bet we are the first learning technology department in a UK university to do so. We are certainly the first professional services department  at Edinburgh to achieve it.  We got great feedback from the assessment panel.

The panel is satisfied that the application adequately addresses the award criteria and is pleased to confer a Bronze Athena Swan award.

The panel commends the leadership and senior buy-in which is evident in several ways, including:

·       the strong letter of endorsement from the Director which communicates a solid organisational commitment to Athena Swan and demonstrates a clear understanding of the importance of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in improving service delivery and experience for all – the inclusion of Directorate initiatives in Institutional Athena Swan applications underscores the value of the work being undertaken (pp.5-6);

·       the Director’s personal leadership and active development of a range of EDI-related initiatives (pp.9-12);

·       resourcing a Data and Equality Officer (DEO) post which includes responsibilities to support EDI work, for example, reporting Directorate /user demographic data to the Senior Management Team (SMT) and maintaining the EDI newsletter (p.9);

·       senior management representation on the Directorate’s Self-Assessment Team (SAT), including the Director and the Head of Operations (pp.14-15);

·       recognition and reward of EDI work through both local (e.g., digital badges) and University recognition mechanisms (e.g., vouchers, annual review process, pp.10-11).

A clear governance structure for EDI is in place with accountability lying with senior colleagues (p.9). The panel commends the purposeful design of structures and processes to embed EDI in decision-making and in the culture of the Directorate, for example, the establishment of roles which explicitly involve EDI, the Dignity and Respect Advisor is a member of the SMT and Athena Swan will be a standing item at SMT meetings (pp.9-10, p.17, p.44). The links between the Directorate’s EDI work and University EDI governance structures appear strong, for example, the Director is a member of the University EDI Committee and the DEO sits on the University Equality and Diversity Monitoring and Reporting Committee (EDMARC) (p.9); these links ensure that the Directorate’s EDI/gender equality work is aligned with institutional strategy as well as providing opportunities for broader collaboration.

Similarly, processes for policy development and evaluation, including feedback routes, appear robust (p.13). The Directorate uses Equality Impact Assessments in respect of local policy/practice and staff perceptions of being informed about University policies relating to EDI are largely positive (although there is a disparity between male/female responses, p.13).

The SAT brings diversity of perspectives, including representatives from component teams and with different lived experience of members; the recruitment process, comprising expressions of interest combined with targeted invitations to ensure that the SAT reflects the diversity of the Directorate, is commended (pp.14-15).

A transparent account of the activities of the SAT from its inception until finalisation of the application, including a timeline (table 3), is provided (pp.16-17). Multiple data sources informed the self-assessment and a range of approaches have been utilised to capture the voices of the Directorate’s community (p.16). The Directorate’s plans to monitor and implement the action plan, which will be overseen by the SAT, appear robust and are commended (p.17).

As a result of a thorough analysis of the mandatory data and a critical evaluation of culture, a wide range of gender equality issues are identified (pp.18-26). The panel commends the:

·       range of activity to develop a positive and supportive culture, including Mandatory Training Day, Friday messages, events for Ada Lovelace Day, EDI reading groups and promoting the University’s Don’t Cross the Line campaign (pp.23-26). The impact of these activities is evident in positive feedback about the culture of the Directorate (e.g., 83% of respondents to the EDI survey ‘felt the workplace was inclusive’, p.23);

·       collection and analysis of data on contribution awards and pay;

·       evidence-based and thoughtful approach to the use of a variety of benchmarks to support a nuanced analysis of the gender equality issues facing the Directorate.

The panel congratulates the Directorate on achieving a Bronze award.

 Good practice examples highlighted

The panel considers the Directorate’s approach, led by the Wikimedian in Residence, to diversify Wikipedia writers and content, to be good practice. The Resident Wikimedian hosts regular events and workshops to train staff and students to edit Wikipedia entries and write articles to increase the diversity of subject and contributors (p.25). This work has been impactful in raising the profile of the limitations of Wikipedia (particularly to students), addressing the gender bias in whose stories are disseminated online and improving around 16,000 articles.

The panel also considers the PlayFair Steps initiative, including EDI recognition badges, to be good practice (pp.10-11).

More broadly, the panel commends the thoughtful consideration with which a variety of sector, discipline and regional benchmarks are used.

find lifelong learning at Edinburgh

Adulting
Adulting

Our short courses catalogue, which launched in May of this year, continues to grow, attracting visitors and over 1,800 enrolments to courses from engaged learners looking to learn something new, upskill or enhance their knowledge.

In the month of July there were over 800 enrolments to courses, an increase of 5% compared to June. Active users to the catalogue also increased by 68% month on month, with 58% more views to pages than in the month of June.  

With both organic and paid-for campaigns in place we expect to see this this trend of increasing web traffic and bookings over the coming months. We would encourage colleagues to share the short courses catalogue through their networks, mailing lists, on websites and social media channels.  

The Short Courses Platform Service team are working with colleagues to add more courses whilst also continuing to refine and optimise the catalogue based on user feedback. Some enhancements over the next few weeks and months will include a new and improved dynamic filter experience, enhanced course options table and cosmetic changes. This will ensure that the site continues to meet the needs of our users providing them with the best possible user experience when booking on to a course. 

Home | Short Courses – University of Edinburgh

revisiting playful engagement

Lovely illustrations for our playful engagement website by the LTW Interactive Content Team

You may have seen a recent WonkHE article about playful leadership  The case for playful leadership | Wonkhe It announces a new research project called Re:PLAY * and I am pleased to say that ISG  University of Edinburgh is a partner in this research.

It was interesting to me that when the ISG directors had a team-building away day recently ( facilitated by Common Purpose), the advice from our visiting mentor was to embrace elements of playfulness in our leadership.

Playful Engagement at work refers to the attitude and behaviours of employees that involve approaching tasks, interactions, and challenges with a sense of enjoyment, creativity, and innovation. It involves injecting elements of fun, humour, and spontaneity into the work environment while still maintaining focus and productivity. At ISG this can encompass the ways we approach innovation, inclusion, creativity, workplace environment, workplace interactions, team building, community building, skill development, outreach, communication, work life balance, achievement and celebration.

The ISG Playful Engagement Strategy was created in 2019 to establish and cultivate a workplace environment and culture that integrates innovation, playful learning, and creative engagement into our practices. The strategy encompassed the implementation of services, tools, technologies, practices, communication, and community engagement throughout the group, extending beyond the University to address the new ways of working.

The original strategy meant to target the four focused areas which defines Playful Engagement for  ISG:

  1. Encourage the growth of innovative, playful, and creative minds.
  2. Advocate for the inventive and playful application of technologies and tools within ISG services.
  3. Leverage our top-tier libraries and collections in unique and captivating ways to enhance our services.
  4. Foster a healthy work-life balance and a positive, engaging work environment.

Over the past five years, ISG and its working strategies have evolved in the way we provide our services and the transition into digital habitation and hybrid modes of working. This project will give us an opportunity for an update of the ISG Playful Engagement strategy.

 

*not to be confused with the name of our lecture recording service

nice weather for ducks

Liverbirds
Liverbirds
Pink echo
Pink echo

On some of the hottest days of the year this week,  I ventured southwards for two conferences, both featuring birds and both styled in hot pink.

EchoExperience25 at the University of Nottingham https://info.echo360.com/attendee-hub-echoexperience-emea

and

UCISA Women in Technology in Liverpool WiT25 – UCISA

Pink WiT
Pink WiT

 

At WiT Katie and I spoke about what works in our efforts to establish career paths for women into some of the areas of technology where they are currently under-represented. We presented a number of case studies from the last 10 years of LTW internships and trailed the research work which will be going on this summer to track the career paths and destinations of so many intern alumni over time.  We were un-phased by the fact that the conference organisers had failed to upload our slides sent in advance and so we had to just wing it for while.

At Echo I enjoyed a very glamorous evening of castle, caves, culture and canards about sagittarians and luddites before proving that I would say boo to a goose.

Nottsgeese
Nottsgeese

how does your garden grow online?

another lovely slide theme created for me by the LTW Graphic Design team.
another lovely slide theme created for me by the LTW Graphic Design team.

I was delighted to be invited as to National College of Ireland to speak as part  of their  ‘Assuring Quality in Fully Online Programme Delivery’ event last week.  A lovely excuse to visit Dublin again.

I chose a gardening theme which enabled me to talk about the time it takes to grow online learning and the investments we make in ensuring that there are good growing conditions and that native plants can thrive.

To plant a garden is to believe in tomorrow
-Audrey Hepburn

adult Jewish human female

It was my honour this weekend to be part of a Bat Mitzvah ceremony for the daughter of one of my oldest friends.  The Bat Mitzvah girl has  grown into an engaging, lively, curious and clever young woman and it was lovely to see her take this step into adulthood as she comes of age.

The service included many reflections on what being a woman in our community is, the importance of family, friends and individuality and the many names we gain as we travel through life.

The event also gave me an opportunity to go on a bit about  how bat mitzvahs were established and the wikipedia page I wrote in 2016 for the first bat mitzvah girl, Judith Kaplan Eisenstein. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judith_Kaplan_Eisenstein

As I was telling the story of the first in 1922 and referring to it as ‘fairly recently’, one of the young women of the party did point out that that is now more than 100 years ago. Time has gone so fast.

Nevertheless, I think the words of Judith Kaplan are still hopeful and relevant to the fight for equality   “No thunder sounded. No lightning struck. It all passed very peacefully.”

 

Looking at the Wikipedia page for Bat Mitzvah, I see that it is a subset of the page for Bar Mitzvah. I also notice that the pictures which illustrate the page could do with a refresh, so if you have pictures of your bat mitzvah which you would be happy to release, I may be able to add you to this article for worldwide fame ( but no fortune). Bar and bat mitzvah – Wikipedia

media, AI and students

Interns working on K.
Interns working on K.

I am pleased to be able to offer paid work to 20 student interns to work in ISG as captioners.

Alongside AI tools which generate automated captions and transcripts, the human captioners ensure that the standard of quality is good enough to support students with hearing difficulties.   This semester (to 5th March)  they have corrected over 100  pieces of media.​ The time spent captioning varies significantly based on the subject, but as the captioners gain skill and confidence the turnaround time and quality increases.  50-minute long lectures are usually turned around within 4 days. 

who learns where?

Using the right platform for your learning activity

We’ve created an infographic which we hope helps explain the collection of platforms available for University of Edinburgh colleagues to use, the strategy for each and which should be used for different learning/teaching activities.  The graphic talks through the benefits of using each platform. Each platform is designed with a particular use in mind, providing features to suit the specific use-case/audience.  We hope you find it helpful. If you have any questions, please contact us via the IS Helpline.

 

 

Saying goodbye to VLEs we have loved.

I have written before about the sad death of Aggie Booth and the end of Bodington VLE.

Now it is time to wave goodbye to University of Oxford’s  WebLearn. There is a celebratory event this week to remember our time working with WebLearn and all the support and innovations we shared in running and using the system.

The Leeds and Oxford teams met in Oxford in 2005 to discuss development of Bodington in collaboration with Sakai. When Leeds University opted in 2006 to select a proprietary system (Blackboard) for their next VLE, Oxford was left as the sole large-scale developer of Bodington and this situation was untenable. It was at this point that Oxford decided to seek an alternative platform (with a bigger and better community) and chose Sakai Learning Management System, deploying it as WebLearn in  2008.

WebLearn Sakai was first installed at University of Oxford in March 2007 and I joined from University of Leeds in 2008, when it was just a baby.

My memories of working with the WebLearn Team at Oxford are from 2008 to 2014 when I was Head of the Learning Technologies Group (LTG) and then Director of Academic IT (Learning and Teaching).

  • Working with really talented open source development teams. Adam, Mathew, Colin, Roger and Colin taught me most of what I learned about open source and the potential for using technologies in unusual ways. I attended several Sakai conferences with them over the years and there always seemed to be people who really cared about the systems they built and the community involved in developing the product.  The nice thing for me about WebLearn was that it was flexible enough to not be built on the same assumption as the large proprietary systems. Oxford at the time was not driven by a module catalogue which rolled over and refreshed every term. It was based around the teaching which was done by colleagues over many years and with different students groups. The starting place- that one goes to Oxford to ‘study with’ -puts the academic colleague at the centre of the teaching and builds the online spaces around them. Some colleagues at Oxford chose to have a place in the VLE for all their teaching, with resources for first years, third years, post graduates etc  grouped within that. I was pleased that we were able to build that for them. It was nice that we were not in a ‘technology says no’ conversation’.
  • The Sakai Community was for me, a place to meet some very interesting colleagues and researchers, some of whom I still count amongst my friends (looking at you Nynke, Michael and Alannah). It was also a place with some big personalities, Fun evenings with Michael, Ian, Nathan and Dr Chuck.
  • I was also pleased in LTG and OUCS to have talented researchers who worked closely with as the WebLearn team to think about what we could discover about how VLEs and OER could support student learning. Liz, Joanna and Jill really were ahead of their time in bringing a bit of academic rigour to what we were doing.
  • The WebLearn training and support teams made sure our VLE met users needs and Fawei continued to promote and celebrate each use in departments and colleges. Adam has been continuously blogging it since 2009 2009 September | WebLearn Blog and projects using WebLearn regularly featured in the OxTALENT awards.

In recent years, after I left in 2014 to join University of Edinburgh, Oxford changed VLE again and opted for Canvas.  People sometimes forget that when we move to a new VLE  the learning technology teams still have to run the old one for several years to enable course to be taught-out and keep access to any materials which staff and students might need for archives, assessment or appeals.

After several years of running in parallel with the University’s new virtual learning environment (Canvas),  WebLearn was finally closed in 2022 and decommissioned in mid-November 2024. At its peak WebLearn at Oxford had 47,000 users and hosted 101,000 separate sites.

I am sad to see it go.