Bournemouth University’s reputation as a centre of educational excellence and its integrated use of new learning technologies have been recently highlighted in media headlines, as news of BU’s adoption of Brightspace spreads in publications both at home and abroad.
Online magazines such as the UK’s authoritative source for industry topics, Silicon, and publications as far-reaching as India, Germany, Italy and the United States have all featured articles celebrating BU’s investment in its latest VLE.
“It’s fantastic to see BU’s commitment to an excellent and personalised student learning experience getting such global attention,” said Chair and Project Sponsor of Vision4Learning, the project behind Brightspace’s implementation, Dr. Gelareh Roushan.
“Brightspace will have a huge impact at BU, giving more than 100,000 students access to this exciting platform over its 10 year tenure. It was important to get the right product for our community and BU’s strategic vision for the future”.
Coverage around the contract award hailed BU’s decision as demonstrative of its calibre as a Higher Education provider, otherwise evidenced by becoming the first university in England to receive a ‘Commended’ judgement for the quality of student learning opportunities from the Quality Assurance Agency for Higher Education QAA.
Other publications such as the Web 2.0 Journal recognised BU as “one of the most innovative universities in the UK”, creating a unique fusion of education, research and professional practice.
“Brightspace is a fantastic new tool to help our colleagues continue to do what they do best – deliver excellence”, concluded Dr. Roushan.
To date, 57 half day training sessions on Brightspace have taken place over a 6 week period, in preparation for almost half of BU’s programmes to transition to the new VLE in September 2017.
Staff have reported a 70% confidence rating in using the new system and there will be plenty of opportunities to consolidate this learning over the summer months.
All training attendees now have access to a private Brightspace sandbox environment, which can be used to create materials in preparation for the new academic year. Any materials that have been created in the Brightspace sandbox can be copied into live units, which are anticipated to be in place during July 2017.
The V4L project team are now considering how best to further support academics in the run up to the Brightspace launch.
Options that are being considered include staff drop-in sessions, an online refresher course with examples of best practice for a variety of delivery methods including face-to-face, blended and distance learning, and detailed guides held on the TEL Toolkit.
If you have questions relating to Brightspace, please log your query with IT Services using Service-Now (SNOW), so your query can be responded to in the timeliest manner.
For progress updates on Vision4Learning or Brightspace news, to view FAQs, to ask questions or leave feedback, monitor the V4L Sharepoint site or email V4L@bournemouth.ac.uk.
