Centre for Fusion Learning Innovation and Excellence
Embedding excellence through fusion of education, research and professional practice
The company supplying the new VLE, D2L, recently visited BU to provide demonstrations of their Brightspace platform to all four Faculties and Professional Services. The demonstrations were very well received and generated a good deal of excitement around the capabilities of our new VLE. For those who were unable to attend the sessions, please follow… Read more » about Video presentations to BU of the new VLE, Brightspace
An interesting list of reasons from The Guardian (15 May 2014) of the 10 reasons why face-to-face lectures just don’t work: 1. Babylonian hour We only have hours because of the Babylonian base-60 number system, which first appeared around 3100 BC. But it has nothing to do with the psychology of learning. 2. Passive observers… Read more » about 10 reasons why lectures do not work
Higher Education and Research Bill – the House of Lords committee stage has finished with no further amendments (other than non-controversial and welcome government amendments). Unlike in the House of Commons, where time was more limited and there was a great deal of focus on the Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF), student loans, the impact of… Read more » about HE Policy update w/e 3rd February 2017
CEL are hosting two TEL Toolkit sessions on 14 & 15 Feb. The purpose of these sessions is to explore how you can use the Toolkit in your teaching practice. There is no set agenda. Instead we respond to what tutors need and explore the options. That said, we try to cover 6-7 tools per… Read more » about TEL Toolkit sessions on 14 & 15 Feb 17
Today marks the day one year ago when we launched the TEL Toolkit. In the past year, the toolkit has been visited over 6,000 times with more than 23,000 pages viewed. We continue to enhance and develop the TEL Toolkit with new guides, videos and tools so it you have not visited for a while,… Read more » about TEL Toolkit 1st birthday
A virtual classroom is an online environment where staff and students can come together and share audio, video, documents and applications. One of the major benefits is that the session can be recorded and then made available to participants for example through the VLE. It is not only for staff and students but can be… Read more » about Dipping your toe into the virtual classroom
Technology enhanced learning (TEL) tools have a wide-ranging influence on our students be it via the VLE, recorded lectures, audience response systems or using WePresent to project from their own devices. CEL is seeking to collate videos of students’ experience of using any of our TEL tools. These videos will be added to the TEL… Read more » about What do our students think of TEL?
Hear from Sonya Harvey, Student Development Award Coordinator, about how she engaged with the TEL Toolkit.
The Department for Education published findings from the Call for Evidence on Accelerated Courses and Switching Degrees on 20th December. This consultation closed in July 2016 – read BU’s response here. The high number of responses had been noted earlier, the report gives evidence of an interesting campaign: “we received responses from 44 higher education… Read more » about Accelerated degrees and switching courses – responses to government consultation
Colleagues, please see below the recent policy update from Jane Forster, touching on Higher Education and Research Bill, Teaching Excellence Framework, Student Finance, International Students, Social Mobility, Brexit, Fair Access and Progression: Higher Education and Research Bill – The bill will reach the report stage on Monday 21st November, and a long list of new amendments… Read more » about HE policy update
