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"You said, we did" Responding to students needs re: Digitally Enhanced Learning, as identified by the National Student Survey.

Following the release of this years National Student Survey data, the CELT's Digitally Enhanced Learning (CDEL) team is pleased to announce the launch of several new staff and student initiatives, designed to enable individuals and departments to meet the needs, relating to the integration of technology into the student learning experience, as outlined in the NSS results for the University of Wales, Newport.

Our students said: "Moodle needs improvement in its organisation."

Over the Summer we dramatically overhauled the University's online learning platform, installing the latest version of Moodle and customising it based on the pedagogical, logistical and strategic needs of the university, it's staff and students.

The organisation of the system itself is now tightly linked to the university's central database, ensuring that it's organisational structure mirrors that of the university, and this is reviewed and automatically updated on a daily basis to ensure a consistency of organisation across all modes of delivery.

Our students said: "Not all documents that we are told will be made available via Moodle have been made available."

In addition to the upgrading of the systems, CDEL has been running regular face to face and online staff development sessions over the summer to ensure that all university staff have the opportunity to learn how to upload documents to the system.  In addition to this, we have also been providing support and guidance to academic staff on the format which uploaded documents should be saved as to ensure that students can view them on any web enabled device, not just machines with Microsoft Office on them.

Our students said:  "I would have liked more technical workshops."

In addition to running IT induction sessions for all new and returning students from 9am until 8pm during the first two weeks of enrolment, CDEL is now running a regular student technology support session every Wednesday between 13:00 and 16:00 on the Caerleon campus.

The sessions are open to all students studying at the University of Wales, Newport who want help, support and advice using technology to work smarter and to support them in their studies.

Full details on the sessions are available here.

In addition to the face to face workshops, we have also launched an online portal which is aimed at students but is open to everyone.  The portal, called "Digitally Enhanced Learning", showcases some of the best free and open source tools and resources which are freely available to students that can support them in undertaking their studies and also enhance their employability prospects once they graduate

You can access the portal by clicking here.

Our students said: The online learning facility MLE, is helpful to locate lecture notes and other documentation designed to help support and progress students' learning.

We couldn't agree more & would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the students who took the time to complete the survey and give us this valable feedback, we really appreciate it!

An introduction to the National Student Survey

CDEL provides Continual Professional Development (CPD) opportunities for external partners.

As part of our ongoing commitment to provide quality staff development to all of the University's provision partners,  CDEL are delighted to report on the success of our training sessions with the team at ESIS in support of the LEAP programme. 

The LEAP programme is a series of modules at either level 4 or level 6 for teachers and support staff with an emphasis on developing inclusive classroom practice, specifically relating to Additional Learning Needs. 

The LEAP programme is co-ordinated by LiNKS, the Learning and Innovation Network for Schools in Central South Wales, on behalf of the University of Wales, Newport.

Each Module Leader is involved in professional practice in the field and the support from CDEL has allowed them to develop their ability to use the University's Web Based Learning Environment (WBLE) to support their students. 

Following the sessions, LiNKS programme co-ordinator Ken Dicks told us: 

“Several of our Module Leaders were unfamiliar with online learning platforms and the support from CDEL has given them confidence to place materials on the MLE so that students can access them at all times”.

The training took place at the ESIS Conference Centre in Natgarwu, Cardiff.