CDEL & The Psychology department team up to deliver data analysis and visualisation training for Newport staff.

As part of the CELT's ongoing commitment to providing continual professional development (CPD) opportunities for the University's staff and students, we are pleased to announce the launch of a series of free face to face workshops designed to provide staff with the confidence and competence to make full use of technology to analyse and visualise data which in turn will support their research activities.

Working in partnership with the university's Psychology department, CDEL is providing workshops focusing on statistical analysis and data management, focusing primarily on the use of SPSS and how its use can benefit staff in their teaching and research practises.

• For more details on when the next workshops are running and how to attend please click here. 

Staff at the University of Wales, Newport tucking into some data filled pi.
Nom nom nom.

CDEL Build Online Community for HOVEP

The CDEL team have been working with The Heads of The Valley's Education Programme (HOVEP) to develop them an on-line community of practice designed for education professionals in the local area.  The aim of the initiative has been to get educators communicating with each other and discussing effective teaching practices, it also provides an area where they can swap experiences and share useful resources, documents and links through blogging.  

CDEL are pleased to announce that the site has gone live today.
To get involved please Click here and fill out the registration form.
Set up your Blog http://www.blogger.com and start blogging!

CDEL supports new blended-learning Engineering Work-Based Learning Programme in Energy Management

The Engineering Work-Based Learning Programme in Energy Management is designed to give support to those responsible for, or wish to be involved with, energy management and related topic areas.  It will enable them to review, plan and introduce effective measures to improve their organisation’s energy efficiency and usage whilst reducing their Green House Gas emissions through a systematic approach.

The CELT's Digitally Enhanced Learning team (CDEL) have tailored training to meet the identified needs of the newly launched Engineering Work-Based Learning in Energy Management Programme team.  Early research by the team identified key training needs in the effective use of Moodle 2, where bespoke sessions for the team were provided to use the platform as part of their delivery strategy.

Further training needs were also identified in using the cloud-based resource 'Prezi'. As part of the Work-Based Learning delivery model, coupled with the need to engage businesses in fresh new ways, Prezi was deemed an ideal tool for the job. CDEL delivered a comprehensive training session which opened up many new and innovative ways of delivering presentations.

Programme Lecturer Stephen Biggs commented:

“CDELs friendly, knowledgeable and approachable demeanour has made the sessions extremely productive and useful.  I look forward to working with them in the future as the WBL programme develops. This will help the team deliver module content in innovative and effective ways, meeting the contemporary blended learning approach of a 21st Century HE learning and teaching environment.”

If you'd like more information about the Energy Management course, please email:  Eng.WBLProjectTeam@newport.ac.uk

Engineering WBL  Programme Team

L-R - Stephen Biggs, Valerie Embleton, Chris Gledhill

Teaching with Tablets - A new resource for staff teaching at the University of Wales, Newport

The CELT: Digitally Enhanced Learning (CDEL) team is pleased to announce the launch of a new "Teaching with Tablets" online resource which is now available to staff.

This new resource contains links to websites which educators can use to integrate the use of tablet computers, such as the iPad & Google Nexus 7, into their teaching, research and administrative roles.

University of Wales, Newport staff can access the new resource by clicking on the link below and then selecting the "Teaching with tablets" icon when it appears on screen.

• Please click here to access "Teaching with Tablets"

The future starts now: 2012 edition.

Broadcasting live from #CELTCoCurr at 11 AM UK time

You can watch the video stream here.

"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.