Anglia Ruskin University: Students Upgrading Mathematics Skills (SUMS): assessing and addressing numeracy support needs for student entering HE University of Central Lancashire: Online Community-based Support for Student Transitions into HE Sheffield Hallam University: Technology, Feedback, Action!: the impact of learning technology upon students' engagement with their feedback De Montfort University: Connecting Transitions and Independent Learning: an evaluation of read/write web approaches (CoTIL) Writtle College: Supporting transition into Higher Education:comparing Level 3 and Level 4 vocational students' experiences of technology enhanced learning  University of Exeter: Technology enhanced feed-forward for learning University of Leicester: Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation for Transition (IMPALA4T) Resource and Conference Links

Anglia Ruskin University: Students Upgrading Mathematics Skills (SUMS): assessing and addressing numeracy support needs for student entering HE

 This project will:

• identify numeracy problems across a range of subjects, through a stakeholder group to be established with participants within and outside the university, including our regional partners and joint venture network      
• use extensive consultation, including an open workshop, and the trial of prototype online support resources to inform the use of e-learning as part of numerical skills support in the transition to HE 
• consolidate existing online resources and adapt and extend these to cover key areas of numeracy issues, and in response to evaluation over the course of the project 
• increase relevance and ‘approachability’ of online resources for the teaching of mathematics skills by placing these in subject context to better motivate learners.

 

Visit the project website  

 

University of Central Lancashire: Online Community-based Support for Student Transitions into HE

This project is about the ways in which technology can help to provide a seamless progression to higher education from further and sixth form educations and new opportunities for those returning as mature students for those who are dependent on locally provided higher education for cultural, social and economic reasons.

The effective transition to HE requires an adaptation to new approaches using e-learning, and the project specifically seeks to explore the way in which a structured online social community can be used to support that adaptation.

 

The project will provide a scaffold of tailored e-resources embedded within an academic online social networking framework (built around the open-source platform Elgg, which offers a flexible group/community structure, blogs, messaging, and wiki capability). There will be an emphasis on the formation of online communities both to support existing communities and to allow for the formation of new communities that cross geographic and temporal boundaries. The aims of the project are to:

 

1. further develop existing online resources and activities;

2. examine the attitudes of FE and HE student groups toward such structured online networking activities;

3. evaluate the perceived student needs with respect to the scaffolding resources;

4. evaluate the benefits as perceived by students and staff of both the resources and the academic social networking platform.

 

Go to the project wiki page to find out more.

 

Sheffield Hallam University: Technology, Feedback, Action!: the impact of learning technology upon students' engagement with their feedback

Technology, Feedback, Action! will explore the impact of learning technology upon students' engagement with their feedback.

 

Building on recent innovations at Sheffield Hallam including the use of the Blackboard Grade Centre to publish student marks and feedback, Assignment Handler and Feedback Wizard, the study aims to consider which elements add most value, e.g. the extent to which the timely delivery of feedback supports effective forward planning, whether withholding marks does encourage deeper reflection upon the written feedback given and the impact of electronic publishing on quantity and quality of feedback provided.

 

Go to the project wiki page to find out more.

 

De Montfort University: Connecting Transitions and Independent Learning: an evaluation of read/write web approaches (CoTIL)

CoTIL has two aims.

1. To examine the development of independent study skills and perceived general self-efficacy at level 1 HE, through the deployment of read/write web technologies.

2. To identify the strategies deployed by students in the use of technologies for personal, social and academic purposes in developing their transition into HE.

 

Go to the project wiki page to find out more.

 

Writtle College: Supporting transition into Higher Education:comparing Level 3 and Level 4 vocational students' experiences of technology enhanced learning 

 The aims of this project are to:

• identify, through a comparative analysis of FE (level 3) and HE (level 4) students' experiences with their studies, the key factors that may facilitate transition into HE through the application of technology-enhanced developments;
• shape the institutional pedagogic approach in line with student aspirations, experiences and satisfaction, so that a seamless transition to successful HE study can be effected;
• create a proactive CPD strategy that supports staff  to develop appropriate innovative and dynamic e-learning spaces.

 

Go to the project wiki page to find out more. 

 

University of Exeter: Technology enhanced feed-forward for learning

 

This project proposes to explore ways of improving feedback for students. This will be achieved specifically through the use of digital audio and screen-visual feedback within the university's e-learning environment.

Known modes of delivery within the university’s virtual e-learning environment and portable devices will make feedback more accessible and better attuned to today’s student.

 

Visit the project's blog site

    

 

University of Leicester: Informal Mobile Podcasting And Learning Adaptation for Transition (IMPALA4T)

The project builds on the ten-factor design model developed by the University of Leicester’s Beyond Distance Research Alliance during the HEA-funded IMPALA project (impala.ac.uk). IMPALA4T delivers a model for capturing undergraduates’ informal knowledge and experience (‘hot knowledge’) into accessible podcasts of two types, Type A for the benefit of learners about to start their first HE course and Type B for those in the first year.

 

Go to the project wiki page to find out more

 

Resource and Conference Links