Blog

All tagged "Learner experience"

Wikipedia in universities and colleges?

Here at Jisc we are lucky enough to have a view across the education sectors in teaching, learning and research. I’m delighted to be at the EduWiki Conference this week, which is run by the Wikimedia UK Foundation and brings together educators to discuss how they use Wikipedia in their teaching and Wikipedians who create and edit the content. I... >>

Amber Thomas

Two universities share experience of curriculum redesign

Savvy students will choose to attend universities and colleges that offer them an excellent student experience. As learners become more discerning about their choice of course they will make use of services such as Unistats to compare courses and the learning experiences of previous students. From the 24 September 2012 when Unistats launch their new website these statistics will also... >>

Tasmin Head

No such thing as a free MOOC

And that brings me to our recent decision in the University of Edinburgh to join our colleagues in North America and offer our own MOOCs - or massive open online courses - through the Coursera consortium. It has been a very busy few weeks. After taking the in principle decision, there has been a tsunami of sorting the legals (you... >>

Jeff Haywood

Developing digitial literacies for working in a digital world

We heard this week that too many young people lack the social skills needed to get their first job. The report by the Work Foundation (PDF) doesn’t explicitly mention digital literacy, but perhaps it should. With an estimated 90% of UK jobs requiring some level of IT competency, the notion of digital literacy - those capabilities that equip an individual... >>

Paul Bailey

Where there's MOOC, there's brass?

Why bother paying inflated fees to attend university? Why pay to spend three years living on a campus, attending seminars and tutorials, running up debts? What if you could get it all for free, online? This is the compelling pitch offered to millions of prospective students from a bewildering array of start-ups and initiatives. Building on the open educational resource... >>

David Kernohan

Blackboard's new open source strategy: how virtual learning environments became commodities

Unthinkable a couple of years ago, and it still feels a bit April 1st: Blackboard has taken over two other virtual learning environment organisations : the Moodlerooms and NetSpot Moodle support companies in the US and Australia. Arguably as important is that they have also taken on Sakai and IMS luminary Charles Severance to head up Sakai development within Blackboard’s... >>

Wilbert Kraan

How important are open ebook standards to universities?

Ebook standards may lack the glamour that the technology attracts, but the arrival of ePub3 has the potential to transform how the academy creates and delivers its content to students and researchers. Just weeks into the New Year and already there is a new ebooks revelation that colleges and universities need to digest. January saw the launch of Apple’s new... >>

Ben Showers

Apple's new iBooks: a force for good?

Jisc has long been associated with licensing and exploring ebooks for education, and research by Jisc Collections has shown increasing numbers of students enthusiastic about such resources as publishers and librarians seek to find suitable business models in a changing environment. So it didn’t come as much of a surprise to me to hear that now Apple’s released their own... >>

Nicola Yeeles

Remembrance Day: an opportunity to revisit our cultural heritage around WW1

To mark this event in international history is therefore a key priority for custodians of heritage and educators alike. We’ve already made considerable efforts to preserve online the memories and writings of those active during the First World War. The popular Great War Poetry Archive was funded by Jisc to digitise precious documents relating to the poetry of the Great... >>

Sarah Fahmy