Techknapping

Learning designer at the University of Southampton. Techknapping.com 

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Exploring our Oceans goes to South Africa

Exploring our Oceans goes to South Africa

Earlier this year a couple of the project team visited Nelson Mandela University in Port Elizabeth, South Africa, as part of a collaborative effort to build links between NMU and the University of Southampton. Myself (Sarah Fielding, course project manager and Learning Designer) and Sofy Bazzini (film-maker and multimedia developer) went on a whirlwind tour lasting less than a week. We went to…

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Virtually there...Experiments with Thinglink's beta VR editor

Virtually there…Experiments with Thinglink’s beta VR editor

I signed up to the beta version of Thinglink 360 a few weeks back and hadn’t had time to really get stuck in. The testers Facebook Group has a real buzz about it; so when a window freed up my diary today, it seemed like the perfect time to find out what everyone was talking about. I’ve used Thinglink previously for the Exploring our Oceanscourse in FutureLearn, but features and functionality have…

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Learning designers; your personal fitness trainer for the classroom

Learning designers; your personal fitness trainer for the classroom

Lecturers have a wide range of tools at their disposal to create engaging and transformative learning experiences in, and out of, the classroom. But it’s a bit like signing up for gym membership. There’s an array of different equipment and, depending on your previous experience and motivation, there will be some activities that you gravitate towards (rowing, cross-trainer, bench press).

But…

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5 Bite-sized makeovers for unloved Blackboard modules

5 Bite-sized makeovers for unloved Blackboard modules

Have you heard the one about eating an elephant?

Between working harder for research and increasing teaching commitments to match growing student cohorts, it’s no small wonder that Blackboard modules end up at the bottom of the ‘To do’ list. A well-designed blackboard site can work for you in making your teaching (and time) more effective, but finding the time in the first place is hard.

And…

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Designing a module for blended learning: a case study

Designing a module for blended learning: a case study

I’m currently in the thick of a live module which has undergone a significant redesign in its delivery. This post summarises some of the changes that were made and some of the challenges that we (myself and the academic team) have encountered. If you are thinking about including more blended learning in your delivery, there should be something here for everyone; from a complete redesign to…

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Mentimeter review; BYOD for audience participation

I just reviewed #Mentimeter as a BYOD option for audience participation in lectures. Read about it here.

What are they thinking? Are they listening to me? Do they understand the key concept that I just covered?

photo credit: ne da se mi via photopin (license)

If this sounds like you during, or after, one of your lectures then you could devote 5 minutes of lecture time to audience participation to getting some answers to at least one of those questions…but which tool should you use? And how much time…

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