Category: Evaluation and Reflection

MLC Accessibility 1
Evaluation and Reflection

King’s Language Centre Approach to Digital Education Accessibility

Georgios Aretakis

A holistic approach was adopted by the King’s Language Centre (LC) to comply with the legal requirements of accessibility. The Senior Leadership Team (SLT) has been instrumental in driving the change not only with the academics, but also with members of the Professional Service team (PSS). The approach combined top-down and bottom-up strategies that have been successful in improving all our digital resources, including KEATS pages, educational materials, and templates for essential documentation.  Continue reading “King’s Language Centre Approach to Digital Education Accessibility” →

Evaluation and Reflection

Part 2: Embedding Digital Accessibility to the heart of everyday TEL work

Georgios Aretakis

This article has been divided in two parts. Part 1 discusses how the SSPP TEL team works to boost staff understanding of digital accessibility baseline. Part 2 provides an overview of the TEL training sessions available on the subject.

Part 2: TEL training sessions

The TEL Hub digital accessibility section is aimed at staff to access information in order to meet the basic requirements of digital accessibility baseline from a more administrative perspective. Continue reading “Part 2: Embedding Digital Accessibility to the heart of everyday TEL work” →

Evaluation and Reflection

Part 1: Embedding Digital Accessibility to the heart of everyday TEL work

Georgios Aretakis

This article has been divided in two parts. Part 1 discusses how the SSPP TEL team works to boost staff understanding of digital accessibility baseline. Part 2 provides an overview of the TEL training sessions available on the subject.

Allyship:

“the state of being an ally (= a person who helps and supports somebody) to a particular group of people that you yourself do not belong to, in order to help ensure their basic rights and ability to be happy and successful in society”- Oxford learner’s dictionary

What does digital accessibility mean to me? It means being able to embrace a platform for its intended use, because the people building it know how to create a great user experience – anticipating, rather than reacting to the needs of our diverse learning community. Being an ally. Continue reading “Part 1: Embedding Digital Accessibility to the heart of everyday TEL work” →

Echo Scheduler
Evaluation and Reflection

Part 2: Reflections on collaboration/cross-institutional working in response to and after Covid-19

Georgios Aretakis

This article has been divided in two parts. Part 1 explains the online teaching challenges created by Covid-19. Part 2 presents the outcomes and conclusions after 2 years  teaching online.

The volume of shared working, and working through a time of crisis, has helped to build collegiality, camaraderie and significant trust between teams. I believe this is evidenced by the devolution of central services to Faculty TEL teams (and not solely explained by capacity reasoning). For example: the provision of the Echo Scheduler role, Syllabus+ access being extended to TEL; and hopefully – successful pilot permitting – the Kaltura Management Console Super User role.   Continue reading “Part 2: Reflections on collaboration/cross-institutional working in response to and after Covid-19” →

Kaltura Managemetn Console
Evaluation and Reflection

Part 1: Reflections on collaboration/cross-institutional working in response to and after Covid-19

Georgios Aretakis

This article has been divided in two parts. Part 1 explains the online teaching challenges created by Covid-19. Part 2 presents the outcomes and conclusions after 2 years  teaching online.

Covid-19 forced almost all teaching online in extremis and for an extended period of time. This was followed by at least a year of crisis management; attempting to continue to deliver the core functions of the College in the face of a global pandemic. Almost overnight TEL went from a support function to being of central importance to teaching and learning.  Tools that may have been peripheral became, in effect, core. New tools rapidly became universal. The barriers between the substance of teaching and its delivery mechanisms began to dissolve. IT and TEL colleagues deserve immense credit for the way they managed the sudden massive increase in demand for their services, time and expertise. With the crisis period of the pandemic hopefully in the past, we can now reflect on the enhancements that have come about in our working practices, whether these were created or accelerated by necessity and which we choose to keep for the future. Some of the observations below are concrete, others are my personal reflections or opinions voiced by colleagues. Continue reading “Part 1: Reflections on collaboration/cross-institutional working in response to and after Covid-19” →

Evaluation and Reflection

Preparing students for success in the digital world- The process of creating the Essential Digital Skills Programme

Georgios Aretakis

Digital competence and confidence are thought to be critical for success in higher education. However, despite a significant proportion of learning being online and evidence to counter the idea of digital nativity, these critical skills are often not explicitly taught at university. The COVID-19 pandemic outlined why it is so important for students to have the digital capabilities required to thrive in their academic, personal and professional lives. This blog reflects on the process King’s College London went through to create the Essential Digital Skills programme.   Continue reading “Preparing students for success in the digital world- The process of creating the Essential Digital Skills Programme” →

Evaluation and Reflection

Gauging student engagement and understanding remotely – some tried and tested methods

Georgios Aretakis

The rapid pivot to a re mote education format during the 2020 pandemic, necessitated an agile approach to teaching and assessment. With bioscience class sizes ranging from ~25-720 students, ascertaining how well students understood taught concepts, was an essential yet challenging task. Despite the diversity of class sizes and subject areas, some tried and tested methods were found to be more effective and user friendly, for both our students and staff. Continue reading “Gauging student engagement and understanding remotely – some tried and tested methods” →

Evaluation and Reflection

Lessons learned and looking forward: reflecting on online assessment in the IoPPN during the COVID-19 pandemic

kcl ctel

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the university cancelling all in-person examinations and offering alternative online exams. As a collaboration between the IoPPN and King’s Academy, we wanted to gain a snapshot of the impact these changes had on PGT students.  The focus at King’s is often on UG students and so we wanted to explore the views our PGT students across a number of programmes. As King’s considers a move towards more online submission and marking of coursework, the introduction of alternative assessments in a digital format and, of course, the use of online examinations software tools, we hope that this data on what students think and feel and think about the approaches taken during 2020 will help inform the best way forward.  Continue reading “Lessons learned and looking forward: reflecting on online assessment in the IoPPN during the COVID-19 pandemic” →

Microsoft Teams
Evaluation and Reflection

Education Elevenses – colleagues who teach face the pivot online together

kcl ctel

Education Elevenses are faculty-wide, peer-led, centrally supported regular meetings in which colleagues share practice and ideas about the pivot to online teaching. Continue reading “Education Elevenses – colleagues who teach face the pivot online together” →

University of Derby 1
Evaluation and Reflection

Co-creating through staff-student partnership to increase student employability skills: A case study at the University of Derby

kcl ctel

At the University of Derby, the Technology Enhanced Learning (TEL) media team have been creating video content alongside academics to add and enhance their teaching materials as well as their students’ overall experiences. Continue reading “Co-creating through staff-student partnership to increase student employability skills: A case study at the University of Derby” →