Digitally Ready

Getting it right: our new PGCAP

Posted on February 14, 2013 by Clare McCullagh

Here in the Centre for Staff Training & Development (CSTD) at Reading we’ve been working for some time behind the scenes to design a new Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP) to replace our current programme in 2013-14. The new programme will enable a more innovative and supportive approach to programme delivery and assessment in order to more effectively prepare both new lecturers and support staff in meeting the diverse challenges of their new role within a research intensive university. For many new staff with a teaching role, completion of the programme is a condition of their probation, so we need to get it absolutely right. And, of course, in a programme which encourages good pedagogic practice, we need to demonstrate the same. Continue reading →

Posted in Dissemination, Small project funding scheme | Tagged Academic Practice Programme (APP), Clare McCullagh, Nina Brooke, Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice (PGCAP), Staff training & development | Leave a comment

From paper (lots of it) to pixels

Posted on February 13, 2013 by gerryleonidas

A sketch to capture ideas on parallel coursework records

A distinguishing feature of the BA programme in Typography are the professional assignments we run with external clients – our Real Jobs scheme. These ‘in-house placements’ allow inexperienced students to deal with professional work in a staged and supervised way, as well as experienced students to take on larger, more complex projects than any placement would ever make possible. The clients for these projects may be internal to the University, local schools or charities, and companies in the region. Unsurprisingly, many of these projects have online elements, or are exclusively about online matter. Supervision and monitoring of these projects, which count towards a student’s degree, is paper-based. Feedback for online projects is by people side-by-side looking at a screen, or capturing screenshots.

Continue reading →

Posted in Assessment & Feedback, Dissemination, Employability, Small project funding scheme, Staff-student partnerships, Work/Academic placements | Tagged Department of Typography & Graphic Communication, Gerry Leonidas, Jake Giltsoff, Real Jobs scheme, Rob Banham, Robbie Sterlini, WordPress | Leave a comment

Art studio network: Students take the wheel

Posted on February 12, 2013 by lvs06ce

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” (John Dewey)

OSCAR staff/student research group

A few months ago I contributed a blog post here about OSCAR, the Online Studio Community at Reading. An alternative VLE designed for the Department of Art here at Reading, specifically to support studio-based modules, OSCAR is a portal to the extensive activities our student community is engaged in at home and internationally. Since then, with support from Digitally Ready I have set up a staff/student research group to involve students in the site’s administration and to enable them to have a say in its development. Continue reading →

Posted in Dissemination, Small project funding scheme | Tagged Christine Ellison, Department of Art, Online Studio Community at Reading (OSCAR) | Leave a comment

Changing the Learning Landscape at Reading

Posted on February 12, 2013 by Nadja Guggi

Vice-Chancellor Sir David Bell has been hosting his fourth series of talks to staff here at Reading, inviting one of the University’s senior managers to provide a short update on their area of responsibility at each event following his own overview of University-wide issues and developments.

Last week, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Teaching & Learning Gavin Brooks took his turn to speak about ‘Teaching and Learning at Reading: responding to the rapidly changing landscape of HE’. Continue reading →

Posted in Dissemination, Meetings & Events | Tagged Association for Learning Technology (ALT), Changing the Learning Landscape, Futurelearn, Gavin Brooks, Higher Education Academy (HEA), Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE), Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), National Union of Students (NUS), Sir David Bell KCB, Teaching and Learning at Reading: responding to the rapidly changing landscape of HE, TEL Strategy Group | 2 Comments

Pharmacy students and e-books: an update

Posted on February 11, 2013 by Erika Delbecque

In my September blog post, ‘E-books and students: an uneasy relationship?’, I introduced my study into e-books usage by Pharmacy students, funded by Digitally Ready. The project is now well underway. An online survey on the usage and awareness of e-books, which was filled in by 53 of our Pharmacy students, revealed some interesting tendencies. Continue reading →

Posted in Research, Small project funding scheme | Tagged E-books, Erika Delbecque, School of Chemistry Food and Pharmacy | Leave a comment

Academic publishing and interviewing: first steps

Posted on February 7, 2013 by samholton

I took my first steps into the world of academic writing and publishing last week when my supervisor informed me that we are going to submit my work on the Modular Training for Industry project in an appropriate journal.

I have been working with Tee Nadan and Kimberley Watson of the School of Biological Sciences here at Reading to develop the Existing and Emerging Biotechnologies (EEB) Framework, initially as a placement student under the University’s Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP) and now funded by Digitally Ready. Continue reading →

Posted in Employability, Internationalisation, Small project funding scheme, Staff-student partnerships, Work/Academic placements | Tagged Existing and Emerging Biotechnologies (EEB) Framework, Kimberley Watson, Modular Training for Industry, Sam Holton, School of Biological Sciences, Sir David Bell KCB, Steven Mithen, Tee Nadan, Undergraduate Research Opportunities Programme (UROP), University of Hong Kong | Leave a comment

Digital Digest: Spotlight on video

Posted on February 7, 2013 by Nadja Guggi

We are delighted to bring you the second issue of Digital Digest, our collaborative newsletter on all things digital happening around the University. Mobile video and YouTube are increasingly part of our day-to-day lives, and open up new ways of getting your message across. But before you start shooting footage, it pays to ask yourself some key questions.

‘Spotlight on video’ introduces you to colleagues from across the University who are among those leading the use of video to enhance, engage, and encourage different aspects of life on campus from Teaching & Learning to marketing and communication.

To subscribe to Digital Digest, or share your own digital stories, email digitaldigest@reading.ac.uk.

Posted in Dissemination, Video | Tagged Alison Fabian, ASSET, Digital Digest, Luke Micallef, Nadja Guggi, Neil Morris, Pete Castle, Tee Nadan, Video, Video feedback, YouTube | Leave a comment

Making sense: digital modelling and flipped classroom

Posted on February 6, 2013 by Nadja Guggi

‘Use of technologies in Teaching & Learning’ proved a hot topic for over 40 staff here at Reading who joined us for another session in our popular Teaching & Learning Showcase series, to hear from three colleagues who are employing digital technologies to help their students make sense of complex concepts. Continue reading →

Posted in Dissemination, Meetings & Events | Tagged Augmented Reality (AR), Building Information Modelling (BIM), Closing the feedback loop, David Nutt, Digital modelling, Flipped classroom, Matthew Nicholls, Milan Radosavljevic, Nadja Guggi, School of Construction Management and Engineering, Teaching & Learning Showcase events, Use of technologies in Teaching & Learning | 1 Comment

Moving forward through video feedback

Posted on February 4, 2013 by Nadja Guggi

Ever since Neil Morris’ research seminar in November on ‘Making technology-enhanced learning work for staff and students in Higher Education’, his name has been cropping up again and again in my conversations with staff here at Reading.

At the time I said I thought Neil’s talk was ‘powerful stuff’. There was a palpable sense of things being shaken up a little around here and a few light bulbs going off – institutionally and individually. Continue reading →

Posted in Dissemination, Meetings & Events, Video | Tagged ASSET, Audio recording, Blackboard (VLE), Clare Furneaux, Department of Classics, Feed forward, JISC, Julian Park, Making technology-enhanced learning work for staff and students in Higher Education, Matthew Nicholls, Nadja Guggi, Neil Morris, Video, Video feedback, VLE | Leave a comment

Interactive sculptures: Squishy circuits

Posted on February 3, 2013 by Kate Allen

Digitally Ready is supporting Sensory Objects, a three-year AHRC-funded research project which explores the potential of newly developed easy-to-use electronics in making the experience of members of the user-group more vital and meaningful when accessing heritage sites. The project consists of a series of workshops that are fundamentally experimental and exploratory in character.

Funding from Digitally Ready’s small project scheme enables us to share some of our research with students from the Department of Art here at Reading, by giving them a series of practical hands-on workshops as an introduction to interactive and digitally-enhanced sculpture/installation.

The images above are from our first interactive sculpture workshop. The aim of the workshops is to introduce art students to the potential of using interactive technologies in sculpture and installation, and to enhance artworks and installations with the potential to make them responsive to people or the environment.

Through a series of hands-on workshops led by Nic Hollinworth (School of Systems Engineering) and Kate Allen (Department of Art), we introduce students to simple electronics using ‘squishy circuits’ to activate light, sounds or movement. Follow the workshop progress on our blog, Introduction to Interactive Sculpture.

Posted in Dissemination, Small project funding scheme | Tagged Department of Art, Interactive sculptures, Kate Allen, Nic Hollinworth, School of Systems Engineering, Squishy Circuits | Leave a comment