Hilary 2011 - IT Services - University of Oxford

New Module Enrolment Tool
WebLearn Survey Tool Available
The WebLearn Survey tool (released as a Beta
version) can be used to design and manage electronic
questionnaires to be delivered on-line. Surveys can be
created to gather data for research purposes, general
data gathering, or for course, lecturer or tutor evaluation,
feedback and review.
Questionnaire templates can be created from scratch, or
existing templates can be copied and modified. Various
question types are available, such as Lickert scales,
multiple choice with a single answer, multiple choice
with multiple answers, and free text questions. Detailed
settings control open and close dates, how participants
access the survey, and who may view the results.
Michaelmas term 2010 saw the introduction of a brand
new, locally written module registration tool known as
SES (Student Enrolment System). The tool works in
conjunction with a course or module database known
as DAISY which is being developed by the Social
Sciences Division with help from MPLS. DAISY currently
contains over 300 Graduate training courses hosted by
MPLS departments (as part of their Graduate Academic
Programme or GAP); Social Sciences will be adding
a selection of their Graduate training courses before
Christmas (2010).
All available courses can be browsed via the SES tool
within WebLearn and students are allowed to request a
place on one or more courses. The request is passed
along to the course administrator who can either
reject the application or accept it in which case the
student’s supervisor is contacted and asked to give their
blessing. If a student is accepted then they will receive
a confirmation email. DAISY will take care of interdepartmental
billing but this facility is not operational this
academic year.
The ‘student’ interface presents a hierarchy of divisions
and departments and the courses that are offered
(see screen-shot opposite). This can be browsed or
all courses can be searched; both course title and
description are searched. Students can also see a list of
current, upcoming and past courses but as WebLearn
does not collect attendance data, this list has no official
status.
Call for Participation – WebLearn Polls via m.ox (Mobile Oxford)
Have you ever wished your students could respond in class using personal voting
systems (‘clickers’), but never quite got around to trying it? Well now you don’t
need any special technology – the students can answer questions on their internetenabled
phones, and learn from each other while sharing phones, if necessary.
OUCS has launched Mobile Oxford (m.ox.ac.uk) (beta) which allows anyone with
an internet-enabled mobile phone to access Oxford podcasts, certain WebLearn
tools, or information on library holdings, bus times and the weather (amongst other
things).
We are running a pilot project using the WebLearn Polls tool via the mobile
platform, to enhance and support student learning.
Are you interested (or could you recommend any lecturers in your dept/division) in
participating in our pilot project using the WebLearn Polls tool via student mobile
phones during a lecture or small class? Please follow this link if you would like to
participate in the pilot project: http://tinyurl.com/35hgf85
This will enable you to join the Mobile Polls Pilot site in WebLearn and keep up to
date with developments.
A prize will be offered for the person who gets the most people to respond via a
mobile phone to a single poll in Hilary term. We will collaborate with all participants
in the pilot project to write up your case study for the OUCS collection of teaching
and learning case studies, as well as for possible inclusion in the next JISC book of
case studies documenting innovative practice.
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