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Photo: Sharon and Lindsay at the iPod Touch prizegiving Over 2,500 NUI Galway students completed the annual Blackboard Student Survey in April of this year. We hope to publish the findings shortly, but are very heartened that so many of students took the time to share their thoughts and suggestions about their experiences of using Blackboard as a student, at NUI Galway. Congrats also to Lindsay (pictured above), the lucky winner of the draw for an iPod Touch!

The call for applications to fund projects supporting the development of learning resources /materials for the NDLR Users is open. All material pertaining to the call is available from http://www.ndlr.ie/view/view.php?id=171 The deadline for applications is Friday 20th May 2011 We are issuing funds from 17th June to: (a) Support projects that will create learning resources and (b) Generate use and activity around these learning resources and the repository and portal. The outputs of these projects will be showcased at the next NDLR FEST event in March 2012 Bids should focus on short, practical projects with clear identifiable outputs (i.e. resources and examples of use and reuse). The outputs of these projects should aim to actively progress and support the realisation of the new and dynamic streamlined SMART CoP model ( new CoPs and/or mergers between existing CoPs) over the next ten months. Reviewers Rubrics and a screencast with details for completing these forms will be...

I would like to highlight a fantastic project, titled Infection Prevention and Control, which was led by Liz Kingston, Nursing and Midwifery, University of Limerick in collaboration with NUI Galway and HSE West. The project was supported by the NDLR and is a really brilliant reusable learning resource. NDLR - Liz Kingston from NDLR on Vimeo .

I'm sure by now most of you will have heard of the new LMS/VLE (call it what you prefer) that is both offered as a cloud-based service or in an Open Source release that aims to challenge Blackboard, Moodle, Sakai and Desire2Learn. It's called Canvas and I took it for a 'test drive' (to use the cliche much loved of technology magazines!) recently and I have to admit that there is something pleasing about the simple, plain design. It cheered me up a little since I'd been seriously disappointed in the over-hyped but really naff Moodle 2.o. Indeed, plenty of others have commented that they have a cheek using '2.0' for software that looks as if it was designed in the 1990s. Maybe I expected too much. Not that we have any plans to move from our official Blackboard system, but we always have kept an eye on other systems and have run test implementations of Moodle and Sakai. Moodle is also used for courses that span multiple institutions or other work that doesn...

Last Monday (31st Jan) we hosted the second Project Symposium associate with our PG Diploma module in Learning Technologies. In my last post, I gave the background to the module and the expectations around the project. As before, we were treated to a range of projects, at various stages of development. Gary ( @GaryGillanders ) spoke about how he is developing video material to supplement laboratory manuals in Physics. He is using short video clips, accessible via the VLE (Blackboard) to replicate in-lab demonstrations of equipment, software and procedures. So far, he has used Jing for screencasts of software demonstrations, and also recorded some equipment demos and put them up on blip.tv . Although it is still too early to evaluate the usefulness of the videos, initial feedback from students in positive. Anne ( @annecegan ) told us of her plans to use podcasts to support students of Family Law. She has a plan to match short podcasts with tutorial topics, summarising materials and poi...

At NUI Galway, I co-ordinate a module in Learning Technologies (cel263) which is offered as part of our Postgraduate Diploma in Academic Practice . The module is taken by academic staff as part of a professional qualification in Teaching and Learning, mostly in NUIG but open to staff from other institutions. This year the module had 9 participants from across an array of disciplines in NUIG and three participants from the Galway Mayo Institute of Technology ( GMIT ). Now in its third year, participants in the module have a range of experience with using technology in teaching, from "very little" to "vast". Some need a lot of support and encouragement, while others are willing to try anything. The module is organised as a series of 7 stand-alone workshops, each based on a particular technology, including guest lecturers, online resources, demonstrations, practical sessions, discussion, research and reflection. We try to focus on teaching & learning, showing how...

The Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning has been awarded annually by the Irish Learning Technology Association (ILTA) and Dublin City University (DCU) since 2009. The award recognises and rewards innovative practice in teaching and learning in Ireland. Previous award winners are John O'Connor (DIT) for his work on the module "Virtual Environments: Is one life enough?" in 2010, and the Bridge to College Initiative from TCD in 2009. Nominations are now invited for the 2011 Jennifer Burke Award for Innovation in Teaching and Learning, for an innovative idea which must have been implemented. Nominations should be submitted before Monday 7th February. Further details are available at the awards site .