Monthly Archives: November 2015

Web Conferencing Options

Information Services at the University of Stirling supports the use of two key web conferencing systems, Skype for Business and Blackboard Collaborate. This article talks about each in turn and when you might want to use them.

Skype for Business

Skype for Business is a peer-to-peer communication tool, Microsoft’s business version of the popular Skype communication platform that it acquired in 2011. Skype for Business is part of the Microsoft Office 2013 suite of programs and is thus already installed on all University of Stirling staff computers (you’ll find it in the Programs menu, under Microsoft Office 2013). As it is integrated with Outlook, Skype for Business shows your availability for meetings based on your Outlook calendar, although you may update your availability status in Skype for Business if you wish. It can be used for meetings with other University of Stirling staff, but also for meetings with external persons, who may be invited to join a Skype for Business session by email. Meetings may be scheduled in your Outlook calendar and may be recorded for later revisiting.

Once in the tool, Skype for Business supports online chat, delivery of PowerPoint presentations, application sharing and multiple whiteboard areas. Attachments may also be sent between meeting participants. Attendees of meetings may use all the features of the package.

Skype for Business is ideal for use in communicating with other University of Stirling staff who use it or for communicating with users off campus for meetings in a business context. The wide general use of the sister product Skype means that many users will pick up Skype for Business’ features quickly and anecdotal feedback suggests its audio quality is superior to that of Blackboard Collaborate.

Blackboard Collaborate

Blackboard Collaborate is an online virtual classroom/meeting space that allows users to connect via audio, see each other via webcams, use a chat tool, collaborate on documents and view presentations. It requires an up to date installation of Java on your machine to run effectively.

Its strengths lie in its use as a teaching and learning tool, although it also works well for online meetings. Meetings/teaching sessions may be scheduled using the web-based Blackboard Collaborate Session Administration System (SAS) and users may be sent email invitations with links in, which they then click to join the session at the relevant time. Users may be in one of two roles in the session: Moderator (teacher, chairperson of the meeting) or Participant (student, or meeting attendee). Moderators have privileges to turn the tools and features in Blackboard Collaborate on and off, better to tailor the session to their needs. All users may use a web cam and microphone to communicate, although in larger groups it’s worth knowing that Blackboard Collaborate will only support up to six open web cam and audio feeds at any one time. The Whiteboard area of the display in Blackboard Collaborate allows the session Moderator to do three tasks. First, they may load slides for presentation. The presentation feature allows slides to be annotated to enhance clarity and understanding. The second option is application sharing. This could be used, for example, collaboratively to work on a document, with Moderator handing control over the shared application to other users, so everyone may contribute to building up a resource. Finally, the Moderator may take session attendees on a web tour of a web site. Sessions in Blackboard Collaborate may be recorded for later playback.

Blackboard Collaborate is best used in a teaching and learning context, when a Moderators (presenter) wishes to run a session and have greater control over the other session participants. It has been used with great success in many Master’s programmes, especially in the School of Health Sciences.

For more details on using either Skype for Business or Blackboard Collaborate, please contact your eLD representative: http://www.stir.ac.uk/is/staff/about/teams/aldt/#eld.

Teaching Bites

The next set of Teaching Bites are mainly on the theme of employability and will be delivered by the Career Development Centre.

Thursday 19th November, 1-2pm, S10: Planning and evaluating employability in the curriculum

This session will explore the values and benefits to pro-actively planning and evaluating employability in the curriculum. It will also outline a variety of approaches and share existing best practice.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Thursday 26th November, 1-2pm, S10:  Development of career management skills in the curriculum

Equipping Stirling’s students and graduates with career management skills is a key goal of the University’s Employability Strategy. These skills are key to successfully managing the transition from University and a graduate’s longer term career development. This session will look at what career management skills are, why they are important, and approaches to embedding them in the curriculum.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Wednesday 2nd December, 1-2pm, S10: Learning Outcomes and Assessment: How do we align them?

In order to support our students by helping to direct their learning, we need to be clear in our expectations of the level at which they engage in our modules and across our programmes. This session will look at a model of curriculum development that helps us to align our module learning outcomes with the ways in which we assess our students. Participants are encouraged to bring a module outline with which they are familiar, with them to the session.

Dr Mary McCulloch, Academic Development Team

Thursday 10th December, 1-2pm, S10: Delivering work based learning and placements

With many employers increasingly looking for experience as well as academic achievement in candidates, work placements and work related learning have an increasing importance in gaining graduate level employment. This session will look at the issues involved in the delivery of work related/based learning.  Perspectives and practice will be taken from the learning achieved through Making the Most of Masters that develops masters dissertation projects with external organisations and will also cover the development of undergraduate placements.

Eunice Atkins, CDC

Wednesday 13th January, 1-2pm, S10: Learning Outcomes and Assessment: How do we align them? (Repeat session)

In order to support our students by helping to direct their learning, we need to be clear in our expectations of the level at which they engage in our modules and across our programmes. This session will look at a model of curriculum development that helps us to align our module learning outcomes with the ways in which we assess our students. Participants are encouraged to bring a module outline with which they are familiar, with them to the session.

Dr Mary McCulloch, Academic Development Team

Thursday 28th January, 1-2pm, S10: Enhancing conversations using Talking Mats

Talking Mats is a visual card sort tool that is highly effective in enabling students to express their views or plan and organise their thinking.
This session will look at ways in which staff in the Career Development Centre have been working with the Talking Mats team who created the tool to research its uses in a Higher Education setting and will explore it’s potential uses for Personal Tutors, Advisers of Study and its scope for use to great effect in teaching sessions, seminars and tutorials.

Elaine Watson, CDC

Monday 1st February, 1-2pm, S10: Engaging employers in the curriculump

Research underpinning the development of employability in higher education places high importance on the value of employer engagement. This applies to both vocational and non-vocational subjects alike. This session will explore the different forms of employer engagement and how to progress their development in the curriculum.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Thursday 18th February, 1-2pm, S10: Students as reflective learners

This session will explore practical tools and strategies which staff can employ to help develop students’ reflective practice. We will be discussing:

  • What a reflective learner is.
  • The issues students face in trying to self-assess what their strengths and development needs are.
  • Practical strategies to help students learn to reflect.

To book, Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites -> and booking into the relevant session(s)