Learning Technologists provide pedagogical support for Tulip, the University’s VLE based on Microsoft SharePoint. Here are some examples…
Collaborative Working Spaces – Engineering Using SharePoint
The working spaces were created by Rebecca Vickerstaff (formerly Allen) Faculty of Science & Technology Learning Technologist. The brief was to see what could be done to support final year engineering students in working collaboratively on project work. To support this and keep it within the supported University system 9 sub sites were set up in SharePoint.
How this was done:
Nine sub sites were set up, nine groups were then created to give the student group contribute access to the area.
Each site had a discussion board, document uploading area, picture library, task list, calendar, links and announcement area. To assist the students in using an unfamiliar system some help resources and embedded them into the site for them.
To finish the project, links to the areas were included from their portal home page using the summary links web part. An announcement giving the students instructions was also included.
Midwifery E-Portfolio
Stephen Hodge, Learning Technologist for the Faculty of Health & Social Work, worked with Margaret Fisher, Senior Lecturer in Health Studies, to create an electronic version of Midwifery students paper portfolio. The plan was to create a Tulip site which has html parts to guide students to different sections of their e-Portfolio and to use Tulip’s Wiki software to enable students to create and update sections. e.g. their personal details or their ongoing antenatal care. Stephen managed to set up the site in this manner however one of the main functions of their e-Portfolio was for students to create hyperlinks between sections to indicate their learning, but the hyperlink editor within the Wiki editor wasn’t as user friendly as desired. So another method was required.
The solution found by him and suggested by Sarah Barnes (Senior IT Training Officer) was to use Word documents for all areas which require to be edited by the user. This means the user can edit in a interface that they’re used to and use Word’s hyperlink editor which again is very simple and user friendly.
With thanks to Mark Horrocks, Principal Analyst Programmer, Web Team and Sarah Barnes this project was able to be pushed out to students MySites as a subsite with all content etc.
Research Methods – Tulip subsite
Stephen Hodge, Faculty of Health & Social Work Learning Technologist, has been working with Allegra Cattani and a research student called Halina Kalaga in producing a Research Methods site. The aim is to have a central resource for students to get advice upon research and to be able to discuss and give feedback about the resource to Halina or Allegra.
If you need advice and support on the pedagogic aspects of using Tulip please email the Learning Technologies team at tel@plymouth.ac.uk , call on 01752 587600, or talk to your local faculty based Learning Technologist.
