Short Courses Platform - Early Adopters Focus Group (Staff) by The University of Edinburgh

Questions

moocdeliveryteam — 2024-06-05 08:33:09 UTC

Did you find training provided enough information to get started with course content building?
Are there any other training resources that you would like?
Was the training delivered at an appropriate time for you building your courses?

Questions

moocdeliveryteam — 2024-06-05 08:39:39 UTC

Did you find the process for accessing your course/platform easy to understand and replicate?

Questions

moocdeliveryteam — 2024-06-05 08:40:13 UTC

Were you able to navigate your online course?
Did the platform(s) Eduframe and Canvas meet your expectations? Why or why not?
Were there any aspects of the platform that you found difficult to use? Why?
Did you encounter any barriers related to accessibility (e.g., font size, color contrast, use of assistive technologies)?

Questions

moocdeliveryteam — 2024-06-05 08:40:44 UTC

How did you find the opportunities for interaction with the learners?
Did the platform facilitate meaningful collaboration and/or discussion?

Questions

moocdeliveryteam — 2024-06-05 08:41:39 UTC

Did you know where to get help and support for the online aspect of your course?

Questions

moocdeliveryteam — 2024-06-05 08:42:05 UTC

Is there anything else you’d like to share about your experience that we haven’t covered?

jenny716 — 2024-06-05 14:10:46 UTC

i think more training on use of open access resources would be good and specifically how to find more specific things (eg artists work) without having to trawl through stuff

2024-06-05 14:11:08 UTC

The training was very informative but maybe it covered too much in one session. I think it'd been more helpful to have that first session recorded, so we could've watched in advance and at our own pace and then have a more practical live session.

2024-06-05 14:11:12 UTC

The training was good, it showed how Canvas worked and was clear how to build the course. There were lots of options for training times and everyone who needed to attend found a time to attend.

One of the biggest issue was around the use of images and ensuring they were all CC-BY-ND. More training in this is needed. I recommend running sessions where teachers start to build their course and so get some practical experience of doing this in the training room.

2024-06-05 14:11:46 UTC

I agree with the comment about finding open access materials, but otherwise I found that the training was pretty comprehensive and gave enough information to get started designing the courses

2024-06-05 14:11:54 UTC

It took at bit of time to get into the platform the first time, but once in it worked well and was easy to get back into.

2024-06-05 14:12:16 UTC

I found the training useful and have used some of the features. However, I still need to learn more about using quizzes and assignments effectively.

2024-06-05 14:12:29 UTC

For me the most challenging part is understanding how everything works with copyright

2024-06-05 14:12:46 UTC

There was quite a big issue around students not being added to the course. I realise that Eduframe is not up and running and this needs to be done manual. However, the course we had fell through the cracks.

2024-06-05 14:12:55 UTC

I got feedback from some colleagues about how they couldn't find at first a direct link to the platform. They were expecting a link on MyEd as we have now for accessing Learn.

2024-06-05 14:13:22 UTC

Course itself was easy to navigate with a clear and simple structure.

2024-06-05 14:13:38 UTC

I also vaguely remember that getting access the first time was tricky; I think I'm actually still not sure what the URL is for Canvas, as I only access it from a bookmark.

2024-06-05 14:14:06 UTC

I can't comment on this but I know that we did try to encourage collaboration via the platform.

2024-06-05 14:14:16 UTC

Is there going to a direct link on MyEd from Term 1? It was a bit annoying havingto always search the link.

2024-06-05 14:14:37 UTC

Yes, having a direct contact in Digital Learning Tech. made a HUGE difference! Thank you Rebecca!

2024-06-05 14:15:11 UTC

I find the design and platform to mostly be very intuitive to use, navigate, add materials, etc.

I was a little surprised to discover that we have a max upload capacity of 500MB, though? I reached this 'quota' yesterday and have had to go back through and replace ppt with pdf files (not a problem necessarily but I don't remember knowing this was a thing)

2024-06-05 14:15:24 UTC

I found it easy in general. There's one issue about accessibility: the recommendation is to use font 14 but if you copy any content to the page, it automatically changes it as size 12. So I need to edit the content every time. Can that be changed?

2024-06-05 14:15:39 UTC

There is still a lot of hesitancy in our teacher cohort about this new platform. The training is key and giving the teachers time to work on their courses with a learning tech present would be great! This could be online!

2024-06-05 14:16:10 UTC

Having bigger banks of OER resources, and sign-posts particularly for images. [grouped by subject?]

2024-06-05 14:16:23 UTC

I haven't really done much more than post announcements and materials, but it does seem that the learners are readily able to access these in order to do the necessary course tasks (prep activities, download files, etc)

2024-06-05 14:16:29 UTC

I've tried the discussion board and I find it useful. I kept thinking about activities I could do in the future once we move all the courses to Canvas.

2024-06-05 14:16:30 UTC

I noticed that the preview format, especially for Word documents, can be inaccurate. Therefore, I advised students to download the files, and I started converting them to PDF. I'm not sure if this issue is related to the use of Arabic script.

2024-06-05 14:17:07 UTC

Centre wide OER training that is mandatory!

2024-06-05 14:17:37 UTC

Direct contact with Lizzy was really helpful but I wasn't sure where I could find tutorials or guides on how to do things.

2024-06-05 14:17:42 UTC

I found it very helpful to have specific staff members paired up with my course, so that I knew clearly where to go when I needed help, support, and clarification; this was a great idea

2024-06-05 14:18:50 UTC

I think I am still not using the platform to its full capacity, so I will focus on different features next term.

2024-06-05 14:18:53 UTC

Maybe we can see examples of how other teachers have been using this platform previously to gather some ideas.

2024-06-05 14:20:31 UTC

It's great being ableto communicate with our students directly through the platform

2024-06-05 14:20:45 UTC

How-to tutorials would be very useful. Very clear and concise tutorials to check and follow if we have some doubts with some tasks.

2024-06-05 14:21:09 UTC

It was incredibly useful to have the materials copied over from the old Learn course; I'm not sure if that is necessarily a comment on Canvas itself but big thanks to you all for facilitating the transition!

2024-06-05 14:23:13 UTC

I've had an issue this week, posting a link to a video, and the format doing funny things when I saved the lesson, but looking ok while editting it.

2024-06-05 14:23:19 UTC

Yes, knowing that we have a named colleague we can approach if we are struggling is very helpful.

jenny716 — 2024-06-05 14:25:56 UTC

a link to access it from MyEd would be great - I have it as a bookmark but if I am not on my laptop I would not know where to start

2024-06-05 14:26:02 UTC

Personally, I need to use the platform more interactively and understand the copyright regulations a little better. Additionally, how can students reset their login details if they cannot access the course? I had a student who couldn't log in yesterday.

jenny716 — 2024-06-05 14:27:30 UTC

When I am trying to find different pages on my page it takes quite a while to hunt through the side menu

jenny716 — 2024-06-05 14:29:53 UTC

The use of Media Hopper files in Canvas could be far more streamlined. If I hadn't wanted them to be openly available then I would not have been able to use. Surely if we have a YouTube plug in then there should be a way to do this with Media Hopper?

2024-06-05 14:29:57 UTC

Are we going to be able to see all the other courses taught in our language as we used to with Learn? This term another colleague wanted me to check her course and upload a document for her, but I didn't have access, so it made things more difficult.

2024-06-05 14:36:28 UTC

I didn't like the fact that my 2 beginners groups share the same Discussions board. Is there a way to change this in the future?

jenny716 — 2024-06-05 14:38:24 UTC

students received the announcements straight into their personal inbox which was fantastic and meant they actually saw these

jenny716 — 2024-06-05 14:40:52 UTC

Help from Lizzy was amazing - I think it was really helpful to have that named person so there was a sense of continuity for any issues or questions

jenny716 — 2024-06-05 14:41:50 UTC

I did look through the online support in sharepoint as well and there was a lot of useful information on there

2024-06-05 15:03:15 UTC

It's great beaing able to design the course in advance and decide when each lesson is published.