Waikato Centre for eLearning

Types of Plagiarism

2013-05-05T21:17:04Z

The University of Waikato is committed to upholding the highest degree of academic excellence for students enrolled in all its papers and programmes university-wide. To provide lecturers the opportunity to monitor levels of academic integrity for students and where needed provide extra support or establish evidence for disciplinary matters we use Turnitin®.

iPardigms, the provider of Turnitin® have a useful website plagiarism.org which provides useful information including a great resource on Types of Plagiarism that is worth a read.

MoodleMoot Conference around the corner

2013-03-18T23:51:39Z

~ MoodleMoot New Zealand 2013 - 22nd to 24th April 2013, Waikato University Hamilton Campus ~

WCEL are proud to be a part of organising this year's New Zealand Moodle conference in April.

The conference is run over three days with workshops on the Monday followed by two days of keynotes, conference presentations and open spaces which are organised into three 'tracks' - technical, teaching, and everything else!

Hosting this event is a fantastic professional development opportunity for the University and we encourage teaching staff to keep an eye out for internal communication about the opportunity to attend.

There are spaces available in the programme if you are interested in presenting. Share your Moodle experience and help make this year's Moodle Moot a great one! Remember attendees are at all levels so even if you are new to using Moodle you can contribute. Create an account on the Moodle Moot website and submit a Proposal today!

WCELfest2013

2013-02-11T19:54:32Z

This year's WCELfest took place on Thursday 31st January 2013 and was another successful day. We had over 150 registrations and feedback so far has been fantastic.

In an excellent keynote address, Dr John Hinchcliff examined how we should approach the future of learning and the pressures forcing change on the academy while finding a careful balance between our engagement with technology and engaging with the person.

Recordings of the day's events, including Dr John Hinchcliff's keynote, are now available online.

ASCILITE 2012

2012-12-02T22:43:25Z

ASCILITE 2012 was held this year in Wellington on November 25 - 28. This is probably one of the premiere e-learning conferences in Australasia, and so having it happen in New Zealand (instead of Australia where it usually resides) was a bonus for Kiwis with an interest in e-learning. To be fair it isn't always in Australia - there have been two conferences in Auckland and one in Singapore. Nigel Robertson, the WCEL team leader, myself, and several other University of Waikato staff attended (Katherine Brown, Diane Forbes, and Noeline Wright - apologies if I've missed anyone).

]]> Having the conference at Te Papa, the national museum, made for an unusual venue with lots of things to see if you got a little weary of the presentation treadmill.

One of the keynote speakers of interest for the conference was Dale Stephens the founder of Uncollege . Dale's basic thesis is that we can learn things for ourselves, and connect with other learners via the Internet. By learning this way, we can escape the exorbitant costs of an (American) university education. While some of his ideas had some resonance for me, I often thought that his view of what is education was too limited (it's about getting a job) and that his examples were mostly USA-centric.

Having said that, his ideas were neatly summarised and replied to by Beverly Oliver in the final keynote of the conference. She acknowledged the validity of some of his points, and looked at ways that traditional institutions could change to meet those challenges. At the end of the day, jobs are still important and most people want a job.

Apart from the keynotes, I enjoyed catching up with the elearning community - one of the strengths of ASCILITE (Australasion Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education) is the core group of practitioners that is very stable. Out of the 400 delegates at the conference, probably at least 200 were people who are active in the Society and already known to each other.

And of course, coincidentally with the conference was the world premiere of The Hobbit. Some of the delegates were staying in the same hotel as Peter Jackson and some of the cast from The Hobbit - but no invites to the pre-release party! Next year's conference is at Macquarie University in Sydney.

Software Freedom Day - 15 September 2012

2012-09-07T02:33:10Z

On Saturday 15 September the world celebrates Software Freedom Day. Software Freedom Day aims to promote some thought about how important software is to our modern lives. It highlights the need to consider the importance of open software. As we come to rely more and more on technology to live our lives, fully engaged with society, it is crucial that we consider what closed systems mean and celebrate and support open platforms.

]]> Pia Waugh’s write up on the Software Freedom website is worth a read. She highlights the connection open software has to basic human rights. We are so dependant on technology to help us function successfully that our freedom becomes defined by the openness of the software that we use. Some open software you may already be familiar with:

Moodle - Our learning management system
Linux - free operating system
LibreOffice - personal Office suite (docs, spreadsheet, presentations, etc.)
Firefox - Web browser
Chrome - Web browser
Audacity - record audio & podcasts
GIMP - photo and image editing
WEKA - data mining - developed here at Waikato!

There are many many more check out the wikipedia page for an example.

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What are Filter Bubbles??

2012-09-06T04:28:13Z

When we get information from the web it isn’t raw data it is filtered by the systems we use, the search engine or the social media tool we like. If you are under the impression that you are getting impartial information you need to think again.

]]> Now don’t get me wrong - I am not saying you shouldn’t use searches or social media platforms, what I am saying is it is good to be aware of what happens when you search for something. Your search engine gives you results based in part on what it thinks you want, not impartial at all, helpful most of the time but still filtered (and not by you).

Check out this excellent TED talk by Eli Pariser: Beware online "filter bubbles" and get a better picture of what happens when you look for information. This is really worth the 9 minutes it takes to watch.

It's not a phone...

2012-09-05T03:07:14Z

It’s Digital Literacy Awareness Week at Waikato and I’ve been forced to think about how to describe digital literacy. For me, digital literacy is about the way that we approach our use of technology and the meaning it brings to us.

About 4 years ago, I had taken my son (who was eight at the time) to his swimming lesson. Afterwards, he wanted to know if Mum had gotten something ready for him. I said that I wasn't sure but that we could phone her. He immediately replied, "But you don't have a phone Dad"...

]]> "Yes I do", "No you don't", then ensued in a typical dad/son exchange. Eventually I said "You know that I've got a phone", and pulled it from my pocket and waved it in front of him. "But that's not a phone, Dad", he said with seriousness and a hint of puzzlement on his face. Trying not to sound too exasperated, I said, "Of course it's a phone! What do you think it is?" The reply came back, with some disdain in his voice, "That's not a phone Dad, that's the Internet!". I was beaten - Son 1, Dad 0 again!

This highlights for me the role of past learning and perceptions in our understanding of the present. That’s not a bad thing in itself, unless it limits our thinking about how we operate in the present and the potential for the future. While I used "the phone" to access the Internet all the time (probably 95% or more) I still perceived it as a phone. In fact, in a device that easily fits in a pocket, I had access to trillions of pages of information. While we shouldn't lose sight of the past, we sometimes have to consider how new technologies allow us to do new things, rather than do old things in slightly different ways. My digital literacy increased that day, not through learning a new vocabulary but through conceptual change, perhaps like learning how a Haiku or sonnet is constructed.

What experiences have you had that have made you more aware of the role of digital technologies in your life?

[Image courtesy of Leigh Blackall and a Creative Commons licence]

ADDITION - This evening, while reading a blog post about social networks, I was pointed to this video by Alex Samuel. She describes what the Internet means to her and in the process nails digital literacy. She describes a key aspect that both Colin Lankshear and Doug Belshaw talk about in their contributions to Digital Literacy Awareness Week, that digital literacy is about people doing things that have context for them and communicating meaning and learning in social ways. The Internet is what we make of it - by understanding this we take a giant step towards the condition that is digital literacy.

Share, Remix and Reuse: Free Stuff thanks to Creative Commons (cc) licences

2012-09-04T04:21:26Z

With the three strikes law and piracy issues popping up in the news it is really good to be able to find an alternative copyright system. Creative Commons is an international non-profit that provides free licences and tools that copyright owners can use with their work. This allows creators to tell their audience how they can legally share, reuse and remix their material.

]]> You can share your own work or search for works others have shared. Think about using cc images in your presentations or maybe using cc video in your lectures. There are so many cc licensed resources available you can usually find what you need to fit your requirements.

Take a look at the Creative Commons Aotearoa New Zealand to find out more about cc licences, resources and more. Got 20 mins coming along to a speed seminar scheduled for Wednesday 5 September at 10.30am in M.2.23 and find out more.

Be in to Win with our Digital Literacy Coffee Courses

2012-09-03T01:12:27Z

We will have a number of coffee courses that you can do online. What are coffee courses? They are not about making coffee they are made up of short, informal learning activities that can be completed in the time it takes to drink a cup of coffee. You choose the activity, the time, the place, and the beverage.

]]> Activities are grouped into courses to which you can subscribe and receive each

activity by email every morning at around 10 am. Of course, if you prefer, you can choose not to subscribe and simply visit the website when you have the time or inclination.

We're have launched our first coffee course today for Digital Literacy Awareness Week and the first five activities have a digital literacy theme. Take a look at the first activity, there will be a freshly brewed activity available every morning at 10am. Feel free to subscribe so you don't miss out. Look out for the subscription form on the welcome page.

Check out the prizes page to find out how to enter the draw for an awesome Nexus 7 Tablet.

Image "ed hardy & splash one I" Some rights reserved by dongga BS

Digital Literacy @ Waikato

2012-08-24T05:14:51Z

You probably haven’t heard of the Digital Literacy for Staff project yet and that’s why we are having a whole week of activities and events to raise awareness.

The Digital Literacy project team have been working hard over the last few months to organise the first Digital Literacy @ Waikato week, 3 - 7 September. We have a number of speed seminars and workshops for you to attend, quick activities to do at your desk and printed resources too. Get enthusiastic and win some great prizes, including a state of the art 7 inch tablet. Keep an eye on our site for the details of how to qualify to go in the draw.

License Some rights reserved by whatleydude

]]> Why should you care about Digital Literacy?? Because without it you will not be able to live, learn and work or participate fully in today’s digital society. Digital literacy is as important as reading and writing so it is no coincidence that we have chosen the same week that hosts International Literacy Day

. Keep in mind that digital literacy isn’t a threshold, it is a continuum that we never get to the end of. While it’s not so important where you are on that journey, the important thing is to engage, as there is always something more to know. Even if you are not interested for yourself, students within early childhood, primary and secondary education are being groomed for technological engagement as outlined in the NZ Digital Strategy 2008. It is vital for our future society that this engagement continues to be nurtured and enhanced within tertiary environments by staff who are confident themselves with digital technology.

Luckily for us we work in a learning organisation, and we understand the need to support our staff in continually learning & developing our practice. In light of a rapidly changing technological environment and its impact on workplace practices, development of digital literacy has particular significance. So we are bringing you Digital Literacy week. Look out for posters and flyers in your tearooms and I hope you can all participate and I’m sure that you will have some fun along the way!

MoodleMootAU12 ~ Days Two and Three

2012-07-04T00:37:26Z

There were only a few main highlights for me on day two of MoodleMootAU. These were Elisabeth Ellis and Solua Middleton's keynote on how the ABC connect with their staff learning community and an introduction to ABC Open, and how the Australian National University assessed their courses to inform staff professional development.

Elisabeth explained to us how the ABC have a huge mix of staff with roles you I know I don't really think about when I watch the telly like hairdressers, human resources, accounting and truck drivers in the warehouses. As with any large organisation these staff have various technological skills and attitudes towards online learning. Elisabeth talked about how they ensure the range of learners is catered for in their strategy and how they keep things simple to ensure those who have difficulty with navigation can cope. Along with others in the room, I liked how Elisabeth had several images representing parts of her presentation on the slide and ask the audience to choose which story she choose to tell next by choosing an image.

Solua Middleton then introduced us to ABC Open. This site is full of user generated content providing regional Australians a voice. There are some wonderful stories here that will keep you engaged for hours and some great tutorials for generating your contents.

Luke Powter's presentation on how the Australian National University (ANU) used the sophistication of their Moodle courses to inform their professional development was food for thought. I have talked to several other delegates this year about how they ensure courses go through assurance processes and I’ve seen rubrics before and always wonder if we need to do this more. Having a snapshot of which parts are not used to it’s full potential can help determine what topics to provide in our monthly PD workshops.

Wednesday was a half day so there were only three presentations before the keynote (which unfortunately I had to miss). The two highlights here for me were Shane Elliott's demonstration of the External Tool LTI and Renee Lance's practical and helpful advice on customising a Moodle theme.

Shane Elliott - The IMS LTI External Tool has huge potential from sharing a basic resource or activity from one course to another and pulling in sources from other external sites.

Theme development is something I'm keen to keep informed about as I would like to ensure our site looks the best it can. The TAFE NSW decided they needed a theme that was configurable for their staff. They achieved this by allowing the teacher to choose which other course's theme they would like to copy as well as settings that can be changed.

Moodle Moot Australia ~ Day One

2012-07-02T07:30:14Z

The Gold Coast provided some wonderly warm weather for us today for Moodle Moot Australia 2012. Apparently I missed another frost this morning in the Waikato - oh well! There were lots of great opportunities to network and share today. My presentation was well received with no time for all the questions so I've had to set up a forum for discussion.

Read the full post to see my highlights of the day which included Martin's keynote, Integrating BigBlueButton, Using Moodle & eReaders in prisons, a plugin to detect similarities of computer code assignments, making Moodle accessible and 'tricking' staff into learning during training sessions!

You can keep updated via the #mootau12 hashtag on Twitter

]]> Keynote: Martin Dougiamas
Martin was a trooper today standing up and delivering his keynote with a flu induced fever. As well as talking about Moodle 2.3 he talked about how HQs priorities include Plugins, Processes, Usability and Integrations as well as the new Mobile Moodle app.

The HQ team have made a great effort at updating the developer documents to help others with their contributions to Moodle. It was good to hear the HQ developers have been going through the MCCC - this tells me they are in touch with how teachers use Moodle :) I am interested in hearing more about their nightly testing processes which go through the 600+ tests automatically and will have to check that out later.

Integrating Moodle, BigBlueButton & Skype to deliver and assess presentations and role play
This presentation was focused on using video for evidence gathering and was a good chance to check out how BigBlueButton has changed since I last looked at it. I’m looking forward to getting more into this when I get back to work and for polls and breakout rooms coming soon.

Using Moodle and eReaders to overcome the Digital Divide in the Education of Incarcerated Offenders: Work in Progress Report
This was an interesting session on how USQ are using a stand alone Moodle and eReaders to deliver content to prisoners who (perhaps for obvious reasons) cannot access the Internet, mobile phones or even USB sticks! The e-Readers supplied are loaded with the course material and library resources and can be taken to cells and kept after the course, BUT they have no 3G, Wifi, SD card slot OR removable batteries. Having the eReader loaded with other books and prompting the users to use the search features to find their material also provided some digital and reading literacy skills :)

A Moodle plugin to detect computer programming code similarities for use in an educational context (NetSpot Innovation Fund)
I’m keen to check out this a little more as we’ve had staff ask about programming assignment checking. This plugin uses jplag (web services) & moss (proprietary protocol) to detection similarities and creates a report to display similarities between pairs of students within the assignment. Note to self: subscribe to this Moodle.org forum!

Making Moodle Accessible
I knew that Australian Government organisations need to comply to accessibility guidelines but today someone confirmed that Universities and TAFEs have to police this to ensure all of their courses are compliant. Wow, imagine having to check every one of your courses? The eSolutions User Experience Team from Monash Uni presented on their work making Monash’s Moodle site accessibile via the theme and course formats. Accessibility has been on my list of things to look at for some time so I better bump this up the priority list. We can start by running specific workshops, providing online tutorials and self-help information for our staff.

The Academic Staff Training Trojan Horse
Marissa Viray Carlos and Mitch Hughes from Monash Uni presented on how they used the Trojan Horse concept (or hiding the vegetables in the mashed potatoes) when providing Moodle training for staff to plant good practice into the minds of the attendees. This was a great presentation and I’ll definitely be taking some of the ideas away to incorporate into my Moodle sessions :)

You can keep updated via the #mootau12 hashtag on Twitter

Email: make it easier for you and everyone else

2012-06-13T03:39:56Z

If you’re like me, you get hundreds of emails every single day. The subject line of those emails is the first thing you read and it becomes very helpful when searching for messages at a later date. With this in mind, it is really important that you consider what to put in the subject line when you create your message.

There are a lot of really useful rules that apply to email and here are a few that we think are the most helpful.

]]>

Make sure you have meaningful subject lines

Keep to one subject per email

Use the "cc" option when people need to be kept informed but don’t need to action anything

Think about "Reply" vs "Reply all". Who needs to know?

Resist sending fluff. “Me too”, is not very useful and takes time to open and read. Send the relevant information to the relevant people

If you are sending mail to lots of people, consider a mailing group and/or lists in Google contacts

Emails should be short. If you need to write lots, use a document instead

Think about sharing a google document instead of sending an attachment

Do you need to send an email? Could some other medium serve you better? Perhaps social media will do the trick (Facebook, Yammer, Twitter), CommUNIty or the OC

Check your Postini spam filters are set to the right level for you

Use Chrome when you are viewing webmail

Remember writing in all caps is not only hard to read but shouting

Don’t just take our word for it take a look at what other people say about Email
http://www.emailreplies.com/
http://www.ehow.com/how_2293051_use-proper-email-etiquette-work.html
http://email.about.com/od/emailnetiquette/tp/core_netiquette.htm

Scams, Rip Offs, and Dishonesty on the Internet

2012-05-30T22:22:06Z

Recently the University has experienced a phishing attack, so it seemed like a good time to write about netsafety. Dishonesty isn't something new, we all know it exists. The thing that is new is the environment where we are facing dishonesty. Thinking about it, it really isn't that surprising there are those who are trying to rip you off online. People can be dishonest and people use technology to help them be dishonest. Guess the trick is to ensure you protect yourself as much as possible and acquire the skills to recognise dishonesty when it presents itself. It actually isn't that difficult to be safe online there are some really obvious measures you can take. Mostly they are the same things you would do in a face to face situation.

]]>

Don't give information out to people you don't know - like you wouldn't talk to strangers in real life and handover your bank account details.

If it is too good to be true then it properly isn't true - just like in real life.

Don't give out your password to anyone - just like in real life.

Make sure that sites you buy things off are genuine - just like in real life buying of the back of a truck may not be a good idea.

Have a strong password having one that is too weak is a bit like putting a spare key under the mat at the front door - only honest thieves will stay out.

Make sure you have a firewall on your router AND turn it on.

Have some virus protection software installed AND update the virus definitions.

What I am saying is, there are some dangers out there but no more than in the "real" world, you just need to be careful, like you already are in face to face situations. There are a number of really good resources out there to help you, take a look, keep yourself safe:

Google's advice on keeping safe online
http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/online-safety/

Creating Secure Passwords
http://www.netsafe.org.nz/how-can-i-choose-a-strong-password/
http://www.getsafeonline.org/nqcontent.cfm?a_id=1127

Privacy Quiz
http://privacyawarenessweek.org/2011/id_theft_tool/index.html

Netsafe NZ
http://www.netsafe.org.nz/

Report Scams at The Orb
http://www.theorb.org.nz/

Reflections of iMoot ~ Day 4/5

2012-05-29T20:19:44Z

Tuesday was a mission for me as I became more and more tired... Highlights included another demo of the new Assignment module which I put on the big screen for the others in the office. It’s a huge improvement where the individual assignments are bundled into one activity. This has all the options you need to determine what you require which allows staff to change the assignment type without the need to recreate it.

After a bit of actual work and some lunch a couple of colleagues and myself watched Recording Audio and Video with PoodLL with Justin Hunt (Japan). Justin demonstrated the capabilities and we had a play on demo.poodll.com. This has potential for our language learners as an audio & video tool for student submissions and our staff for providing feedback.

]]> Then I joined Lindy Klein (Australia) who presented a paper about how system administrators can influence learning. This might sound like an odd connection but Moodle site reporting can help determine which staff can be potential champions.

Back to back sessions from Gavin Henrick (Ireland) followed then another recording before bed. Gavin wowed the audience with how an IMS LTI is a standard way of integrating applications with learning platforms in his Keynote: Breaking Down the Barriers to Learning Technology - Moodle as Part of the Learning Ecosystem. Read more about the potential of this fantastic standard on Gavin’s blog. Incidentally check out ChemVantage who provide Open Education Resources for teaching and learning General Chemistry and Noteflight which is an online music writing app that lets you create, view, print and hear music. Gavin’s second session highlighted the importance of evaluating Moodle Plugins with a list of some he feels are essential. He also reminded me of the Plugin Evaluation checklist he published which is collecting dust in my Moodle Development folder :)

The alarm was set early for Wednesday morning so I could get up and watch the session about BigBlueButton from Fred Dixon (Canada). I’m very keen to see our BigBlueButton test server upgraded. I know this is something on Troy’s to-do so I might just nudge him along :)

It’s been an awesome five days of iMooting - there are still some session I need to catch up with, I’m so glad the sessions were all recorded :)

Now it’s time to stop blogging and get ready for the iMoot Wrapup - I hope my iMoot2012 photo makes it into the competition :)