Seda 10 dot nov 2014

Editor's Notes

1. HW and CR Time: 5 Mins Introductions fro HW and CR and how we met (via Twitter)…and collaborated Helen Webster 1/ Just started at Newcastle University but over the last 3-4 years have been working on projects in teachig and learning and researcher development at Cambridge University, Education Development at ARU, and am now home in Newcastle as a Learning Developer, head of the Writing Development Centre. Three very different universities – Oxbridge, Post -92 split campus and Russell group. Chris Rowell. 1. Regent’s University. Private not for Profit University base in central London. Fantastic location. 4000 students and 350 teaching staff. European Business School London (EBSL). 7 Schools: 2. My role. Deputy LT Manager. Most of my day to day work is related to the Uni’s VLE – Blackboard but I am also responsible for promoting new and emerging technologies and supporting who staff who have their own individual projects.
2. What is it, strapline, followed by a brief description of how it works
3. Very quick run through of why I designed it this way
4. Very quick
5. Again, very quick, self-explanatory
6. CR Time: 5 Mins #10DoT at RUL: I was initially attracted to this course because of my experience of being a facilitator on the ‘Bring Your Own Devise 4 Learning’ course. The course started on the 13th May Set up Wordpress blog http://regents10dot.wordpress.com/ - used Helen’s course with the addition of SELFIE Competition PLUS a few videos. I set up a separate Twitter account (@RUL10DoT) to support the course Value for me personally: Firstly, it’s given me the confidence to know that I can plan, organise and run this type of online course. I have never been involved in a purely online course before as most of my previous experience has been working in blended learning environments. Secondly, it has shown that there is a demand from the staff here at Regent’s for this type of training. It is the first time our Learning Technology Team has tried this type of training with our staff. Previously, the majority of our training has been in workshops or on a one to one level of engagement. Judging by the numbers engaging in the course and our feedback so far staff really like the format of short online courses based on a specific subject. Thirdly, it’s been a Networking experience. I have met many new people in the University through the course. Some of these staff would not have come to a face to face session (for number of reasons) and it’s been a good way of developing a new type of relationship with them.
7. CR Time: 5 Mins Evaluating #RUL10DoT CR Anecdotal. The RUL10DoT course was available to all academic and professional staff in the University. Judging by the informal feedback I received from the participants a few had never used Twitter before but the majority had set up a Twitter account in the past but were unsure of what to do with it and often could not see how it could be relevant to their own professional development. They were attracted to the course because if offered them the prospect of developing Twitter in their own professional context. Number of participants. Over the course of the 10 days there were over 50 participants at Regent’s University who ‘engaged’ with the course. The variety of their engagement varied a lot. If we see engagement as a continuum, where at one end there were “lurkers” watching and observing the blog/tweets and at the other end participants Tweeting on a regular basis on the various daily tasks. Workshop. ‘Getting stated with Twitter’ in the morning which I jointly ran with the Deputy Library Manager, Andy Horton. We had 10 people in the workshop and 4 of them had never used Twitter so by the end of the session they had all set up their accounts. The others had accounts but hadn’t really used them or knew what to Tweet about. During the workshop we gave a brief overview of Twitter covering many point sin 20 minutes and then gave them a pack of cards adapted from Sue Beckingham’s slideshow (on Getting started with Twitter) and asked them to send a tweet using the course hashtag #RUL10DoT. It was really useful having a face to face event to ‘kick off’ the course as this immediately generated several tweets using the hashtag. Twitter analytics – Storify: Didn’t use …would have done if I had more time…
8. HW and CR Time: 10 mins Activity: How might you adapt #10DoT? Who would you run it for, how might you tailor it for them? What else might this format be transferred to?
9. HW and CR Time: 5 Mins Tips from our experiences of running #10DoT: HW, CR Chris: Make time – Running the Twitter course takes up a ‘fair’ amount of time which is difficult to quantify. Throughout the day I was always checking the Twitter timeline and responding appropriately. This allowed me to get on with my ‘day job’ but did add to my overall workload by the end of the day. Try and keep your other activity to a minimum over the 10 days – if possible. Also I ran the course over the weekend – this was a mistake – activity dropped off considerably over the weekend but also meant I had to administer what was going on. If I ran the course again I would just stick to working days (Mon-Fridays). Motivation. Think about the motivation factors for the learners. Even over a relatively short period of time learners dropped out of the course. I used the ‘selfie’ competition to re-engage participants which worked to some degree but if I’d had more time I think I could have done more, especially using and embedding videos into the blog. Maybe interviewing some of the participants about their Twitter experiences would have made the blog posts more motivating and interesting. Value of face to face meetings. Again if I redo the course I think I will organise more supporting workshops. Having the initial one on the first day really worked but next time I think I could have organised two or three more face to face sessions. I’m sure most of the participants wouldn’t have turned up but it would have been a useful addition to those who wanted it. Develop a team. Don’t just run the course on your own. I asked a variety to people in the University to be co-facilitators which really just meant them helping to respond and encourage people to Tweet over the 10 days. So I had a fellow Learning Technologist, a Marketing Lecturer and the Head of Careers and Business Relations as fellow facilitators, This worked really well. Any Horton (Deputy Librarian) was great at moving the Twitter chats along and he even wrote a guest blog post on who to follow on twitter aimed specifically at Regent’s staff.
10. HW and CR Time: 5 Mins Where next for #10DoT – our plans HW CR
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