Teaching and learning case studies
Distance learning (old university)
OCSLD has been working with the university’s distance learning programmes for several years. Our main role is to offer annual events training new tutors in distance tutoring skills and supporting students using the university’s web conferencing facilities. OCSLD staff have worked closely with distance learning co-ordinators in devising support materials, workshops and online activities for their new distance tutors. More recently, we have facilitated sessions for other course teams to consider how they could best make use of the university’s online learning environment to support their distance learning students and programmes.
Plagiarism (old university)
We ran two half-day programmes on dealing with plagiarism, with the morning aimed at academic staff and the afternoon at administrative staff with, of course, some overlap of content for both groups. This meant that the academics could focus on designing courses that were less vulnerable, inducting and teaching students, and sharing views with others who were also concerned about academic integrity. The afternoon session had a policy and procedures focus and we could spend time on issues such as devising consistent punishments and agreeing how the university needed to move forward. Some people came to both but the split format alerted a large number of folk to issues, solutions and shared concerns.
Online tutoring (new university)
Our four week Online tutoring course is itself an online course designed for teachers and trainers just starting to use technologies in their teaching. The emphasis is on the skills of facilitating communication, interaction and learning in individuals and groups of learners. It attracts participants from across the country and also from abroad.
A new university about to embark on some major e-learning advances asked us to run the course for a group of their staff. They wanted to tailor development of online tutors to specific requirements and context, and we were able to accommodate their wishes and adapt aspects of the course to their requirements.