Goldsmiths - University of London

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Previous Learning & Teaching fellowships

2005-06

The (Virtual) Caribbean Desk: Digitising Learning Resources for Caribbean Literature Teaching
- Dr. Joan Anim-Addo (English and Comparative Literature)

With its unprecedented unification of different media, the Web can help to bring the remote Caribbean, and its far-flung academic community, to students’ desktops. Although resources to support the study of Caribbean literature are scarce, an interdisciplinary network of content providers have already collected and digitised diverse contributions from an international community of academics, writers and artists. The project aims to use a range of web tools to organise and present this body of material for students, and to link out to other resources. Learn.gold, the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE) will be a single point of entry and form a robust platform for a range of media including video, audio, images, and text. The design of the course area will be shaped by information from learn.gold’s user logs, which record user activity and incidence of use, by observation of students in their use of the resources, and through direct consultation.

Investigating Web-Based Approaches to Conducting Research
- Chris Brauer; Prof Celia and Karen Catling (Sociology)

Chris will use a structured, user-centred methodology to design and develop an online learning resource on conducting research in web based environments. At the outset, a range of needs-assessment exercises will identify student and staff requirements in terms of learning, accessibility and usability. On the basis of these findings, the resources will be designed and developed. Finally, a working version will be rolled out within the department, and structures set in place to raise awareness, connect with existing resource, and maintain and improve the resource.
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The Virtual Portfolio: development of a programme-wide VLE resource.
- Dr. Simon Cohn (Anthropology)

Simon will make use of opportunities for non-linear presentation in learn.gold, the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE), to give students essential context and perspective on the separate courses which comprise the programme. The VLE will allow a framework of content elements to be built between which different interrelationships can be emphasised, and around which learning activities can take place. An area called the Portfolio Case will explicitly map objectives from each course, via activities and content, to broader learning outcomes for the programme. It is hoped that this transparent approach will promote in students deeper insight about the domain of medical anthropology and a reflective approach to learning. In combination with college email, the Forum tool will make learn.gold the hub for and record of course communications.

First Year Study Skills on the VLE.
- Helen Cornish & Dr Sophie Day (Anthropology)

First year anthropology students take an Information and Communication Technology unit as part of their Study Skills course. This project will pilot use of learn.gold, the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE), to reflect the real-world environment in which students and academics carry out their research, information management, and output today. As well as accessing a range of study skills resources on strategic reading, compiling bibliographies, writing essays and note-taking, each student will have an area to upload assignments and other work. This collection will form a portfolio which can be integrated with a Personal Development Plan.

Multimedia Teaching and Learning Resources for ‘Radio Studies - a Cultural Enquiry’.
- Tim Crook (Media and Communications)

Tim plans to produce and present digitised audio-visual material to support the Radio Studies course - part of a broader MA. The content - audio, video and images - for 25 separate topics of the course will be acquired, captured or recorded, edited using a range of tools available in CELT, and rendered for use on the Web. Once produced, content elements must be presented flexibly to allow students to engage with them in a meaningful, interrelated way on and off campus, and to allow timely access during contact sessions. Responses from students will be collected with a structured evaluation.

An Online Resource to Support Postgraduate Students placements.
- Joseph Deville (Sociology)

In postgraduate research, opportunities to discuss studies and studentship can be scarce. This project aims to conceive and test an approach to student-led web-based guidance and support for current and prospective postgraduate students across disciplines, and to stimulate inter-departmental exchange in the college. It is anticipated that the web site will be built around a number of features, including a core of articles about key issues in postgraduate study, a discussion forum, and relevant updating news items which will lend immediacy. All design and developments will be informed by ongoing structured and opportunistic consultation with students.

Developing high quality teaching materials for a new MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience on learn.gold
- Dr Jan de Fockert & Dr Gianna Cocchini (Centre for English Language and Academic Writing)

Jan and Gianna intend to produce multimedia material, including video animations of brain activity, neuro-anatomical images and audio-visual clips of brain-damaged patients. These state of the art resources will be accessible to students on the new MSc in Cognitive and Clinical Neuroscience. The interactive and communication functions of Goldsmiths’ VLE learn.gold will be exploited to enforce students’ deeper engagement with the material and with each other.

English Language Learning and Online Support
- Dr Stella Harvey (Language Studies Centre)

Stella and colleagues in the Language Studies Centre will create and extend between-sessions learning opportunities for students on the Certificate and Diploma in Language and Contemporary Culture. Learn.gold, the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE) offers an assessment tool with range of different question types, opportunities for giving partial credit, flexible automated provision of feedback, and tracking individual students’ progress. These features are well suited to grammar and vocabulary building exercises, where common areas of weakness such as prepositions and verb forms can be addressed using gap-fill or multiple choice question types, and annotation exercises. The project will involve adapting existing paper-based materials for the new medium, and evaluating them for usability, affective response and outcome with a sample of students. Links between the learn.gold course area and the existing real.gold language learning site will also be built.

Bringing Africa into the Classroom through Virtual Learning.
- Dr. Rebekah Lee (History)

This project will make use of technology to enhance and simulate student experiences of the sights, sounds and ‘feel’ of Africa. It will entail the creation of a virtual museum visit of the BM Sainsbury African Galleries, a virtual tour of a South African township, as well as edited video and audio clips from films and documentaries. The resulting resources web page will be available to students at all levels within the history department.

“Virtual Seminars” for the Introduction to Political Theory first year course.
- Marc Lefebvre (Politics)

Marc’s project entails the creation of a series of virtual seminars developed in alignment with the lectures and seminars of the introductory course to political theory. New students are introduced to and supported in the skill of critically engaging with theoretical texts. The seminars will be available through the Colleges Virtual Learning Environment, (VLE), learn.gold, and particular emphasis is on the development of activity features within learn.gold, such as forums, quizzes, lessons and the communal build-up of a political glossary. Online student feedback through will inform continued development of the seminars in following years.

Distance learning module and international networking resource.
- Gerald Lidstone (Theatre and Performance)

Gerald intents to develop the distance learning aspect of one of his modules of the existing Arts Administration and Cultural Policy course. This will entail the development of a structure of that module, with view to online delivery. A series of still images, video and audio resources to enhance the students’ experiences is planned, as well as the development of a web resource to encourage international networking within the subject area. In the first instance there will be a forum area where students can share views and visual materials.

Subject-specific writing exemplars as a development of the Writing PAD Project and the LSC learn.gold site
- Julia Lockheart (Language Studies Centre)

Julia will continue her HEFCE funded Writing PAD (www.writing-pad.ac.uk/) project and develop the Language Studies Centre’s presence on the Goldsmiths VLE. She plans to collect exemplary student work for others to view. These will be presented in a visual gallery, alongside marking criteria and typical tutor’s comments, demonstrating to learners within Art and Design how to write acceptable academic papers in their subject area.

Visual Arts Film and Video Multi-Format Resource.
- Stefania Marangoni (Visual Arts)

Recording video and sound requires some expertise. This project aims to produce online audiovisual training materials about using recording equipment, which can be accessed by students in a timely way without relying on the availability of a trainer or demonstrator. Initially, learning needs will be identified and learning material will be storyboarded and scripted. After recording the material will be compiled as a narrative of short videos in sequence, and made available on DVD and on the Web through learn.gold, the college’s Virtual Learning Environment.

Politics and Public Policy - Making the most of e-resources to enhance your knowledge and understanding of contemporary public policy making in the EU and UK.
- Ed Randall (Politics)

This project envisages the creation of an interactive web resource for politics students investigating the policy making process in the UK and the European Union. Ed will create a public policy index in the form of a “top ten” based on the analysis of a year’s worth of online media sources. The method according to which the top ten has been decided will be presented alongside a guide to important online public policy resources. The website will also entail interactive elements, such as self-assessment quizzes and, most importantly, a final prize competition in which students are encouraged to submit opinion pieces on the public policy proposals in the index.

Teaching and Learning Algorithms with Creation.
- Juliet Sprake (Design)

Juliet plans to develop mobile learning resources by using her experience from an earlier research project (www.nestafuturelab.org/showcase/mudlarking/mudlarking.htm). The development will entail a blueprint and a toolkit for designing PDA (personal digital assistant) usable learning opportunities. Templates will enable teachers and students to deliver and respond and add to learning materials that are site-specific easily and quickly. The templates will be designed so that teachers will need no particular technological expertise.

Goldsmiths Drama Department Genre Database.
- Andrew Tidmarsh (Theatre and Performance)

Andrew will produce a database of short video clips researched, filmed and edited by Drama students to illustrate different theatrical genres. The films will be archived and annotated with brief explanations of the various genres. The database will provide a durable reference resource for all Goldsmiths College students, and an exciting complement to the course Drama Production 1a. It will encourage and enable Drama students to analyse and identify genre archetypes, which is a fundamental skill in their studies. It will also present students with the opportunity to learn about the digital film making process.

Collaborative online documentation of design research.
- Yanna Vogiazou (Design)

Yanna aims to encourage students to collaborate in their creative and generative design research and document the outcomes online. This will lead to a repository of ideas and will give the opportunity to develop a form of best practice. It will enable students to review their creative processes and reflect on positive and negative criticism. The project will be using Wiki technology, and Yanna will provide additional practical guidelines for research methods, give reference lists and make available best practice examples.

Multi-media teaching resource for digitally sound and text networked radio newsroom operations.
- Keith Waghorn (Media and Communications)

Keith plans to create a teaching and learning resource for students that contains detailed information on how to operate the new professional radio news production system in his department. The information will be both delivered on the Goldsmiths College VLE, learn.gold, and in form of an illustrated handbook. It will contain instructions on how to use ENPS software, on networked digital sound editing for radio output, and how to operate a radio newsroom studio. This will provide important learning material essential for the completion of the MA radio programme.

Online postgraduate textiles.
- Gerard Williams (Theatre and Performance)

Gerard aims to unify key graphical and textual material, ideas, debate and a diary of events as a focal point for the Postgraduate Textiles programme. An area on learn.gold, the college’s virtual learning environment (VLE), will facilitate exchange between students, staff and invited external contributors. Initially staff and students will be consulted to identify needs in terms of accessibility, structure and focus. Findings from this stage will feed into the design and development process, and the acquisition or production of resources. The final stage will involve launching and evaluating the resource, as well as planning and managing its expansion.

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