LSIS Funding for Excellence Gateway Projects

The Excellence Gateway is undergoing significant development at the moment. To support this work the Excellence Gateway team at LSIS has recently announced funding opportunities for six provider-led projects which will help them to further improve access to the Gateway's content and services.

They are planning to fund the following areas of work:

• Review and improvement of a nominated area of content, including retagging of items. Total funding of up to £75,000 (inc VAT) is available for this strand of work, which will consist of three projects, each funded up to a maximum of£25,000 (inc VAT).
  


• Creation of resources to support users of the Excellence Gateway, including user guides. Funding of up to £25,000 (inc VAT).



• Sustainable development of key National Learning Network (NLN) materials, which are currently hosted by LSIS. Total funding of up to £20,000 (inc VAT) is available for this strand of work, which will consist of two projects, each funded up to a maximum of £10,000 (inc VAT).

The deadline for completion of each of the projects is March 31st 2012. Further details, and the closing date for applications, can be found on the LSIS website.


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Discounted Mahara E-Portfolio Training

In this previous post I shared a video which outlined the benefits of using an e-portfolio. Incredibly that was over two years ago, and certainly e-portfolios have come a long way since then! It will come as no surprise then that various types of e-portfolios have now been adopted by learning providers who have been quick to realise their benefits for helping their learners to:

Review and plan their learning,

Provide evidence for an award or an employer;

Reflecting on activities and plan future directions;

Give appropriate views of achievement to appropriate people, for example, teachers, mentors, careers advisers, potential employers

Linking achievement and work with the skills required by employers.

In support of this growing area we have run a number of e-portfolio events in these past two years, the most recent of which introduced the open source Mahara E-Portfolio system. This offered teaching staff the chance to get to grips with Mahara and receive accreditation for the training that they had received. We were also fortunate enough to be able to offer that course at significantly reduced rates for our supported providers.

That last event was oversubscribed and the feedback was also very positive which has led us to repeat this course, again with significant reductions in price, exclusively for our supported providers in this region.

Usually this course is offered at a cost is £510 but we are able to offer it at £225 (inclusive of VAT) offering you a huge saving of £285! What’s more, to enable you to make the most of the training, we offer all attendees a Mahara e-portfolio, hosted by us until the end of the academic year.

To find out more or your book your place visit our website.

Delegates comments from the last event:

“… the course provided a good range of examples and different experiences from the other course members as well as detailed training on the use of Mahara.”


“…Now I have a better understanding of the capabilities of Mahara I can recommend a number of possible applications”.


“…the training allowed me to ask questions that were specific to my college. Without these answers, I may not have been able to go ahead with Mahara so confidently.”

“…I learned how to export an ePortfolio into a standalone web page format, which was really helpful, as it can allow students to use Mahara in different ways outside of the college.”


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Developing e-Learning Skills and Course Design

Are you looking to understand how to create e-Learning that is instructionally sound? If yes, then read on for details of a course designed to introduce you to approaches to e-Learning and creating informative e-Learning courses.

“Approaches to e-Learning and Developing a Pedagogically Sound e-Learning” is an eight week online course that has been developed by e-Learning Studios. Its aim is to educate vocational trainers and educators in a range of e-Learning methods, innovations and technologies to better connect them with a new generation of learners. The course consists of a series of webinars, e-Learning modules and a learning network where learners can share ideas and engage in peer to peer learning.

The course aims to:

Provide an introduction to a range of different approaches to e-Learning

Provide guidance, resources and opportunities to vocational teachers and trainers for practice in creating and delivering a range of different types of e-Learning

Help you to understand and apply pedagogically sound principles to e-Learning design, gain basic instructional design skills and apply the principles of good practice to e-Learning.

This course also includes an accreditation certificate in the subject of e-Learning.

Typical areas covered include:

· WebQuests and podcasts
· Creating videos for your e-Learning course
· Delivering training sessions through a virtual classroom
· Instructional Design
· Visual design and storyboarding
· Developing an e-Learning course using a rapid authoring tool

It also considers quality and good practice in e-Learning and the effects of culture and diversity.

The next course starts on 17th November 2011 and costs £495 plus VAT. Places are limited but there is still some limited availability. To apply please contact Parul Thakrar for an application pack at: parul@e-learningstudios.com




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