I’m sure you’ll be well aware that Moodle has been selected as the learning management system for the University. The implementation phase has already begun with ICTS and UCTL working hard behind the scenes to get servers, support services and such like in place ready to host new courses in Moodle for teaching in semester 2.
One of the outcomes of the LMS review was –
Recommendation 6. That UCTL and the Library be asked to investigate
progressive development of the links between the LMS and Library systems.
Anne Scott and Alison McIntyre will represent the Library on the LMS implementation group and Gregor Ronald will be our UCTL contact to develop these links. A preliminary meeting was held this morning to discuss how we might proceed.
Gregor has set up a Moodle “Sandbox” course LIBR001 – Library Staff Practice Course so that we can experiment with Moodle possibilities. Information Librarians and Library managers have been added to the course in the first instance. Apologies if you need access to the LMS for your library role and I havn’t added your name – please drop me an email message and I’ll add you asap.
Gregor is setting up a Moodle course template in which there will be a Library “block” or designated space. This provides an opportunity for the Library to have a presence in every Moodle course page. Content for such a block needs to be agreed by the end of March. Expect to hear from Janette Nicolle soon regarding the process for this decision. In the meantime Gregor has just put together a random list of links so we can see how it might look. Now is the time to start thinking about how best to provide library support for students at course level from within the LMS.
Library Heads-up is a new Library blog for the College of Business and Economics.
This post provides some background and a brief description of the Heads-up blog concept.
Last week all staff in the College of Business and Economics received a printed mailout featuring the very cute meerkat and the blog url.
Library Heads-up is linked from the College of Business and Economics Intranet and features in their desk top IT support service this week.
Thanks to Sharon for coordinating the production of the mailout especially the delightful graphic.
Thanks to Donna for getting the blog banner in place in time and to Catherine for the set up work.
Dave Clemens and Cuiying Mu have already contributed to the blog. I will be on the look out for content so if you’ve got something to share I’d love to hear about it.
The Learning Management System (LMS) Review Steering Group overseeing the Review process will make its decision late this month on a final recommendation as to which LMS – Blackboard or Moodle – the University should adopt. To inform the decision, during the second semester we have conducted a live trial of Moodle.
You are invited to see the results of that trial and the process that has been followed. These are also opportunities to make any final comments on the process, and these will be provided to the Steering Group to place alongside the other information and evidence collected during the review.
Demonstration courses – three from the Moodle trial, and three existing Blackboard courses to compare – are available for you to explore. Go to http://www.uctl.canterbury.ac.nz/lms-review-demo-courses to access these courses and find forums in which to make comments.
There are three session times for the presentation. This will provide an overview of the review process, and a presentation of some of the features of both Moodle and Blackboard using the above courses.
* Monday 20 12-1pm College of Ed (location to be confirmed)
* Tuesday 21 12-1pm UCTL Law Rm 427
* Wednesday 22 1-2pm UCTL Law Rm 427
