Netskills workshop

This morning I am in Newcastle, going through the elements which make up the task that I will be asking the participants at the Netskills workshop to do. Last week I did the workshop in Oxford at the same event, it went very well and we have received some really positive feedback. 

The workshop element that I am running is on WebPA (of course). While thinking what we could do, I decided that we would take a model used at Loughborough within the peer assessment workshops run, but not look at all the types of peer assessment. One of the reasons for not looking at all the types of peer assessment is due to the limitation on time, I have one hour.

So in the hour that we have, I have a quick presentation, covering the background and where WebPA comes from. Then I introduce the task... in this case I am asking them to produce a poster in groups on the Student Learning Experience (the main thread of the days workshops). I have a set of users who they become as this takes the edge of when they have to fill in the assessment.

Again today I hope that Sharon Waller can mark the posters, before all the participants come back together. Once back together, we collaboratively set the parameters for the assessment and look at the reports generated.

Last time Martin from the Economics Subject Centre came out as top student! As Martin is going to be there again to day I hope he is not top student again. When I originally thought about this work shop I thought of giving out chocolates as a prize, but this then adds a competitive edge and detracts from peer moderated marking and takes us more in to game theory. So no chocolates, but we will identify the top student, but we wont identify the worst, even hiding under alias' its not fair to pick on one person.

In Oxford everyone seemed to enjoy the ask and being a student again. By doing this they are seeing the student perspective and experiencing what the put students through (even if it is only an hour). After to day, I will put more information on running a workshop on the projects web site for others to pick up and use.

A busy time...

As a project we received some really good news over the weekend. A paper we submitted has been accepted, a part from some edits we need to make from the reviewers comments. Of course when the paper is officially published I will provide the citation for it.

However, this news has impacted my already busy week some. I need to turn the edits around quickly. As on Wednesday I am in Oxford at a Netskills workshop, then Thursday and Friday I am at the ACED Conference. Both are representing the project. The Netskills workshop should be fun, I will be getting the participants to create a poster on a given topic and then mark themselves and their team mates using the WebPA tool. We will not be comparing different peer moderated marking techniques as we don't really have time in 1 hour.

Thursday and Friday, are very different though. I only have 20 minutes to provide an over view of WebPA. This time thought the focus is quite particular, civil engineering. So I will be providing two case studies, where WebPA is used at Loughborough. I am currently not aware of any other institution using WebPA in civil engineering, though it would be nice to compare.

Next week will also prove to be busy and interesting. At the moment I am attending another Netskills workshop but this time in Newcastle. Following this I am going to take some time out, but only if the paper has been submitted.

Programme meeting time again

It only seems last month when we had a programme meeting for the project. But we have one looming on this Wednesday. I'm sure that we had to do something for it, but I can't remember and I will have to sit down and go through all the emails related to it. However, at the moment this seems a very futile exercise with everything that needs to be done. I will though spend some time this afternoon sorting through and finding out.

But there is so much to be achieved in the next few days and weeks. I need to finish sorting out the few glitches in the released code. As with every release you think you have nailed it, and then you come across something that is not quite right. At the same time I am frantically trying to up date all of the manuals on the website to reflect the changes in the system. I think this is how I keep identifying the problems that are appearing. Perhaps next time I can make the changes in the documentation and then release the system. You live and learn.

Additionally, we have been invited to so many things recently that I seem to be out and about a lot. But this has the knock on effect of I need to get all my normal work done and then on top I need to prepare for the events. Next week is the most crowded. I have a work shop with the Netskills team organised by the HEA next Wednesday, followed immediately by the ACED Conference.

I would rather be this way, busy, I hate not having things to do. But at some point I will need to slow down and take some time out.

Using technology for Effetive Project Communication

Tomorrow I attend an event by the above name. The event is being run by Netskills at the request of JISC to support projects in communication. The blurb states the following;

For some projects, the first and only contact with the community is a final report. However, a project is more likely to be successful if it engages with the community throughout its duration, promoting ongoing reflection and allowing audience feedback to direct the project.

Emerging web technologies such as blogs, wikis, pod casts and social networks can provide an effective way to do this. This event will consider best practice in using such technologies in the context of communication and dissemination for your JISC project.

By the end of the workshop participants will have created an action plan for how technology can best support their project communication and dissemination activities.

Really, I think the title for the workshop may be really misleading. Perhaps something more about communicating with your community via technology would have been more appropriate.

One element that I am not sure that is being covered is identifying the community. I know that some projects do not widely disseminate their information, but perhaps this is due to them not knowing who to communicate with.

It is okay having all the technology at your finger tips, but if you are not sure about your target audience then how do you select the most appropriate tool for communication. Not all the tools out there are going to be successful. Why would you create and host a forum, if your target audience is not likely to communicate using it. Also the failure of one medium will not ensure the success of another.

I know that this blog is successful in some respects. This is due to the fact that I collect stats, but also that comments have been left and some of the topics of the posts have been the source of discussion else where. But if I were to alter this blog and move to a wiki, where I would have less control and other peoples opinions may obliterate my own and not be relevant to the work of the WebPA Project, then the success would diminish. I might also find that I would be treading all over other peoples toes.