Archive for the ‘..’ Category

Gartner Hype Cycle meets Google Insights

Over the past few months we have been thinking about how we can identify and embed innovations at the University of Bolton, taking a sociotechnical perspective and including new technology, processes ways of working. To help us with this we have begun to use the Gartner STREET (Scan, Track, Rank, Evaluate, Evangelise, Transfer) process [...]

Open Learning Model

Over on the Coeducate project blog I have posted about open learning as a business model for the UoB. The main idea is illustrated by the diagram below where I have attempted to encapsulate the key dimensions of the model. I think the key question I struggle with, however, is whether HEI are [...]

A History of the World – Every Object Tells a Story

Reading the website about this new BBC project I couldn’t help but think back to the Ultralab project ‘Every Object Tells a Story‘ with the Victoria and Albert Museum back in 2004. Not a project I worked on myself, but the parallels with the BBC are obvious, particularly the ability to ‘add an object’ [...]

BBC iPlayer desktop fix for Mac

Great as BBC iPlayer is, I like many mac users had struggled when using Firefox to download programmes. For some reason, after each download I was prompted to install the iPlayer desktop application again, but in doing so was still only able to download a single programme before being stick in the loop again.
The [...]

Motion Chart – English HEI

Hours wasted compiling this spreadsheet and associated Google Gadget, Motion Chart. The data still needs refining and but for many values it works well giving the user the opportunity to view three different parameters (axis of a graph and relative size of the plot) for related items. In my case, measures of different [...]

Another angle on retention and recruitment

As a part of my work on the Coeducate project I recently attended a project day with representatives from 11 other UK HE institutions.
As us often the cases at such events the most value to be gained is from the surrounding off topic discussions and in one such conversation with someone from Cambridge University [...]

Interoperability… again…

Work requirements mean that I can no longer resist using Microsoft Office (my convenience not a University of Bolton dictate) and the first step of migration was the relatively simple export and import of contacts. 30 minutes of fiddling with export and import options and the only answer I could find was:
1. export vCard [...]

Coeducate project website

A requirement of the Coeducate Jisc funded project is that we have a project Blog. The easiest choice and the one I took was to use wordpress.com with the addition of a sub-domain re-direct (Wordpress charge $10 to allow this) so that we can use the URL http://coeducate.bolton.ac.uk thereby assuring a little bit of [...]

Most adults feel exams failed to gauge real ability

Most adults feel exams failed to gauge real ability:77 per cent of adults believe that exam results should not be used to judge their suitability for jobs

(Via Education Guardian).
The overwhelming majority of adults believe school exams do not reflect their true abilities or predict their future success, according to a new report published today. As [...]

Universities should offer ‘pick and mix’ degrees, says report

Some good suggestions in this report by Paul Ramsden, the chief executive of the Higher Education Academy:
Universities should offer ‘pick and mix’ degrees, says report:

- build up qualifications from modules taken at different times in several universities
- make it easier to switch between full-time and part-time study, possibly by making students pay for each module [...]