Welcome to the second SBOSE podcast of Unit 4: What's next? This week we talk with Adam Cooper of CETIS about the growing realm of Learning Analytics. Combined with the MOOCs of last week, this pair probably form the most hyped areas of education right now, but many people don’t really understand the concepts behind analytics. This episode aims to change that, giving you a primer in all things educational data.

We hope you enjoy listening!

Welcome to the first SBOSE podcast of Unit 4: What’s next? This week we’re looking for answers to the question: What will universities do and look like in the future? Amy, Project Manager for Distance Education Initiative and MOOCs at Edinburgh University explores topics related to collaborative provision and the virtual university, the opportunities our networked society offers for this, and the emergence of the virtual university in our developing knowledge society.

One book that does not appear in the Unit 4 reader, but which we think is well worth a glance (despite its year of publication!) is:

Tiffin, J., & Rajasingham, L. (2003). The global virtual university. Routledge.

We hope that you enjoy the final unit of this module.

Welcome to the second SBOSE podcast of Unit 3: Reaching the online learner. In this week’s podcast some of the BOE team share with you a few of the challenges and rewards of teaching as a team online in addition to highlighting a few time saving strategies from the literature to help manage all the various demands. They’ll be discussing different models of online team teaching and describing ideas and tips to manage each of the different arrangements.

We speak to Julia Fotheringham of the BOE Team, Chrissi Nerantzi about her experience in a very unique team teaching setting and Professor Keith Smyth of the UHI about his experiences in the area.

We hope that you’re enjoying the podcast series and we look forward to seeing you online this week.

Welcome to the first SBOSE podcast of Unit 3: Reaching the online learner. This podcast explores issues around online social presence in both informal and formal settings. We’ll discuss the way that making students feel comfortable and part of a community online impacts significantly on the learning experience, retention rates and satisfaction overall – but they don’t necessarily want us as friends on Facebook! How sociable can you actually be…?

So, listen out this week for strategies that tutors can adopt to combat online isolation and hear how the equivalence of experience ties in with social presence at an institutional level. There’s a great example of a podcast by Mary Ann Kennedy on her Coffeehouse Project, which exemplifies online social presence.

Allow this podcast to just start the process of thinking and reflecting on your own experience as an online learner and then let the unit readings and the student-led seminars take you much, much further in your knowledge and understanding of this fascinating area.

Welcome to the third episode of Unit 2: Supporting the online learner.

In this episode we’ll be discussing digital literacy, which given the struggles that we have had on the module in engaging with audio and trying to become familiar with the functionality of Moodle for your seminars, may be coming at just the right time.

This podcast comes to you from Edinburgh Napier, where Laurence Patterson, BOE Programme Leader, talks about digital literacy. We think this is a brilliant interview because in conversation with Colin, Laurence clarifies and explores the concept of digital literacy and in so doing, he distinguishes in a really useful way amongst related terms (such as information literacy) that are sometimes used interachangeably (mistakenly in our view!).

So whether you’re new or familiar with this pedagogical vocabulary and the discussion that often surrounds these concepts, we expect that there will be something for everyone in this podcast.

This week we highlight the important issues related to student diversity and inclusive curriclulum design by encouraging you to 'Think global, act local'. Together with our guest, Dr Monika Foster from Edinburgh Napier University, we unpick the challenges faced in the traditional and online blended classrooms to accommodate the many needs of the increasingly diverse local and global student cohorts.

As this week’s student-led seminars unfold, look out for opportunities to reflect on the links between the podcast material, the exchanges in your group seminar and your own experience of inclusive curricula.

Finally, here’s the link to La Trobe University’s Inclusive Teaching into Practices web pages http://www.latrobe.edu.au/students/equality/cdip/tips

We hope that you’ll enjoy the podcast.

Today marks the beginning of a few very exciting weeks ahead on the module with the beginning of Unit 2: Supporting the online learner. Our student-led seminars start today in which small groups or pairs take on the role of co-tutor preparing and facilitating discussions related to topics such as widening participation, inclusive curriculum design and web 2.0 technologies. We thought it would be useful therefore, not only for your short-term co-tutoring activities, but also for your longer term practice in blended and online education to explore in the fourth podcast: The role of the tutor.

Enjoy the podcast and we look forward to seeing you in the seminars!

Following on from last week’s exploration of equivalence of experience issues, in this our last episode for Unit 1 (Thinking about the online learner), we provide an introduction to online learning communities. With the kind help of guest contributors, this episode explores what we mean by ‘learning communities’, the importance of community in online courses and what makes for establishing effective online learning communities.

Grateful thanks to our guest contributors; James Blake (Edinburgh Napier University) and Karen Campbell (Robert Gordon’s University).

In episode 2 of the SBOSE podcast we continue exploring key topics relating to the theme of Unit 1: Thinking about the online learner. This week we’ll explore the critical issue of equivalence of experience in wider, non-academic forms of support for blended and online learners from a starting point of asking, perhaps controversially, Why bother?

Welcome to the first podcast episode for the SBOSE module. In this episode, we introduce the purpose of the weekly podcasts and provide an overview of Unit 1: Thinking about the online learner. We’ll be introducing key ideas, readings and resources that will help us to begin our short online seminar ‘Thinking about the online learner’.

Music courtesy of http://incompetech.com/m/c/royalty-free/