Manchester University to build SBLi Blackboard Building Block

Manchester University has been using SBLi since 2010.They also use Blackboard and have expressed a desire for more integration between the two. We have long recognised the advantages of integration to learning management systems (LMS) such as Blackboard or Moodle. To this end we have developed a number of additional web services to the SBLi Server software to cater for this. Since these additions Manchester University has recently announced they are developing an SBLi Blackboard Building Block. We'll post further updates as we hear more on their progress.

Department of Environment and Resource Management

Queensland Department of Environment and Resource Management, sees the benefit in problem based learning and has purchased an SBLi server and licence package. Following an SBLi training session they will be implementing SBLi online modules to assistance staff in keeping uptodate with various department procedures.

UQ Develops Free Online OH&S Training for all Australian Universities

The University of Queensland have elected to use SBLi to produce an Occupational Health and Safety Online Module, a requirement of the Enforceable Undertaking accepted by the University on 26 July 2010.

This module will be required to be completed by undergraduate programs in Faculty of Health Sciences, Faculty of Science, Bachelor of Engineering and Engineering dual degrees, and School of Education.

As part of the mandatory undertaking, this module will also be made available to all Australian Universities.

HELP University Malaysia

HELP University have recently purchased an SBLi server and will be participating in a 5 day work shop to train their educators on SBLi. There intention is to use Scenario Based Learning modules for their core subjects.

HELP University comprises a group of colleges which provide a wide and diverse range of programs covering business, law, management, economics, IT, social sciences and the humanities at undergraduate and graduate levels.

New Primary School scenario

In conjunction with the SBLi team, the Brisbane School of Distance Education (BSDE) is developing a scenario for Year 3 Geography students. The scenario focuses on Studies of Society and involves the students “traveling” around the world.

SBLi – UK Open Educational Resource

The Open Educational Resource "OER" project with Genetic Analysis is now active and available free through Jorum. In Jorum Manchester University have made the scenarios freely available under the creative commons licence together with all the materials used for the building of the scenarios. Please feel free to download.

As part of an Open Educational Resource project managed by the UK Centre for BioScience, colleagues at the University of Manchester have contributed five SBLi scenarios on genetic analysis.  Throughout this series of scenarios students investigate the genetics of “Chocolate monsters” using SBLi functions to breed biotypes, analyse results and generally to provide an interactive learning module on principles of genetics.

Preview of the 5 scenarios here.

Moodle-SBLi link

Terry Stewart and colleagues at Massey University, New Zealand, have been working towards integrating SBLi into their Moodle environment. The functionality they have been developing includes:

• Teachers being able to select and edit an SBLi “resource”. They get a drop down box showing the scenarios they are authorized to use. Once a scenario has been selected an SBLi link is created on the page complete with icon.
• Students can click this link and a new window opens up into an SBLi scenario they are authorized to view. No login is required as Moodle knows who they are. If they are not authorized they get a message saying so.
• When a teacher clicks the link they go to a teacher’s page. From there they can view the scenario, view the logs and view the scenarios they are authorized to select.
• Teachers can hide the link from students and reveal it when they need to (and do all the other things Moodle lets you do with resource links).
• Access to the scenarios can be determined by Moodle groups the teacher might have divided the students into.

The big advantage is that students and teachers require only ONE login…to their Moodle course. Terry intends to document the method and make it available to other Moodle users after further testing.

Presentations and Training Workshops

Audrey Jinks regularly gives presentations on SBLi as part of UQ’s staff development program provided by UQ’s Teaching and Educational Development Institute (TEDI). Since it is not always possible for some staff to attend these regular staff development workshops, SBLi presentations and training workshops are often organised on an as needed basis.

Sometimes SBLi presentations are provided in response to requests from specific Faculties and Schools. The latest presentation was to the School of Journalism and as a result, Anthony Frangi is interested in using SBLi to highlight some of the dangers that exist when journalists are investigating particular stories.
An SBLi training workshop was also held recently, on the 8th of October. There were 6 participants - from Health & Rehabilitation Science; Population Health; Veterinary Science; Nursing & Midwifery; and two participants from the Walter Harrison Law Library,
If you have missed any presentations or training workshops, would like to organise an SBLi demonstration or would like to be included on the mailing list for any future training sessions, please contact Audrey ([email protected]).

Newsletter issued Oct 2010

Community of Practice

The SBLi team have organised two SBLi Community of Practice (CoP) meetings in the past few months. As mentioned in the last newsletter, Carl Sherwood gave a presentation at the initial meeting in December 2009, describing his approach to developing the successful series of scenarios he has developed on the teaching of statistics. At the CoP meeting in January 2010, two outside speakers gave presentations:

Terry Stewart from Massey University in New Zealand provided an update on the activities of the SBLi group at Massey.

Geoff Crisp from Adelaide University talked about issues associated with assessment in the Web 2 environment.

Newsletter issued July 2010

SBL Interactive Community of Practice

The SBLi team recently invited colleagues and associates from UQ and other institutions in Brisbane to a seminar to discuss experiences in the use of SBLi at UQ and to provide input to a proposed Community of Practice in scenario based learning. For anyone unable to make the seminar, the videos have been uploaded to you tube (use the links below). Each video clip ranges from 5-12mins. Please feel free to distribute the page link to others who may be interested. The seminar was quite informal and consisted of:

A brief introduction by Audrey Jinks the SBLi co-ordinator; followed by each participant introducing themselves and their interest in SBLi.

Geoff Norton the CBIT Associate Director - outlining recent news and events.

Our guest speaker - Carl Sherwood, a UQ business statistics Lecturer, who gave a very interesting talk on the development of his scenarios.

Our guest speaker - Carl Sherwood, a UQ business statistics Lecturer, who gave a very interesting talk on the development of his scenarios.

An informal discussion - where participants could share experiences and ask questions.

The next CoP meeting will be on Thursday 28th January at 1.00pm - the main speaker will be Terry Stewart from Massey University, New Zealand. The title of his talk is – “SBL Interactive At The Coal Face: Experiences From Across The Ditch”. Further details will be provided in the New Year.

Blended Learning Conference

SBLi will be a part of the Blended Learning Conference this Thursday June 18th. The Blended Learning Conference is in conjunction with UK's University of Hertfordshire. This two-day conference attracts delegates from across the globe who want to discover and share the innovations in blended learning which are happening in the UK and at higher education institutions around the world. For more UK based information click here for University of Queensland involvement click here.

SBLi won a "Learning Impact Leadership Award" at the 2009 IMS Learning impact awards

Learning Impact 2009 is IMS Global Learning Consortium's annual conference that brings together the world's leading creators, vendors, users, and buyers of learning technology to participate in program tracks focused on the latest innovations in learning systems, digital learning content, the learning enterprise, and open technologies. Presenters answer a key challenge question designed to inform the attendees on the state of innovation and best practices.

The Learning Impact Awards are designed to recognize the most impactful use of technology worldwide in support of learning. This unique program evaluates established, new, and research efforts in context at an implementing learning institution.

SBLi won a "Learning Impact Leadership Award" for Best Scenario-based Learning Toolkit.

The University of Queensland  has won a prestigious ASCILITE award using SBLi!

At a recent meeting of the Australasian Society for Computers in Learning in Tertiary Education (ASCILITE), it was announced that a University of Queensland team, led by Associate Professor Catherine Lovelock, had won the small project category ASCILITE award for an SBLi scenario - "Habitat Change in Moreton Bay, A Field Study for Marine Scientists".

This scenario, which is featured on the SBLi Homepage, involves students in a virtual marine field course, enabling them to learn the principles and techniques that they can apply subsequently to an actual field course.  Click here for further information about this scenario and the ASCILITE 2008 conference.