Group items tagged

n the learning technology field there is no shortage of research questions- but there is a shortage of research funding. Learning technology researchers are increasingly being required to address issues of impact in order to attract funding. At the beginning of the project, they must anticipate the potential impact of their research on end users, beyond the realms of scholarly citations, and put in place measures to demonstrate that impact. This is a particular challenge, especially in a field that in its infancy was prone to adopt a non-critical 'evangelical' stance to learning technology. The field is maturing however, both in its methodological and theoretical approaches, and it would seem pertinent (if not imperative!) that learning technology researchers be proactive rather than reactive with regards to mapping out what impact means in the context of learning technology research.

"When researchers selectively report significant positive results, and omit non-significant or negative results, the published literature skews in a particular direction. This is called 'reporting bias', and it can cause both casual readers and meta-analysts to develop an inaccurate understanding of the efficacy of an intervention. This paper identifies potential reporting bias in a recent high-profile higher education meta-analysis. It then examines a range of potential factors that may make higher education learning and teaching research particularly susceptible to reporting bias. These include the fuzzy boundaries between learning and teaching research, scholarship and teaching; the positive agendas of 'learning and teaching' funding bodies; methodological issues; and para-academic researchers in roles without tenure or academic freedom. Recommendations are provided for how researchers, journals, funders, ethics committees and universities can reduce reporting bias"

JISC elevator is a new way to find and fund innovative ways to use technology to improve universities and colleges. Anyone employed in UK higher or further education can submit an idea. If your idea proves popular then JISC will consider it for funding. The elevator is for small, practical projects with up to £10,000 available for successful ideas.

JISC have created this mockup of an idea for a funding platform to get feedback from JIF10 attendees to help us assess whether we should pursue the idea any further. JISC are thinking that we would use the platform to fund short projects costing between

"This workshop was funded as part of one of HEA Social Science's strategic priorities 2013 - 14 'Teaching research methods'."

Mini-project and other HE funding schemes are highly competitive and new staff wishing to apply or staff who wish to improve their skills in writing or reviewing high quality proposals for educational projects are welcome to attend an on-line workshop (up

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is pleased to invite applications to the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Fund for Wales for up to £2,500 per proposal. This is an open call and proposals are welcome any time up to Friday 13 May 2011.

This new initiative, launched by HEA Wales in the 2010-11 academic year, is aimed at encouraging the exchange and dissemination of good practice, at the discipline level, throughout the UK. It is specifically aimed at enabling staff and students in Welsh

The Higher Education Academy (HEA) is pleased to invite applications to the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Fund for Wales for up to £2,500 per proposal. This is an open call and proposals are welcome any time up to Friday 13 May 2011. Projects need to

The Economics Network of the Higher Education Academy invites proposals from the UK Economics community for small projects to be funded in the next academic year. Projects will address the development, implementation and evaluation of innovative approache

Widget Design Authoring Toolkit (WIDGaT) is the world's first online 'code-free' widget creation tool !  WIDGaT a JISC-funded Learning and Teaching Innovation project led by the Accessibility Research Centre at Teesside University.The WIDGaT toolkit supports the design, development and sharing of widgets, by enabling teachers and students to easily produce bespoke widgets.

The Association for Learning Technology (ALT) today published its response to the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE)'s proposals for the new Research Excellence Framework (REF), urging HEFCE to adopt clear guidelines to ensure that inter

"The UK Change Agents Network is pleased to announce a call for papers for the inaugural edition of the Journal of Educational Innovation, Partnership & Change. The journal will support research into partnerships between staff and students that identify, lead and deliver change in education across all disciplines. This edition will share and celebrate the outcomes of staff and students working in partnership on innovation and change projects. The project is co-funded by Jisc and the University of Greenwich."

"This document summarises the key findings of a review of the National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS, first launched in 2005 , collects feedback from undergraduate students in the UK, via a survey, on their experiences of various aspects of their courses. The review was commissioned by the UK Higher Education funding bodies, and undertaken by NatCen Social Research in partnership with the Institute of Education and the Institute for Employment Studies."

Last Friday David White (University of Oxford) and Dr. Lynn Silipigni Connaway (OCLC) presented some of the findings from their JISC-funded work on Digital Visitors and Residents. Slides, audio and a recording of the Blackboard Collaborate session can be found below:

"The Technology Strategy Board and the Department for Business, Innovation & Skills (BIS) are to invest up to £1.1m in exploratory studies into the design of technology-based products and services that will improve learning outcomes. This SBRI competition seeks to stimulate business performance in an already vibrant education technology sector by supporting high-quality design of commercially viable products and services that can be delivered at scale while being affordable and easy to use. See the competition brief"

"On 24 April 2015 forty educators from 19 institutions discussed key issues in MOOC design and implementation at a one-day workshop hosted and funded by the University of Reading, a leading member of the FutureLearn MOOC consortium. The workshop offered the opportunity to evaluate practical lessons from the design and delivery of MOOCs, particularly those encouraging skills development. The focus was on problem-based discussion of approaches to teaching and learning, and the extent to which MOOC learning outcomes can be defined, measured, or achieved."

A Survey of Undergraduate Technology Use and Attitudes. Funded by Evaluation of Learners' Experiences of e‐learning Special Interest Group (ELESIG ) Small Grant