SQA Tree Identification
While the contractors having been working hard within the Collaborative Learning Space (CLS) room (and the students and the teaching staff away on their well-deserved holidays), the e-Learning Developer (Ali Hastie) has been working on the new Forestry and Arboriculture SQA Tree Identification Unit within Moodle.
The Blend
Previous to the summer holidays, numerous meetings between the e-Learning Developer and the Forestry lecturer (Andrew Treadaway) were held looking into the direction (and materials and resources available) in which the Tree Identification should take. What really came out strong from the discussions was that not only must the students learn collaboratively, but they also must learn independently. There must a ‘blend’ to their teaching and learning.
Team Collaboration & Co-Creation
The Tree Identification unit’s Learning Outcome 1 will see student teams planning, developing and delivering a co-created presentation using Microsoft Sway. There will be sessions within the CLS surrounding the teaching, learning, development and delivery of their team’s LO1 Sway presentations.
For the unit’s Learning Outcome 2 and 3, the same teams will plan, develop and submit a Tree Identification Microsoft Sway e-Portfolio to be peer reviewed by another team within Moodle. These Sway e-Portfolios will include the students own digital videos on identifying and describing their chosen trees. Again, the utilisation of the CLS room will be key to all Outcomes.
Sneak Peek
We don’t usually do this, but below is a sneak peek video on the new Tree Identification unit within Moodle, which is still under construction. As mentioned above with the ‘blend’ in mind, we wanted to create interactive and engaging activities and resources in which will allow the lecturer to interact with the students within the CLS along with fostering team and independent based learning. This is becoming quite an exciting new unit and what the e-Learning Developer has recognised is that the lecturer (subject expert) really needs to be…there on hand while development is being carried out.