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The LSE Training Portal: a really simple solution?

The LSE Training Portal: a really simple solution?. Jane Secker, Jeni Brown & Chris Fryer London School of Economics and Political Science 17 th March 2008 LILAC 2008, Liverpool John Moores University. Overview and summary. Overview of training portal project

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The LSE Training Portal: a really simple solution?

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  1. The LSE Training Portal: a really simple solution? Jane Secker, Jeni Brown & Chris Fryer London School of Economics and Political Science 17th March 2008 LILAC 2008, Liverpool John Moores University

  2. Overview and summary • Overview of training portal project • Use of RSS technology to enhance access to training information for staff and students at LSE • Development of a portal or ‘one-stop shop’ • Development of a re-usable RSS feed for inclusion in the institutional portal and the VLE • Consider information literacy implications of RSS technology

  3. Training Portal project goals • To improve access to training information for staff and students by providing a single information point. • To improve communication and cooperation between training providers throughout the university. • To improve the visibility of training events and to foster the development of LSE as a learning community. • To establish an easy to use and flexible system which could be re-used throughout the university’s existing systems. • To explore the use of RSS technology as a means of providing timely and relevant information to users.

  4. Project partners

  5. Project initiation and background • Awareness of problem – but no obvious solution • Endnote training caused confusion • Potential overlap in course content between IT training and CLT • New members of staff – new skills

  6. Training at LSE before the project

  7. The Training Portal

  8. How it works Events booking databases RSS-generating scripts ASP ASP PHP Perl RSS RSS RSS RSS RSS aggregator sorts all events chronologically and outputs to other formats PHP Script Re use the same material in multiple contexts, with each event linked to the relevant provider’s booking system. HTML Page Plasma Screen RSS

  9. Staff training in the institutional portal

  10. Student training in the VLE

  11. The plasma screen display

  12. Project launch and follow up • Soft launch – April 2007 • In Moodle, student portal and on plasma screens • Formal Launch in October 2007 • Credit card pocket fliers and limited supply of promotional bags • Publicity in online staff newsletter • Additional publicity in January 2008 (leaflets) • Awarded funding by School for eco-friendly bag – joint project with Library to promote learning

  13. Evaluation and feedback • Gathering feedback using the following methods: • Monitoring of feedback through evaluation forms; • Monitoring of attendance at all training events as compared to previous years; • Feedback and data will be collected as part of annual user surveys and focus groups; • Page hit data will be collected on the training portal and the provider sites • Feedback from staff administering the programmes.

  14. Impact to date How did trainees hear of IT Training Courses? From 8/10/2007 to 03/03/2008

  15. Key successes • Project was a finalist for the Institute of IT Training ‘Internal Project of the Year’ Award • Feedback suggests it has raised profile of training • We think this system is unique in HE • Demonstrates the importance of collaboration and cooperation between training providers • Delivered with a minimal investment of resources • Requires no additional user training • Highly flexible: use in VLE, portal, plasma screens • Innovative and highly practical use of Web 2.0 technology

  16. Information literacy implications • Portal makes things easier for students and makes training more visible • True value of the portal relies on understanding how to use RSS as a personal information management tool • Now run a class for staff and researchers on Keeping up to Date – using Google Reader – extend to students? • Most attendees see the benefit but are unfamiliar with using RSS in this way

  17. The future • Aim to get all training providers on board • Evaluation • measuring the impact on attendance at classes across the School • measuring impact on awareness of training • Assumes that non-attendance is due to poor visibility which may not be the case • Training providers are continuing to meet with other ideas in the pipeline such as: • A single booking system? • More coordinated approach to training – JISC i-skills framework? • E-portfolios for training records

  18. Thanks for listeningAny questions? References Secker, Jane and Fryer Christopher. Information Literacy and RSS feeds at LSE in Godwin, P. and Parker, J. (eds) (2008) Information Literacy meets Library 2.0. London: Facet. ISBN 978-1-85604-637-4 Training Portal documentation available at: http://training.lse.ac.uk/docs Contact details Jeni Brown j.l.brown@lse.ac.uk Jane Secker j.secker@lse.ac.uk Chris Fryer c.j.fryer@lse.ac.uk (Technical queries)

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