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THE LEARNING CENTRESERVICES FOR STAFF & STUDENTS

The Learning Centre

Our aim is to provide a service that meets the needs of its users. We welcome and respond tothe views of users in order to continually improve our service.

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MOODLEMOODLE is the college’s VLE. All staff andstudents have access to MOODLE at collegeand at home. Tutors store students’ work onMOODLE. Within MOODLE there are alsoother helpful resources such as the OnlineLearning Centre, Student Services etc.

In the MOODLE training you will be able to dothe following:

• Create your own course in MOODLE

• Upload documents into your course

• Upload folders into MOODLE

• Create pictures

• Create web links

• Create Podcasts

• Edit your course

• Learn to MOODLE from home

WORKSHOPSFORSTAFFSessions for staff can be booked throughSharon McLaughlin on Ext 384 or 315

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SMARTBOARDThe electronic Smartboard works with pens,rubbers and your fingers! Smartboardincorporates Notebook software.

You will learn how to load the software andhow to solve any projector problems with theboard.

You can also learn the following:

• How to make interactive activities

• Using the floating tools with other software on the system

• Learn the icons on the Notebook software

• Saving and reloading activities

WHITEBOARDThe electronic whiteboard differs from theSmartboard as you can only use a pen and noother items on this board. The software isdifferent on this board as you will be using thestarboard software.

You will be able to learn exactly the samethings in this session as you will in theSmartboard sessions.

EMAC TRAININGThis will be a basic introduction to the Macs inthe Learning Centre including logging on andoff, the desktop, how to manage your files andhow to use some of the applications.

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INTERNET SEARCHINGStudents often need guidance when trying tofind information on the internet.

Getting started

Decide what it is you want to find out

Be specific with keywords. For example, typein feta cheese, not just cheese

Try putting your phrase in “quotation marks”

Be patient!

Be selective when choosing the web sites tolook at

When looking at a web site think – Who,Where and When

WORKSHOPSFORSTAFF &STUDENTSSessions for staff can be booked throughSharon McLaughlin on Ext 384 or 315

Sessions for your students can be bookedthrough the Learning Centre on Ext 269 or231

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Who

• Who has written the information?

• Who has published it?

• Are they a trustworthy source of information?

• Are they trying to persuade me/sell me something, inform or misinform me?

Where

• Which country is the information coming from?

• Where is it held?

• Does its origin affect how the information is presented?

When

• When was the information originally produced?

• Is it still useful?

• Has it been updated?

• Is it going to be updated?

• Is it being preserved in its original form?

ONLINE RESOURCESThere are several online resources that theLearning Centre subscribe to. Some aresubject specific and others are of generalinterest.

BBC Motion Gallery

For the first time, the BBC archive of movingimages is available online enabling students todownload, edit and use a wealth of contentspanning 70 years. Users are able to accessthe BBC's legendary footage collection, as wellas content from some of the most respectedfootage archives in the world. You candownload the clips and insert them intoPowerpoint presentations or string themtogether to make videos using Windows MovieMaker. Help sheets are available on how to dothis.

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Hairdressing Training

The resource features thirteen classic haircutsto illustrate the NVQ material. Each haircutfeatures a photographic step-by-step guide, aquick textual guide to the haircut and a fewsimple questions to test the user'sunderstanding of the material. The lessonssection of the site covers much of the theorybehind the haircuts, whilst the productssection looks at the equipment and hair careproducts that the student will need to know aspart of their education. This is an idealreference resource for students on the NVQLevel 2 course.

Issues Online

With more than sixty topics to choose from,Issues Online provides a wide range ofinformation including: articles with news andviews on each topic, key facts, key statistics,lobby group links, newspaper archives,reference sites, research guides and glossariesplus assignment/debate suggestions.

History Study Centre

This is an online resource providing a vastcollection of digitised primary and secondarysources for the study of history. It is suitablefor a wide range of users, from studentslooking for quick and reliable facts on ahistorical topic, to researchers examining hard-to-find primary source texts. It covers globalhistory from ancient times to the present day.Contents include reference books, essays,journal articles, historical newspaper andmagazine articles, maps, rare books,government documents, transcripts ofhistorical speeches, images and video clips.Study Units offer editorially selected materialon over 500 historical topics. It provides over40,000 documents and articles, with over 50reference works, 3,000 images and links to2,000 Web sites.

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The Literary Encyclopedia

This is an expanding global literary referencework written by over 2000 specialists fromuniversities around the world, and currentlyprovides more than 5100 authoritative profilesof authors, works and literary and historicaltopics. It also list more than 22,000 works bydate, country and genre.

NewsUK

NewsUK is an online service developed toprovide national and regional news, combiningthe most popular British newspaper titles inone database. You can search all thenewspapers held in its memory banks or youcan search in an individual newspaper. Itcovers local, national and internationalnewspapers.

Literature Online

Literature Online Reference Edition is theessential companion to literary study, updatedevery month and featuring the latest criticism,leading reference titles and biographies.

NFO - NewsFilm Online

NewsFilm Online is a selection of news storiesand programme scripts from the ITN/Reutersarchives – some 3,000 hours of footage,approximately 60,000 stories. Video playbackand downloading are available to staff andstudents. You may copy and paste any of theseinto your work or you can put them intoWindows Movie Maker and make your ownfilm. There are help sheets available to enableyou to do this.

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MOODLEHow to access and navigate MOODLE.

STUDY SKILLSHaving the right skills can greatly improvesuccess rates. Something as straightforward aschanging the way students approachcoursework could actually improve theirgrades. If students find assignments difficult,they may benefit from attending study skillsworkshops. These workshops have beendesigned to help students produce bettercoursework.

The study skills sessions include:

Time management and organisation skills

• Identify some of the causes of time wasting

• Tips on how to become organised and use time effectively

WORKSHOPS& TUTORIALSFORSTUDENTSSessions for your students can be bookedthrough the Learning Centre on Ext 269 or231

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Reading strategies

• Learn about the different styles of reading

• Recognise which reading techniques suit your needs the best

Notetaking

• Learn different styles of notetaking

• Discover which style works best for you

Essay writing

• How to make sense of essay questions

• How to structure an essay

• How to write good introductions and conclusions

Report writing

• Identify different report structures

• How to structure a report suitable for your assignment

Portfolio building

• Recognise the importance of a portfolio

• What to include in a portfolio

Critical thinking and academic writing

• Learn how to distinguish between descriptive and analytical writing

• Recognise the importance of asking critical questions in order to develop your academic writing skills

Reflective writing

• Looking at the links between theory and practice

Referencing and plagiarism

• How to correctly reference material

• How to compile bibliographies

Revision skills and exams

• Techniques for effective revision

• How to cope during exams

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RESEARCH ROOMA room with 20 laptops is available for groupbookings. The room is situated on the 1st floorof the Learning Centre and can be booked viaext. 231. This facility is also available forstudents who need to practice presentations.

BOOK ORDERING We welcome recommendations for books andjournals to support your students’ study.

Books can be requested using the bookordering form, available on the CollegeIntranet Staff Room area. For assistance,please contact us via ext. 231.

Magazines and journals can be requested bycontacting us via ext. 231.

INFORMATIONFOR YOU & YOURSTUDENTS

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STAFF CURRICULUMLINKSThis is a new initiative to develop the facilitiesand services offered by the Learning Centre.

One of our key issues is to ensure thatacademic staff are all aware of what we canoffer to support staff and students. LearningCentre staff are assigned academic areas tocontact, via a named member of staff, tocommunicate new developments and promoteour services.

To find out who your link person is, contact usvia ext. 231

STUDENT FOCUSGROUPThe new Learning Centre Student Focus grouphas been formed to give students theopportunity to discuss the facilities andservices offered in the Centre from a studentperspective. We would like students to tell uswhat they want us to develop, what they likeand dislike and perhaps have an input on bookand journal selection. We would ideally like towork towards a strong forum where studentscan influence the development of the serviceand promote it throughout the curriculumareas.

To find out when we meet or to recommendone of your students to join this group,please contact us via ext. 231

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CONTACT DETAILSFIRST FLOOR: EXT 231 OR 214SECOND FLOOR: EXT 269 OR 384