infoKit Pathfinder
Administrative User
This pathway is for administrators who:
may need to resolve issues regarding student access to their institution's VLE
may be supporting an administrative area within a VLE for a student year or course
may be providing support to tutors, for example, by uploading materials to their area in a VLE.
We suggest you start your journey with the InfoKit with the following sections:
| Main Heading | Sub Heading | Section | |
| Introduction to VLEs | If you have not used a VLE before and you have not supported staff who are using one, it is worthwhile spending some time working through this introductory section. It guides you through the tools available in a VLE, the pros and cons of using a VLE and has many resources and case studies. Some of the following areas may be of particular interest: | ||
| Virtual Learning Environments | Tools in a VLE | This gives you an overview of the types of tool available in a typical VLE. This will help you understand what types of activity the staff may use a VLE for. If you are putting materials into a VLE for a tutor, you will probably be using the 'upload' facilities'. However, you may wish to remind the tutor that there are a lot of other tools which could be used. If you are using a VLE to support the administration of a course then you may find some of these tools may help you communicate with students. |
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| Advantages for tutors | This section considers the ways in which tutors support the learning process in the broadest sense and considers how the VLE might impact administrative processes as well as teaching practice. | ||
| Using a VLE | This section covers a number of problem scenarios where a VLE may help provide a solution. When you are working with staff, you may wish to remind them about this area of the InfoKit. | ||
| Special Educational Needs | When you are working with staff, it is important that they are aware of their institution's statutory obligations regarding special needs and this section gives an overview of the legislative requirements. You may also wish to remind them of the support available in your institution in this area. | ||
| The student perspective | This section discusses:
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| e-Assessment | Staff may be moving into using e-assessment and you may find the following of interest when advising them: | ||
| What do we mean by e-Assessment | This section challenges some of the commonly held assumptions about e-assessment (the assessment will be objective, the assessment will be limited in the type of question to multiple choice questions (MCQs) and the assessment can only test recall or low level learning outcomes). | ||
| Practical considerations | This provides an overview of selection of software for online assessment, security and special educational needs. | ||
| The student perspective | Feedback to students | When starting out using online questions it is easy to forget that one of the key advantages is quality, timely student feedback. This section provides an overview of the research into this area. | |
| Computer-mediated conferencing | You may find that you will use some of the conferencing tools to communicate with students especially if you are involved with the administration of a course. You will probably be sending out information messages about the course, for example, an overview of the assessment process. You may also need to provide advice to staff about assessment online. The following areas may be of interest: | ||
| Features of CMC | Advantages and disadvantages | If you have not used CMC before this gives a short list of the pros and cons of CMC | |
| Assessing e-Learning interaction | This addresses the issue of assessment in CMC. |
Next Steps:
Most institutions are now trying to link their VLE with their student records system to achieve automatic uploading of student data. If you are involved with this, the Creating a Managed Learning Environment (MLE) Infokit has a wide range of resources.
There are three other areas of the Kit: designing and managing for sustainability and evaluation. You may wish to point tutors to these sections especially if they are becoming more experienced in using a VLE.
