Stepping into the virtual classroom with #EDUC90970

My student peers and I have been busy reflecting on Thomas Cochrane’s Facilitating Online Learning #EDUC90970 that was, marvellously, delivered entirely online June to August 2020. The subject might have been better titled Design for Online Learning, that is, how to use ideas about structuring a learning environment that uses contemporary technology to facilitate and

Bayes Watch!

I’m re-developing a subject called “Bayesian Statistical Methods” (BAY), an advanced elective in the Master of Biostatistics taught entirely online through the Biostatistics Collaboration of Australia. Students are typically mature-age “career changers” or clinicians / medical researchers who are learning to do their own statistics. They will not have encountered Bayesian statistics previously, which offers

The Virtual Art of Statistical Consulting

Statistical consulting is an important but tricky business, and the life of a consulting statistician can be exhilarating, as this wonderful cartoon illustrates: Statistics’ graduates need to learn to become consultants. Existing programs typically include formal courses in statistical consulting, client problem seminars, placements with government, industry and partner institutions, and consulting in university statistical

How to learn LaTeX without being taught

As a student of #EDUC90970 “Facilitating Online Learning” I’ve learnt a bit about maintaining an ePortfolio on a WordPress website, sticking webpages into a Flipboard magazine and creating a half-decent presentation using Adobe Spark. I came to grips with these handy products by getting advice from colleagues, my fellow students, asking the kids (!) and

Creating and editing your own magazine on Flipboard

Hello! I’m back with another blog post for fans of Flipboard and in particular my fellow students in #EDUC90970. I wanted to share with you all what I have discovered about creating your own Flipboard magazine, since this will allow you to select a subset of the pages displayed on the #EDUC90970 magazine and add

Choosing an image when flipping a webpage to Flipboard

Colleagues, Fellow Students and Friends, One of the things that you will have noticed on the Flipboard magazine Shared ePortfolios for the #EDUC90970 course Community Of Practice is that some of the WordPress ePortfolio pages that have been “flipped” into the #EDUC90970 magazine are not accompanied by a photograph or an image but appear instead

Visitors, residents and technology adoption by a middle-aged academic

As a member of Generation X and not a Millennial, the first ten years of my life were lived in an era when this was a state-of-the-art video game…and no, that is not me in the picture! I was 25 when I sent my first email, and 30 before I owned a mobile telephone. I

The learner-centric ecology of resources

I’ve been reading about the Learner-Centric Ecology of Resources Model of Context discussed by Rosemary Luckin, Professor of Learner-Centred Design at the UCL Knowledge Lab in London, first published in the late 1990’s (Luckin 1998, 2006, 2008). It caught my attention because it explains how the idea of an Ecology of Resources can be thought

How to “flip” webpages to FlipBoard

I’ve been battling away to set up the arsenal of resources required for the Graduate Certificate of University Teaching subject #EDUC90970 “Facilitating Online Learning”. Flushed with my success at creating a WordPress “ePortfolio” that looked like it might actual have been created by a human being and not a retarded, three-legged donkey, my next port

Demonstration blog on Tuesday 9th June

Listening to Thomas Cochrane…