The unusually warm Helsinki September simply sailed past, with no blog entries from Yours truly – so here’s a short summary of what happened during the month as another season of the “Studying and Working at the University”-reality show began…
70 new students started on the path to enlightenment (or the road to hell?) at the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, and one of the first things they have to cope with is the ICT driving licence, of which I’m the responsible teacher at the Faculty. Luckily I don’t have to do a lot of teaching since it’s mostly a self-study module with the heart of the course being the extensive self-study material and (inside Moodle) quiz-based self training tests that pave the way for a similar automated final exam. Supervising the exams is fun as you don’t have to correct the exams afterwards: students are automatically graded and 99% pass the test with flying colours IF they have practiced even a bit. The thing I like about the course is that it scales according to how much the student previously knows about ICT – the gurus can just go straight to the exam whereas the novices can read, attend classes and learn new stuff according to how much they need it.
Meanwhile, in a galaxy far, far away the Ystävä 2010 -project – a.k.a. the new intranet or Alma-killer, took a big step forward. The content management system was chosen, apparently an Oracle solution, so ideas can start becoming reality soon as the technological building blocks are falling in place. This is a big deal because the CMS will later be used for the external pages (instead of the rather clumsy if tweakable Dreamweaver template solution currently in place) as well and a plethora of other things, at least on paper.
The network of e-learning specialists had its first “morning club” at the Finnish Institute of Occupational Health, where we heard about the history of the virtual university at FIOH, which organizes the education of doctors specializing in the field of occupational health. With students & supervisors all over the country there really seem to be significant gains when using e-learning tools as time and distance are obstacles for this kind of cross-country education. Also, some of the materials are easily accessed in Moodle without registering (as they’re made with taxpayers’ money) so you can read a bit more on workplace & health-related stuff yourself.
»» Finnish Institute of Occupational Health
»» Työterveyshuollon virtuaaliyliopisto (virtual university of FIOH)
»» Marja’s blog entry on the subject (no need to reinvent the wheel for me, ha)
It’s getting chilly (of course I already caught a cold some few weeks ago and still coughing) and dark, October is soon here, hopefully with some blog fodder so until next time – take care!