An idea I had a few months ago came to fruition yesterday with the first UWA Emerging Technologies Forum going off with a bang.  Our speakers were from the

• WebOffice
• Virtual Universe Project
• Library
• alumniConnect project
• iPoint
• Online Student Journey Project

More than 75 people attended from across the university and there were lots of opportunities for questions and networking. 

The next few blog posts include the slides form each speaker.  Accompanying audio will be available sometime on the weekend.  The forum booklet will soon be downloadable and editable from the Online Student Journey project wiki

Dr Lisa Cluett. Senior Project Officer for the Online Student Journey Project at UWA presented a session entitled ‘Engaging students using animated characters: a simple and cost effective way of hosting student experiences online’ on Friday 24th April (1100–1135) at the ATEM Student Services Centre Conference, Fremantle, WA

Slides now available here – hosted by Slideshare (a free file sharing tool) and in *.pdf format Cluett_vokis_atem-sscc-09_20090424

ABSTRACT – Student engagement remains a topic high on the agenda for Student Services’ staff and the role of professional staff in the student experience is increasingly recognised.  Finding new ways to engage students with our services, programs and resources can be a challenge.  This paper presents an initiative from UWA Student Services that engages students with their institution (and with each other) by using animated characters.  Issues of anonymity, access, and pedagogy will be explored and the steps in creating an online character (using Voki and SitePal tools in this case) will be demonstrated.

Also presented during this timeslot:
o    Enquiry Management – warts ‘n’ all by Peter Cottam and Dipesh Shah from ECU
o    Driving innovation in higher education through Professional Enquiry: setting the case for Professional Enquiry as Continuing Professional Development (CPD) by Dr Oscar Odena from the School of Education, Queen’s University Belfast

Dr Lisa Cluett. Senior Project Officer for the Online Student Journey Project at UWA presented a session entitled ‘Training professional staff in Web 2.0 – a program developed by UWA Student Services via the ‘Online Student Journey’ project’ on Thursday 23rd April 09 (11.45-12.25) at the ATEM Student Services Centre Conference, Fremantle, WA

I think the session went really well – it’s resulted in an invite to Brisbane to talk to staff at the Southbank Institute of Technology anyway (thanks Graeme)!  An audience poll at the start of the talk showed a variety of knowledge levels about web 2.0 but I was really only interested in that to know what terms I could use without explaining them – because this talk was about a training program which is of course, about PEOPLE.  Slides available here via Slideshare and now in *.pdf format Cluett_osj_atem-sscc-09_20090423

BIO – Lisa has a number of roles at UWA including developing interactive online tools for Student Services and coordinating the staff Web 2.0 community.  She writes about the role of professional staff in online student engagement and is also the liveblogger for this conference

ABSTRACT – UWA Student Services offers programs, resources, advice and support to students during their entire journey – from prospective student to graduation.  In 2008 a project commenced to initiate and integrate a layer of interactive web tools to the Student Services programs.  This recognition of the importance of our web services and the ways that students engage with materials online has led to the development of a range of tools from blogs to online video, from wikis to online photo albums.  A pivotal part of this project, however, has been the significant staff training component.  This paper will outline the strategy used by UWA Student Services to gauge staff skill levels, raise awareness, stimulate interest and conduct training in Web 2.0 tools.

Also presented during this timeslot:
o    Expanding tertiary access for TAFE students by the collaborative development of dual learning pathways which guarantee entry and credit by Mary Hassard, Manager, Credit Transfer and Articulations, Griffith University
o    Not Just a Number by Carmel Langdon, Stephen Baker and Sonia Ryall Managers of Student Central, ECU

Well it’s been a perfect Perth Christmas (hot, hot and then a bit hotter) but work and real life beckons so in lieu of any New Year’s Resolutions, here’s a snapshot of my goals for the Online Student Journey project for early January:

• Get the Study Smarter online tutorials started in Moodle
• Set up the Flickr account for Student Services and write the user protocols
• Shift from Voki to Sitepal and get the first examples going (one to appear in this blog!)
• Deal with Wordle problems I seem to be having
• Adminster a staff survey across the Division (asking about knowledge of Web 2.0, ways staff prefer to be trained, what applications people think we should be persuing etc)
• Arrange the RL networking event for people working on Web 2.0 projects across the University for 28th Jan
• Use photojojo to test time lapse video – consider using it for large events on campus
• Kick off DIY Web 2.0 sheets and videos for training packages
• Get the node.live site ready for Semester 1 and recruit the 2009 blogging team

Sound reasonable?

With so many things happening and so little time this is the last blog post for  the year (UWA closes at lunch today and reopens on 6th Jan).  The Online Student Journey Project is poised for a HUGE 2009 with conference presentations to prepare, guest blogging activities to fire up, a UWA Web 2.0 networking event to organise, a training materials to write and a zillion other things to do.

Early initiatives for 2009 include a Student Services Flickr album (with associated training and protocols), SitePal replacing Vokis (to remove banner ads), progressing our iTunesU presence and starting video compilations for study break workshops  Plus I’ll be exploring uses for Wordle, SketchUp, Make Me a Cartoon, Wink and many more applications ready for the onslaught of 2009.

Until the New Year then….

The NODE project has just sent out its third annual survey of ICT use to 4000+ students who have completed their first year at UWA in 2008.  The survey aims to find out how, and where students access technology, what skills thay have and what the expect UWA to provide them with.  You can find the survey here (feel free to have a look but only UWA first years can complete the survey and win the prize!) and some past papers and findings we’re presented here

A Frequently Asked Question as it turns out.  The shortest version I can give here i that:

• The project is funded by LTPF and is coordinated by me (Dr Lisa Cluett) at UWA Student Services
• The aim is to get Web 2.0 tools used in the Student Services Division
• I’ll be doing a lot of staff training to get people on board with new ICT skills
• There will hopefully be collaborations with existing/upcoming Web 2.0 projects around UWA
• The project was funded as the “UWA Online Student Journey” project but is also known as OSJ or ‘the journey’