Mini Projects
The Blended Learning Unit partners with staff to support them in bringing small scale teaching innovations with technology to realisation
Through our Mini Project framework the BLU works in partnership with staff to support them in bringing their teaching innovations and initiatives with technology to realisation.
Mini Projects are collaborative endeavours agreed upon between all parties involved in an intended teaching innovation – Educational Technologists, members of academic staff, any other parties – and tend to apply to projects that have approximately a six week maximum time-line prior to project completion. Mini Projects help to utilise the Blended Learning Unit’s and academic staff member’s time effectively and efficiently.
The BLU uses a Mini Project Template document to keep track of ongoing and scheduled projects. Template documents are collaboratively drafted by all parties involved in the relevant Mini Project. The purpose of this document is to provide an outline of the roles of the parties within the Mini Project, a summary of the agreed upon Mini Project and any project objectives and actions that are deliverable by each party.
If you would like to arrange a preliminary meeting to discuss a possible Mini Project innovation with the BLU, please email blu@mic.ul.ie outlining your suggested small scale innovation.
Examples of Mini Projects
Trialling Socrative
To trial and operate the Socrative online smart student response system live in a lecture scenario in order to deliver impromptu questions or pre-prepared quiz-based activities and receive student responses in real-time.
French Moodle Quizzes
The Blended Learning Unit worked in partnership with the French department to design, develop and deploy a series of Moodle quizzes for 400+ language students. The quizzes were developed using a variety of question types and were designed to reinforce students’ understanding of grammar by complementing the work conducted in face-to-face classes. Detailed feedback was built into the quiz questions meaning that quizzes could be used formatively. The questions for the quizzes were organised into question sets based on levels of difficulty. This maximises the re-usability of the question sets across other Moodle courses. A discussion forum was used alongside the quizzes to allow the students to communicate any issues they experienced with the quiz or to request clarification around the quiz questions and feedback.
Turnitin Rubric
In Autumn 2016 the Blended Learning Unit worked with a lecturer to introduce Turnitin rubrics within a development education module. Rubric scorecards were used to evaluate students’ work based on defined criteria and scales. This was combined with the use of Turnitin’s in-line feedback tool, known as QuickMark comments. The QuickMark comments were then linked back to the rubric to make the feedback meaningful for students. This resulted in an efficient feedback and grading system. Also, the students received timely, relevant and detailed feedback which helped them to understand what aspects of their work needed improvement and how the quality of their work impacts on their grade.