Knowledge Exchange study: How Research Tools are of Value to Research: Use Cases and Recommendations

Research tools that are freely available and accessible via the Internet cover an emergent field in the worldwide research infrastructure. Clearly, research tools have increasing value for researchers in their research activities. Knowledge Exchange recently commissioned a project to explore use case studies to show research tools’ potential and relevance for the present research landscape. Makers of successful research tools have been asked questions such as: How are these research tools developed? What are their possibilities? How many researchers use them? What does this new phenomenon mean for the research infrastructure? Additional to the Use Cases, the authors offer observations and recommendations to contribute to effective development of a research infrastructure that can optimally benefit from research tools. the Use Cases are: •Averroes Goes Digital: Transformation, Translation, Transmission and Edition •BRIDGE: Tools for Media Studies Researchers •Multiple Researchers, Single Platform: A Virtual Tool for the 21st Century •The Fabric of Life •Games with A Purpose: How Games Are Turning Image Tagging into Child’s Play •Elmer: Modelling a Future •Molecular Modelling With SOMA2 •An Online Renaissance for Music: Making Early Modern Music Readable •Radio Recordings for Research: How A Million Hours of Danish Broadcasts Were Made Accessible •Salt Rot: A Central Space for Essential Research •Cosmos: Opening Up Social Media for Social Science A brief analysis by the authors can be found: •Some Observations Based on the Case Studies of Research Tools

Hopwood Hall College: Touchscreen technology overtakes interactive whiteboards as interactive teaching tool of choice

Hopwood Hall is adopting the use of touch screen technology and gradually replacing its interactive whiteboards to improve access to interactive learning. The touch screen monitors connected to LCD TV’s provide a cheaper classroom build with technology that’s more user-friendly and better suited to classroom delivery. Until now, interactive boards had been the mainstay of classrooms but they created teaching barriers for staff including the additional software to learn and master. They are also expensive and often have usability issues with 'pens' not working or having a delay when used as the mouse tool.

Colchester Institute: Virtual bricklaying lays the foundations for the future

Brickwork Lecturer Chris Holland has created a resource that allows students to lay bricks on a computer screen. The former bricklayer has used the ActivInspire suite on the Promethean interactive whiteboard to draw various types of bricks, as well as other interactive tools from the building site. Students are now more engaged in the classroom as they can practise cavity walling, block work, and setting walls on foundation before they get out in the workplace. Learners using the resource range from 14–16-year-old school students and full-time 16–19-year-olds completing Diplomas in brickwork to apprentices completing NVQs.

Lancaster and Morecambe College: Uses serious computer games as a teaching tool

John Latham, International Projects Co-ordinator at Lancaster and Morecambe College (LMC), got involved with the project Serious Computer Games as a Teaching Tool (SCOGATT) after using the game EnerCities with his students. The web based platform at www.scogatt.eu serves as a One Stop Toolkit for vocational teachers and trainers who want to use serious computer games (SCG) in their teaching environments but might need a helping hand. There they will be able to find a compendium of serious games, SCOGATT pilot results, teacher reports and the exemplar games, EnerCities.

Promotion of research expertise online: the self-assessment tool

Helping HEIs identify whether the way they use online channels to communicate information about the expertise of researchers within their institution meets the needs of: – Business and community users – Researchers themselves.

Case study: Developing screen casting as a tool for formative and summative feedback

Case study on Oldham College and Edge Hill University working in partnership on a project to use screencasts as a way of providing feedback to learners.

Jisc NUS student digital experience benchmarking tool

A benchmarking tool developed by Jisc in collaboration with the National Union of Students (NUS) and the Student Engagement Partnership (TSEP). The tool is a starting point for discussions between staff and students about what is working in the digital learning environment and what they can work on together to improve it.

Online Learning Readiness Tool Guide

A user guide for the Online Learning Readiness Tool, developed as part of the Jisc Scaling up online learning project.

E-safety: quick self-assessment tool 2012

The old Ofsted school inspection framework introduced in September 2009 has been re-designed to be applied to the adult sector. An action plan and completion dates have been added. Whilst Ofsted are no longer restricting overall grade if an organisation receives a grade of 4, in e-safety they still want to see that learners feel safe.