Learning Solutions News

DIDACTICS & TEACHING Online resources sites for staff and student: Teach Online and Learn Online We would like to remind you of the two online hubs Teach Online and Learn Online, where lecturers and students can find online support materials for the transition to the online learning environment. In addition to training and direct support from MCI Learning Solutions, it is essential to have a platform where the most important areas of online teaching and MCI's digital campus can be found. The Teach Online site has grown from a lean webpage that provided an overview of the most important features about MCI’s learning environment to a full-blown online self-help center for lecturers and teaching support staff alike. The Learn Online site provides an overview for students on their MCI eCampus, including the various tools in Sakai, information about accessing Adobe Connect and participating in a webinar. On Learn Online you will find important pointers to online communication and collaboration as well as tips and support information to help them manage their time, their learning environment, and a range of further resources.   INNOVATION & INITIATIVE New Look for MCI PRME With a refreshed look, voices from the MCI community, and a News section, the MCI PRME website is coming to life. Ever wondered where to find up-to-date information about PRME at MCI? Wonder no longer! With the help of the PRME Task force and the Marketing team, the MCI PRME Website is now a central information hub for news, resources, activities and information about PRME at MCI. Stop by and have a look – you might find you are interested in getting involved in one or the other activity. https://www.mci.edu/prme   MCI „Gives Back“: community projects for a good cause During the last academic year, MCI students completed a whole series of successful projects for a good cause within the the MCI Community Projects initiative.  MCI Community Projects are practical projects in which students across all MCI degree programs work for and with external partners on projects for the common good. In addition to the goals achieved with the projects, the aim is to sensitize students to the needs of socially disadvantaged groups and individuals and to win them over to social commitment. These projects enable MCI students to apply and develop their knowledge and creativity on the basis of concrete questions and problems in cooperation with non-profit organisations and other partners who pursue initiatives in the area of society, environment, diversity, social entrepreneurship, etc. Congratulations to all student teams for their hard work on the projects and a big thank you to all supervisors and partner organizations. An overview of the projects completed in the last academic year is available at https://www.mci4me.at/en/mci-community-projects   LEARNING & COMMUNITY CORNER NEW! Video-Turorial (only available in German at the moment) How to interpret the Turnitin similarity report correctly? Some of you will already have experience with the plagiarism software Turnitin. The software for creating similarity reports of written student assignments is integrated into Sakai's Assignment Tool and can be activated when creating an assignment, if required, before students submit their work in Sakai. The following tutorial will help you to review and correctly interpret the Turnitin similarity reports:  

DIDACTICS & TEACHING Online Teaching Facts & FiguresThe need to maintain teaching in the wake of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to a rethinking of teaching and learning in the minds of all those involved (lecturers, course organisation, etc.). The field of online teaching and the E-Learning sector in general have experienced an immense upswing in this area. This is also reflected in the following figures (data from MCI Designer database): A total of 1180 webinars in May 2020 (for comparison: 174 webinars in May 2019) 44 webinars per day on average in May 2020 (for comparison: 8 webinars per day on average in May 2019) 37 trainings (Sakai, Adobe Connect, eAssessment, didactics in online teaching) with a total of 164 training participants since the beginning of the complete transition from the MCI campus to the eCampus. A new pool of resources for staff and student: Teach Online and Learn OnlineDuring the sudden move to online teaching over the past months, access to online support resources – alongside training and human support – has been essential. In order to cater for the needs of staff and students who found themselves having to teach and learn online without much notice, the Learning Solutions team has created online hubs for both groups, where they can find a range of resources to enable them to get up and running with online teaching and learning quickly. Both are freely accessible without the need to log on in order to reduce any barriers. The Teach Online site has grown from a lean webpage that provided an overview of the most important features about MCI’s learning environment to a full-blown online self-help center for lecturers and teaching support staff alike. It includes - information about the various tools and design options in Sakai (including a range of video tutorials, fact sheets, and checklists)- key information about using Adobe Connect for webinars- guidance and resources for online assessment- an overview of the options regarding development and use of online learning materials- an overview of different online teaching formats as well as- an FAQ section. The Learn Online site provides an overview for students on their MCI eCampus, including the various tools in Sakai, information about accessing Adobe Connect and participating in a webinar, as well as important pointers to online communication and collaboration (including a Netiquette) and tips to help them manage their time, their learning environment, and a range of further resources. Both sites are being continually extended and will be available as resource hubs into the future. INNOVATION & INITIATIVE How our lecturers have made the transition to online teaching/distance learningThe conversion from traditional classroom teaching to an online format has been a great challenge for lecturers for several weeks now. Not only the competence in dealing with learning technologies is an essential factor when conducting online courses. Many lecturers have had to realize that they have to turn their entire didactic concept upside down in order to be able to convey their content in the online format according to the learning objectives. Here are a few statements from MCI lecturers: "I have really enjoyed the online formats." (a lecturer from the B&M department) "I am very surprised how creative I could still make it online using as many tools as possible." (a teacher and language trainer) "the crash introduction to Adobe Connect on Friday last week - it was just what I needed in the time available and helped me get started right away! Yesterday and today I completed the first part of my LV completely online, everything worked out great. Even though I couldn't completely change my concept didactically in the short time available, I still managed to create a mixture of input, individual work (reading) and discussion. Partly it was even really interactive :-)." (a teacher from the M&R department) "... In the meantime, I have completed my entire lecture and also the examination using Sakai and Adobe Connect. Everything has worked perfectly and I have received positive feedback from many students. I also felt comfortable and secure during the web conferences, and the training was very beneficial. …„  (a lecturer from the UVET department) We at MCI Learning Solutions are delighted with the positive feedback. We are particularly pleased that so many lecturers have been able to gain good experience with online teaching in recent months and weeks and are now motivated to use learning technologies more in their teaching in the future as well and to develop further in the field of media didactics. We are happy to provide support in the form of training and personal coaching. LEARNING & COMMUNITY CORNER In the Spotlight interview with Dr. Karin Sixl-Daniell on her long-time experience in online teachingIn the following impressive In the Spotlight interview, Dr. Karin Sixl-Daniell (professor and former colleague in the department Business Administration online) explains how her role as a teacher has changed in teaching online and how she is preparing for online teaching. It is also interesting to hear what she says about the supposed lack of closeness to online students. Look and listen: E-Learning Training ProgramMCI Learning Solutions, in coordination with HR department, is currently working on another comprehensive training program for lecturers for the summer months to equip lecturers with the necessary digital skills for the winter semester and make them fit for online teaching. What we would like to point out again is the Digital Summercamp 2020, which will start on June 15th with a kick-off webinar and will then be conducted as an 8-week asynchronous online course. Information and registration at PE Sharepoint and here. If you would like to consolidate and expand the digital skills like digital collaboration you have gained in the past weeks - we would be happy to have you participate.In addition, you will find references to further training from external providers in the training program on the Teach Online page (in the training program at the very bottom). The training courses and events are partly in German and partly in English.  

DIDACTICS & TEACHING Podcast Launch of the "Learning Solutions Talks": Interview with Wendy Farrell, PhDWhat does it mean to teach online and how do you manage the relationship with online students? Wendy Farrell, PhD answers these questions and more in the first episode of the podcast series "Learning Solutions Talks". Put on your headphones with your next cup of coffee or on your way home, press the play button and immerse yourself in this exciting and personal interview! INNOVATION & INITIATIVE Research Ethics WorkshopOn 11 February 2020, the Learning Solutions Team organised a workshop on "Research Ethics", where the 20 motivated participants discussed the various aspects of research ethics at individual stations in the format of a "World Café". The aim of the event was to create a space in which the common understanding of research ethics and the associated processes and practices at MCI could be discussed. The following topics were dealt with at three stations: - MCI Research Ethics Assessment Process (facilitated by Madgalena Posch)- Academic Standards (facilitated by Anita Zehrer)- Joint evaluation of student reflections on ethical aspects in their master thesis (facilitated by   Claudia Mössenlechner) In open reflection rounds (fishbowls), the participants highlighted and discussed critical perspectives, problem areas and questions regarding ethical aspects in the practice of supervising scientific student work. A small insight into the workshop is available in the following short video.  LEARNTEC 2020This year we had the opportunity to visit one of the biggest digital forums in Europe – the LEARNTEC 2020! LEARNTEC is an international trade fair in the area of digital teaching and learning. During the 3 days of the event, experts from the fields of e-learning and knowledge management presented their projects to more than 11,000 visitors and discussed the most important learning trends and important research findings from this area. The topics varied between education management, e-learning content, knowledge management and digital tools for online teaching and learning. Here you can find a presentation of the highlights of the trade fair as well as a short video from the visitors' perspective.   LEARNING & COMMUNITY CORNER NEU - Sakai Basic self-paced courseFrom now on, the Sakai Basic training will be offered exclusively as a self-paced course on Sakai. This applies to the Sakai Basic course as part of the onboarding process as well as the staff development program. An exception is the Sakai Basic training in English, which will continue to be offered as a webinar (see training program). The self-paced course consists of video tutorials, which are also available as digital learning resources for everyone on the Sakai Showroom site. The registration for the self-paced course can be done via pe@mci.edu.   Online-Conference Virtuelle PH: Universities in the digital (Climate) ChangeFrom 09 March 2020 to 05 April 2020, the online conference of the Virtual PH on the topic of the university digital.innovative | #digiPH3 will take place again. Meeting the challenges and opportunities of digitisation is the task of every university. University lecturers must acquire the corresponding digital skills and keep them up-to-date: this online conference intends to provide the opportunity to do so in a variety of ways. Link to website: https://www.virtuelle-ph.at/digiph/#auftakt      

TEACHING & LEARNING Working with case studies & simulationsWorking with case studies makes it easier for students to put what they have learned into practice. If you are new to the method, we would be happy to refer you again to the didactic guide on case studies in teaching at the Learning Solutions Sharepoint. If you do not have access to sharepoint, simply write a short email to learningsolutions@mci.edu. The MCI Library Services offer you perfect support when it comes to searches and access to case studies. In addition, there are other online resources on cases and simulation. Here you can see an example of a 30-minute simulation of Family Business: http://academic.hbsp.harvard.edu/familybusiness  - an opportunity to have a cup of coffee and get to grips with a different way of teaching content. The Harvard Business Publishing website linked above offers free trials for teachers including reduced student prices. If you are interested, please contact the MCI Library Services. INNOVATION & INITIATION Studyflix - high-quality video resources for your classVideo formats are the most popular formats on the web and are also becoming increasingly important in higher education. Videos for teaching and learning are not only attractive, but also sustainable in terms of learning transfer. Studyflix offers a platform where you can find short and concise videos for a wide variety of disciplines. Take a look at https://studyflix.de/ (in German language only!) But how can you use videos effectively in your class? Therefore we would suggest the didactic guide about using videos in teaching. If you do not have access to sharepoint, simply write a short email to learningsolutions@mci.edu.    LEARNING & COMMUNITY CORNER Invitation to the Virtual Conference on "Digital Learning: Workplace Learning in the digital age”The future of learning is digital and networked. We google, we chat, we skype and we exchange knowledge daily with others. The MCI Learning Solutions Team is hosting a virtual conference on "Workplace Learning in a Digital Age" on November, 19 2019. The conference will take place in a virtual space in form of webinars - simply learn digitally together! Make use of the possibilities of digital learning as a company, training provider or as an individual. The conference is aimed at HR managers, leaders, trainers, teachers and other people interested in digital learning. Further information and registration details can be found at https://www.mci.edu/en/virtual-conference There are free entries for MCI employees (registration at michaela.preuner@mci.edu ). We are looking forward to your registration!   Please do not hesitate to contact us if you have any further questions!Your Learning Solutions Team.