Author Archives: Trevor Collins

The Dragons’ Den of School Partnership Sustainability

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The Dragons Den workshop facilitators at Engage 2016

The Dragons Den workshop facilitators at Engage 2016

A few weeks before Christmas we facilitated a workshop to discuss the benefits and sustainability of collaborative partnerships at the annual NCCPE Engage Conference in Bristol.

The workshop was developed and delivered by staff from the OU, working alongside colleagues from the School-University Partnerships Initiative (SUPI) based at the University of Bristol, University of Southampton and Lancaster University.

This post explains the planning, preparation and performance of the workshop, and includes a few reflective comments on what worked and what could be done differently next time.

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Why technology-enhanced learning needs engagement

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Trevor Collins' seminar on technology-enhanced learning and engagement

Trevor Collins' seminar on technology-enhanced learning and engagement

Last Monday, I gave a talk on my research as part of the ‘engaging research’ seminar series associated with the RCUK funded Catalyst and SUPI projects. I explained why I think engagement is so important.

In my research, I try to identify the range of stakeholders in a given learning context that will be affected by the introduction of a technology. Through understanding the activities that the stakeholders are involved in, I try to develop technologies that will be used to facilitate learning without causing too much extra work for any individual stakeholder. By engaging, I hope to understand the stakeholders’ perspectives and where possible collaborate with them to create something they will find useful.

Here’s the video of the seminar along with the slides (including the cited references) and abstract…

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Dr Trevor Collins – Co-investigator (Learning)

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Dr Trevor Collins

Dr Trevor Collins

Role

Trevor was a co-investigator on the OU’s Catalyst project. He co-ordinated the learning work package within the project, and is also involved in the communication and digital engagement packages.

The learning work package was concerned with identifying the existing development opportunities for research staff and students across the university with regard to public engagement, as well as identifying gaps where additional support could be provided by the university or external sources (e.g. the UK research councils, Vitae, JISC or the NCCPE).

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