DIVAS Community of Practice

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12014457918698737722011-07-07T13:08:20.515-07:00DIVAS Community of PracticeHamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comBlogger351100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-86364456540618199332009-10-05T06:12:00.001-07:002009-10-05T06:12:52.819-07:00

http://divascommunityofpractice.blogspot.com/

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-88142838950462741062009-04-22T06:06:00.000-07:002009-04-22T06:12:20.244-07:00Case Study by one of the FCET tutor

I had an interesting informal interview with one of the FCET module leaders with respect to validation process. Various points were discussed as below:ResearchThe notion of designing a new award will generally be based on the research undertaken by the academics in the faculty. Teaching staff are constantly trying to identify the gap of their programme and create the appropriate award or module

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-80763626531316502022009-03-03T03:07:00.000-08:002009-03-03T03:15:12.693-08:00Potential improvements

Once the development work on linking the Ning Validation Support Network to the University’s HIVE repository (where all outputs from validations will reside) is completed, the practitioners will be able to search validation documents through Ning platform via a “self-service” approach. This will increase the chance for members to visit the community network and participate in the discussions. The

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-55952898460558036542009-03-03T03:04:00.001-08:002009-03-03T03:06:00.495-08:00New methods created to enhance the traffic

Fleur Corfield a community member created a group for those who are interested in Validation around Foundation degrees or involved in Enable JISC project. This hopes to bring together thoughts from those in the university and partner colleges about the experiences around curriculum design. This may create an opportunity to get them engaged in the validation activities.A Validation Administration

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-34892226957222233002009-03-03T01:55:00.000-08:002009-03-03T03:03:44.996-08:00Community Recession

It looks like we are having a ‘contribution crunch’, some community members seem to be saving their thoughts, ideas and experiences for themselves. As a remedy we need to inject some motivation and enthusiasm in order to get the wheels in motion again. The community atmosphere has been quiet the last few weeks, even though the discussions were part and parcel of validation process and taking

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-37259741360236707432009-02-22T11:10:00.000-08:002009-02-22T11:55:26.058-08:00Meeting with the project development team

I looked into more than 130 discussion forums on Ning developer site to identify similar cases to our project. I found the contents of discussions very useful. The community members raised a lot of queries and solutions which answered a lot of my questions. By looking at the size of the Ning developers community and the high volume and diversity of discussion forums, it made me realise how

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-23598590853317529422009-02-22T11:05:00.000-08:002009-02-22T11:09:37.115-08:00Communicating with Ning developers members

I signed up to get access to the application developer sandbox with OpenSocial v0.7 The purpose of this social network is to enable developers to implement and test the OpenSocial Application with Ning. However Ning points out those editorially-selected applications will be featured as part of their new directory. This made me feel concerned about the privacy of our application as we do not want

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-51471581389242345052009-02-22T11:00:00.000-08:002009-02-22T11:02:39.964-08:00Research into third-party applications - 2

I have been researching the OpenSocial applications the last couple of weeks. I went through Ning developer online discussions to find out what other programmers are developing on Ning .Ning provides advanced guidelines on how to develop an OpenSocial application. The developer needs to be familiar with XML, HTML and JavaScript languages. I am experimenting with some of them at present.OpenSocial

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-67363284656388606292009-02-22T10:48:00.000-08:002009-02-22T11:03:25.387-08:00Research into third-party applications - 1

It was agreed, as part of the last meeting action points, to investigate into widgets and gadgets which can be integrated into our validation support network. The purpose is to create a similar application to act as a platform link from Ning to HIVE documents. The first thing that comes to mind is, What is the difference between them?Widget:Widgets are interactive virtual tools that provide

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-68218408115357945362009-01-20T13:54:00.000-08:002009-01-20T13:59:23.231-08:00Our 2009 Resolutions

A 'Feedback' forum was setup for members to allow them to post their feedback on any of the last year topics and events. We also added a 'Suggestions' forum to give them an opportunity to discuss topics, ideas or issues.The IT development team are currently working on linking the Ning Validation Support Network to the University’s HIVE repository where members will be able to hold outputs from

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-37769535077934750982009-01-06T13:19:00.001-08:002009-01-06T13:23:18.433-08:00Validating Technology Supported learning event

We organised an online event on Technology Supported Learning and Validation on Thursday, 11th December which consisted of two presentations. The first one was led by Glynn Skerratt, principal lecturer from Faculty of Sciences, who has been involved with designing for distance learning with off-campus students for many years. The second one was presented by Barry Wardle & Keith Booles, senior

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-26595695045960425982008-12-24T01:55:00.000-08:002008-12-24T02:15:59.065-08:00Awards Aims and Learning Outcomes

Once course teams have undertaken their market research and discussed the proposed programme with employers, the next stage is to agree the overall aims of the award and the learning outcomes that students should be able to demonstrate at the end of the programme.We had several discussions with the stakeholders. Kathryn McFarlane (Curriculum Dev Advisor -Centre for Professional Development) said

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-9475897020009986922008-12-24T01:44:00.000-08:002008-12-24T01:53:57.136-08:00Validation Administration

We set up a discussion forum for the administration staff who are involved in organising the validation events(e.g. collating validation documentation, organising validation panels, writing validation reports or tracking the completion of amended documentation) within the faculty/school or at a University Level.This forum aims to highlight the issues the administrators face when they arrange or

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-70627426539874191712008-11-24T14:31:00.001-08:002008-11-24T14:33:30.385-08:00Restrictions on Employer-University engagement

For engagement to take place and flourish there must be mutual benefits for both partners in the relationship. Even where such potential benefits exist there may be constraints on their realization. Few barriers were identified by academic staff:An award leader at Health Faculty explained the difficulty in identifying ‘who does what’. Where links were established they often depended on

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-91905679188732819552008-11-21T04:38:00.000-08:002008-11-21T04:45:22.930-08:00Employer Engagement

We had several informal talks with tutors & award leaders about their experiences with employer engagement during the validation process we have set up an online discussion to exchange ideas. The majority stressed the importance of employer’s involvement in course development and their collaboration with the University which is considered imperative to bring significant economic benefits to the

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-31189008676305007292008-10-20T01:10:00.000-07:002008-10-20T01:32:20.907-07:00Market Research

We started a discussion last week for those who are involved in market research, for new and projected awards and modules. We encouraged members to share their experiences and concerns on the subject. Some Members did not reply to the discussion because they had other commitments so we decided to take a more personal approach by visiting them (colleagues that we know) or contacting them

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-67099587436469329182008-10-13T01:30:00.000-07:002008-10-13T02:11:22.049-07:00Engaging the Community

After “Ask the Experts: Validation Process” online event things have gone quiet on the community site. We have had a discussion on how to engage the members and encourage them to interact with each other, create groups, make friends, and start a discussion. We have asked members to create their own blogs on the site or to link their existing blogs to it.This followed with another informal meeting

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-62423660786229042922008-10-09T02:45:00.000-07:002008-10-09T02:55:40.497-07:00Backup & Restore Issues

I have been working with Ning and was very impressed with the capabilities it offers compared to other social networks.However, before our last online event, one of the support team deleted one of the discussions forum by accident and could not retrieve it. This made me feel concerned about the restoration and backup procedures on Ning. If our network continues developing and being successful and

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-87202422566239158222008-10-06T01:14:00.000-07:002008-10-06T01:28:36.033-07:00Ask the Experts:Validation Process (online event)

This event aimed to answer stakeholders’ queries about the validation process using threads as an asynchronous communication. It ran for 2 hours on Thursday afternoon. Primarily Chris and I thought of running this event side by side from the LDI office however we later changed the plan as it was more useful to have his colleagues around him for consultation in the ADI office.A reminder was sent

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-43325020170402909602008-10-02T01:12:00.000-07:002008-10-02T01:40:35.505-07:00Launch Day

On the launch day we had to alter our invitation message before we sent it. This was because Ning did not allow us to attach a file in the invitation message (e.g. guide on how to access Ning); hence we thought we needed to send this file under a separate email to the users.Another issue was that Ning did not let us input more than 200 characters in the invitation message text area.Sue L, Sue K

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-7164783717049392092008-09-30T02:36:00.000-07:002008-09-30T02:45:19.684-07:00Meeting with the Finance Team

Ning by default adds adverts to its pages; these can be removed by paying $19.99 a month. Sue L mentioned in previous meeting that there is a budget so we can remove these adverts in order that COP will look neater and more professional.I arranged a meeting with Tracey Proctor from Finance Department to arrange a monthly payment to Ning but this was not a straightforward process. She entered the

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-69667685299489207842008-09-30T02:19:00.000-07:002008-09-30T02:26:19.655-07:00Meeting with the Development Team

I had a one-to-one meeting with Sam Rowley discussing the gadget development on Ning.I have demonstrated my initial experiment with Ning on how an XML file can be linked from an external server to Ning using the gadget feature. This triggered an idea by Sam R about the possibility of integrating a webpage into Ning and indeed we managed to incorporate a wiki webpage residing on Hive into Ning

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-46976059775116574442008-09-30T02:02:00.000-07:002008-09-30T02:10:33.143-07:00Brain Storming Sub-Meeting - 2nd Sep

After the meeting on 2nd September Chris Gray, Sue K and I had a follow-up meeting. We discussed the structure of our forthcoming activities for this monthI went through DIVAS COP on Ning with them and we agreed on the interface of Ning. We decided to keep the interface simple, clear and concise and we removed some features like video and music player as Ning only has a 10 Gb storage capacity. We

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-49394495526917496682008-09-29T06:52:00.000-07:002008-09-29T07:20:00.205-07:00First Online Event

Well, we still have new members joining up and now have a total of 57 members in the Validation Support Network NING community.We held our first online Ask The Expert event last Thursday where we had Chris Gray, Quality Improvement Officer in the Academic Development Institute, available in a specially created community forum from 2pm to 4pm to answer community members queries reagrding the

Sue KBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02882706266436641305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-18984940902923503072008-09-19T04:45:00.000-07:002008-09-19T05:08:43.639-07:00The Launch

What was it I said at the end of my previous post? -"... all we now have to do is: 1. Export the DIVAS Contacts folder from Microsoft Outlook into a .csv file. 2. Use the csv file to batch invite the contacts in Ning which will allow us to select invitees from a csv file."Well, you'd think it could not be simpler! Word of advice - never start a sentence with, " all we have to do now is..."!NING

Sue KBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02882706266436641305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-68109514702541024302008-09-12T03:13:00.000-07:002008-09-19T04:47:46.744-07:00Getting a list of Contacts

Compiling an initial list of University staff to invite to join the DIVAS community has been quite a long and laborious process.It was decided to compile a list of Award leaders as a starting point by possibly consulting the University prospectus's. These did not prove too fruitfull except for the Faculty of Health. I thus decided to consult the University email address book where I was able to

Sue KBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02882706266436641305noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-43257075137523234872008-09-12T02:01:00.000-07:002008-09-12T02:25:44.183-07:00Experimenting with Gadgets

One of DIVAS project objectives is to have a link between DIVAS community of practice and HIVE repository to enable the documents to be searched using Ning platform.While I was looking into Ning I noticed a new function called “Gadget”. OpenSocial gadgets are applications written for OpenSocial which should work equally well on all compliant social networks. Thus, instead of writing one

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-90775864456668389332008-09-08T04:23:00.001-07:002008-09-08T04:26:46.343-07:00Adding Documentation tab on Ning

As a start I thought it would be useful to have a specific tab on DIVAS so validation documents can be displayed on that page and I called it Documentation. This required investigation through Ning Developers Community on how to implement a new tab on Ning. I have uploaded the validation documents’ links that I have received from Chris Gray.

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-80853877314381582962008-09-08T03:09:00.000-07:002008-09-08T04:22:58.603-07:00Hectic Work in August

I had a busy period in August, organising our activities and tasks liaising with Quality Improvement Services in order to have everything completed before the launch of the community of PracticeAt present DIVAS COP support team consists of Chris Gray, Sue Kneill and myself. We have agreed to complete our action points before the next DIVAS meeting in September.Chris Gray has not decided on the

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-83093310335899211802008-09-08T01:36:00.000-07:002008-09-08T01:53:05.975-07:00Launching Approach of Community of Practice

As a team we have talked about how to launch DIVAS community of practice to the stakeholders but we do not know what is going to happen or whether it will succeed. There was a concern about the approach we should adopt to develop and support the community. To announce it to our award leaders is likely to cause problems if the initiative fails to gain support.It was agreed with the project manager

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-13890941385035608892008-08-12T07:04:00.000-07:002008-08-12T07:40:34.488-07:00Our Preparations Towards September

Sue K and I had a meeting on Thursday 7th August to review the events Chris and I had generated in the last meeting. We confirmed the first two events ( the ones in September and late October) and decided to launch the DIVAS COP at beginning of September ( since the majority of staff will be back from holidays). We created action plan in co-ordination with the previous one produced by Chris G and

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-84465854213941560092008-08-12T02:06:00.000-07:002008-08-12T07:33:37.570-07:00Meeting with QIS

I had a meeting with Chris Gray (Quality Improvement Officer) on Thursday 5th August to discuss the events which will take a place on the DIVAS Community of Practice through the academic year.We agreed on these initial events:First Online Event: Validation Process presentation by CG and HB - early SeptemberSecond Face to Face Event: : Introduction to DIVAS by HB and CG - late OctoberThird Online

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-4375887360656443212008-08-07T01:19:00.000-07:002008-08-07T02:18:59.365-07:00Copyrights & Security

Copyrights issue was raised in the meeting on July 8th. This was concerned about the uploaded validation documents, will they be belong to NING? I have designated the network as private so only invited staff can sign up to become members and it will be visible to them only. Investiagtion has been carried out by contacting Ning support team who ensured that any content submitted to private network

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-77578331073468340942008-08-05T05:00:00.000-07:002008-08-07T02:24:16.127-07:00Exploring Ning

Creating an online community of practice was identified as one of the DIVAS project deliverables. It is aimed to provide an architecture of participation to build a cross-university Community-of-Practice with flexible and convenient access to user-contributed validation support information for re-use and further exploitation. In the past I have joined several social networks like Facebook,

Hamza Badenjikihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06295277805306287274noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1201445791869873772.post-56661635861381082672008-07-03T05:54:00.000-07:002008-09-08T04:14:17.274-07:00Getting into Ning

Last week I received an invitation from Hamza, who has set up the DIVAS Community of Practice in Ning, to join the community. I had a brief look and added a comment or two for other members but did not get to look in detail. Confusion arose when I was asked for my Master Key which, it turned out, is to do with me being set up as an Administrator.Something I often do when I go into the Ning

Sue KBhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02882706266436641305noreply@blogger.com2