Learning Central How-To Video Demonstrations

Cardiff Player now hosts a range of how-to video tutorials, including administering basic tasks in Learning Central. Here is an example:

Loading Video Player....

Current titles include the following themes:

• Creating folders (Example above)
• Inserting audio
• Uploading and image
• Uploading a document
• Adding files to the content collection
• Embedding Flickr images
• Embedding YouTube videos

The list is being continually updated so check Cardiff Player (Martin Close) for new titles.

Actor Release Form

During the development of educational resources it is common, particularly within medical education, to employ actors - this includes patients who have agreed to a recording outside of the course of their treatment.

Prior to starting any recordings, actors should be provided with full details of what the recording will entail and how the recording will be used. The “actor” should then be asked to sign the consent portion of the Actor Release form to confirm they are happy to partake in the recording.

Where an actor is used within a recording, the actor, by law, retains copyright for their performance. To ensure Cardiff University retains the right to use the materials we produce, it is vital that all actors are asked to sign a Actor Release Form for their part in the recording.

The Actor Release Form is designed to record evidence that the media you are using has been granted for such use.

Before completing the form, please ensure you are familiar with the MEDIC e-learning Consent Policy.

Copyright Consent Registration Form

Modern teaching practices often make extensive use of creative media to enhance the information offered to students. However, such creative media (e.g. photographs, images, videos, audio, diagrams etc.) can be expensive to produce and it can be very tempting to download something from the Internet, or copy something from a book, to avoid the need to create media from scratch.

When obtaining material (for example; images, video, articles of text), the first step is to determine whether permission has been granted for use within education. If there is no clear indication then appropriate steps should be taken to obtain permission from wherever the material has been sourced. The Copyright Consent Registration Form is designed to record evidence that the media you are using has been granted for such use.  

Before completing the form, please ensure you are familiar with the MEDIC e-learning Copyright Guidelines. 

Questionmark Perception (QMP)

Information Services provide a centrally supported Questionmark Perception service available for formative assessments. The system is available via Learning Central through the Blackboard Connector, or through the systems own web interface.

At present the undergraduate medical curriculum makes no use of this service, but it is expected that the new curriculum will make extensive use of online assessment, and QMP will likely be the system used.

At present it is necessary to contact Information Services prior to running an assessment through QMP to ensure QMP has the necessary capacity (current licensing restricts the number of concurrent users on the system) when the assessment is run.

What is CORTEX?

Cardiff University School of Medicine
The School of Medicine is one of the largest Schools within Cardiff University, featuring numerous postgraduate courses and the largest undergraduate course in the University.

The undergraduate curriculum now has over 1500 students taught over two main campuses, and numerous clinical locations. To address many of the logistical problems associated with large student numbers and the pseudo-distance learning nature of the course, the current undergraduate curriculum is evolving to make increasing use of technology to deliver educational experiences and resources to students.

CORTEX and the C21 Project
In conjunction with the evolution of the current curriculum, the School is developing a new curriculum to go-live in Septbember 2013 for the new first year in-take. The new curriculum will be developed with technology as a much more integrated part of the curriculum and pedagogy from the off. This programme is know as the C21 project.

To facilitate the appropriate uptake of technology within both curricula the School of Medicine eLearning Team are running the CORTEX project. The CORTEX project aims to provide web-based resources to staff to enable them to select and implement technology appropriate for their teaching. The project is a corner stone of the eLearning Strategy, which aims to enable and empower staff to implement as much eLearning as necessary with as little direct involvement from the eLearning Team as possible. This prevents the eLearning Team from becoming a bottle neck, and allows the eLearning Team to focus on areas such as infrastructure, specialist technical developments, and quality assurance.

While the main focus for the project is to support the undergraduate curriculum, the School of Medicine also delivers numerous postgraduate, distance learning courses, which also make heavy use of eLearning. Many staff supporting these courses are also struggling with the adoption of technology, and so the planned CORTEX website will be developed in conjunction with PGT to ensure we cater for the School’s overall eLearning requirements as far as possible.

Wider Collaboration
A similar degree of collaboration is also required with University Learning and Teaching Support team, to ensure that we are well aligned with the University’s Technology Enhanced Education strategy, and that the resources we produce are as widely applicable across the University as possible.