Welcome to new programme participants!

On behalf of the MSc in E-learning programme team, a very warm welcome to the Holyrood Park Hub to those of you who are starting on the programme next month! We hope you enjoy getting to know what we’re all about, and we look forward to working with you next semester when you begin your coursework.

This Hub is a place where students, alumni and teachers on the programme can network – as you can see there’s quite a lot going on. You can jump into conversations, or start your own – we’re a welcoming and friendly group (as long as we’ve been fed đŸ™‚ ). You can also click on anyone’s name on the site to find out more about them. The technologies handbook gives some information about how to use the Hub and our Twitter hashtag (#mscel) – feel free to ask if you have any questions.

Finally, we are meeting up this evening (Monday 13 December, 7pm UK time) in Second Life for an end-of-semester festive celebration – if you’re familiar with Second Life and have an account already, do drop in and introduce yourself, and have a cup of virtual hot-chocolate (or something stronger).

Access to WebCT courses after semester ends

This is some follow up information relating a conversation that was had in IDEL a few weeks ago, where I said I’d find out for sure how long students have access to WebCT courses after the end of the semester in which the course was run. I thought others might also want to know.

Here is the definitive answer, from Information Services:

“registration on a course is permanent, so once a student is placed on a course access to it is retained as long as the username is still active. This is so that students can use “old” courses to revise for exams, and throughout their degree. Access to WebCT is removed along with access to all other services 150 days after the end of the student’s course teaching [ie: when you are no longer a registered student], as set by departments.”

Permanent link to the MSc “World Map”

I just wanted to let everyone know that there is now a permanent link from the About the Programme sidebar to our Google map. The map is really growing thanks to the efforts of lots of us (and more are always welcome – just email Hamish at H.A.Macleod@ed.ac.uk with an email address associated with your Google account, and he will send you an invitation). There’s even an emerging sub-project spearheaded by Michael, asking us to visually represent how and where we interface with Edinburgh.

Read more about the rationale for the “Our World Map” project.

A glitch when logging in.

update 13 September: the glitch is fixed!

hi everyone! I wanted to describe the main glitch we’re experiencing with the new site at the moment, and explain the workarounds until we can get it fixed.

The glitch is that sometimes when you log in using the ‘login with EASE’ link on the home page, you end up at a blank page. We haven’t yet been able to solve this, but there are 2 workarounds.

1. when you get the blank page, just navigate back to the main page of the site, and you’ll find yourself logged in and ready to go. If you navigate back using the ‘back’ button on your browser you may need to hit the refresh/reload button to see your logged in state.

2. before you log into the site, log in to EASE separately. When you then click the ‘login with EASE’ link on the home page, it will log you in without the blank page.

We will fix the problem as soon as we possibly can – in the meantime, thanks for your patience.

Jen

Two things worth knowing

1. If you have something you want to post in the main blog (ie: the main page of this site), please feel free to do so – all Hub members are authorised to write blog posts. Once you’re logged in, click the “Blog posting area for the Hub” link in the lefthand sidebar. You’ll be taken to an ‘Add New Post’ screen. Type your post, and click ‘Publish’. Go on – you know you want to…

2. A reminder for those who may not have read the ‘Hub’ section in the technologies handbook that all content on this site is publicly accessible. Groups and their associated forums can be made private, and you can send private messages to other members, but other material, including your profile information, is visible to anyone who visits the site. So, choose what you post accordingly!