The Future of Research Skills Training Conference (2nd February 2011)
Conference overview
The conference was organised by Epigeum (one of the leading providers of online research skills training) and the theme of the conference focused on the benefits of elearning in the current climate of financial cuts.
The conference featured a range of speakers from a variety of universities who presented their own experience and knowledge of implementing online course programmes. The themes explored by the conference and the speakers included the following:
PhD programmes post-Roberts funding’
How to successfully implement online courses’
How to engage students in online learning’
The value of e-Learning to universities
Online learning pedagogy and assessment
The list of speakers and their individual topics are listed below:
Dr Douglas Halliday, Durham University: ‘PhD programmes post-Roberts funding’
Professor Alan Baird, University College Dublin: ‘How to successfully implement online courses’
Tim Meldrum, City University, London ‘How to engage students in online learning’
Professor Shelda Debowski, University of Western Australia: ‘Online research skills training – the Australian experience’ and ‘Research leadership-next generation training’
Dr Shirley Cooper, University of Liverpool: ‘Using Epigeum research training materials within an online course for first year skills training’
Jean York, University of Huddersfield: ‘How to engage students to use online training’
Reasons for attending
My reasons for attending were as follows:
To find out more about Epigeum and the types of online courses they offer
To find out how other universities use Epiguem courses and course content
To discover more about online learning and they types online learning courses universities are providing
To discover the ways in which universities are constructing their online learning courses
Conclusion
The conference offered a vast array of useful information on developing and implementing online courses (most particularly research skills training courses.) Furthermore, it also offered lots of useful information on the structure of universities and the types of online training they offer. The general consensus of conference attendees was that Epigeum courses and Epigeum course content was considered to be a useful addition to courses that were running at many universities. In certain cases it appeared that the specific needs of many institutions differed slightly. Therefore, many universities seemed to be integrating the courses and course content being offered by Epigeum into training courses that were being created and offered to students by the individual university. Subsequently, Epigeum course content can and is being used by universities successfully in the following ways:
As standalone courses
As parts of other courses/modules created by institutions