After months of work we are finally launching our Ancestral voices: the earliest English literature course today with actual students! This course has been developed using almost entirely existing content as part of the Mosaic project funded by JISC. The course as a whole learning experience with tutor will be running for the next 10 weeks, and hopefully for many terms to come. However as part of the Mosaic project, all the course materials will be made available more widely in the near future as well – more information about that to come.
Category Archives: launches
Maps on the internet
It used to be difficult to get good quality maps on a website – or at least long-winded and expensive finding them and purchasing a license, or clearing copyright.
In these Web 2.0 days it’s easy to get a good looking map on your website, and I’ve just done that for Vikings: raiders, traders and settlers (one of the 25+ online courses we’re running this term).
We provide simple maps with settlements marked and annotated, as well more complicated maps with tools to investigate the languages from which town names are derived, and detailed exploration of a town’s heritage of defense against the vikings 1000 years ago – still visible today!
Visit the Vikings maps pages to explore and learn about notable viking settlements through text, video and panoramic images, all linked up using the Google Maps API, blip.tv, and PanoSalado.
New courses this term
We are just in the middle of our termly launch period for our online courses and it is looking like we are going to hit 700 students this term, which is really amazing considering how recently we were pleased about having 100!
Most excitingly we are launching new courses in English Poetry of the First World War, Using the Victorian Census and Vikings: raiders, traders and settlers as well as the Postgraduate Diploma in Paediatric Infectious Diseases; developed in conjunction with the Medical Sciences Division here at Oxford.
The poetry course has been written by Sandie Byrne one of our most popular course authors and provides a great tie in with the exciting The Great War Archive project that our colleagues in OUCS are leading.
Developing the Victorian Census course has been an immense task, but I think we have created a great practical course to get people started with this amazing resource. This course also provides access to Ancestry.com for the duration of the programme which is probably worth the course fee on its own.
For the Vikings course we have done some really innovative work with Google Maps about which we will be writing some more about soon.
Lastly with the Paediatric Infectious Disease programme we have worked closely with the learning technologies group in Medical sciences whose expertise in e-assessment has allowed us to include some great self assessment opportunities for the students.
I think our ability to launch four such varied new courses in the space of a month is a real testament to the work of the whole team and everyone at Continuing Education and the rest of the University who has made each course possible.
Finding reusable content
I have been looking at online resources on the pedagogy of online distance learning, and portals to accessible, free educational material. Some of them are a little disappointing. Many lead to broken links, or to chains of other lists of links, many of which turn out to be dead ends. Online resources for Anglo-Saxon culture and history, and Old English texts, however, have proliferated, and many are very good indeed. Catherine Ball’s website, formerly hosted by Georgetown, which I hoped to suggest that we incorporate, has gone, but Peter Baker’s Introduction to Old English has a range of resources ideal for our purposes, and Dr Stuart Lee, of Oxford University Computing Services, has produced a wonderful and accessible online Old English coursepack , and has posted a lecture series as webcasts. There are also readings of Old English texts and a good selection of translations for comparing and contrasting, and some stunning photographs of artefacts and archaeological sites. The difficulty (aside from obtaining copyright permissions)will be in choosing between them. I hope that the authors of the sites I ask to include will see the value of bringing the information and teaching together, and making it freely available.
CPD online courses for Autumn
We are launching a number of Continuing Professional Development courses, this Autumn including 2 new courses.
24th September
Introduction to Electronics
Patient-Based Evidence (NEW)
1st October
Perl for Bioinformatics
22nd October
Key Concepts in Health Care for People Experiencing Homelessness
5th November
Effective Online Tutoring (NEW)
Online courses for the Autumn
This autumn we are offering more short courses than ever before, including 7 new courses
10th September
Brontës (NEW)
Learning to Look at the Visual Arts
New Economic Powers
Study Skills
12th September
Jane Austen
Learning to Look at Western Architecture
Philosophy Gym
Political Philosophy
17th September
Exploring Roman Britain
Islamic Art and Architecture (NEW)
Victorian Fiction: an Introduction (NEW)
19th September
Contemporary British Fiction; an Introduction (NEW)
Critical Reading
Durer to Bruegel: Northern Renaissance Art c.1480-1580
Learning to look at Modern Art (NEW)
Philosophy of Religion
Reality, being and existence: An introduction to metaphysics
24th September
Philosophy of Mind
Theory of Knowledge (NEW)
Visual Arts of India
26th September
Playing God: an introduction to Bioethics (NEW)
For more information on these courses or to enrol on a course visit Online courses at Oxford University’s Department of Continuing Education, email the online courses office or telephone +44 (0)1865 280974.
ContEd website Revamp
TALL have been working with everyone in the department to develop a new and improved website for the Department for Continuing Education, our parent organisation at the University of Oxford.
The new site went live on 19th March 2007, and features:
- improved course catalogue integration,
- online enrolments,
- a new visual design,
- improved organisation,
- lots of behind the scenes improvements.
Thanks to everyone in the department who made this possible.
Visit the new website at: http://www.conted.ox.ac.uk/.
New courses launched today
NEW! Introduction to Political Philosophy: Introducing the student to classic and contemporary texts in the context of approaching some central questions in political philosophy. The course examines the justification of the state, problems of democracy, liberty, justice, and feminist theory. Participants are guided through the thought of various classical and contemporary thinkers, in both primary and secondary readings.
NEW! Philosophy of Religion: This course helps participants to think clearly about the following questions:- What, if anything, is it that Jews, Christians, and Muslims are agreeing about when they join in claiming that there is a God; and what, if any, prospects are there for rationally defending or attacking this claim? This course appeals to everyone interested in thinking clearly about their own religious beliefs (if any) and those of others. The course is intended to be accessible to people who have not studied Philosophy before, even informally.
Courses launched today
Learning to look at the Visual Arts: During this course students learn to look at paintings, prints and drawings from a more analytical and objective point of view. By the end of the course they are able to use visual vocabulary to appreciate art. Active online discussions centre around aspects such as composition, space, form, tone, colour, subject matter and visual techniques.
Learning to look at Western Architecture: This course enables students to ‘read’ the architecture of the Western world in a critically informed way. Students learn to recognise and differentiate between the major architectural styles of the western tradition – and thus gain a greater understanding of the way that buildings are built, and why they look the way they do.
Northern Renaissance Art c1480-1580: Complementing ‘Learning to look at the Visual Arts, this course covers European art and artists from between 1480 and 1580, introducing students to the world of the Northern Renaissance.
Arts of India: Students learn about the main developments in the history of South Asian art in this period, including Buddhist and Hindu architecture and sculpture, paintings and architecture from the Rajput and Mughal courts, and the impact of European colonialism. They also examine the religious, ritual, social and political contexts in which these buildings and objects were made and used.
Courses launched today
Introduction to Philosophy: Even as our knowledge continually expands, philosophical questions asked since the time of the Ancient Greek philosophers continue to perplex us. This course offers the opportunity to explore four topics in philosophy – knowledge, reality, free will and morality.
Philosophy Gym: Based on the popular book of the same name, this course introduces students to philosophy by means of a number of intriguing puzzles on such subjects as Does God exist? and Is time travel possible?
Philosophy of Mind: The philosophy of mind is one of the most exciting areas within philosophy. It is concerned with questions about the nature of mind and the relation between our minds and the physical world.