Photo by wwarby
Previous editions of Take Five can be viewed here
Posted by Kath
Established in 1994 ScHARR's Information Resources team has established itself as a key national player in providing information support to health technology assessment and health services research. The team is made up of professional, highly trained Information Specialists who are involved in the forefront of research, teaching, support and development. This is our blog where we talk about the diverse work we do: #Teach #Research #Search #Support
Tuesday 18 December 2012
Latest Research Funding Update: Projects & Programmes (December 2012)
Christmas Quiz!
Our Searching Peer Review Group (SPRinG) had its last meeting of 2012 today and we rounded off another brilliant year with an xmas/funnies themed literature searching quiz. Pit your own skills against those of ScHARR's 'Top Gun' lit searchers with the following questions:
3, A review investigating the use of parachutes to prevent fall related injuries
5, An editorial piece on the spiritual and cultural benefits of xmas pud.
6, A longitudinal study on cutlery in the workplace
Bonus: how many letters to the editor in response to this study?
7, A review of one of the baby Jesus’s first christmas presents
8, A piece of qualitative research investigating whether adverts influence children’s christmas lists.
9, An article on the common side effects of a favourite christmas vegetable.
and finally...
10, An analysis of Father Christmas as a poor lifestyle role model.
All answers can be found via Pubmed - and that's all the help your getting from me, enjoy!
 |
| Bokeh Christmas Tree image by dannynorodo used under creative commons attribution licence, with thanks. |
Can you find....
1, A paper looking at whether reading Harry Potter is likely to cause injuries in children?
2, A paper comparing streptokinase with other clotting agents as blood stain removers in clothing?
3, A review investigating the use of parachutes to prevent fall related injuries
4, A study of the relative health benefits of martinis; shaken vs stirred.
5, An editorial piece on the spiritual and cultural benefits of xmas pud.
6, A longitudinal study on cutlery in the workplace
Bonus: how many letters to the editor in response to this study?
7, A review of one of the baby Jesus’s first christmas presents
8, A piece of qualitative research investigating whether adverts influence children’s christmas lists.
9, An article on the common side effects of a favourite christmas vegetable.
and finally...
10, An analysis of Father Christmas as a poor lifestyle role model.
All answers can be found via Pubmed - and that's all the help your getting from me, enjoy!
Wednesday 12 December 2012
From all of us, to all of you!
Let it never be said that the IR gang aren't competitive! Happy Holidays, whichever one you are celebrating!
Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!
Monday 10 December 2012
New Information Specialist at ScHARR
Hello! My name is Kath Williams and I am the new Information Specialist at ScHARR. I have previously worked for over three and a half years in an NHS library setting, mainly focused around current awareness.
My areas of interest are around current awareness (not surprisingly) and the various ways in which technology can be utilised to improve the way services are delivered. That said, I'm really looking forward to learning new things and getting stuck into some literature searching. I also have some experience of delivering skills based training sessions and I would love the opportunity to expand my knowledge in this area.
Having been given the task of overseeing the delivery of current awareness services in ScHARR, this won't be the last post I make to this blog! Watch this space...
http://www.shef.ac.uk/scharr/sections/heds/staff/williams_k
Monday 3 December 2012
Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without…
Frank the library skeleton in his Christmas tinsel and lights combo! To say he is the highlight of the library Christmas decorations would be something of an understatement… Do pop down and see him if you can!
Posted by Claire
Posted by Claire
Friday 30 November 2012
Wednesday 28 November 2012
And I just can't get enough, and I just can't get enough...
Image by boo_licious used via CC BY 2.0
....enough Mendeley that is. IR's Andrew Tattersall and Claire Beecroft are finding themselves being called upon across campus this month as the demand for teaching on Mendeley snowballs. This week we've been teaching in the iSchool, and next week its the School of English Literature, Language and Linguistics' turn to get in on the Mendeley magic. Hopefully Andy's Minute Mendeley site will help to spread the word, but in the meantime Andy and Claire will just have to keep gargling with honey and lemon to keep their voices limber and ready for action at a moment's notice!
Posted by Claire
Tuesday 27 November 2012
Educate. Aggregate. Organise - MmIT Journal Article
One of the perennial, if not biggest, problems we all face is not “how do I find information?”, but “where do I store it?” We all too often hear the old saying ‘information overload’
and now I am increasingly coming across the problem of information storage overload. When I say information, I mean everything, Tweets, Google Docs, bookmarks, images, Excel
files, RSS feeds, the whole kit and kaboodle.
The level of the problem varies from person to person and according to how much they engage with technology, from personal photos on their smartphone to confidential patient data in the workplace. Finding a solution can take a lot of time and effort, putting it into practice more so, and getting your organisation to do this is pretty much impossible.
I've written about this problem, that we all face in this month's issue of MmIT Journal which is published quarterly by the Multimedia Information & Technology Group of Cilip.
You can read the full article via subscription to the journal here: http://www.cilip.org.uk/get-involved/special-interest-groups/multimedia/journal/pages/default.aspx
Monday 26 November 2012
Social Media Video 2013: Social Media Revolution 4
I stumbled across this video on...you guessed it Social Media conduit Twitter. I've seen a few quite similar before and the combination of booming music and startling facts that make you wonder, how do they really know all of this? The various aggregation tools probably really do know, but it's not as simple as that once you scratch the Social Media surface. I've always questioned statistics such as viewed numbers on platforms like YouTube - do we actually know whether they watched the video. Nevertheless certain numbers do jump out, they're too big to ignore, so on that evidence alone we would be foolish to ignore them.
And to counter-balance the story, here's one from those masters of news mirth - The Onion on Social Media.
Thursday 22 November 2012
Welcome to the University of Google - Online Information 2012 Conference Presentation
This Tuesday I was lucky to present to a very full room at this year's excellent Online Information 2012 Conference. Moving from what I regarded as the conference's spiritual home of Earl's Court and Olympia to the Victoria Park Plaza there were a wealth of topics covered from my own on the Cloud to Social Media, ebooks and mobile devices.
Even though I only attended the first day, it was jam-packed with brilliant, educating and entertaining sessions - possibly the best day's conference schedule I'd been part of.
Sadly I missed Cory Doctorow, Editor of the popular weblog boing boing, Contributor to The Guardian, The NY Times, Publishers Weekly, Wired Magazine and his plenary - There is no copyright policy; there is only Internet policy. There is no Internet policy; there is only policy.
I did however get there in time to see the insightful presentation by The Guardian's Technology Editor Charles Arthur and his session Platform Wars: After the Digital Wars which looked at the on-going mammoth battle between Microsoft, Google and the biggest of them all Apple. Arthur is a superb speaker who moved across the platform landscape with a collection of statistics and figures that showed the technology arms race and the war is going to continue on a global scale. He was followed by Lucia Adams, Digital Development Editor, The Times, UK. Adams gave a brilliant talk about how the famous news company has tackled the problem every newspaper is facing - how to remain as a viable business. Since dipping its toe into the tablet and Apps market, The Times has now no less than 12 apps and is making a real fist of staying relevant in the era of more content, social media and less advertising revenue. As an ex-journalist, I found these two sessions really interesting, and I couldn't help but note my ex-employer, The Press Association’s London Office as I walked back to Victoria Tube Station at the end of the day, I gave a nod as I passed by
I have to say that I was impressed with the venue, despite looking grubby on the outside, the inside was very sleek and welcoming - the presenter’s green room felt more like a boardroom with several people doing some last minute cramming ahead of their sessions, I was sat next to Charle's Arthur who you'll be keen to know was using a Mac.
After a brief break it was my turn in track 3 - ‘Making sense of big data and working in the cloud’ alongside the co-founder of the excellent Altmetric site Figshare, Mark Hahnel
I hadn't been feeling the pressure as I'm usually OK speaking at large events, but felt a sudden wave of anxiety on the way down when I checked the #online12 Twitter feed to see a post by the Director of our computing services department, Dr. Christine Sexton. Christine had Tweeted: “Two fire alarms and hotel evacuations later, I'm up. Looking forward to talks from @doctorow, @charlesarthur and our own@Andy_Tattersall”
Considering I was giving a talk on a topic that Christine had been instrumental in, by getting Google for the University, I was worried that I’d say something that wasn't factual, I did say that I used to be a journalist didn't I? Luckily my concerns were unfounded as I met with Chris beforehand and was reassured that there was nothing I could wrong. The room I was speaking in held 140 I was informed and it was evident that the word Google in my title was a crowd puller as the room filled up with just a few spare seats with many others stood to the side and back of the room (although they all could have been there so see Mark of course). I talked about how my own experiences of using Google Apps since 2006 and how that had aided myself and my department in adapting to the University transition to the Google Apps Suite. I covered why the University had taken the decision to not only move students, but staff on wholesale and what it meant logistically and culturally. I received lots of questions, more than I could have imagined and did the best to deal with them, but in the end as I’d already primed Chris - the Director of CICS eventually had to step in to answer questions on security, legacy and stability. Chris had been live blogging throughout the day, and a review of my session, which was written as I presented - it takes a real skill to do that - can be read here: http://cicsdir.blogspot.co.uk/2012/11/the-university-of-google.html
My slides can be viewed here:
Lunch was lovely, but isn't that one of the high points of a conference? Beef Bourguignon with a variety of sides, followed up by some kind of vanilla mousse - I know people usually rate events by the food, this was fine dining, for me anyway.
After lunch I attended a really entertaining and very popular debate titled : “Staying Safe Online: The Dark Side of Apps and Social Networks” with Mathias Klang, Researcher and Senior Lecturer, University of Goteborg, Sweden and Cory Doctorow again. Both argued the pros and cons of social media, the issue of how we protect our children and how to ensure their privacy. They discussed how do we manage the problem of giving away our data for free products and that we are giving away much more than we are aware of. Again the session was captured live on Chris Sexton’s blog and can be read here.
Finally after more snacks and a fly by of the trade stands to get a multi-colour highlighter from Emerald (thank you Emerald) for my little girl.
I finished the day with the session that featured 3 talks on the use of tablets in libraries. First up was Jan Magnusson, Librarian, Chalmers Technical University, Sweden and his presentation Surf Tablets in University Libraries. This was followed by an excellent talk by Guus van den Brekel, Medical Information Specialist, Coordinator Electronic Services, Central Medical Library, University Medical Center Groningen, The Netherlands. I first met Guus at EAHIL 2009 when he moderated a presentation I gave in Dublin with Andrew Booth. Guus’ presentation was excellent and showcased their project to lend iPads to medical staff. There were many benefits from this project, one being a better personal relationship between librarians and users, and more importantly gave users a new and improved insight into the library and its services. In Guus’ own words: “It proved to be the best PR & marketing activity for libraries since the invention of "sliced bread"!
Finally, the solar powered library from Denmark, this was an inspiring talk and from a man wearing shorts, in London in November. Rasmus Fange Vestergaard, Librarian, Tingbjerg bibliotek, Denmark gave a new slant to the mobile library, by actually taking one to the beach and running with power from the sun. His talk focused on their initiative to lend users tablet devices as well as books. A nice way to end the conference. I would certainly recommend this conference to anyone from the library and information world, and with an interest in technology. I'm sorry I could not attend both days, but certainly felt I got the better day for my own area of work.
Countdown to REF - Faculty MDH Bite Size - 29th November - 2.30pm @ Faculty Boardroom, Barber House
Learn something new in 20 minutes on a topic that will affect so many of us - the REF 2014. If you want to know how to maximise your return then join Andrew Booth for what will prove to be a very informative session. As always there will be Bite Size cakes available for you to munch on.
Drive: The surprising truth about what motivates us
My
lovely wife sent me this the other day, and even though it's not a
library-information video - I thought it was pretty interesting and
thought it would be good to share it on the blog. Plus it is enhanced by
those cool people at RSA Animate who could make the dullest talk sound
brilliant. Any way, find out what makes people tick and how to get the
best out of them :-)
So put that carrot and stick away now and watch this.
Friday 16 November 2012
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What is information literacy?
A short video produced by the University of Sheffield Library explaining what information literacy is, and how it can help you.
Wednesday 14 November 2012
ScHARR Bite Size #30 for Research - Altmetrics
Here is a 21 minute screen cast for the ScHARR Library Bite Size on Altmetrics which my colleague Claire Beecroft ran on my behalf. It gives a brief overview of how we can use Altmetrics to improve our scholarly output. ScHARR Bite Size are sessions that last 20 minutes long, so my screen cast had a bit of injury time added.
The treadmill of academia is a relentless one: proposal, research, write, present and then hopefully publish before starting all over again all in the hope your work is of good quality, worthy and recognised. There's one problem though - journals are not geared up for the modern on-line world of sharing and communication. Altmetric tools such as Mendeley, Twitter, Google+, ResearchGate, Slideshare and many others are though. They are alternative metrics to improve scholarly communication and they want to help you shout about how great your work is.
If you want to know more about Altmetrics - go to: http://altmetrics.org/manifesto/
Take Five - November 2012
Latest: Research Funding Update
Monday 12 November 2012
ISPOR 15th Annual European Congress
Ruth Wong from Information Resources Group in HEDS presented her poster entitled “Assessing the quality of manufacturers' searches in NICE single technology appraisals by evidence review groups” at the ISPOR 15th Annual European Congress in Berlin on Monday 5th November 8:45-14:15. Over 3500 attendees were present at the conference and 1600 presentations between 5th-7th November. Ruth had the opportunity to speak to several people who came from academia, pharmaceutical or consultancy organizations from various countries about her poster during the author discussion hour. Conference posters presented by HEDS at ISPOR Berlin could be viewed here.
Tuesday 6 November 2012
Thursday 1 November 2012
ScHARR Library @ Internet Librarian International 2012
No less than four members of the team attended this year's Internet Librarian International Conference at London Olympic this week. Two dual presentations from Andy and Claire titled Video Saved the Library Star, whilst Anna and Anthea talked about their experiences of Using Blogs, Twitter and Wikis to Deliver e-Learning.
Both presentations were well received at the very popular conference, you can see the Tweets if you search for the #ili2012 hashtag.
Andy and Claire were keen to come on stage to the Buggle's famous No.1 Video Killed the Radio Star, but decided against it due to attending previous sessions on eCopyright ;-) just in case anyone was recording the presentation. Our presentation can be viewed below.
Video Saved the Library Star
In 2011 Cisco predicted that video would make up over 50% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2012, whilst YouTube recently reported that one hour of content is uploaded per second. Like mobile technology, video is becoming increasingly important in our lives. At ScHARR, University of Sheffield, we have identified a range of ways to employ video in our research, teaching and marketing:
- Using screencasts to instruct students, researchers and NHS staff on topics including literature searching and reference management
- Delivering information study skills via our 3elearning series of 3-minute, multi-format videos
- Replacing photographs on staff profile pages with short videos giving a more personal introduction and conveying staff academic activities in a more friendly and engaging way
- Marketing our research and Masters courses via video and screencasts including feedback from successful graduates
- Using video within our virtual learning environment, including module introductions, updates and ice breaker videos for distance learners based around the world
We are empowering our colleagues to produce their own content by running video and screencasting workshops and we host our content via the University’s own streaming video servers in addition to YouTube and Vimeo. These platforms have been employed to embed the content in other locations including our virtual learning environment, blogs, social platforms and University web pages.
We believe that video is a vital part of the future of higher education, and in our session we’ll share our passion for video, along with practical low and no-cost solutions to producing video content!
Back to the conference
This conference goes from strength to strength featuring a whole range of interesting topics from eCopyright to the Cloud, from search to discovery as new skills and the future of the library and information profession. Several high profile speakers in their area were present as always including Phil Bradley who once again entertained and educated a packed room with the many tools he had discovered in recent months.
Roly Keating, Michael Stephens, Brian Kelly, Dave Pattern and Karen Blakeman all made strong presences to name but a few, whilst there were countless trade stands to visit and even plunder for goodies if the inner-magpie in you took control. It was really good to see the joint SWETS Mendeley stand and of course the food was top notch.
Roly Keating, Michael Stephens, Brian Kelly, Dave Pattern and Karen Blakeman all made strong presences to name but a few, whilst there were countless trade stands to visit and even plunder for goodies if the inner-magpie in you took control. It was really good to see the joint SWETS Mendeley stand and of course the food was top notch.
Internet Librarian International goes from strength to strength and no doubt will be well represented by IR again next year at ILI2013 - hopefully we'll see you there.
Links
ScHARR Library YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/scharrvids
Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011–2016
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html
Links
ScHARR Library YouTube Channel
http://www.youtube.com/user/scharrvids
Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast Update, 2011–2016
http://www.cisco.com/en/US/solutions/collateral/ns341/ns525/ns537/ns705/ns827/white_paper_c11-520862.html
Thursday 25 October 2012
ScHARR Bite Size for Teaching #27 - What the CICS Learning Technologist Team can do for You! 31st October - 2.30pm, Eric Wilkes Room
ScHARR Bite Size for Teaching continues with a brilliant CICS LTT double act - head of CICS LT Sarah Horrigan is joined by Senior Learning Technologist Graham McElearney. As always there will be cakes, please come eat, meet with colleagues and learn something new or your money back!
Wednesday 24 October 2012
More of IR in action at Internet Librarian International
Following on from Andy & Claire's post about "Video Saved The Library Star", Anna and I are also hot-footing it to Internet Librarian International next week to present about
The session covers a pilot we ran in one of our FOLIOz e-learning courses to deliver the materials via a Web 2.0 technology of the participants choosing, allowing us to deliver real "anytime, anyplace" type learning. We'll be reporting on how it went, what the learners thought, and what we plan to do next!
Tuesday 23 October 2012
FDMH Bite Size for Teaching #3 PebblePad - 30th October - 2.30pm @ Pool Seminar Room 4
As always there will be lovely Bite Size cakes - so please try and join us for a useful session on this teaching tool.
Monday 22 October 2012
Video Saved the Library Star - Internet Librarian International 2012 Promo
Video Saved the Library Star - Internet Librarian International 2012 Promo from ScHARR Library on Vimeo.
Here's the promo video for mine and Claire's presentation on video for this years Internet Librarian International conference, I hope you can join us :-)
C104 - Video content
14.45 – 15.30
Video saved the library star
Andy Tattersall, ScHARR University of Sheffield CILIP MmIT Committee member
Claire Beecroft, ScHARR University of Sheffield
In 2011 Cisco predicted that video would make up over 50% of all consumer Internet traffic by 2012, whilst YouTube recently reported that one hour of content is uploaded per second. Like mobile technology, video is becoming increasingly important in our lives. ScHARR has identified a range of ways for libraries to employ video in research, teaching and marketing.
The European Directory of Health Apps
This will be of interest to any one involved in health technology in particular mobile applications in health. Press release taken from: Patient View
The European Directory of Health Apps
This first edition of the European Directory of Health Apps
was launched on October 3rd 2012 at the European Health Forum Gastein
2012. Gastein is a key event in the Brussels healthcare calendar—an
annual gathering of European-level policymakers, academics, industry and
patient groups http://www.ehfg.org/home.html
This unique Directory contains facts about 200 smartphone health apps capable of helping patients self manage their medical conditions. The Directory
represents not just the first occasion on which such information has
been gathered together on a large number of medical conditions—the key
difference about the Directory is that the health apps it lists
have all been recommended by patient groups and empowered
consumers, then categorised and indexed in several ways (including by
local language), to make the details easy for readers to find. Another
distinction about the Directory is that it lists health apps on all of
the major operating systems (Android, Apple, BlackBerry, Nokia, and
Windows Phone), not just apps that are carried on one. Robert Madelin,
European Commission Director General for Communications Networks,
Content and Technology (DG Connect) has written the Foreword to the Directory.
Friday 19 October 2012
Take Five - October 2012
Photo by Daniel*1997
Post by Anna
The latest edition of Take Five is packed full of research funding opportunities, news and new websites.
An archive of the Take Five Newsletter and other research funding updates can be viewed here
Wednesday 17 October 2012
SoPHR Diabetes Workshop
ScHARR is one of the eight members of the School for Public Health Research (SoPHR)
funded by the NIHR to advance and promote applied public health research.
The NIHR School for Public Health Research will aim to increase the evidence
base for effective public health practice by conducting research to increase the volume and quality of applied public
health research and evidence, including evaluations and creating an environment where first class applied public health
research, focussed on the needs of the public, can thrive.
As part of SoPHR, a team at the University of Sheffield, including
Louise Preston of Information Resources (other team members are Alan Brennan,
Jim Chilcott, Liddy Goyder, Nick Payne, Hazel Squires, Penny Watson and Mike
Gillett and external collaborators from Cambridge, Peninsula Medical School and
LiLAC) are working on a project to assess the effectiveness and
cost-effectiveness of population / community public health interventions and
targeted identification and screening interventions for type 2 diabetes
prevention using a common modelling framework to support translation of
knowledge into action.
As part of this project, in early October we held a stakeholder workshop
within ScHARR with external collaborators, local GPs and commissioners and
patient representatives to work on the development of a conceptual model to
support the project. This was followed up by a poster presentation at the
annual SoPHR conference held in Sheffield. Work on the project involves
modelling, reviewing and information retrieval to faciliate modelling and
reviewing based on methods developed in the recently completed NIHR
Fellowship by Suzy Paisley.
Louise Preston
Tuesday 16 October 2012
Friday 12 October 2012
Learn Something New in 20 Minutes...or Your Money Back
Image © http://caption.it/
Time is a valuable resource, whether it be in work or personal life, and we are all very busy people. So, finding a new resource, a new way to work or just a new idea can often sit on the back burner whilst the daily workload is dealt with. This is very odd considering we work in an innovative, creative and fast-paced environment. Our remit is to research, educate, help shape minds and ideas and help drive the whole system forward in a way that fits with modern times. Yet we all have our day-to-day jobs to deal with and while we do that we rarely get the chance to find a new way to work, or discover a new resource as time is a valuable resource.
At the School of Health and Related Research (ScHARR) we had been very aware of this problem and wanted to do something about. We were aware of the growing problem of staff not having the time to learn about existing and new services, technologies and ways of working. They were also aware that some of the established methods of staff development were not working, as people could either not spare half a day for training, or that when they did they got very little from it. So in 2010 Andy began developing 20-minute sessions introducing new technologies to support and enhance teaching and research. He saw a need for professional development, delivered in a format compatible with heavy workloads and busy schedules. After consulting Claire Beecroft, a ScHARR-based university teacher, the first two sessions were run. Simultaneously, Dr. Jenny Freeman was developing sessions on learning technologies for teaching. After running the first successful session on the social reference management tool Mendeley, Jenny contacted Andy about fusing together these two and Bite Size was born.
The original inspiration for Bite Size came from Andy’s passion for cricket and the development of Twenty20. This new format of the game came as a reaction to falling numbers attending games as people struggled to commit a full day to following the game and getting new devotees had become increasingly hard. This was a common problem when trying to get staff to attend development sessions- they just did not have the time. Also, how could they be guaranteed they would get something from a session?
Twenty20 Cricket
Image used under a Creative Commons By Attribution Licence © by vijay_chennupati
This is where ScHARR Bite size stepped in and represents the very best in collaborative effort designed to benefit all, with clear, demonstrable improvements in learning and knowledge of both staff and students. To achieve this whilst taking into consideration the aforementioned problems it became apparent that Bite Size would focus on planting seeds and making connections. After running a few sessions it soon became apparent that are no shortage of new ideas, technologies and resources across the campus that can be turned into a lively 20 minute session.
Bite Size are short development sessions where staff and students (and indeed anyone in the University) bring a hot drink and we supply cake! They include a 20-minute presentation using technologies such as Prezi, videos and interactive demonstrations, with time for discussion. Sessions so far have covered topics on teaching and research practice, emphasising emerging technologies, resources and innovations in teaching and learning pedagogy and practice. They directly link the technologies and innovations to learning and teaching activities: according to Graham McElearney, since his Bite Size session ScHARR has become the biggest departmental user of MyEcho in the University.
The team use their expertise in marketing, promoting BiteSize within ScHARR and the wider university, using blogging, Google Sites (https://sites.google.com/a/sheffield.ac.uk/bite-size/) and uSpace. They developed screencasts and podcasts of sessions enabling staff to watch/listen later: http://youtu.be/-QO6PNqRJwA
Attendance is regularly over 20. Of 54 people who participated in a recent evaluation: 87% felt Bite Size helped them work better; 100% felt Bite Size was an effective way of learning new ways of working:
“I always learn something ...it gives me an insight into lots of aspects of work that people are doing”
“Quick, informative, straight to the point. You learn about things you weren't aware of”
Most importantly, staff on the new distance-learning MSc International Health Technology Assessment found BiteSize vital in enabling them to choose which technologies to use and gained inspiration in how to use them.
The team have spread the word about Bite Size via conference presentations (2), posters (3), a workshop and journal article and have even had enquiries from Australia about copying the idea!
The Bite Size team is a unique combination of experience, talent and enthusiasm enabling Bite Size to be what it is: Andy’s technology focus, Claire’s enthusiasm for new ways of teaching, Jenny’s wealth of teaching experience and links to pedagogical experts and specialists in the wider learning community. Jenny also secured financial support at Faculty level and sourced excellent administrative support from Uzzie Laubscher, without whom Bite Size would be poster-less, room-less, computer-less, and cake-less! We have learned the value of collaborative working: by leveraging diverse skill sets, a great idea has become a successful reality. This collaboration has created something greater than the sum of its parts: Bite Size shows what happens when staff whose paths would not normally cross are brought together by a shared passion for learning.
More recently Bite Size has expanded into the Medical Faculty and launched a separate series of sessions that re-runs some of the best ScHARR sessions such as Voiceworks, Google Apps and How NOT to Display Data. There are also plans afoot to start up other Bite Size sessions across the campus, whilst other institutions including the University of Leeds are looking to start their own 20 minute sessions.
When Bite Size started in 2010 there was one simple problem- how to create a programme that that stays fresh and relevant. It soon became apparent that this was irrelevant as the 50+ sessions have proved there is no limit to what you can cover in 20 minutes. Think about any time you have attended a lecture, workshop or seminar and thought: “ Did this really need to be an hour long?” With Bite Size, at best you have been introduced to a new resource or a smarter way of working, at worst you have lost a mere 20 to 30 minutes of your working day. Also you had a cake, saw colleagues you rarely cross paths with and at least tried something new by attending. What’s not to like?
To stay abreast of ScHARR and Faculty Bite Size@
Add the calendar to your own - scharrbitesize@gmail.com
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