Some Reflections

Why was the process of producing the validation document so difficult?

I was surprised when I saw the document printed out; it looked so small. I had been working on an electronic document and hadn't really ever had an idea of how big the document was. As I had spent so much time on it, I imagined that it would be correspondingly big.

I have referred to the main problems with this process before. The most important one is the short timescale and therefore the lack of time to think and consider. I also feel that because this was an online degree, the whole process was harder for us and we had to justify things in a way that wouldn’t have been required of a face to face course. Additionally we had to prepare the detail for modules that will not be delivered for several years and incorporate all this into our planning and design – all very good practice, but hard to do in the short timescale.

To make things even more difficult, the online content for the modules has been written during this time too. A face to face course might be delivered for the first time with a lecturer writing the lectures for each week, days, or even hours before the lecture. We have had to produce all the content for semester one and have it all ready before the course starts.

All this has meant that we have all had to do too many things at once; often things that needed to be done in sequence.

Now I feel a great relief that the validation process is over and look forward to be able to getting back to working normally.

eCommunications FdA Validated!

Today our degree was validated at SHU. We all feel that this is a big achievement and a huge relief. We have all put so much time and effort into this in such a short time and it is marvellous to be able to have now reached this stage in the development of the course.

There are 8 conditions that we have to meet by the end of January 2008, but these are all very minor; mainly they just want us to add a bit more detail or explanation to things. The big change is that they want us to make the eMentoring Module 10 Credits and the eCommmunications Work Experience module 30 credits; this is to give the students a more sustained experience in this final module. None of this is a problem to us and we will produce the final document for their approval in the New Year.


They have given us 1 recommendation, which is not necessary for us to meet, that we use ‘Turn it On’ to check for Plagiarism – however we are happy to do this as it will line us up with the existing practice at SHU.

I was a bit surprised that they didn’t ask for more than the one exam that we had planned.

The meeting was stressful but everyone was supportive and we all managed to respond to some difficult questions.

I felt that we were particularly helped by the online materials. They look excellent and most of Semester One is now on sheffcol.

A good day!

A week to go to validation

Today we have been told by Kevin from Sheffield Hallam that in Validation next week (14 12 07, we will be able to show Module 3 instead of Module 1. We had been asked to show the first module at validation but we are still uploading the pages of Module 1 onto sheffcol, the Module 3 content is mostly uploaded already and will all be in place by the 14th. It's better to show Module 3 as it is more representative of the degree as a whole and as it is being delivered first alongside Module 1. It is a moot point which is the first Module. In the event we will probably have most of Module 1 finished by the 14th but being told that we don't have to meet this deadline is a bit of a relief.

The nearness of the validation has meant that many things have had to be put on hold. However, several staff are now experimenting with the Wiki, creating new pages and adding content and others are blogging and visiting the forum. We need to make a big push on this after validation