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Digital evening classes?

By Jim R Tyson, on 1 October 2018

This term, for the first time that I know about, the Digital Skills Development team are offering sessions in the evening. I had intended to write a blog post ready for this morning promoting these sessions and encouraging people to sign up. Alas, I fell behind. However, when I logged on this morning to check our schedule of training and bookings, I was delighted to see that the two evening training sessions for R and RStudio have already attracted more bookings than any other session – and this just a few hours after booking opened!

It will be interesting to find out how popular and successful this experiment is. If the demand is there for out of hours sessions in Digital Skills Development then we may be able to increase the offer. Do you find the idea of an evening class in digital skills attractive? Let us know in the comments.

Filed under Digital Education, Digital literacies, General Learning Technology, Students, Tyson's Tyrades


New Moodle ready for start of session 2018-19!

By Annora Eyt-Dessus, on 28 September 2018

Update your courses

Check everyone is enrolled as expected

Make your course visible

Induct your students.

Training and support

Filed under General Learning Technology, Moodle


Develop your digital skills this academic year

By Caroline Norris, on 27 September 2018 ISD Digital Skills Development has released new dates for autumn 2018.  As usual, we are offering a wide range of courses and workshops covering Word, Excel, Matlab, LaTeX, Photoshop, Stata, SPSS, R and more.

Following our successful introduction of Excel Essential Skills workshops last year, we have now added Word workshops for students.  Our workshops take a new approach to learning by presenting you with a problem to be solved and encouraging you to use your prior experience, web searches, in-application help and fellow participants to find a solution to the task.

By the end of the session you will have improved problem-solving skills, an increased knowledge of the topic, a ‘suggested solution’ to the problem you worked on and some resources and guidance for further learning.

See below for our current schedule of courses and details of how to book.

More digital skills development opportunities…

Digital Skills Development at IOE offer training in a wide range of digital tools including Microsoft SharePoint, Teams, OneNote and Visio, screencasting, infographics, mind mapping and presentation tools, with some sessions specifically aimed at Mac users. You can also learn about text-to-speech software, polling, blogging and much more.  Visit the Digital Skills Development at IOE booking system for details and to book.

Not sure what you need or have a more specific issue you would like help with?  Come along to one of the Digital Skills Development drop ins for more individual support.

Current schedule

For a full list of courses and workshops take a look at our course catalogue.  Visit the UCL booking system to book on the sessions listed below.  Dates for the second half of term will be released on 22 October.  Enrol on our Moodle course to be the first to be notified about any new sessions.

Filed under Digital literacies


Converting a PDF into a Word Document

By Michele Farmer, on 5 September 2018 Filed under Accessibility, Farmer’s Floofing, General Learning Technology


New Moodle Update- September 2018

By Janice Kiugu, on 31 August 2018 


Content migration and Courses

Portico and Category level enrolments

Training, support and guidance

Filed under Digital Education, E-Learning Baseline, Moodle


What we are watching on Lynda.com: a deeper dive

By Caroline Norris, on 16 August 2018 Having provided a broad overview of Lynda.com usage in my last blog post, here I look in more detail at the top 100 courses and then at the highest-ranking non-technical courses.

The highest ranking course alone had nearly 500 individuals who viewed this course.  If I tell you that this course was Programming Foundations: Fundamentals it will probably come as no surprise, given the popularity of Developer courses at UCL.  Python and R featured most prominently amongst the wide range of programming languages and associated technology in the top 100.  In fact, Learning Python was the second most popular course.   Java, C, C++ and Git were also popular.  Courses on data science in general featured very prominently amongst high-ranking courses with many viewers interested in data analysis and data visualisation.

Web development courses that featured in the top 100 included several on learning HTML and CSS and how to use tools such as Bootstrap as well as courses on broader web design techniques and development principles.  Front-end web tools such as WordPress and Google Analytics were less popular but also featured.

On the creative side, game development technology, CAD software and film editing software (such as Premier Pro) were the most popular.  One course on Photography also made it into the top 100.  Other courses relating to technical  areas were courses in Bitcoin, Blockchain, Artifical Intelligence and GIS to name but a few.

In terms of Microsoft tools, Excel was the most popular, closely followed by SharePoint and Office 365 training.  Other notable topics were Business Intelligence reporting and Adobe products, mainly Illustrator and InDesign.

But what about the non-technical courses?  These were more popular with staff, reflecting overall trends, and included topics such as Management and Marketing and also some specific methodologies such as ITIL, Prince2, Agile and SCRUM.  Giving presentations and interviews were also popular topics.  Several courses on project management also featured in the top 100.

Other non-technical areas covered included personal development courses (either for work or study or just general life skills). These included time management, productivity and writing and reading skills.

Finally, I’ve included a list below of all the non-technical courses in the top 500 to give you a flavour of the kind of things people are looking at.  I think it reflects the wide diversity of interests at UCL and also the amazing range of non-technical courses on offer at Lynda.com.  Why not dip in and try some of them out for yourself?  Just visit our lynda.com page to log in using your UCL credentials and then type the course name below into the search box:

Non-technical courses in the top 500

Business and the workplace
Entrepreneurship Foundations
Leading Productive Meetings
Creating a Business Plan
Business Foundations
Business Analysis Foundations
Small Business Secrets
Interviewing Techniques
Hire, Retain, and Grow Top Millennial Talent
Management Tips Weekly
New Manager Foundations
Managing Teams
Career and job searching
Writing a Resume
Mastering Common Interview Questions
Acing Your Interview
Writing and communication
Writing in Plain English
Communication Tips Weekly
GDPR Compliance: Essential Training
Universal Principles of Design
Learning Design Research
Drawing Foundations: Fundamentals
Introduction to Graphic Design
Designing a Book Cover
Designing a Poster
Designing a Book
Logo Design: Techniques
Finance Foundations
Accounting Foundations
Grant Writing for Education
Managing Your Personal Investments
Making Investment Decisions
Personal Finance Tips Weekly
Accounting Foundations: Managerial Accounting
Finance and Accounting Tips Weekly
Interpersonal skills
Customer Service Foundations
Effective Listening
Having Difficult Conversations
Influencing Others
Marketing and Social Media
Marketing Foundations
Facebook Marketing: Advertising
Marketing Tips Weekly
Learning Content Marketing
Facebook for Business
Music Theory for Songwriters: The Fundamentals
Singing Lessons: 1 Fundamentals
Introduction to Photography
Photography: First Steps
The Practicing Photographer
Photography Foundations: Composition
Presentation and speaking skills
Creating and Giving Business Presentations
Designing a Presentation
Public Speaking Foundations
Productivity and organisation
Time Management Fundamentals
Time Management Tips Weekly
Monday Productivity Pointers
Managing Your Time
Efficient Time Management
Project Management Foundations
Project Management Simplified
Learning PRINCE2
Improving Your Memory
Learning to Be Assertive
Personal Effectiveness Tips
The Neuroscience of Learning
Improving Your Focus
Developing Your Emotional Intelligence
Happiness Tips Weekly
Research and study skills
Learning Speed Reading
Learning Study Skills
College Prep: Writing a Strong Essay
Learning to Write for the Web
Grammar Foundations
Learning Typing
Note-Taking for Business Professionals
Advanced Grammar
Technical Writing: Reports

Filed under Lynda.com
