BCS e-Learning Specialist Group 1. Minutes of the previous AGM

BCS e-Learning Specialist Group
Minutes of Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 5 November 2014, at BCS, London
Various apologies for absence were received by the Secretary,
1.
Minutes of the previous AGM
The minutes of the AGM held on Thursday 31 October 2013, at BCS London were circulated and
agreed.
The report was accepted. (proposed by S Ghallab, seconded by G Staples)
2. Matters arising from the minutes
There were no matters arising, that were not otherwise included in the business of the meeting.
3. Treasurer's Report (presented by Liz Ryan)
The allocation for the year 2014/15 for the e-learning SG is £500, plus a further £500 for student prizes,
which will be used for best student papers at the INSPIRE 2015 and Student Poster competition winners..
The allocation for the year 2013/14 for the e-learning SG was £500, which had been reduced from the
year 2012/13 of £2,021, and from 2011/12 of £3,140 .
From the allocation for 2013/2014 of £500, we only spent £63.02,consisting of Catering £35.51,
Publicity £9.86, and Telephone £17.65. The low spend was due to the joint events with Branches and
organisations, that met the expenses.
Bids can be made for supplementary funding for particular projects.
The report was accepted. (proposed by P Kingsley, seconded by J Uhomoibhi)
4. Secretary's Report (presented by Margaret Ross)
The current Specialist Group membership is 1,449, of which 27% of our members are outside the
UK. We hope that in particular, those members will enter the Open competition and encourage
local HE and FE establishments to enter the BCS Student e-learning poster competition.
.
The Specialist Group thanks the sponsors of the meetings, particularly the BCS for hosting the
INSPIRE 2013 conference and Southampton Solent University for hosting the INSPIRE 2014
conference.
The Specialist Group also would like to thank the speakers.
Events in 2013/2014
Month
Thurs 6
Sept 2013
Mon 28
Oct
Thurs 31
Oct
Wed 27
Nov
Thurs 28
Nov
13 Dec
e-Learning SG - Speaker’s Name
Subject for e-Learning SG
INSPIRE Conference at BCS London, jointly with
Quality SG at BCS London
INSPIRE Conference
Alison Messenger, jointly with BCS Hampshire
Branch, BCS e-learnning SG at Southampton
Ergonomics and the Safe use of
remote technology
Eleanor Dewar following e-learning AGM at BCS
London
MOOCs
Alison Messenger, Southampton Solent University
and Castle Ergonomics
Joint with the BCS Hampshire Branch, BCS eLearning SG, BCSWomen SG and Southampton
Solent University, at Southampton
Timos Almpanis, jointly with BCS Guildford
Branch, BCS e-learning SG SG, at Guildford
Workshop on how to Keep
Yourself Safe
James Uhomoibhi, at Cape Town
Event
1.
2.
3.
4.
The impact of Massive Open
Online Courses (MOOCs) in
Higher Education.
BCS and e-learning
5.
6.
13 March
2014
Thurs 10
April
15 April
Louis Nisiotis, PhD Student, Sheffield Hallam
University, , Dr Martin Beer, Principal Lecturer,
Sheffield Hallam University, organised by North
London Branch, at BCS, London
Supporting Learners in the Digital
Age
Eleanor Dewar, jointly with the Belfast Branch, at
University of Ulster
An Introduction to the MOOC
Phenomenon
INSPIRE Conference, jointly with Quality SG at
Southampton Solent University
INSPIRE Conference
7.
8.
9.
Events in 2014/5 to date
Tues 14
Oct 2014
Wed 15
Oct 2014
Mon 20 Oct
2014
International Ada Lovelace Day – Editathon
at Southampton Solent University, jointly with e-learning SG, BCSWomen and Hampshire
Branch
Who’s Stalking You?
Dr Diane Gan and Lily Jenkins, University of Greenwich, , at Southampton Solent University,
jointly with BCSWomen, e-learning SG, Open Source SG and Hampshire Branch
An Introduction to Badges for Learning
Julian Prior, Learning Technologist, at Southampton Solent University, jointly with e-learning
SG, and Hampshire Branch
Forthcoming events include
Wednesday 5 November - The Potential Benefits of Open Badges for BCS Members, Branches and
Specialist Groups by Margaret Ross MBE, Hon FBCS, at BCS, London. It was reported that the BCS
Membership Director, David Evans, had agreed, subject to no contracts being signed, to the pilot for Open
Badges to be started by a limited number of Member Groups (including e-Learning SG, Quality SG and
Hampshire Branch)
Wednesday 12 November - Who’s Stalking You?, by Dr Diane Gan and Lily Jenkins, University of
Greenwich, at Greenwich University, jointly with BCSWomen, e-learning SG, Open Source SG and
Greenwich University
Thursday 27 November – Anniversary of death in 1852 of Ada Lovelace Day – Editathon, at
Southampton Solent University, jointly with e-learning SG, BCSWomen and Hampshire Branch
Wednesday 10 December – Anniversary of birth in 1815 of Ada Lovelace Day – Editathon, at
Southampton Solent University, jointly with e-learning SG, BCSWomen and Hampshire Branch
We are concerned about out 27% of members based outside the UK, so are beginning to record
some meetings, progressing with the establishment of overseas e-learning sub-groups (although
this currently is only allowed where there are International Sections) and hope to hold additional
meetings possibly in Singapore, Malaysia and Africa, in addition to various parts of the UK and
Northern Ireland.
We would be delighted to hear from any organisations that are prepared to sponsor meetings.
The report was accepted. (proposed by E Dewar, seconded by J Uhomoibhi)
Chairman's Report 2013/14 (presented by J Uhomoibhi)
The Chair thanked the members of the National Committee,
The 18th annual INSPIRE conference was held, in conjunction with the BCS Quality SG at BCS,
London. It was very successful, with an excellent Keynote from Professor Liz Bacon, Deputy BCS
President followed by interesting presentations, both in person and remotely from diverse locations
of New Zealand, Finland and the USA. The proceedings, “Education Inspires”, ISBN 978-09563140-9-3 have been printed.
The 19th INSPIRE 2014 was held at Southampton, in April, with authors and delegates coming from
various countries, including Armenia, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, India, Poland, Saudi Arabia, Spain
,as well as the UK.. The conference proceedings, “GIobal Issues in IT Education” ISBN 978-09926958-2-8 were printed.
Also we are holding another poster competition for HE and FE students as well as having an Open
competition.
The Chair described the use of MOOCs to help education in Africa, and the MOOCs Africa
concept, based initially in Tanzania, which is planned to assist, via e-learning, digital literacy,
computer knowledge at all levels, and other local issues such as health.
The Chair thanked the committee and the speakers for all their help and their support throughout
the year
The report was accepted. (proposed by E Dewar, seconded by L Ryan)
6. Election of Officers Report (presented by Margaret Ross)
The following members of the committee indicated their willingness to remain on the committee
Chairman: James Uhomoibhi (Proposed by M Ross, Seconded by G Staples)
Vice Chair/ Secretary/Membership Secretary: Margaret Ross (Proposed by E Dewar, Seconded by
J Uhomoibhi)
Treasurer: Liz Ryan, (Proposed by G Staples, Seconded by D Hutty)
Existing Committee, elected as a whole,
(Proposed by M Ross, Seconded by L Ryan), consisting of:
Cornelia Boldyreff, Eleanor Dewar, Soheir Ghallab, Daniel Hutty, Paul Kingsley, Geoff Staples
All of the above were elected unanimously
7. Future Events (presented by Margaret Ross)
The BCS Quality Specialist Group’s Annual International 23rd SQM (Software Quality Management)
and 20th INSPIRE (International conference for Process Improvement, Research and Education)
Conferences will be held on Monday 30th and Tuesday 31th March 2015 at Loughborough
University, UK, details at http://sqm.lboro.ac.uk/ and
http://inspire.lboro.ac.uk/ . papers can be
presented again remotely or in person. One page abstracts in Word required asap to Margaret
Ross, with SQM 2015 or INSPIRE 2015 in the Subject line.
8. Any Other Business
There was no other business
10 were present, of which 3 were via the telephone conference call, James Uhomoibhi, Geoff
Staples and Liz Ryan)
Details of the BCS e-Learning SG Poster Competitions
The BCS e-Learning SG Poster International competitions, both having two Classes, one aimed at
STUDENTS (at Universities, Higher and Further Educational Establishments) and the other OPEN to
all. Both to be submitted by a point of contact to the BCS, [email protected] by end of 20
March 2015
Poster and Text competition, with 2 Classes, one for STUDENTS and the other OPEN
The theme is the “benefit of e-learning”
Your entry should be a file of 2 power point screens, the first as an e-poster relating to an application
of e-learning, the second with a text description your application of e-learning, which you might
have either developed or are proposing. Examples of Topics could relate to gaining skills,
professional qualifications or ensuring children’s safety with the Internet
RULES that apply to the competitions: The BCS Specialist Group will be running a different
STUDENT Class competition for students at Universities, Higher and Further Educational
Establishments in 2014/2015,
 Entries are invited from individuals or groups of students at all levels of study: postgraduate,
undergraduate or in further education, whether in full-time or part-time study; open to BCS and non-BCS
members.
 The language should be English,
 Declaration of entry to be made to [email protected], with copy to
[email protected], with e-Learning poster competition as the subject line, stating
Student or Open class,
 For the Open Competition, entries via the individual or one member for group entries, who
should be a BCS member , stating the BCS number – only one member per group for the open
competition need be a BCS member, The subject heading of for all communication should be "elearning Open Competition"
 For the Student Competition, entries via a nominated single point of contact (normally a teacher
or lecturer at the educational establishment) for each Student competition, the Point of contact need not
be a BCS member
 For the students (HE and FE) class, the Point of Contact from that educational establishment is
asked to
 Email your nomination for your establishment’s single Point of Contact normally a lecturer, to
[email protected], with copy to [email protected], with e-Learning Student
competition as the subject line,
 We will then post the name of the nominated point of contact along with that of the establishment, its
location (town and country) on our e-learning competition webpage, for other students at that
establishment to see and use to contact the Point of Contact
 Further information, if necessary, can then be sent to the Point of Contact
 The Point of Contact should , when submitting, by 20 March, for their educational establishment, a zip
file containing the separate student files
 the identification of the author for each power point file
 the full contact details of the nominated the Point of Contact, eg full name, name and address of the
educational establishment, and email address
 The Point of Contact should then email this file to with a subject heading of
"e-learning Student
Competition" followed by the name of their establishment, before the closing date for submissions of
20th March 2015
 Each academic establishment may submit up to 30 entries for each competition; it is left to the
points of contact to sift down to this limit, if more than 30 entries are submitted to them
For the Open and for the Student Competition
 The BCS will assess all submitted entries and select 20 per class for further consideration at the BCS
e-learning INSPIRE conference.
 All entries must be free from any copyright, potential legal limitations or other issues that might cause
offence
 All shortlisted entries could have an opportunity to present their proposal, utilising technology where
appropriate
 The judges’ decision is final.
 The BCS will obtain the media rights and all other rights appropriate for the competition.