University of Leeds Helps Students Learn More Effectively With Academic E-Learning

When it comes to helping students learn more effectively, the University of Leeds in England knows a thing or two about what works. Says one of the university’s students about her experience with Articulate-powered course material:

“I think this approach makes learning easier for me than purely some written notes. The written note approach is somewhat close to notes I take from the text book anyway, the slides plus voice over seem to add an extra dimension – making it easier to learn, and also making me look at the material from slightly different perspectives.”

For those of you in the UK or other parts of Europe, now is your chance to connect with fellow Articulate users at an upcoming conference, and learn some tips about how Leeds has been so successful in implementing our software in its academic programs.

The University of Leeds has announced that it will be hosting a UK Articulate user group conference on Thursday, May 7, 2009. Led by Dr. Dragos Ciobanu, the conference also offers a companion community site where you can connect with other users (even if you don’t attend the conference).

The event will provide an opportunity to explore the full functionality of Articulate software, discuss best practices, and learn from other users. Attendees will include academics, learning technologists, and established representatives from the e-learning industry.

The conference program is now available online and features the following:

• Articulate in Academia
• Articulate in Industry
• Customer Showcase
• Networking with Fellow Users
• Meet Articulate Staff (including Dave Moxon)

Because of the interactive nature of the conference, attendance will be limited to 60 individuals, and only 30 slots remain.

Learn more and register via the conference website.

Articulate UK partners Kineo and Omniplex will also be in attendance.

Note that this is not an Articulate-sponsored event. Please direct any questions regarding the event directly to Leeds via the conference website.

As for Leeds and the university’s experience with Articulate, Dr. Ciobanu shared his take:

Articulate is a brilliant and exciting rapid e-learning tool which was very cleverly designed from the outset, has the best support team I have personally ever seen and whose functionality and usability are constantly winning over the many academics I am training at the University of Leeds.

I am genuinely having lots of fun supporting it in my institution and I find Articulate Studio ’09 to be the kind of package that brings the proactive side in any learning technologist. One of the best things I am currently involved with is preparing bespoke presentations and training sessions for our faculties and departments. The feedback is amazing and the people I see can’t wait to get their hands on the application.

“Articulate is surprisingly easy to use and excellent for making your research accessible and understandable,” states one academic who had been searching for engaging and effective ways of communicating his latest findings to his students.
“I have been using Articulate as part of our online Master’s programme. The students enjoyed this new form of learning and teaching as it supports student engagement and motivation. It adds a new dimension of online-based teaching provision and definitely made for a new learning experience which students greatly enjoyed,” wrote another academic, while a colleague added: “more and more lecturers are taking advantage of the potential in using this software and can see how Articulate can make the learning experience much more interactive and rich for our students who provide us with much positive feedback.”

Finally, the interactive multimedia elements that integrate audio/video and text into accessible online resources, together with the recent product enhancements which support problem-based learning make Articulate Studio one of the favourite rapid online content creation tools at the University of Leeds.

“Articulate is useful to introduce students to online learning,” said a colleague. “It can help the department to provide supplementary and additional teaching sessions in a way which saves time for teachers and encourages student-directed self-managed learning.”

You can also learn more about how Leeds leverages Articulate in the classroom. And browse more feedback from Leeds students and professors about their experience with Articulate.