Preston College

E-Learning Development

The E-Learning Development Team @ Preston College is responsible for a wide range of services for both staff and students. The team has evolved over time to ensure it puts Preston College at the forefront of e-learning technologies. The team are located in ITF01, PC Place, at the Fulwood Campus and offer a drop-in service as well as a call centre and appointment based support. The direct line is 01772 225575 or you can use our contact form to get in touch.

E-Learning Development Team:

• Responsible for the college VLE (MyCourse)
• Responsible for e-learning staff development (specific targets set in college strategic plan)
• Responsible for the college website.
• Responsible for all web based material in college, including internal pages, student & staff pages, e-learning web based material and academy/departmental websites
• Promoting and helping staff use e-learning in the classroom
• Converting paper based material into computerised documents and interactive material
• Responsible for ensuring all students have relevant and stimulating information available on the college VLE, intranet and website
• Involved in the development of the college e-learning strategy
• Support the E-Learning Development Support Fund
• Staff & Student logins to MyCourse
• Develop staff related courses on MyCourse
• Responsible for all the college communication systems (Staff Noticeboard, Student Noticeboard, Screensaver, Plasma TVs)
• Overall responsibility for the the PC Place, drop-in centre.

PC Place:

• The PC Place is a drop-in centre equipped with 50 computers that any student in College is entitled to use.
• A helpdesk is provided to assist students
• The E-Learning Development offer additional support (video recording, extra information, wireless connectivity etc)
• The facility to loan equipment such as Projectors, Videos, TVs, DVD Players etc.

Basic services offered to staff & students:

• Add, create & convert materials for MyCourse (Virtual Learning Environment or VLE)
• Develop interactive material such as websites, CD-ROMs and DVDs
• Teach you how to include e-learning into your teaching (full e-learning staff development programme available)
• Develop staff e-learning skills
• Advise you before buying e-learning equipment (software or hardware) and support funding applications where possible
• Give guidance on using Smartboards, digital cameras, video cameras etc
• Convert old format materials (Videos, tapes, etc.) to DVD, online formats etc. We also have the facility to record TV, radio etc into different formats
• Provide inductions to students (we’ll do staff inductions as well!) on using the college e-learning facilities

Meet the Team:

Steven Aspey - E-Learning Development Manager
Line Manager of the E-Learning Development Team and the PC Place.

Frank McHale - E-Learning Development Co-ordinator
Delivers e-learning staff development programmes either full classes in the staff LC, one-to-one support or drop-in. Also, meets with academic staff to promote e-learning.

David Harrison - Web Developer
Continuous development, updating and maintaining of the College Website / VLE and other web based materials.

Paul Brophy - E-Learning Media Developer
Maintains and produces online resources for the VLC and podcasts for the iTunes U channel, as well as supporting staff in a range of IT queries.

Sonja Pywowarczuk - PC Support Officer
Day-to-day running of the PC Place (drop-in computer centre) including logging students, maintenance, helpdesk services, laptop bookings, basic operational support