Overview

This resource demonstrates some tried and tested uses of Falmouth’s online toolkit, as well as some information and advice about how the tools work.


‘Live example’ links may include student work – please be careful. You also may not have access to all of these links as they exist within various spaces.


Contents

Journal 

Falmouth Journal fulfils a variety of roles across different courses, depending on their needs. Some courses provide private online blogs for weekly reflections, some blogs are open to other members of the course to share and comment on each other’s work. Academic staff can access student journals to comment on work, and check in on student progress. In some cases students can view one another’s journals, and in others they are kept private and instead share work through forums in the VLE.


There are two reasons that students will take the time to learn and engage with Journal:

  • If they are sharing something and getting feedback from staff through Journal (FO Fine Art is a good example)
  • If their Journal is an assessed piece of work


Therefore for purely self-reflective tasks (eg, not shared with staff) Journal is not the right tool and there is no benefit to using it. Alternatives for these scenarios are to allow students to use whatever platform they want, including word/a notebook/external blogging tool.

Uses

Online portfolios - individual blogs which students upload work to and get feedback from staff or students.
Example | Live example | Template


Assessed portfolio - as above, but assessed rather than ongoing feedback from staff
Live example


Reflective journal (not recommended) - individual blog which is not shared with staff or other students


Online exhibitions - group blogs where students upload finished work to share.
Example | Live example


Multimedia forums - group blogs where students share unfinished work/inspirations for peer and academic feedback (we should probably phase these out and use Padlet instead).
Live example

Padlet

Padlet is like a digital pinboard or visual forum, where groups of students can add posts to a single board.

  • It allows peer feedback as students can comment on each other's posts.
  • It can be embedded in Learning Space and Canvas (and doing this means that students are automatically logged in)
  • It is relatively simple to use, so appropriate for single use tasks
  • It isn't hugely customisable, so setup is fairly quick and standard

Uses

Padlet (single task) - group Padlet where students share their unfinished work/inspiration/research for peer and academic feedback
Example | Live example


Padlet (ongoing) - group Padlet resource which is added to over time (what would this be called?)

MURAL

A MURAL is a collaborative online whiteboard. Students can add post-its, draw directly onto the whiteboard, and copy and paste external assets in.

  • Changes are visible in realtime, so a great tool for real-time or asynchronous collaboration
  • Endless possibilities for staff to design MURALs as teaching resources
  • Can be a bit chaotic
  • Student don't have accounts, so MURAL cannot be used on touchscreen devices
  • Can be time-consuming to set up, but various templates are available to save time

Uses

Group MURAL (single task) - Group MURAL for a single task
Empathy map example | Storyboarding example | Brainstorming example

Group MURAL (ongoing) - Group MURAL which is added to throughout a module/course (eg FO Illustration)
Live example

Individual MURAL - Individual MURAL where an open URL is allocated to each student at start of a course (eg FO Fine Art)
Live example

Thinglink

Thinglinks are comprised of a background image or video, on which you can add interactive links. These links can be almost anything, from small information panels, videos, links to external websites, or to other Thinglinks.

The images above show how FTI technical staff have linked together series' of training videos about creating different parts of garments by embedding the links within Thinglinks, and embedding them within the FTI Resource Page on Learning Space.

Uses

Thinglink - A teaching resource created by an academic comprising of an image with clickable links.
FTI examples

Question mark iconFurther support 

For further support, or to report any issues with this guide, please get in touch with the Digital Learning Team via dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. Alternatively, please refer to the numerous help guides found on our Knowledge Base. 


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