RSCs – Stimulating and Supporting Innovation in Learning
If you require any of our publications in an alternative format please let us know. The following formats are currently offered and supported by RSC Scotland North & East:
Several of these formats require the use of specialised hardware or software in order to access the materials. Please ensure you have the appropriate hardware to access the following formats:
The latest edition of theElectronic Training Needs Analysis (ETNA) of Further Education in Scotland is due for publication at the end of March, 2010. The report, prepared by the Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres, provides a window on the Further Education sector, presenting valuable strategic information to decision-makers within colleges and universities, and to external agencies and organisations interested in tertiary education.
ETNA 2010, for the first time, includes a survey of the student body, which provides a valuable insight into the use and understanding of technology from the point of view of the learner.
If you would like to receive a copy, please follow the link below to the ETNA website and submit your contact details.
The second ETNA report, prepared by the Scottish JISC Regional Support Centres, describes the progress following the first survey carried out in 2003. View the trends in the sector over the intervening period and discover how embedded technology has truly become in Scottish Further Education.
Download ETNA 2007: Complete Report (PDF document: 2.39MB)
The JISC Regional Support Centres ran a Training Needs Survey during the summer of 2003. This helps many people see, RSCs included, where resource and effort should be spent to address the training needs of staff in the Scottish FE sector.
"Taking the pulse of Scottish universities' Training Needs".
The Higher Education Training Needs Analysis survey (heTNA) took place in 2004, allowing thousands of staff from universities up and down the country to have their say on how technology affects their work and on the sort of training they need to use it more efficiently.
The Channel signals the start of
several new services, including support for online assessment, support with accessibility issues, and support with understanding what on earth all this talk about Web2.0 might mean!
Download The Channel (PDF document: 279KB)
In order to capture the essential elements of the e-Olympics RSC Scotland North & East has now produced a do-it-yourself manual to provide colleges with all the necessary know-how and the resources to run the whole event. The RSCs are still delighted to come to your College and light the flame but everything you need to know to deliver the training is contained in this booklet.
Request a hard copy form your RSC or download a PDF version of the e-Olympics Train-the-Trainer Guide (PDF document: 6.31 MB).
The Regional Support Centre operates within a highly dispersed geographical area, including the remotest parts of the Scottish Highlands and Islands. Many colleges have some or several outreach centres - often located several miles (or even on separate islands) from the main campus building. This report is based on original research by Jean Ritchie at the University of Edinburgh and examines in detail the use of ICT in outreach centres connected to Scottish Colleges of Further Education.
The Outreach Report (PDF document: 763KB)
The first issue of e-Quality is a new initiative by the RSC Scotland North and East which focuses on a range of issues relevant to e-Learning Accessibility and Inclusion.
The newsletter covers a range of features including the most recent Techdis Publication ‘Accessible Presentations’ as well as the Accessibility and Inclusion blog.
To download the e-Quality Newsletter select this link (PDF document: 5MB)
The second edition of e-Quality features a range of hints and tips to make MS Word more accessible, a review of Open Source software and the day-to-day responsibilities of a learning support officer at Edinburgh’s Telford College.
The document is available to download in a variety of file formats:
The third (Spring/Summer 2008) edition of e-Quality features an article by Howard McKenzie, Principal of Jewel and Esk College, on the Disability Equality Duty. Other features include mobile technology as an aid to communication, Open Source software on USB stick, an article by Kellie Mote of BRITE and much, much more!
A bumper 20 page edition which includes a review on the latest accessibility features in Windows Vista (Ease of Access Centre) a review of AccessApps (portable assistive technology on a USB stick) as well as some helpful hints and tips.
Martin Hawksey's article on Netbooks is well worth a read and the tutorial on creating drop-down word bars in Microsoft Word provides an innovative way of supporting students with literacy difficulties. Find out what's new in Assistive Technology and discover some useful websites.
With 17 contributors from across the sector and the UK, the latest edition of e-Quality is the best yet! Discover how learning support staff at Jewel and Esk College redesigned the learning support section of their virtual learning environment (VLE) to benefit all learners. Find out how the innovative use of switch access can help support learners with complex learning and access needs. Plus there’s news, events, resources, reviews, hints and tips and more!
The latest edition of our popular newsletter features a wide variety of articles on subjects from communicating with symbols to creating accessible PowerPoint slides.
There are also some great contributions from CALL Scotland, JISC TechDis, Edinburgh College or Art, Dundee University and much, much more. And of course, the newsletter can be downloaded in a range of formats, from an accessible tagged PDF to MP3. If you would like a printed version of the newsletter then please get in touch.
In June 2007 the eLearning Advisors for Accessibility and Inclusion in the JISC Scottish Regional Support Centres undertook a survey to identify the training needs of Mangers and Practitioners responsible for learning support.
The aim of this guide is to promote awareness of open source and freeware Windows applications that can be used to support learners with additional needs. The overall collection of more than 50 programs is called AccessApps. In many cases, the programs on AccessApps are very similar in functionality to well-known commercial products.
The guide, which has been specially prepared for DSA Assessors, is split into 7 sections: mind mapping, colour preferences, dictionary and thesaurus, text-to-speech, word prediction, visual support and voice recognition. Each section provides detailed information on 14 typical AccessApps applications.
You can also download the AccessApps Guide which contains step-by-step tutorials of over 20 assistive technology open source and free applications:
