A Virtual Open Evening

We did it! We ran a virtual open evening for the MAPP yesterday and it seemed to go ok...

The session was conducted within Blackboard (Bb) Collaborate and lasted about an hour. We had a total of 9 people take part in the session, of whom only about 3 or 4 were prospective students. However, the session ran smoothly and we now have a recording that can be used for any subsequent enquirers this year if needed. A link to the Bb Collaborate recording is here. [The Bb Collaborate recording should also be available to view within my PGCert Bb organisation.]

The feedback from those taking part was overwhelmingly positive and the prospective students were clearly very grateful that such a session had been provided. One of the prospective students, looking to study the MAPP via distance learning, was logging in from Qatar so this was enough of a validation for me that virtual sessions such as this are needed if we want to truly open up to a global audience and making our learning provision available to those unable to travel to the University campus.

Alongside the more 'official' session on Bb Collaborate, I also broadcast part of the session via Periscope. Until the power on my phone went :-) This had 67 'live' viewers (I was aiming for at least 10 live viewers). Of course, these viewers will not be people who are likely to be interested in the MAPP as they will be Periscope users simply browsing for live broadcasts, of which there are still relatively few as the number of Periscope users builds. Still, it was a useful 'test of concept' and a way of exploring what might be possible using the Periscope app. For example, it does allows quick and easy filming and distributing of material that could be instructional for students or for raising awareness of a course (or both).

A 'mock' virtual open evening

Today we ran a 'mock' session for a virtual open evening ahead of next week's PG Open Evening. We had about seven or eight people log on to a Blackboard (Bb) Collaborate session (including our PG Marketing Manager!) and all seemed to go well! The PGMM was impressed and I think we have turned her around to the idea now :-)

Lots of support from our Open4Learning team, and a commitment from them to support the real session next week. Looking forward to it. I'm wondering if there would be a way of obtaining some feedback from those who take part. I'm sure that should be fairly easy.... for example, in the session I could seek some basic feedback. And then a follow-up email? Or perhaps something on SurveyMonkey?

Alongside the more 'formal' Bb Collaborate session, we even had a play with Periscope, an app from Twitter that allows live 'broadcasting' over the web. As I read a little more about Periscope (e.g., there is an official blog here), I discover how new the app is. It was only launched in March of this year! It was fun to play with, and I think we will try to do something as part of the PG Open Evening. I haven't figured out a way to 'post' recordings from Periscope on here, but if you dowload the app and follow @BucksMAPP you can view live or recorded broadcasts (recordings are only available for a short time after). While you're at it, you can also follow @BucksMAPP on Twitter!

What about a 'virtual' open evening?

Having recently been succesful in getting the 'distance' (i.e., FDL) version of the MSc Applied Positive Psychology (MAPP) validated, I found myself reflecting on why we didn't offer a 'virtual' open evening for prospective distance learners. The more I reflected on this, the more it seemed a bit of a 'no-brainer'... Of course we should offer something like this!

And so I mentioned this to some key people at the university to see what kind of response I would get if we were to try and run something like this for the MAPP, nothing too big, alongside the PG Open Evening on Wednesday 15th July. The PG Marketing Manager, usually very supportive of any activity that might enhance the marketability of a course, was a little reticent. Perhaps this could be something to think about for the future? The E-Learning Services Manager, however, was happy to support this and we arranged to meet.

What made this even better was that the Digital Media Manager had independently considered that the University should consider 'Virtual Open Days' having come across a case study from the University of Derby who had been running such events, via Blackboard (Bb) Collaborate, for a number of years and suggested these were effective ways of converting potential applicants into students. We met, shared our ideas, and became quite excited by the possibilities! We agreed that I would run a 'mock' session a week before the PG Open Evening to see how it might work. We would invite a group of interested parties (including the PG Marketing Manager) to log on and try it out. We scheduled this for Tuesday 7th July...