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Hear an academic and student talk about Resource Lists @ Bham

Natalie Naik
Academic perspective

We spoke to an academic and a student from the University of Birmingham’s Shakespeare Institute to find out how Talis Aspire has improved their teaching and learning experience.

Dr Erin Sullivan, Lecturer and an enthusiastic Talis Aspire user talked to us about the benefits that have made her role easier. The Shakespeare Institute takes students from all over the globe, so being able to provide online resources is key. Erin tells us that the direct links to the eLibrary and the simple method of digitising content has enabled all of its students to reach content in a much more straightforward way.

At the University of Birmingham, Talis Aspire Reading Lists are given the name Resource Lists @ Bham, which rings true for Erin’s modules, as some weeks students are required to watch films or videos. Watch the video to hear from Erin in her own words, how she is using Resource Lists in her teaching.

 

Erin admits that she is “doing the same thing as before, just better. It hasn’t changed the content that I’m teaching students, I really let my own design of the course drive that, but once I’ve made those decisions about what the students should be reading it makes the content a lot more accessible to them”.

We also had the opportunity to speak to one of Erin’s PhD students, Ella Hawkins. Ella has been studying at the Shakespeare Institute since her Master’s Degree and has experienced the transition from paper-based to a digital way of learning.

Her favourite feature was the ability to interact with the materials, making it a more personalised list, using features such as reading intentions and adding notes. You can hear from her about how Resource Lists @ Bham has improved her learning experience and saved time in the next video:

 

The library at the University of Birmingham were clear from the start that their goal was to go beyond just improving access to resources. They focused on adding to the students’ learning experience directly, and putting the library at the heart of this learning experience, by surfacing reading lists directly within the course pages of their Canvas VLE. You can find out more about how they put their resource lists at the heart of the student experience by watching this webinar where Ann-Marie James, Academic Subject Team Manager and Steve Watts, eLearning Technical Consultant at the University of Birmingham share how they used the Talis Aspire LTI tool to achieve this.

How are you embedding your reading lists in your VLE? If you are not using the Talis Aspire LTI tool yet, raise a support ticket to discuss this with the services team.

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