StudySpace

StudySpace is Kingston University's one-stop shop for access to a range of digital environments for learning. The two main platforms are:

Blackboard

Blackboard is the University's primary virtual learning environment (VLE). It's a web-based and password protected system enabling a range of learning, teaching, assessment and course administration activities. Blackboard incorporates tools for:

  • communication (eg announcements, email and discussion boards);
  • assessment (eg electronic submission of coursework, tests and quizzes);
  • content upload (eg Word, PDF and PowerPoint);
  • the administration of student groups;
  • collecting and organising student grades; and
  • tracking tools.

New features in Blackboard include:

  • wikis;
  • blogs;
  • a tutorial sign-up tool;
  • a range of voice tools (eg voice boards and podcasting); and
  • a sophisticated synchronous live classroom environment.   

One Community

One Community is the name for a social networking site shared by students and staff at Kingston University, St Georges and Royal Holloway College as part of a HEFCE-funded initiative called the SouthWest London Academic Network (SWAN).

One Community is a digital environment that embraces user-generated content, peer-to-peer sharing, blogging and social networking. All users – staff and students alike – have the same rights and have, within the One Community environment, their own:

  • profile page;
  • blog;
  • content area to upload and share files (eg images, videos and Word docs);
  • space to subscribe to feeds; and
  • groups organised around interests, projects or placements rather than institution, location or course (like Facebook).

Potential uses include:

  • supporting students on placement – linking staff with students and placement supervisors;
  • extra-institutional collaborative work;
  • extra-curricular activities – volunteering, societies, interest groups; and
  • personal development portfolios.

One Community upgrade: We've upgraded One Community for the start of the 2010/11 academic year. The interface is both easier to use and more contemporary. More significantly, the tools for group work activity have been extended to include:

  • social bookmarking (like Delicious);
  • blogging;
  • discussion board forums;
  • photo albums (like Flickr images can be describe, tagged and commented on);
  • a wiki-like tool called 'pages' which enables the collaborative editing of small web site; and
  • a micro-blogging tool like Twitter (ie 140 character posts).