Last semester on the Journalism BA course at UCA in Farnham saw an experiment in teaching first-year Online Journalism students. We created a group news site in WordPress that aims to replicate the processes and set-up of real-world online news publishing. Needless to say, this has not gone as smoothly as it might. The background We […]
It may be only July, but online journalism lecturers are eagerly preparing for the next intake of wide-eyed undergraduates in October. There has been a lot of change on the online journalism course at UCA in Farnham. For example, we’ve started using a group news site based on WordPress for first year students in semester […]
Regular readers may be aware that Freelance Unbound is a hotbed of scientific endeavour, as I am doing an OU science degree in my spare time. Posting has been even lighter than usual recently, and readers may be interested in the reason: Question 8.4 The spectrum of light from a distant galaxy contains absorption lines […]
Cisco has pulled the plug on its Flip video product, perhaps signalling the end of the cheap, simple standalone video camera. It’s a shame, not least for journalism departments, which have moved in on the product as a good way of giving all students access to half-way decent video technology. The Guardian report makes the […]
Here’s a fascinating piece about the over-priced and over-blown higher education market in the US. Killer quote by very successful hedge fund manager Peter Thiel: It’s actually worse than a bad mortgage. You have to get rid of the future you wanted to pay off all the debt from the fancy school that was supposed […]
Today sees an experiment in both teaching and accreditation for the journalism courses at UCA Farnham. Rather than treat the scheduled accreditation visit from the Broadcast Journalism Training Council as a kind of external examiners visit, showing BJTC members boxes of completed student work, UCA aims to demonstrate student skills in action. The five visiting […]
As online journalism student assessment looms once again, here’s a handy guide for J-students on how not to mess up their web site assignment. This is aimed at students who create in WordPress, but can equally apply to other platforms. Or, probably, almost any similar student assignment. In brief: Start early Do it for real […]
Things will be quiet on Freelance Unbound for a few more days, as I have a couple of OU science assessments to work on, on top of the usual day job and dog. This is all giving me a fresh perspective on why my journalism students leave everything until the last minute, let me tell […]
My bid for scientific credibility has finally got off the ground with my very first Open University science experiment. You can see the high-precision, high-tech equipment I’ve been devising to help me undertake Activity 2.1: Measuring Precipitation – part 1. It’s all a bit primary school – but actually quite instructive. After cutting down the water […]
This week’s HE news is that graduation rates have slumped, pushing us to 15th place in the OECD rankings. It’s a disaster that is threatening our economic recovery, warn university vice-chancellors (no special interest there, then) and university unions (likewise). It’s an odd counterpoint to the summer’s news that unemployment among graduates has risen a […]