In this issue...
Welcome to Members' News 8 June, 2010
This week we’ve got a great opportunity for non-Smarter Government funded UK online centres, who can put in a bid for grants for new equipment for their centres. I hope these grants will be a real help in providing your centre with what you need in order to get people online with myguide. There is more information about the grants below, but please remember you have only one week to apply, so be quick.
It’s also encouraging to see so many centres signing up to our new Partnership agreement. It will be great for our learners to have such a strong network of centres to help them get online. If you haven’t signed up yet, I would love you to do so. You can read more about partnership below.
Best wishes
Helen Milner
Managing Director, UK online centres
Capital grants available - apply now!
We have some money available which we want to offer to your centre for any equipment you might need. This could be a new server, new monitors, laptops and broadband dongles or even furniture. We’re hoping to provide grants to around 100 centres for the equipment they need.
You can place your bid now for what you need for your centre but there is only a week to get your applications in. We need finished applications to be submitted by 2.00pm on Tuesday 15 June, but please get your application in as early as you can to avoid any technical errors that might occur.
For more information about the grants, and to download an application form, please visit our Centre partners site.
Please note, you will not be eligible to apply for a capital grant if you are already receiving Smarter Government funding.
Sign up to our new Partnership agreement
You should now have received an email, inviting you to sign up for our new Partnership agreement. Partnership replaces membership, and so you will have to re-register to remain part of the UK online centres network, but there are lots of great benefits. Signing up will only take a couple of minutes, but please do take a moment to read about Partnership, and our new terms and conditions, before you do so. You can do this here. Working in Partnership is really important for us, and we look forward to having you on board! Sign up on our Centre partners site.
When you visit the Centre partners site, you will also be able to see the number of myguide registrations your centre has achieved, which we think is a great tool which will be really useful for your centre.
New features on myguide
Following consultation with centres, we have a number of new features on myguide which we are launching soon.
- If learners click continue in the same session as completing a course, their course completion will no longer be overwritten in their Learning log.
- Registration on myguide will all be contained on one page, making the process a lot quicker and easier for your learners.
- The Initial assessments (IA) will receive learning goals which display the learners level upon module completion. The IAs will also email a certificate that details the type of questions the learner may have answered in order to obtain their level
- Additional information will be included on certificates, including full user name, user ID number and the Centre ID if available.
We hope these new myguide features will make the experience easier for both you and your users.
Event grants
Event grants are available again in June. We were really impressed by the events that you ran during May for the Face your online fears for Silver Surfers’ Day campaign, and so we have opened the Event grants system again in June. We would really like to hear from you if you want to run an event of your own. Perhaps you could create an event around the World Cup. Get planning now and put in your application here.
myguide technical specification
We’ve updated our myguide technical specification, which is the advice we give to all centres on what they will need to run myguide successfully in their centres. Please note, we are no longer supporting Internet Explorer 6 and so if you choose to use it in your centre you may experience problems.
Abilitynet - making information accessible
Abilitynet has received funding from Nominet to run a project to develop, deliver and promote a ‘Quality and Assurance Standard’ and online assessment tool. This will help Education Institutions to evaluate and improve the accessibility of their documentation and internet provision for disabled children, young people and adults. You can find out more about the project here.
Abilitynet are also running free training workshops, which you can register your interest for by emailing accessmaterials@abilitynet.co.uk. If you have a website Abilitynet can also provide a free accessibility audit.
myguide account lock out
If your centre is closing over the summer, or if you have learners who might be taking a break, please be aware that after 90 days with no activity, we suspend all myguide accounts. If this happens to one of your learners, don’t panic! Simply call the centre support line on 08000 921 129 within the next 90 days, and the account will be reactivated.
Your Questions...
...answered
Q.
Can I still take part in Get online week if I don't sign up for Partnership?
A.
No. You will have to be a UK online centres Partner in order to register for Get online week in October.
What else is happening?
Get online week - 18 - 24 October