Teaching And Learning Portal

UCL staff who have successfully gained Certified Membership of the Association for Learning Technology (CMALT) were awarded certificates by Professor Anthony Smith, Vice-Provost (Education), and Dr Maren Deepwell, Chief Executive of the Association for Learning Technology, in a ceremony yesterday.

The portfolio-based professional accreditation is aimed at staff members already using e-learning technologies such as Moodle, Turnitin, Lecturecast, Opinio, MyPortfolio, or social media in their work. The qualification offers them the chance to learn more about these tools, share knowledge with colleagues across UCL and implement good practice in their own departments, and applications are now being accepted for the second round.

Susie Rizvi, a SSEES Programme Administrator for the History BA and MA, was one of the staff members to collect her certificate yesterday. She said: “I originally wanted to do the AUA qualification but I wasn’t able to commit enough time to it. The CMALT course is relatively short and eases you back into studying if you haven’t done it for a while – and it was a great way of meeting people from different departments.”

The qualification also offers the chance for career development. Naomi Jones, Acting Deputy Departmental Administrator in the Bartlett School of Planning, who has also completed the course, said: “I got involved because I was keen to discover more about teaching software and digital literacy. As part of my preparation work I did a presentation on Moodle 2 and, as a result, my Head of Department nominated me as a departmental e-learning champion.”

Supported by JISC and AUA, CMALT typically requires around 20 hours’ work spread over six months. Candidates must prepare a reflective portfolio of approximately 3,000 words, demonstrating knowledge of operational issues, teaching/learning/assessment processes, the wider contexts of legislation and communication, and one specialist subject. Support is provided via monthly workshops and individual mentors from the Digital Department team.

It costs £76 to register as a CMALT candidate under the UCL scheme, but in many cases departments will cover the fee.

To find out more, visit the Digital Department’s CMALT page and, if you would like to join the cohort, email Alison Gilry (a.gilry@ucl.ac.uk) as soon as possible.