Gail Corrin, Roger Cowin, Peter Lovekin and Lynne Murphy attended the University of Chester’s Associate Colleges day on Friday 3rd February 2012.

It was held at West Cheshire College in Ellesmere Port.  This is an impressive new college that was opened in September 2011 and is yet to be fully completed; with several departments waiting to move in.

After being made welcome, Gail, Roger, Peter and Lynne along with the other 16 attendees, were given a strategic update from Pro Vice Chancellor Chris Haslam and a Quality Assurance update from Karen Willis.

Then followed a demonstration on Moodle (a Virtual Learning Environment, similar to LMS).  Chester will be using this system from September 2012.  It is an open source e-learning software platform which many schools, colleges and universities use to allow students to access resources and activities related to their studies.

After lunch, Gail had been asked to give a presentation on WBIS (Work Based and Integrated Studies) as part of the "Showcasing Best Practice" session. She had planned and prepared well with interesting facts and figures, and with visual aids for her audience (as photographed).

We also enjoyed Rory’s presentation on his innovative feedback to students. This involved Moodle, where he showed us his ‘Blog’ and how he had uploaded virtual tutorials.  He used it as a live link for lessons during the bad weather last year.  The Team were very excited about this and the opportunities it will open up for our own students' learning experience.

This was the first time the Isle of Man College had been represented at this event and the teams offer to host the event at the Isle of Man College of Further and Higher Education in 2013 was very well received by the other  University of Chester associate colleges; Warrington Collegiate, West Cheshire and Reaseheath.