This case study explores the use of Google Sites to improve student engagement, authentic learning and employability.  The tutor wanted to find an innovative approach to engage students struggling to market their HR capability to employers during their placement seeking year.

Students were put in to groups and asked to ‘create’ a company and develop an intranet site using Google Sites.  Although they were working in groups to set up the site, individually they had to develop and populate their own area about specific aspects of HR.  This enabled the tutor to provide individual and group marks for the assessment activity.

http://goo.gl/tuv3Yy

Initial set-up of the sites was supported by the e-learning adviser who developed basic templates and instructional screencasts for the students.

The approach was well received by most students, one fed back to the tutor to say “Coming on to this course [module] with no prior knowledge and then being able to achieve 70%… is something I am so proud of being able to do!”.  The module team also enjoyed marking a different style of assessment.

You can read more about this approach by reading the two-page case study entitled: Using Google Sites to provide an authentic learning experience

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