Aberystwyth University Blogging

Welcome to the Aberystwyth University Blogging Service.
If you wish to start a blog, please send an email to blogging@aber.ac.uk to discuss your requirements and we’ll advise you on how to get started. You can also view information about setting up a blog on the Web Services pages.

Our Active Blogs

Latest posts from across the AU blogging network

  • The Science Behind Games - Part 1; Pandemic

    • .A game of Pandemic, image by Padaguan, 2015, available at: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pandemic_board_game.jpg If someone said “board game” to you, what instantly comes to mind? If you think Monopoly, Cluedo or Scrabble, then no doubt you also have memories of frustrating and forced family fun on those cold winter evenings. Alternatively, if you think Settlers of ...more

  • Zoomorphism and the danger of analogy

    • Myxobacteria are soil-dwelling microbes that live by killing and consuming other members of the soil microbial community. They aren’t fussy, eating all varieties of bacteria and also fungi, making them of considerable interest as potential sources of new antimicrobials. Myxobacterial feeding has been described as employing a ‘wolf-pack’ strategy, as it seems to be more efficient ...more

  • Cylchlythyr Mynediad Agored – Medi 2018

  • OA Repository Newsletter - September 2018

  • Level F

    • The move of stock from Thomas Parry Library is now complete, and the Celtic Collection is up in the new location on Level F of Hugh Owen Library. Level F is now open. The new layout is here: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/media/departmental/informationservices/pdf/floor-plans/ho-level-f-en.pdf but if you can’t find what you are looking for just ask at the ...more

  • Cylchlythyr - mis Awst

  • Newsletter - August

  • Anticipating AU’s 6th Learning and Teaching Conference: Stepping up Students' Learning, 11 – 13 September

    • We’re very excited to announce that Professor Jonathan Shaw, Lauren Heywood and Oliver Wood from Coventry University’s Disruptive Media Learning Lab (DMLL) will be giving the keynote address and providing workshops for this year’s Learning and Teaching conference. The DMLL’s Director, Professor Jonathan Shaw, is giving the keynote, while Lauren Heywood and Oliver Wood, DMLL ...more

  • Quizdom Virtual Remote (QVR) no longer available after December 2018

    • The licence for the Quizdom Virtual Remote (QVR) which allows students to use their own mobile devices for in-class voting expires in December 2018 and will no longer be available. We are aware that some of you used it in your sessions, therefore we would like to encourage you to keep using interactive course activities and ...more

  • How can we help you with the Blank Course Copy?

    • Level 0 and Level 1 Blackboard modules for 2018/19 academic year will be created with no content. Previously, year by year the content was automatically copied over for all Blackboard modules. Preparing the Level 1 and Level 0 modules for the next year will require the module co-ordinators to copy over existing and/or upload new material ...more

  • OA Repository Newsletter – July 2018

  • Blank Course Copy

    • Today (30/07/2018) the first two departments had their blank level 0 and 1 modules created as part of the blank course copy process. IBERS, closely followed by International Politics, have agreed their departmental templates and their modules are now ready to be updated. This is nearly a quarter of all the level 1 and level 0 ...more

  • Respacing completed

    • Thanks to the tremendous efforts of everyone involved, we have completed the respacing work that we needed to do in Hugh Owen Library prior to the stock from Thomas Parry arriving on week beginning 13th August. The spaces are ready in all the right places, and hopefully the Thomas Parry materials will slot perfectly into the ...more

  • Jisc Digital Tracker

    • This year Aberystwyth University participated for the first time in the JISC Student Digital Experience Tracker - an online survey designed by JISC to collect information about students’ expectations and experiences of technology. Why did we decide to take part in the project? The tracker is a simple and well-designed tool. It is credible across the ...more

  • Jisc Digi Tracker: benefits and what to do with findings?

    • Read Jisc Digi Tracker and Jisc Digi Tracker: Key findings What benefits came out from the project? Clear directions for improvements. The benchmarking data helped us to reflect on AU strengths and weaknesses in comparison to other institutions. As a valued participant in the pilot Student Tracker we were the only Welsh university invited to take ...more

  • Jisc Digi Tracker: key findings

    • Read Jisc Digi Tracker Key findings of the tracker: What did we find particularly interesting? We know that students use mobile devices, but the fact that nearly the same percentage of students support their learning through use of smartphones (30%) as through use of laptops (33.1%) was surprising. It is useful to have the starkness of this data ...more

  • Celebrating excellence in teaching: AU Blackboard Exemplary Course Awards (ECA)

    • We are proud to announce that the winners of this year’s AU Blackboard ECA awards are being presented with their awards during this week’s graduation ceremonies. Adam Vellender, Catherine O’Hanlon, Daniel Low and Stephen Chapman, the winners 2017-2018 ECA winners are being presented with their awards during their department’s graduation ceremony. The winning modules all showed ...more

  • Cylchlythyr y Gadwrfa Mynediad Agored – Gorffennaf 2018

  • Thomas Parry Library: a celebration: Thursday 19 July 6pm

    • The Llanbadarn campus will be closing down for teaching over summer 2018. There will still be some University staff and services based over there from September 2018 onwards but the Thomas Parry Library will be closing as a service library in August 2018. Alan Clark (former Librarian at the Thomas Parry Library), Bill Hines (former ...more

  • Planning Downtime

    • Downtime on the systems we rely on is never popular. Making the decision about when to take Blackboard out of service is one of the hardest parts of our job. Juggling the different areas of work at the University as well as making sure that all the relevant parties are consulted takes a lot of ...more