Author: WordPress User [sil12]

Thank you to our ’23-24 Student Digital Champions

WordPress User [sil12] Student Digital Champions Leave a comment
Banner with Student Digital Champion

As we bid farewell to our ’23-24 Student Digital Champions, Laurie, Joel, and Noel, we want to thank them for their wonderful contributions over the past year. They have worked tirelessly to encourage students across the university to develop their digital skills and have provided us with valuable insights into what support students need.

Laurie Stevenson
Noel Czempik
Joel Williams

If you haven’t taken a look at their work yet, we’ve a listed a few key highlights below:

  • Digital Skills Profile Series
    • Graduate Digital Skills Profile Series – 8 profiles of recent AU graduates about their use of digital skills in their lives since graduating, and the skills they wish they had developed further before they left Aberystwyth.
    • Employer Digital Skills Profile Series – The champions have also been working on a series of profiles with 8 employers. Keep your eyes peeled on the blog as these will be released next academic year!

  • Guidance on mastering your schedule
  • Blogpost about creating the best workspace
  • 8 Graduate Digital Skills Profiles
  • Guidance on Reducing Computer Eyestrain
  • LinkedIn Learning collection on Digital Ergonomics
  • One of the Graduate Digital Skills profiles
  • A review of the ScreenZen App
  • Blogpost about undertaking a digital declutter
  • Winter break challenge
  • Blogpost about undertaking a digital detox

DigiTip 33: Enable live captions in your MS Teams meetings 💬

WordPress User [sil12] Digital communication, collaboration and participation, DigiTips Leave a comment

Here is your final DigiTip for this academic year but you can catch up on all of our previous DigiTIps from this page. We hope that you’ve found our tips useful, and we’ll be back in September ’24 where we’ll continue support your confidence with technology, one DigiTip at a time!

Do you sometimes struggle in larger meetings to know who is currently speaking? …..“was that Ffion or Bethan?!” Maybe you’re working in a loud environment and are struggling to hear others in the meeting speak? Perhaps you’ve joined a meeting where the language spoken isn’t your first language? Or perhaps you appreciate the accessibility of having subtitles?

If any of the above are true for you, then you will likely find the functionality to enable live captions in MS Teams useful. Watch the video below to learn how to enable live captions:

It’s worth noting a couple of things if you’re using this feature:

  • Live captions are only visible to those that have enabled the feature within the meeting, meaning that if you switch them on, they won’t automatically appear for everyone!
  • Live caption data is permanently deleted after a meeting, so no one will have access to this information.

Visit this webpage for further support and guidance in using MS Teams.

Stand out from the crowd with LinkedIn Learning Certificates 🏆

WordPress User [sil12] Digital Identity and Wellbeing, Digital learning and development, LinkedIn Learning, Students Leave a comment

In today’s competitive job market, it’s important for university students to stand out. One way to do this is by earning certificates for completed courses on your Aberystwyth University LinkedIn Learning account and adding them to your personal LinkedIn profile.

But why does this matter? Adding certificates increases your chances of being found by recruiters looking for specific skills, showing them your commitment to ongoing learning and career development, making you a more appealing candidate.

Watch the video below to learn how to add LinkedIn Learning certificates to your personal LinkedIn profile ⬇

Learn more about LinkedIn Learning from this session at the Digital Skills Festival ’23 (Welsh session; English session)

If you have any questions about adding LinkedIn Learning certificates to your personal LinkedIn profile, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk) or view the official LinkedIn Learning Certificate FAQ page.

DigiTip 31: Quickly minimise all your open windows 💥

WordPress User [sil12] Digital proficiency and productivity, DigiTips Leave a comment

This is a very quick tip, but hopefully a useful one! There may be occasions where you need to minimise all the open windows and apps on your laptop or desktop screen. Perhaps you are just about to start presenting and want to remove all open windows? Or you may just want to remove all clutter and get back to your desktop?

You can press the Windows key + D to minimise all open apps and windows and will take you back to the desktop. If you want to reopen all windows and apps, just press the same keystrokes again!

To follow our DigiTips, subscribe to our Digital Skills Blog. Or alternatively, you can bookmark this webpage, where a new DigiTip will be added each week!  

Make the most of technology as you prepare for your exams 💻📚

WordPress User [sil12] Digital Skills Library, Digital Wellbeing Series, LinkedIn Learning, Students Leave a comment

As we near towards the start of the Semester 2 examinations, we’ve put together a range of resources to help you make the most of technology as you prepare and revise for your exams.

Yellow and Blue banner with laptop, AU logo, and the text Digital Skills Library

Student Digital Skills Library

Blogpost: Busting Exam Stress with Technology

AberSkills – Revise more effectively and tips to help you on exam day

DigiTip 17: Organise your work with tasks in MS Teams ✍

LinkedIn Learning Collection: Effective Exam Preparation and Revision

(Please login with your AU email and password)

DigiTip 11: Introducing the self-care app Finch 🐥

Strategies for creating the best workspace

Digital Wellbeing Series

LinkedIn Learning Collection: Tackling Exam Stress

(Please login with your AU email and password)

Please also take a look at the general FAQ’s for exams, and if you have any questions about any of the resources listed above, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).  

Develop your AI Skills with hands-on practice in LinkedIn Learning 👩‍💻

WordPress User [sil12] Artificial Intelligence, Digital creation, problem-solving and innovation, Digital learning and development, LinkedIn Learning Leave a comment

Back in October 2023, we wrote about an exciting new partnership between LinkedIn Learning and CoderPad, which brought forth the addition of Code Challenges to LinkedIn Learning. These challenges are tailored to assist learners, from beginners to advanced, in developing their coding skills through interactive exercises and real-time feedback. You can revisit our previous blogpost on this collaboration here.

AI and Generative AI are swiftly becoming the cornerstones of innovation. To support your development in these skills, LinkedIn Learning has expanded its collection to include 73 courses with hands-on practice for AI and Generative AI skills. You can find all of these courses on this webpage or explore a selection of them below.

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

All students and staff have access to all courses on LinkedIn Learning, including those with hands-on practice, through your free Aberystwyth University LinkedIn Learning account. If you have any queries about LinkedIn Learning or accessing any of the content mentioned in this blogpost, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk), or come along with your questions to one of our weekly drop-in sessions!

Boost your productivity in MS Teams 💡 

WordPress User [sil12] Digital communication, collaboration and participation, Digital proficiency and productivity Leave a comment

Blogpost by Sioned Llywelyn (Digital Skills Lead) 

As someone who uses Microsoft Teams every day for work, I’ve discovered a collection of useful keyboard shortcuts and tips that have helped me in navigating the platform more efficiently. Whether you’re a staff member jumping from one meeting to the next, or a student using MS Teams to collaborate on projects or attend virtual lectures, these tips should help you to make the most of MS Teams. 

Keyboard ShortcutDescription
Ctrl+Shift+O Turn off your camera 
Ctrl+Shift+M Mute your microphone 
Ctrl+K Create shorter hyperlinks 
Shift+Enter Start a new line in the chatbox without sending the message 
Summary of the key keyboard shortcuts mentioned in this blogpost

Turn off your camera quickly

There are times when you need to quickly turn off your video during a call, it may be that your bandwidth is limited or there are distractions behind you. Quickly toggle your camera on and off by using the Ctrl+Shift+O shortcut. 

Customise your hyperlinks

Instead of cluttering your messages with lengthy URLs, make use of the Ctrl+K shortcut. This shortcut allows you to customise the displayed text for your hyperlink, making your messages more concise!

Mute your microphone

Background noise can also disrupt meetings (I have two dogs that bark whenever someone rings the doorbell, so this is my most-used shortcut!) Use Ctrl+Shift+M to mute and unmute your microphone swiftly. 

Refine your search results

Teams has an useful search functionality, but sometimes it can yield too many results! Make the most of the available filters to refine your search and to save you time.

Start a new line in the chatbox without sending your message

Typing messages in Teams can be tricky, especially when you want to add line breaks without sending the incomplete message. Use Shift+Enter to start a new line in the chatbox without sending the message prematurely.

Make quick decisions with the polling feature

Do you need to gather opinions or make decisions quickly? If you’re looking to create a poll once you’ve started your meeting, Teams offers a built-in polling feature.

Please note: We suggest that you use Vevox, AU’s polling tool, if you’re looking to set up a poll in advance of your online meeting or session.

Mark messages as urgent or important

Do you want to send an important message on Teams and are worried that it will get lost within a stream of messages? To solve this issue, you can mark any messages as urgent or important in MS Teams.

Do you have any other shortcuts or other general tips when you’re using MS Teams? If so, we’d love to hear from you! Share your tips and shortcuts in the box below ⬇

Develop your Digital Communication Skills 📱

WordPress User [sil12] Digital communication, collaboration and participation, Training Leave a comment

Want to learn how to improve your digital communication skills and especially how to use Instagram to promote your Business or Social Enterprise?

AberPreneurs, part of the University’s Careers Service, are running an exciting online event, Instagram for your Business/Social Enterprise – with Kacie Morgan, on Wednesday 24 April (14:10-15:00). This session will be delivered online on MS Teams, and you can join here.

For any queries, please contact aberpreneurs@aber.ac.uk.

Test your understanding of AI with the Jisc Digital Discovery Tool!

WordPress User [sil12] Artificial Intelligence, Digital Discovery Tool Leave a comment

A new ‘Digital Skills in AI and Generative AI’ questionnaire for students and staff is now available in the Jisc Digital Discovery Tool. This new questionnaire will help you to self-assess and develop your knowledge of AI in the following seven areas:

  1. AI and digital proficiency
  2. Responsible AI
  3. AI and digital productivity
  4. AI and information and data literacy
  5. AI and digital communication
  6. AI and collaboration and participation
  7. AI and digital creativity

After answering a series of questions, which takes around 10-15 minutes, you will receive a personal report which will include:

  • An overview of your confidence with AI
  • Suggested actions to take
  • Links to useful resources, curated by Jisc’s National Centre for AI, to help you develop your knowledge of AI

Click here to access the Digital Discovery Tool platform, and watch the short video below to learn how to access this new questionnaire ⬇

If you have any queries about this new questionnaire, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk), or come along with your questions to one of our weekly drop-in sessions!

Learn to code FOR FREE with Code First Girls! ⚡

WordPress User [sil12] Code First Girls, Digital learning and development, Training Leave a comment

Have you ever wanted to learn how to code? Well now you can do so, for free, by taking full advantage of our partnership with Code First Girls! We’ve listed 5 reasons below why you should make the most of this wonderful opportunity.

Please note that Code First Girls is open to women and non-binary people. If you are not eligible to undertake the courses offered through Code First Girls, there are many other free opportunities available, including coding challenges and courses with CoderPad and GitHub in LinkedIn Learning.

Questions❓

If you have any questions about the courses available with Code First Girls, please contact them directly.

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