Action needed: Staff with LinkedIn Learning content embedded within their Blackboard Learn Ultra modules

From Wednesday 27 September 2023, we will be enabling a new version of the tool which allows staff to embed LinkedIn Learning content within their modules on Blackboard Learn Ultra. There are many advantages to enabling this new version, however it will require staff who have already embedded LinkedIn Learning content within their current modules to follow a few steps before and after this date.

What do I need to do if I have LinkedIn Learning content embedded in my current Blackboard Learn Ultra modules?

  1. Before Wednesday 27 September, you will need to make a note of which LinkedIn Learning courses you have already embedded within your modules.
  2. You can then delete these courses from your module.
  3. From Wednesday 27 September, you will need to re-add these courses using the new version of the tool (how do I do that?)

Please note: Any embedded LinkedIn Learning content that were added using the old version of the tool will appear as broken links to students from 27 September.

What are the advantages of this new version?

  • Embedding content will save staff time as it will automatically pull through the content title and description for you.
  • Staff can search for the LinkedIn Learning content they wish to include in their modules directly in Blackboard Learn Ultra.
  • Previously, staff could only embed LinkedIn Learning courses within their modules. The new version allows other types of content from LinkedIn Learning, including videos, audio files, and Learning Paths, to be embedded.
  • Students will be able to view the content directly in Blackboard Learn Ultra, without having to login to LinkedIn Learning separately.

From 27 September 2023 all staff can embed LinkedIn Learning content within their Blackboard Learn Ultra modules using the new version of the tool – further instruction is available from this FAQ.

The below video (no audio) demonstrates how easy it will be for students to access LinkedIn Learning content within Blackboard Learn Ultra if they have been embedded using the new tool.

For any queries relating to embedding LinkedIn Learning content in Blackboard Learn Ultra, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).

Digital Skills Training: Semester 1 ’23-24

Are you interested in learning what resources are available to help you assess and develop your digital skills? Or, perhaps you’re interested in learning more about how you can support your students to develop their own digital skills?

We will be delivering several training sessions for staff throughout Semester 1. If you are unable to attend any of these sessions, please feel free to email digi@aber.ac.uk to arrange a conversation with a member of our team.

Welsh-medium sessions:

English-medium sessions:

Microsoft Excel Tips and Tricks (Part 2)💡

Blogpost by Laurie Stevenson (Student Digital Champion)

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I published Part 1 of this blogpost earlier this week, where I introduced you to 5 tips and tricks to help you make the most of Excel, and this blogpost contains 5 further tips! If you want to learn more about Excel, please visit my new Excel LinkedIn Learning collection.

Tip 6: Adding in multiple rows or columns at once

If you want to add more than one row or column in one go, this tip will save you the time of having to do this one row at a time.

  • Highlight the number of rows or columns you want
  • Right-click on the highlighted rows or columns
  • Choose Insert from the drop-down menu that appears

Tip 7: Adding bullet points

Finding the button to add these is not as easy as on Microsoft Word but luckily there are a couple of different ways to do this.

Read More

Resources to help you prepare for your exams

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

There are resources in each of the 6 collections that will support you in making the most of technology as you prepare for your exams

This collection has some tips and advice to help you revise and study for your exams

Exam season can be a challenging time for students, this collection gives you some strategies and advice for managing your stress levels around exams

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).  

Online Scams: Identifying Scam Emails and Texts

Blogpost by Jeffrey Clark (Student Digital Champion)

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The Internet is a great place to connect with friends, work on projects, and even make money. However, there are some who will use the Internet to try and make money from YOU! Unfortunately, scams are becoming more and more advanced but thankfully I’ve got you covered! In this blogpost I’ll go over scam emails, what they are, how to identify them and what to do when you find them.

Make sure to read the Aberystwyth University page on spam emails before reading this blog post.

What is a phishing email?

A phishing email is an email that is designed to obtain sensitive personal data from you. This data may come in the form of your address, credit card information, or even your bank details! Phishing emails are usually disguised as legitimate business emails like the example below.

Screenshot of a Phishing Email from TustedBank
Image from Wikimedia Commons

It’s easy to see how one might fall for a phishing email like this. Firstly, the email notifies the victim that their bank account may have been compromised which prompts them to act urgently. Secondly, there is nothing suspicious about the link at first glance. So how can you tell the difference between a legitimate email and a phishing email?

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Introducing new features in LinkedIn Learning

LinkedIn Learning, an online learning platform which all students and staff at AU have free access to, have recently released three new and exciting features. Take a look at the information and guides below to learn how to make the most of these new features.

New feature 1: Role Guides

LinkedIn Learning have recently released Role Guides. These will enable you to explore and find content related to a wide variety of career paths. For example, if you aspire to become a Data Scientist, you can follow the Data Scientist role guide to find courses, learning paths, skills insights, and community group spaces related to this specific role.

Take a look at the below video (no audio) to learn how to access Role Guides, and you can also find out more about them through this LinkedIn Learning Role Guides help guide.

New feature 2: GitHub Codespaces

LinkedIn Learning have also released GitHub Codespaces, allowing you hands-on practice to master today’s top computer programming languages and other related topics such as Artificial Intelligence (AI).

LinkedIn Learning have developed over 50 courses which include hands-on practice through integration with GitHub Codespaces, which is a cloud-based development environment. You can access all 50+ courses here, or start by looking at the selection of courses below:

Screenshot of Hands-On Introduction to Python course
Screenshot of Practice It: Java Course
Screenshot of 8 Git Commands your should know course

New feature 3: Setting Career Goals

You can personalise the content that LinkedIn Learning recommends to you even further by setting Career Goals for yourself. The two main benefits of setting career goals are to:

  • Connect you to career development opportunities based on the goals that you have set yourself
  • Help you to build a variety of skills that will help you to achieve your goals

Set your Career Goals by clicking on My Learning and then My Goals, and take a look at this useful guide to help you make the most of this new feature.

Screenshot showing the Career Goal function and the questions asked

For any support or queries about these new features, or for any general questions about LinkedIn Learning, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).

Explore our new Digital Skills collections in LinkedIn Learning

Do you want to develop your digital skills further? Are you struggling to find courses and videos from LinkedIn Learning related to those specific skills you want to develop? If so, our new digital skills collections may be just what you need!

All students and staff at AU have free access to LinkedIn Learning, an online learning platform. Read our previous blogpost to find out more about the platform.

We have developed 30 new collections (15 for students and 15 for staff) to support you to find the most appropriate content from LinkedIn Learning so you can develop a range of digital skills. Each collection contains 9 resources and these can range from short 3-minute videos to more in-depth courses.

Here’s an example of 6 resources you’ll find and which collection they come from:

Editing and Proofreading made simple (39-minute course)

Collection: Information Literacy for Students

Distractions caused by devices (4-minute video)

Collection: Digital Wellbeing for Students

SPSS Statistics Essential Training (6-hour course)

Collection: Digital Proficiency for Students

Organising your Remote Office for Maximum Productivity (26-minute course)

Collection: Digital Productivity for Staff

Foundations of Accessible E-learning (51-minute course)

Collection: Digital Teaching for Staff

Team Collaboration in Microsoft 365 (1.5-hour course)

Collection: Digital Collaboration for Staff

If you want to find additional resources to help you develop your digital skills, take a look at our student Digital Skills Library which we launched last week (please note that the staff library will be available in June 2023).

If you have any questions about these LinkedIn Learning collections, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).  

International Women’s Day #EmbraceEquity

Today we are celebrating International Women’s Day! The theme this year is #EmbraceEquity and it provides an important moment to celebrate the cultural, political and socio-economic achievements of women, and is a call to action for us all to fully embrace equity.

Female students talking whilst walking on campus

Here is a selection of short LinkedIn Learning videos, all under 5 minutes, inspired by International Women’s Day. You can access these videos with your free Aberystwyth University LinkedIn Learning account.

  1. What is equity? (3m 48s)
  2. Equity in the workplace (2m 18s)
  3. Inclusive and equitable behaviours (3m 44s)
  4. The challenge of equity (4m 23s)
  5. Equity makes organisations stronger (5m 43s)
  6. Why you should care about allyship (3m 6s)
  7. How equity fosters fairness (4m 52s)
  8. Equitable leadership (3m 7s)

Students 📣 What do you think of LinkedIn Learning?

The Student Digital Champions within Information Services are running 1-hour focus groups in March to gather feedback from students on their experiences of using LinkedIn Learning.  You will receive a £10 voucher for an hour of your time.  

These focus groups will take place online on the following dates:

  • Tuesday 14 March, 11:00-12:00
  • Friday 17 March, 15:00-16:00
  • Wednesday 22 March, 11:00-12:00
  • Wednesday 22 March, 15:00-16:00

To take part, please complete this short form to sign-up. Please feel free to contact digi@aber.ac.uk with any questions.

Microsoft Word Tips and Tricks 💡

Blogpost by Jeffrey Clark (Student Digital Champion)

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Making things easier

Microsoft Word is perhaps the most used and widely recognized computer program in all of academia. Virtually every course you can take at Aberystwyth University uses Microsoft Word to some degree, with some courses requiring you to do more with it than just type out an essay. In this blog post, I’ll tell you about some shortcuts in Microsoft Word that have helped me during my studies.

Tip 1: Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts are a combination of keys that you press to perform a function. For example, press control (ctrl) and C at the same time while highlighting text copies that text onto your clipboard. Instead of right-clicking and scrolling down the drop-down menu to ‘Paste’, you can press ctrl + V to paste the text instead.

The ALT key can also be used for shortcuts. Specifically, the ALT key is used for shortcuts as they relate to the top task bar. By holding down the ALT key for a few seconds, the keys for each shortcut will pop up. For instance, on my keyboard, pressing ALT and 2 will save my document.

But if we press ALT + S to go to the References tab…

We get an entirely new set of ALT keyboard commands to use!

By holding down the ALT with a different tab open we can see what shortcuts are available for each tab on the taskbar. If you forget what ALT key shortcuts do, holding the ALT key down will give you a helpful reminder of your keyboard shortcuts!

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