The Power of Digital Wellness: Introducing our Digital Wellbeing Series

15 November 202327 November 2023 Joel Williams [jow136] Digital Wellbeing Series, Student Digital Champions, Students Leave a comment

Blogpost by Joel Williams (Student Digital Champion)

One focus for the Student Digital Champions this year is to explore strategies and programs we’ve used to increase our digital wellbeing. This series will explore what digital wellbeing is and will consist of posts and infographics discussing reducing eyestrain, digital detox, working environment and much more!

This information will be posted throughout the year with several seasonal posts, including challenges for Christmas and Easter. You can also use the LinkedIn Learning collections we’ve curated if you want to find out more in between posts, and you can stay up to date with all new posts within this series through this page on our Digital Skills blog.

To accompany this introductory blogpost, we’ve created A student’s guide to defeating computer eyestrain! (text version and clickable links below visual)

AU Graduates Digital Skills Profile Series – Week 3 (Stephanie Mogridge)

9 November 20239 November 2023 Laurie Stevenson [las60] Graduate Digital Skills Profile Series, Student Digital Champions, Students Leave a comment

Week 3 is our interview with Stephanie who works for TSB Banking in Mortgage Servicing and feels she got a pretty good grip of data literacy while at AU but wished she’d learnt more about her digital identity and wellbeing.

If you’d like to learn more about your own digital identity and wellbeing, why not join two of our sessions as part of the Digital Skills Festival (6-10 November ’23), Improving your digital footprint and your online shadow and Exploring your digital wellbeing.

*Please click here to read all of the other posts in our AU Graduate Digital Skills Profile Series*

Join us next week for the Digital Skills Festival! 🎆

3 November 20233 November 2023 WordPress User [sil12] Digital Skills Festival, Students, Training Leave a comment

Aberystwyth University’s first Digital Skills Festival for students will take place next week from 6 to 10 November 2023!

Throughout the week, there will be 28 events covering an array of topical digital areas. Events will include presentations on Artificial Intelligence, online safety, digital wellbeing, managing your digital footprint, and using Welsh on your computer. Additionally, external speakers from companies like Barclays and Clicky Media will discuss the digital skills necessary to excel in their own and similar companies. Finally, there will also be several interactive workshops on topics such as using software such as Microsoft Excel and mastering group work with an array of online tools. 

All students who attend three online sessions will be entered into a raffle where they will have the opportunity of winning one of two £50 vouchers.

You can view each session and book through the Digital Skills Festival programme, or take a look at the images below to find out what’s on each day of the week!

Festival Programme

Microsoft PowerPoint Tips and Tricks 💡

19 June 20237 January 2025 WordPress User [sil12] Digital communication, collaboration and participation, Microsoft PowerPoint, Microsoft Support, Student Digital Champions, Students Leave a comment

Blogpost by Jeffrey Clark (Student Digital Champion)

Like Microsoft Word, PowerPoint is another Microsoft application you’ve probably used before. Planning for delivering a presentation can be daunting and even a frightening task for some, as not only do you have to speak in front of your fellow students, but your PowerPoint presentation will also be on full display. But, have no fear as this blogpost will give you some valuable tips and tricks to help turn a good presentation into a GREAT presentation!

Tip 1: Inserting Excel data into PowerPoint

If your presentation requires you to show data from an existing Microsoft Excel document, there is an easy way to display it within PowerPoint.

On the slide you want your data to appear on, go to Insert > Object
From the Insert Object window, select Create from file > Browse > then select the Microsoft Excel file where the chart you want to include is located > OK
This will automatically insert both the data and chart from your Microsoft Excel document
You can edit this data directly within your PowerPoint document by double-clicking on the chart on your slide
Click outside of the chart when you are finished, and PowerPoint will produce a chart with your Excel data!

Tip 2: Inserting a YouTube video in PowerPoint

Come and work with us as a Student Digital Champion! 📣

30 May 202330 May 2023 WordPress User [sil12] Student Digital Champions, Students Leave a comment

We are looking to appoint two Student Digital Champions to work within our Digital Skills Team for a total of 25 weeks (5 hours per week on Pay Grade 2) next academic year, starting in September 2023.

The Student Digital Champions will support the work of the Digital Skills Team through encouraging other students to take advantage of numerous resources to support them in developing their digital skills. They will also provide a valuable perspective on issues relating to supporting the development of students’ digital skill in general.

Here’s what our two current Student Digital Champions had to say about their experiences in the role this year:

“My past year working as a Student Digital Champion has been really interesting, rewarding and something completely different for me. I was looking for something to do alongside a lab-based research placement this year and despite not having any previous experience in digital skills, or even a previous digital interest, I have thoroughly enjoyed it. I have really loved being able to use the job as a creative outlet and have developed my graphic designed skills, but I have also developed lots of new skills such as leading focus groups and interviews, conducting user-experience analysis, designing and producing online content for various platforms and writing blogposts. The flexibility of the job has been fantastic, and I am looking forward to continue working with the team next year (who, by the way, are an absolutely lovely group of people), as a nice accompaniment to and change of scene from my normal university work.”
Laurie Stevenson (Year in Industry student, Wildlife Conservation)

“As a Student Digital Champion, I’ve learned lots of valuable skills which will help me in my future career. Getting to know programs such as Word, Excel, and Piktochart have been invaluable to my development as both a student and as an employee. Helping with running stands and on-campus promotional events have really boosted my confidence and interpersonal communication skills. I recommend the Student Digital Champion program to anyone who has a drive to help other students, and for anyone who enjoys trying new things.”
Jeffrey Clark (3rd year student, English & Creative Writing)

Here are examples of the different activities and resources the Student Digital Champions have created this year!

Please note that the closing date for these positions is Monday 31 July 2023. For more information and to apply for these positions, please visit Aber Works. If you do not currently have an Aber Works account or if you have any queries, please contact digi@aber.ac.uk.   

Microsoft Excel Tips and Tricks (Part 2)💡

24 May 20237 January 2025 Laurie Stevenson [las60] Digital proficiency and productivity, Information, data and media literacies, LinkedIn Learning, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Support, Student Digital Champions, Students Leave a comment

Blogpost by Laurie Stevenson (Student Digital Champion)

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.

Microsoft Excel Tips and Tricks (Part 1)💡

22 May 20237 January 2025 Laurie Stevenson [las60] Digital proficiency and productivity, Information, data and media literacies, Microsoft Excel, Microsoft Support, Student Digital Champions, Students Leave a comment

Blogpost by Laurie Stevenson (Student Digital Champion)

Feel a sense of dread whenever you have to use Excel for your degree? Well, we’re here to help! Many degrees will require the use of Excel at some point for data analysis, maths calculations, graph or chart creation, project management and much more.

Excel can seem complicated and daunting to some, particularly if you are relatively new to it, so I’ve put together a list of tips and tricks as well as a new Excel LinkedIn Learning collection to help you out.

Keep an eye out on our blog later on this week as I’ll be publishing the second part of this blogpost, which will include 5 more tips and tricks on using Excel!

Tip 1: Useful keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts involve pressing more than one key simultaneously and if memorised can save you a great deal of time. For example, use CTRL+A to select all the cells in a spreadsheet. Take a look at the following list of good ones to learn:

Ctrl + N	Create a new workbook
Ctrl + O	Open an existing workbook
Ctrl + S	Save the active workbook
F12	Save the active workbook under a new name, displays the save as dialog box
Ctrl + W	Close the active workbook
Ctrl + C	Copy the contents of the selected cells to the Clipboard
Ctrl + X	Cut the contents of the selected cells to the Clipboard
Ctrl + V	Paste/insert the content of the Clipboard into the selected cells(s)
Ctrl + Z	Undo your last action
Ctrl + P	Open the Print dialog
Alt + H	Open the home tab
Alt + N	Open the Insert tab
Alt + P	Open the page layout tab
Ctrl + S	Save a workbook
Ctrl + 9	Hide the selected row(s)
Ctrl + 0	Hide the selected column(s)

Resources to help you prepare for your exams

9 May 20239 May 2023 WordPress User [sil12] Digital Skills Library, 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.

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

Blogpost: Busting Exam Stress with Technology

LinkedIn Learning Collection: Effective Exam Preparation and Revision

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

LinkedIn Learning Collection: Tackling Exam Stress

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

2 May 20235 September 2023 WordPress User [jec68] Digital Identity and Wellbeing, Digital proficiency and productivity, LinkedIn Learning, Student Digital Champions, Students Leave a comment

Blogpost by Jeffrey Clark (Student Digital Champion)

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?

What can I learn in the new Digital Skills Library?

21 April 202325 April 2023 WordPress User [sil12] Digital Skills Library, Students Leave a comment

We wrote a blogpost earlier this week introducing you to our new Digital Skills Library. The Digital Skills Library contains six collections of AU and external resources to support students at Aberystwyth University in developing a range of new and existing digital skills.

We have been launching these collections on our IS social media channels throughout this week, but you can also take a look at the images below to find out the range of digital skills you could learn in each of the six collections.

Please note that the Digital Skills Library for staff will be launched in June 2023. If you have any questions or problems accessing the Digital Skills Library, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).