Digital Skills Training: Semester 1 ’23-24

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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:

Develop your digital skills each week with our new DigiTips! DigiTip 1 – Bookmark your favourite webpages 🔖

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Each week we’ll be posting a useful DigiTip to help you make the best use of technology. 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!

Do you want to be able to find the exact webpage you are looking for without wasting time going through several different webpages? For webpages that you visit often, you can bookmark them and even create folders for different categories of bookmarks, meaning that you will never have to navigate through the internet to find that specific webpage again! 

Follow these steps to bookmark a webpage: 

  • Open your choice of internet browser 
  • Search for the webpage you would like to bookmark 
  • Click on the star icon which is located on the right-hand side of the webpage address bar 
  • Choose a name for the webpage you would like to bookmark and click Done 

To manage your bookmarks: 

  • Right click on the bookmarks bar and select Bookmarks manager 
  • To create a new folder for your webpages, right click on the bookmarks bar and select Add folder 

Training for Academic Staff: Introduction to the Digital Discovery Tool

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The Digital Skills Team will be delivering training sessions in September for academic staff who will be supporting their students to review their individual Digital Discovery Tool reports, and who will be facilitating conversations about digital skills in general.

Online sessions will be available in Welsh and English on the following dates:

  • 12 September ’23 (10:00-11:00): Introduction to the Digital Discovery Tool (Book here)
  • 12 September ’23 (14:00-15:00): Cyflwyniad i’r Offeryn Darganfod Digidol (Book here)
  • 18 September ’23 (10:00-11:00): Cyflwyniad i’r Offeryn Darganfod Digidol (Book here)
  • 18 September ’23 (15:00-16:00): Introduction to the Digital Discovery Tool (Book here)

For all enquiries, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).

New Member of the team! 

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Hello everyone! My name is Jia Ping Lee and I have joined the Digital Skills team as a digital capabilities and skills development coordinator.  

I completed my undergraduate studies in Genetics at Aberystwyth and recently returned home from China after 4 years as an English Teacher for young children. 

I am looking forward to supporting and working with staff and students at the university to help develop their digital skills and become digitally confident, as we all try to navigate and keep up with our constantly evolving digital society. 

Come and Present at our Digital Skills Festival! 🎉

Shân Saunders Digital Skills Festival Leave a comment

From 6th – 10th November 2023 we are hosting Aberystwyth University’s Digital Skills Festival and we are looking for postgraduate students to deliver sessions. You can deliver a session either online or in-person and it can be a workshop, drop-in session or demonstration on a digital skill or software that you are proficient in using. For example, we would like some sessions on the following skills and software: 

  • Microsoft Packages – Essential or Advanced 
  • SPSS 
  • NVivo 
  • ArcGIS 
  • Python (or other programming software) 
  • Adobe Photoshop 
  • Social Media e.g., creating Instagram Reels, TikToks, Twitter, YouTube etc. 
  • Creating or editing videos 
  • ProTools 
  • Discord 

We are also open to any other skill or software you think is important and should be delivered! 

Please register your interest by 28th July 2023 through the following link: https://forms.office.com/e/EQsxd8wdD7 

If you have any questions or problems accessing the registration form, please contact us at: digi@aber.ac.uk.  

Training for Academic Staff: Introduction to the Digital Discovery Tool

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The Digital Skills Team will be delivering training sessions in September 2023 for academic staff who will be supporting their students to review their individual Digital Discovery Tool reports, and facilitating conversations with students about digital skills in general.

Online sessions will be available in Welsh and English on the following dates:

  • 12 September ’23 (10:00-11:00): Introduction to the Digital Discovery Tool (Book here)
  • 12 September ’23 (14:00-15:00): Cyflwyniad i’r Offeryn Darganfod Digidol (Book here)
  • 18 September ’23 (10:00-11:00): Cyflwyniad i’r Offeryn Darganfod Digidol (Book here)
  • 20 September ’23 (15:00-16:00): Introduction to the Digital Discovery Tool(Book here)

For all enquiries, please contact the Digital Skills Team (digi@aber.ac.uk).

Attention All Staff 📣 – Introducing the Digital Skills Library!

Shân Saunders Digital Skills Library Leave a comment
Yellow and Blue banner with laptop, AU logo, and the text Digital Skills Library

The Digital Skills Team are happy to announce the launch of the Digital Skills Library for staff. The Digital Skills Library is an online collection of specifically selected AU and external resources to help all staff develop their digital skills. This includes ways to support your digital identity and wellbeing, guidance surrounding learning and development such as CMS instructions, advice to improve your digital communication and much more.  

The Digital Skills Library is available to all staff to develop their digital skills. However, in addition to this, we also have specific resources to help with teaching including Blackboard advice, LibGuides and resources to support online teaching.  

Visit the staff Digital Skills Library today!  

If you have any questions, issues accessing the Digital Skills Library, or suggestions for new resources, please contact the Digital Skills Team at digi@aber.ac.uk. 

Microsoft PowerPoint Tips and Tricks 💡

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Blogpost by Jeffrey Clark (Student Digital Champion)

Banner with 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.

  1. On the slide you want your data to appear on, go to Insert > Object
  2. 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
  3. This will automatically insert both the data and chart from your Microsoft Excel document
  4. You can edit this data directly within your PowerPoint document by double-clicking on the chart on your slide
  5. 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

Read More

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

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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!

  • Promotional poster with text: How are your digital skills? Friday 17 February, 10:00-13:00 at Level D of the Hugh Owen Library
  • Table and display board with post-it-notes stuck to it.
  • Bookmark containing 10 tips for students

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.