2022

As leader of our PGCTHE programme, I keep an eye out for resources to help staff teach effectively. These include webinars, podcasts, online toolkits, publications and more. Topics include active learning, online/blended teaching, accessibility/inclusion, and effective learning design based on cognitive science. Below I’ve listed items that came to my attention in the past week. In the interest of clarity, our policy is to show the titles and descriptions in the language of delivery.

Online events and webinars

1/12/2022 Staff and Educational Development Association, SEDA Online Winter Event 2022
7/12/2022 #CreativeHE, It’s beginning to look a lot like…. #creativeHE
7/12/2022 Active Learning Network, The Great Collaborative Learning Podblast
14/12/2022 Digitally Enhanced Education Webinars, What role does Learning Design play in student retention, progress and success?
25-30/1/2023 University of Liverpool, Liverpool Learning Summit 2023 – Citizenship: Global, local, digital
7-8/3/2023 Jisc, DigiFest (hybrid online and in person) “Innovation takes collaboration; it takes connection; it takes networks. It takes questions: why do you do that? what if I tried this? why not?”

Resources and publications

Alpert-Abrams, H. (23/11/2022), Finding Your Purpose in HE (including link to free e-book), The SEDA Blog
Davies, J. P. & Pachler, N. (2018), Teaching and Learning in Higher Education: Perspectives from UCL (free downloadable e-book), UCL Institute of Education Press, University College London
Hinton, D. (n.d.), Teaching Enhancement Resource Curation (mapped against the PSF)
Jacob, M. & Saunders, R. (23/11/2022), S209 Mary Jacob – Active Cognitive Tasks (30-minute audio recording), L&T Chatshow podcast series
QAA (25/11/2022), What does meaningful education for sustainability look like? (short videos and blog post)
Rhind, S. (13/5/2016), MCQ writing (14-minute video recording), University of Edinburgh Media Hopper Create, Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies
Stamper, B. (24/5/2022), 4 Misconceptions of Online Learning, Educause
University of Queensland (2014), Episode 5 − Learning to Learn: Uncut conversation with Bob Bjork (12-minute video), The Science of Everyday Thinking, edX MOOC
University of Queensland (2014), Episode 5 − Learning to Learn: Uncut conversation with John Dunlosky (18-minute video), The Science of Everyday Thinking, edX MOOC
Zheng, H. (17/2/2022), Short and Sweet: The Educational Benefits of Microlectures and Active Learning, Educause

Other

Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity
Subscribe to SEDA’s mailing list for email discussions about educational development and emerging teaching practices. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Follow University of Birmingham’s Higher Education Futures institute HEFi on Twitter for daily posts with links to pedagogical literature and more. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Join the #LTHEchat on Twitter Wednesday nights for one hour of lively discussion about learning and teaching in HE. I often find out about good resources for the Roundup from the chat.
Call for papers due 6/12/2022, Research in Distance Education (RIDE) 2023 conference: Sustaining Innovation: Research and Practice
Call for papers due 19/12/2022, University of Winchester, Decolonising the University Within and Beyond the Curriculum
Call for papers due 21/12/2022, Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching UK, 7th Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference (UK) Interdisciplinary Experiences: Transforming Perspectives (hybrid online and in-person)
Call for papers due 23/1/2023, AHE, International Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference (in-person, Manchester)
Call for participation due 31/1/2023, Association for Learning Design & Education for Sustainable Development, Learning Design and ESD Bootcamp 2023

Please see the Staff Training booking page for training offered by the LTEU and other Aberystwyth University staff. I hope you find this weekly resource roundup useful. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact our team at lteu@aber.ac.uk. You may also wish to follow my Twitter feed, Mary Jacob L&T.

Important Information: Blackboard Ultra

28th November 202228th November 2022 WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Technical Updates, Ultra Leave a comment

In our previous blogpost, we announced our move to Blackboard Ultra.

Following the meeting of Academic Board, we can confirm that Phase 1 of the Ultra project, Ultra Base Navigation (UBN), will take place between 3 and 6 January 2023.

During this time, you will notice changes to the landing pages of Blackboard. Whilst UBN offers a new feel to Blackboard, course functionality and content will remain the same. We aim to maintain user access to Blackboard throughout this time, but it should be considered at risk for this period.

Further updates about UBN will follow to help prepare staff and students for this change to the landing page.

Once Phase 1 is complete, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will move to Phase 2, preparing for Ultra Courses in September 2023.

We are blogging throughout the project and key messages will be communicated via the Weekly Bulletin and IS news.

We will provide FAQs and have a dedicated webpage which will develop as the project progresses.

If you have any questions, please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Weekly Resource Roundup – 23/11/2022

23rd November 202224th November 2022 WordPress User [mhj] Resources and Webinars, Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

Online events and webinars

29/11/2022 Future Teacher Webinars, Social media for teaching and learning – Reflected
1/12/2022 Staff and Educational Development Association, SEDA Online Winter Event 2022
7/12/2022 #CreativeHE, It’s beginning to look a lot like…. #creativeHE
7/12/2022 Active Learning Network, The Great Collaborative Learning Podblast
14/12/2022 Digitally Enhanced Education Webinars, What role does Learning Design play in student retention, progress and success?
25-30/1/2023 University of Liverpool, Liverpool Learning Summit 2023 – Citizenship: Global, local, digital
7-8/3/2023 Jisc, DigiFest (hybrid online and in person) “Innovation takes collaboration; it takes connection; it takes networks. It takes questions: why do you do that? what if I tried this? why not?”

Resources and publications

Active Learning Network (11/2022), CPD Series Inclusive Practice (video playlist)
Arnold, L. (14/11/2022), Expanded Assessment Top Trumps (blog post with PDF to print out as card deck), Lydia Arnold: Learning, teaching, assessment, technology, higher education & action research
BBC (n.d.), Study Smart, Bitesized bits (2-3 minute video clips with short blog posts, insights from cognitive science about how students can learn effectively)
Compton, M. (10/1/2022), How effective are your questions? (10-minute audio recording and blog post), Martin Compton, University College London
Knight, S. & Beetham, H. (6/11/2022), Beyond the Technology: Reviewing learning and curriculum design (1-hour audio recording), Jisc
Knight, S. & Beetham, H. (22/11/2022), Approaches to curriculum and learning design across UK higher education, Jisc
QAA (15/11/2022), Quality Matters Conference 2022 (video recordings and conference papers)
Rose, S. E., Barlow, C. & Taylor, J. (2022), Generating Dialogue in Assessment Feedback in HE (student coversheet, poster, and teaching materials), National Teaching Repository
Seery, M. (7/11/2022), What do we mean by “student engagement”?, Michael Seery
Smith, D. (12/8/2021), How to Write an UnGoogleable Exam Question – Part 1 and Part 2, David’s adventures in the classroom
Smith, D. (n.d.), Multiple choice questions for higher order thinking and active learning, David’s adventures in the classroom

Other

Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity
Subscribe to SEDA’s mailing list for email discussions about educational development and emerging teaching practices. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Follow University of Birmingham’s Higher Education Futures institute HEFi on Twitter for daily posts with links to pedagogical literature and more. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Join the #LTHEchat on Twitter Wednesday nights for one hour of lively discussion about learning and teaching in HE. I often find out about good resources for the Roundup from the chat.
Call for papers due 6/12/2022, Research in Distance Education (RIDE) 2023 conference: Sustaining Innovation: Research and Practice
Call for papers due 19/12/2022, University of Winchester, Decolonising the University Within and Beyond the Curriculum
Call for papers due 27/11/2022, Irish Journal of Academic Practice, special issue on education for sustainable development
Call for papers due 21/12/2022, Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching UK, 7th Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference (UK) Interdisciplinary Experiences: Transforming Perspectives (hybrid online and in-person)
Call for papers due 23/1/2023, AHE, International Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference (in-person, Manchester)
Call for participation due 31/1/2023, Association for Learning Design & Education for Sustainable Development, Learning Design and ESD Bootcamp 2023

Keynote Announcement: Mini Conference on Sustainability in Higher Education

23rd November 202223rd November 2022 WordPress User [jbw] Events and Networks, Mini Conference 2022 Sustainability 1 Comment

Accessibility icons showing 3 images: a checklist, a computer workstation, an image

We’re delighted to announce our keynote presentation for this year’s Mini Conference taking place online via Teams on 20 December 2022.

Dr Georgina Gough will be leading a session on embedding Sustainable Development Goals into the curriculum.

Dr Gough is Associate Professor in Education for Sustainable Development (ESD) lead at UWE Bristol. She coordinates a cross university, award-winning knowledge exchange for sustainability education (KESE) and mentors academics to incorporate sustainability into their teaching, learning and professional practice. Georgina leads a long-term project mapping academic activity against the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and is actively involved in city-level work to achieve the SDGs. She was on the expert panel which developed the HE sector guidance on ESD (Advance HE/ QAA, 2021) and works in partnership with colleagues, students and external stakeholders to embed sustainability across higher education and to share good practice both internally and externally. Georgina is programme leader for MSc Sustainable Development in Practice and teaches in geography- and business-based UG modules as well as contributing to cross-university sustainability modules and academic development initiatives.

Booking for the mini conference is currently open – reserve your place online. Our full programme will be announced shortly.

Exemplary Course Award 2023 Submissions Open

22nd November 202222nd November 2022 WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Exemplary Course Award Leave a comment

We’re really pleased to announce that this year’s Exemplary Course Award is now open for submissions with a deadline of 12 noon on Monday 30 January 2023.

Continuing with the same process as last year, we’ve got a streamlined approach to the award.

Applicants will be asked to outline their 3 standout practices in relation to their module, before identifying which criteria the module meets. Applicants are welcome to submit a Panopto recording including a module tour.

If you’re considering submitting an award, we’ve got training for applicants on:

15 December, 10:00-11:30
12 January, 14:00-15:30

You can book your place at these training sessions via the Course Booking page.

Further information, including the criteria, is available on our webpages, where you can also access an application form.

If you’re looking for ideas, then check out a recording of last year’s winner and highly commended winners.

If you’ve got any questions, then do not hesitate to contact us (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Blackboard Ultra: Project Board Meeting 1

21st November 202228th November 2022 WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Ultra Leave a comment

On 3 November, our client support team at Blackboard met with the Ultra Project Board. The board is made up of Information Services members responsible for the move to Blackboard Ultra and academic colleagues.

The meeting’s purpose was to outline the project’s scope, mission, vision, and goals.

Part of the activity involved a Mural board.

On this Mural board we were asked to give an overview of the institutional, departmental, and individual goals we wanted to achieve.

Institutional Goals

We’re looking to maintain our excellent student experience, and making sure that the move is sustainable for all staff. From a pedagogical perspective, we want active learning and student as partners to be an ethos for the project, whilst also focusing on ways that blended distance learning and online assessment can be developed. We want the VLE to be as self-service for our users as much as possible, whilst complying with the accessibility legislation. We want data to flow seamlessly between other systems, and give greater transparency to mark processing. Blackboard Ultra needs to have a clear identity and brand easily identifiable with Aberystwyth. The environment needs to be fully bilingual, easy to navigate, and reviews save users time where possible. Consistency across modules in terms of navigation remains a large driver, with a standardised baseline of best practice and an institutional template. There needs to be opportunities for staff to innovate, with examples of excellent learning and teaching activities. We need to make the most out of our investment and ensure the VLE is GDPR compliant.

Feedback display problem in Turnitin

18th November 202227th March 2023 WordPress User [kaw] E-submission, Feedback, Turnitin 1 Comment

We have had reports of staff and students not seeing feedback comments on marked Turnitin assignments.

If you are unable to see your feedback, click on the window containing the assignment to display in-text comments, QuickMarks, and highlighted text.

We have raised this with Turnitin and will provide an update once the matter is resolve

Weekly Resource Roundup – 15/11/2022

15th November 202215th November 2022 WordPress User [mhj] Resources and Webinars, Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

Online events and webinars

17/11/2022 SDU Universitetspædagogik – Centre for teaching and learning, “That’s not what I meant” – ways to identify and address biases in teaching and courses
17/11/2022 UKAT Tutoring Matters, Student belonging and mattering: the impact on academic achievement
18/11/2022 QAA, Wales Quality Network
18/11/2022 Transforming Universities for a Changing Climate, What role for universities in the climate crisis? An international dialogue (hybrid in person and online)
22/11/2022 Active Learning Network, Empowering active learners
22/11/2022 Association for Learning Technology (ALT), Exploring educators’ lived experiences of social support and wellbeing in online social network sites
23/11/2022 IFNTF, Enabling long-term sustained improvement to both the staff and student experience of assessment with Peter Hartley
29/11/2022 Future Teacher Webinars, Social media for teaching and learning – Reflected
7/12/2022 Active Learning Network, The Great Collaborative Learning Podblast
7-8/3/2023 Jisc, DigiFest (hybrid online and in person) “Innovation takes collaboration; it takes connection; it takes networks. It takes questions: why do you do that? what if I tried this? why not?”

Resources and publications

Agarwal, P. K. (2019), Retrieval practice & Bloom’s taxonomy: Do students need fact knowledge before higher order learning? Journal of Educational Psychology, 111(2), 189–209
Bryant, P. (4/11/2022), ‘…and the way that it ends is that the way it began’: Why we need to learn forward, not snap back, Peter Bryant: Post Digital Learning
Cottingham, S. (4/10/2022), Forming meaning, Evidence for Educators: Using cognitive science to make better decisions
Ferguson, R. (4/11/2022), ‘Take your teaching online’ course relaunches with new resources for educators, Institute of Educational Technology, Open University (free online course)
Mac Labhrain, I. & Concannon, F. (11/11/2022), Using a framework to build confidence and skills of those teaching in higher education, (1 hour video recording), Enhancing Digital Teaching & Learning in Irish Universities
Mihai, A. (7/11/2022), You want your students back in the classroom? Give them a good reason!, The Educationalist
Punie, Y., editor, Redecker, C. (2017), European Framework for the Digital Competence of Educators: DigCompEdu
Race, P. (n.d.), New to Teaching: In at the Deep End, Heriot-Watt University Learning & Teaching Academy
Speth, N. (15/11/2022), Fostering Active Learning in an Interactive Joint Classroom: A Case Study, International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) blog
To, J., Panadero, E., & Carless, D. (9/12/2021), A systematic review of the educational uses and effects of exemplars, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education, 47(8), 1167-1182
Weller, M. (9/2022), Metaphors of Ed Tech, AU Press

Other

Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity
Subscribe to SEDA’s mailing list for email discussions about educational development and emerging teaching practices. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Follow University of Birmingham’s Higher Education Futures institute HEFi on Twitter for daily posts with links to pedagogical literature and more. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Join the #LTHEchat on Twitter Wednesday nights for one hour of lively discussion about learning and teaching in HE. I often find out about good resources for the Roundup from the chat.
Call for papers due 21/12/2022, Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching UK, 7th Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference (UK) Interdisciplinary Experiences: Transforming Perspectives (hybrid online and in-person)
Call for papers due 27/11/2022, Irish Journal of Academic Practice, special issue on education for sustainable development
Call for papers due 23/1/2023, AHE, International Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference (in-person, Manchester

Changes to Blackboard

10th November 202228th November 2022 WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Ultra Leave a comment

Over the next year you’ll see some changes in Blackboard. This is because we are starting the move to Blackboard Ultra.

The first phase of this move will be to Ultra Base Navigation (UBN) – this will change the Blackboard homepage.

UBN has no impact on individual Blackboard course sites. These will remain unchanged until the next phase of moving to Blackboard Ultra Courses (planned for Summer 2023).

Moving to UBN gives us a head start on training and familiarisation with Blackboard Ultra. The date for moving to UBN will be announced very soon.

You can find out more about Blackboard Ultra via the LTEU blog.

We will use the Weekly Email to Staff and Students, as well as emails to departmental contacts to keep you updated on Ultra news.

Vevox Webinar: 16 November 2022, 2pm

9th November 20229th November 2022 WordPress User [jbw] Polling Software, Resources and Webinars, Vevox Leave a comment

The next Vevox pedagogy series webinar is taking place on 16 November at 2pm. In this webinar, Guy Aitchison, Lecturer in Politics and International Studies at Loughborough University will be looking at using Vevox successfully in different classroom settings.

Further information on the session is on Vevox’s webpage and you can book your place online.

Our AU guidance webpage provides guidance on how to use the software and you can sign up for Vevox 15-minute introductory training sessions every Tuesday afternoon.