Supervisor Information

Congratulations to Dr Gareth Hoskins, Institute of Geography & Earth Sciences and Professor Reyer Zwiggelaar, Computer Science/Head of the Graduate School on successfully achieving, in December 2022, the UKCGE Recognised Research Supervisor award. This award is a national framework which is aligned with the University Supervisor role and supports supervisor development in the sector.

We have an internal support facility for those of you who may be interested in applying, for this award, so please contact Annette Edwards, LTEU, sfastaff@aber.ac.uk or Reyer Zwiggelaar rrz@aber.ac.uk for further information.

The next deadlines for UKCGE applications are 24 March and 23 June.

Also, please hold the 20 April for the 2nd Supervisory Training Day programme for this academic year, programme to be distributed in due course, which will be useful for sections of your application.

If you would like to know more about this award, please visit the UKCGE web page https://supervision.ukcge.ac.uk/good-supervisory-practice-framework/ or there is also further information on the Graduate School web pages https://www.aber.ac.uk/cy/grad-school/ 

 

Learning and Teaching Mini Conference Materials Available Now

Resources are now available from the Aberystwyth University Mini Conference for Learning and Teaching that took place on 20th December 2022. For those who were unable to attend or who would like a refresher, the resources for all sessions can be found here.

The conference focused on Sustainability in Higher Education, with the key-note session delivered by Dr Georgina Gough (UWE Bristol) exploring how to embed sustainability goals within the curriculum.

Other topics included Marian Gray’s session ‘Student Mobility and Cross-Cultural Skills – Global & Sustainable?’, and Dr. Louise Marshall’s ‘Discipline hopping: Interdisciplinary approaches to a sustainable curriculum’.

Weekly Resource Roundup – 20/1/2023

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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

Resources and publications

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 27/1/2023, Oxford Brookes University, International Teaching and Learning Conference: Pedagogies of possibility: tales of transformation and hope
  • Call for papers due 29/1/2023, University of Lincoln Digital Education Team, DigiEd: Horizons
  • 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.

Call for Proposals: Mini Conference: Virtual Reality

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce the next mini conference. On Tuesday 28 March LTEU will be hosting our next mini conference in person.

This mini conference will be focused on Virtual Reality, building on one of the sessions from last year’s Learning and Teaching Conference.

Colleagues from across the University will be showcasing their use of Virtual Reality in their teaching and research activities – offering advice from design to integration.

If you’re interested in contributing to the event, then please fill out this online form. Please submit your proposal before 17 February 2023.

Bookings are already open – you can book your place online.

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

Weekly Resource Roundup – 11/1/2023

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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

Resources and publications

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 23/1/2023, AHE, International Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference (in-person, Manchester)
  • Call for papers due 27/1/2023, Oxford Brookes University, International Teaching and Learning Conference: Pedagogies of possibility: tales of transformation and hope
  • Call for papers due 29/1/2023, University of Lincoln Digital Education Team, DigiEd: Horizons
  • 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.

Blackboard UBN

Blackboard Ultra icon

It’s been about a week since we moved to Blackboard UBN. Here are some answers to some of the questions that staff and students have asked us. You may find your question answered here (or in our How do I get started with Ultra Base Navigation FAQ). If not, you can email us.

1. Where is my departmental information site / training module? If you are looking for a Blackboard site that isn’t linked to a taught AU module, have a look on the Organisations page. You’ll probably find the course you are looking for here.
2. How are the courses organized on the Course page? They are listed by academic year, and then alphabetically by module title. You may find it easier to find your courses by using one of the following:
a. Search box – you can search by module name or module code.
b. Favourite – use the favourite (star) icon to pin the courses you use regularly at the top of your list.
c. Filter. This is particularly useful for staff who are Instructors on some modules and have other roles in other modules. Choosing Course I teach will show you all your Instructor courses.
d. Change the academic year. You can limit your view to just the current academic year by changing Courses to Cyrsiau 2022-23 Courses.
3. My course menu was a different colour / design – can I change it back? No, this is no longer available. Once we move to Ultra courses there will be no course menu.
4. How do I change the picture displayed? Have a look at the Blackboard guidance (follow from bullet point 3).
5. Why am I getting an error message when I go to Blackboard? Make sure that you go directly to https://blackboard.aber.ac.uk. Don’t use a link or bookmark.
6. The Activity Stream says I have overdue assignments? In some courses there may be submission points for extensions, groups etc that aren’t relevant to you. These will show in the Activity Search. If you aren’t sure if a submission is for you, go back into the course and check you have no assignment submissions outstanding.
7. My course or Organisation says Private on it; what does this mean? It means that the course isn’t available to students. If you no longer need this course, please let us know and we can remove the course.

Save the Date: Annual Learning and Teaching Conference

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit are excited to announce the date for the 11th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference. The conference will be taking place between Tuesday 4 July and Thursday 6 July 2023.

Look out for Calls for Proposals and the announcement of the conference theme. As usual, we will be updating our Learning and Teaching Conference Webpages and also our blog to keep you up-to-date with how things are progressing.

Weekly Resource Roundup – 4/1/2023

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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

Resources and publications

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 23/1/2023, AHE, International Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference (in-person, Manchester)
  • Call for papers due 27/1/2023, Oxford Brookes University, International Teaching and Learning Conference: Pedagogies of possibility: tales of transformation and hope
  • Call for papers due 29/1/2023, University of Lincoln Digital Education Team, DigiEd: Horizons
  • 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.

Blackboard Ultra Base Navigation: Work Complete

Blackboard Ultra icon

Ultra Base Navigation is now enabled on Blackboard. 

Next time you log onto Blackboard, you will be greeted with a new interface. 

Please consult our FAQ on how to use Ultra Base Navigation. 

Whilst the look and feel of Blackboard has changed, course functionality and content remain the same. 

If you have bookmarked or created links to pages within Blackboard these might need updating. Any links directly to the address https://blackboard.aber.ac.uk/ will still work.    

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will now start work preparing for Ultra Courses, ready for Semester 1, 2023. 

Our Ultra webpages and FAQs will be updated as the project progresses.   If you have any questions, please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (elearning@aber.ac.uk).