Month: February 2025

Update on Blackboard Assignment and SafeAssign Pilot

WordPress User [kaw] Blackboard, E-submission, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment

Since September 2024, Information Services (IS) have been running a pilot of Blackboard Assignment and SafeAssign to evaluate the use of SafeAssign. This is part of our commitment to making sure that we are using the best tools available. The purpose of this blogpost is to summarise the outcomes of our pilot.  

18 staff volunteered to use Blackboard Assignment for submission and marking, and SafeAssign for text-matching. These staff were based in seven different departments and taught a range of UG and PG modules. All staff were offered training and provided with written guidance on using both Blackboard Assignment and SafeAssign. The training sessions provided an opportunity for staff to discuss different assessment scenarios with E-learning staff and to ascertain the suitability for Blackboard Assignment and SafeAssign. We also sent out surveys to staff on their use of e-marking and feedback tools. 

A big thanks to all the staff and students involved in the pilot and all those who completed the surveys.  

Outcome

AU will continue to use our current suite of e-assessment tools: 

  • Turnitin 
  • Blackboard Assignment 
  • Blackboard Tests  
  • Assessed Blackboard Tools 

The pilot allowed us to reflect on the requirements for an e-assessment solution. It was clear from this that we need a combination of different solutions for different assessment requirements.    

We would recommend Blackboard Assignment be used for: 

  • Multi-part assignments 
  • A Welsh language interface for marking and submission 
  • Panopto submissions  

One of the main purposes of the pilot was to investigate the efficacy of SafeAssign and its functionality as a text matching solution. Over the next few months, with input from stakeholders, we will decide whether we leave SafeAssign switched on and we’ll communicate this decision after Easter.  

Survey Results

As well as taking part in training, staff in the pilot were asked to complete a survey before and after using Blackboard Assignment and SafeAssign. The first survey was about their use of Turnitin, and the second one was about their experiences of using Assignment and SafeAssign. 

We also sent out the first survey to all staff asking for their feedback on Turnitin, and use of Turnitin tools that have no equivalent in SafeAssign. This survey was designed to help us understand whether any of the features in Turnitin are essential to the AU marking and feedback process.  Overall, 71 staff took part in these first surveys.  

Some of the most frequently used and important features in Turnitin are not currently available in Blackboard and SafeAssign. Two of these were ranked as regularly used:  

  1. Timed and automatic release of marks and feedback (78% of respondents)  
  1. Seeing whether students have viewed marks (60% of respondents)  

Three features ranked as essential from an e-assessment solution:  

  1. Timed release of marks (66% of respondents)  
  1. Submitting on behalf of students (51% of respondents)  
  1. Revealing individual names whilst marking anonymously (51% of respondents)  

The key finding from the survey was that timed release of marks is considered both important and used frequently by staff, making it an essential requirement for any AU marking and feedback system.  

The second survey was sent to just the pilot group and asked them about their use of the tools in Blackboard Assignment and SafeAssign, as well as their recommendations for changing submission and marking tools. 6 staff responded to this survey.  They generally found it easy to use Blackboard and SafeAssign and didn’t report many problems for either them or their students. However, they highlighted limitations in functionality, which meant that some of the pilot group didn’t end up using Blackboard and SafeAssign at all: 

  • Issues navigating the marking interface 
  • File size upload limit (SafeAssign will only check files less than 10Mb) 
  • Lack of automated marks release  

Anthology Ideas Exchange

Anthology Ideas Exchange allows all Blackboard institutions to request and vote on functionality enhancements to the product.  As a result of training sessions and staff feedback, we made 21 suggestions via the Anthology Ideas Exchange. These were a mix of Turnitin functionality that doesn’t have an equivalent in SafeAssign, as well as changes to existing SafeAssign functionality. Some examples include: 

Enhancement Request Ideas Exchange Status 
Schedule grade posting 3052 Future consideration 
See if students have viewed feedback 1612 Planning to implement in the next 6+ months 
Anonymous marking switched off before grades released 1685 Follow up 
Annotate comment library export / import 1751 Future consideration 
Submit on behalf of students 164 Planning to implement but this will initially only be to submit in draft attempts made by students. 
Scheduled Grade Posting 3052 Future consideration 
Increase file size limit for SafeAssign 5711 136 Future consideration 

If you have suggestions or changes for any part of Blackboard on that you would like us to add to the Ideas Exchange, please email elearning@aber.ac.uk. You may also be interested in the new section in our monthly update blog which highlights any Ideas Exchange ideas that we have added or voted for which have been added to Blackboard.  

Weekly Resource Roundup – 27/2/2025

WordPress User [mhj] Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

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

February

March

April

May

June

July

Resources and publications

Other

  • Call for proposals (open dates) Unfiltered by EmpowerED: A Podcast Series where educators share unedited stories of inspiration and challenge
  • Call for proposals (open dates) Future Teacher Webinars
  • Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.

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. Social media: X.com, BSky.

Weekly Resource Roundup – 18/2/2025

WordPress User [mhj] Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

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

February

March

April

May

June

Resources and publications

Other

  • Call for proposals (open dates) Unfiltered by EmpowerED: A Podcast Series where educators share unedited stories of inspiration and challenge
  • Call for proposals (open dates) Future Teacher Webinars
  • Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.

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. Social media: X.com, BSky.

Call for Proposals: Learning and Teaching Conference 2025

WordPress User [jbw] Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2025, Conference Leave a comment

We are now inviting proposals for the 13th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Tuesday 8-Thursday 10 July 2025.

Submit and view the call for proposals online. 

The theme for this year’s conference is:

Innovative Pathways to Empowering Learners: Adapting, Engaging, and Thriving

The main strands of this year’s conference are:

  • Adaptable assessment design
  • Student engagement and autonomous learning
  • Community building
  • Technologies to enhance learning
  • Online learning

Staff, postgraduate teaching assistants, and students are welcome to propose sessions on any topic relating to learning and teaching, especially those that focus on the incorporation and use of technology. Even if your suggestion doesn’t fit a particular strand, other topics are welcome.

We seek to encourage presenters to consider using alternative formats that reflect and suit the content of their sessions. As such, we are not specifying a standardised presentation format.

Please complete this form no later than 8 April 2025.

If you have any questions, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk.

13th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference: Theme Announcement

WordPress User [jbw] Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2025, Conference, Events and Networks Leave a comment

We are pleased to announce the theme of the 13th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, taking place between 8 and 10 July 2025.

The theme is: “Innovative Pathways to Empowering Learners: Adapting, Engaging, and Thriving”.

The conference will have the following strands:

  • Adaptable assessment design
  • Student engagement and autonomous learning
  • Community building
  • Technologies to enhance learning
  • Online learning

Each year, we speak to our stakeholder group and other members of the University to establish topics that colleagues will find useful.

The first strand of adaptable assessment design brings together a piece of work being undertaken by colleagues in Student Services, which foregrounds flexible approaches to assessment design, assessments with multiple formats, and authentic assessment design.

Student engagement and instilling autonomous learning remains to be a key challenge for colleagues. Under this strand, we’re interested in strategies for instilling autonomy in learning, ways in which learning can be scaffolded, and the embedding of skills for learning and the graduate workplace.

Our third strand of community building seeks to highlight the work of wellbeing in the curriculum and to consider more trauma-informed ways of working, how online learning communities are created, and the use of learning analytics. Central to all these themes is inclusive pedagogies.

Under the strand technologies to enhance learning we will be interested to hear about positive case studies and uses of incorporating AI into the classroom, advanced and exemplary uses of Blackboard Ultra, and good teaching practice in the digital age.

Our final strand speaks to online learning speaks to the work of the Aber Online Learning Project in partnership with HEP, transitioning on campus to online teaching, and engagement strategies for online learning.

We will be opening the Call for Proposals and conference booking shortly.

If you have got any questions, please contact the conference organisers on elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Vevox Updates

WordPress User [jbw] Polling Software, Technical Updates, Vevox Leave a comment
Screenshot of Numeric question with Word Cloud output

Vevox, the University’s preferred polling solution, has some great new features from its September 2024 and December 2024 release.  

For colleagues unfamiliar with Vevox, it can be used to make your teaching more interactive, and to help decision making in meetings. Participants use mobile devices to engage in real-time polling, but there are also options for asynchronous Surveys and Q & A boards.

All these updates are available on this YouTube recording and via these release notes:

1. Q and A labels

Session hosts can define labels that are now visible and usable by participants. This means that participants can optionally tag their Q&A messages with a  pre-defined label. For example, you may wish to have a label for Assessment to allow students to link their questions to a tag.

2. Compare poll results in your session

This is a useful activity to measure the impact of a teaching session. Ask students one question at the start of the session to gauge their level of understanding and then ask them the same question at the end of the session to see if their understanding has changed. See the Vevox update for instructions on how to achieve this.

3. Downvoting options

By default, the Q and A board allows participants to upvote questions. This means that you can order questions by those which the majority of participants want to ask. Vevox has introduced a Downvote setting which you can toggle on to allow your participants to downvote questions. You can change these settings in the Q and A setting interface.

4. Alternate result display

Responses to MCQ poll questions can now be displayed in different ways. You can use the traditional bar graph but you can now choose to display your output as a pie chart. You can change the view in real time by having the Vevox admin panel open on one screen in the lecture and having the presenter window projected.

5. Number cloud question release

The number type poll now gives instructors the option to display how the output is shown with a new Word Cloud style interface. You can choose to have this as an output from the poll question interface.

6. Text walls formatting

Results for the answer style question now show in a more streamlined fashion when publishing the results. Rather than showing the output in full, the first couple of sentences display. The instructor can click on the comments they want to highlight and it will show the full response.

7. PowerPoint real time results

The PowerPoint integration has been updated to be able to show WordCloud, Pie Chart, and Number Cloud results live. Further information on using the Vevox PowerPoint integration is available on their webpage.

8. Rich text options for question formatting

Bold, italics and underline are now options in the question formatting.

9. Attendance tracking

For identified polling, you can run attendance information from the data reports. You can then see when participants joined the session and let the session.

10. Custom profanity filters

As account administrators, we can add words to the custom profanity filter. This will be applied to polls, surveys, and q and a features. If you have a word that you would like included in the profanity filter, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Further information and support is available on our webpages: Polling Tool  : Information Services , Aberystwyth University.

Previous updates and case studies are available on our blog.

Mini Conference: Employability and the Inclusive Curriculum

WordPress User [jbw] Conference, Events and Networks, Mini Conference 2025 Employability Leave a comment

The Digital Education Group in partnership with the Careers Service are pleased to announce the theme for our next Mini Conference.

Building on the success of last year’s Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, we will be revisiting the topic of employability with the theme Employability and the Inclusive Curriculum.   

The mini conference will take place online on the morning of Tuesday 8 April.

The full line up will be confirmed in due course but we are pleased to announce that the Careers Service will be launching their new toolkit for embedding employability in the curriculum.

Bookings for the event are already open. You can book your place online.

If you have any questions, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Mini Conference Logo

Weekly Resource Roundup – 10/2/2025

WordPress User [mhj] Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

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

February

March

May

June

Resources and publications

Other

  • Call for proposals (open dates) Unfiltered by EmpowerED: A Podcast Series where educators share unedited stories of inspiration and challenge
  • Call for proposals (open dates) Future Teacher Webinars
  • Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.

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. Social media: X.com, BSky.

What’s new in Blackboard – February 2025

WordPress User [brr26] Blackboard, Monthly Update Leave a comment
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In the February update, Blackboard has improved the workflows for Assignments and Tests and further enhanced the AI Design Assistant. Additionally, there are new options for managing and creating content and some improved accuracy when uploading grades and feedback.

Assignments, Tests, Marking and Grades

Conversion of existing assignments to new assignment workflow

The Create Test and Create Assignment workflows used to share the same content settings, but the workflows have been separated since last August. This month’s update will run an automatic bulk conversion of any assignments created before August 2024 to ensure that all assignments past and present will benefit from this new workflow. See the August 2024 Blog for details on the workflow differences.

Assignments following the conversion: There will be no option to add questions to assignments and attempts will only be created with students interact with the assignment, such as submitting a file or adding content. Clicking on the assignment will not create an attempt.

Tests following the conversion: Tests with questions will remain the same. Any tests without questions will be set to Hidden from students. When you copy tests over from previous modules, they will also be set to Hidden from students. Some assignment-specific options have been removed from the test settings menu:

  • Collect submissions offline
  • Use grading rubric
  • Maximum points
  • 2 grades per student
  • Peer review

Additionally, the functionality for student visibility options and release conditions for tests have been updated. Now, instructors must add one or more questions to their test to make it visible to students or to add release conditions. This ensures that students only see assessments that they can actively engage with.

Image 1: Settings panel with assignment-specific options removed.

Settings panel with assignment-specific options removed

Masking access codes for Tests

In the past, when an exam invigilator entered an access code for an online exam using Blackboard Tests, the code was visible on the screen when entered. This compromised the security of the testing environment. Now, the code is masked (******) to ensure enhanced security. An option to view the code is available but the default state keeps it hidden which provides better privacy and protection during exams.
Image 2: Masked Access Code.

Screenshot of Masked Access Code

Improved accuracy when uploading grades and feedback

Instructors can now upload grades and feedback for assignments, journals, and discussions with improved accuracy. Previously, uploaded grades were always stored at the override level, which left any underlying attempts or submissions ungraded. This caused the Needs Grading and New Submission flags to remain visible, even when grading had been completed offline. Uploaded grades and feedback are now correctly mapped to the corresponding attempt or submission which reduces confusion and provides better clarity for instructors. See guidance on Working Offline with Grade Data for further information.

AI Design Assistant

More generated questions and Learning Modules

When using the AI Design Assistant, instructors can now set the number of questions generated for tests and question banks to a maximum of 20. The maximum number of learning modules that the AI Design Assistant generates also increased to 20. There is also an added option to exclude descriptions from learning modules generated by the AI Design Assistant. Instructors now have the option to write their own descriptions.

Image 3: The Auto-Generate Questions page displays a new maximum number of questions of 20.

Screenshot of the Auto-Generate Questions page displays a new maximum number of questions of 20.

For more information on the tools available with the AI Design Assistant see Blackboard AI Design Assistant Tools.

Managing and Creating Content

New image block on Document creator

Blackboard have added a new image block to Documents. Image blocks are used to upload your own images, use the AI Design Assistant to generate images, or select images from Unsplash. Image blocks can be moved throughout a Document, just like other block types. You have the option to resize images, set height, and maintain aspect ratios in image blocks.

Image 4: The new image block option in Documents.

A screenshot of the new image block option in Documents.

A dedicated image block makes adding images more apparent. Adding images via the image block also reduces white space around images and provides greater control over content design. For more information on using Documents in Blackboard see Enhancements to Documents.

Changing Folders to Learning Modules

Instructors can now change a folder to a learning module or a learning module to a folder. Benefits of changing a folder to a learning module include:

  • Thumbnail images: Learning modules come with thumbnail images, which provide a visually appealing course experience.
  • Forced sequencing: Instructors can force students to navigate learning modules in linear paths.
  • Progress bar: Learning modules have a progress bar for students that highlights the number of items that they need to complete and their progression on those items.
  • Previous and next navigation: Students can quickly navigate to the next or previous item in a learning module.

It is also possible to convert a learning module to a folder, though we would not recommend this, as it will remove the added benefits of using learning modules as listed above.

Image 5: The new option to change a folder to a learning module in the dropdown menu.

Screenshot of the new option to change a folder to a learning module in the dropdown menu.

Idea Exchange

This section aims to keep you updated on progress of enhancements requested on the Blackboard Anthology Idea Exchange. The following three items have changed their status to ‘Planning to implement’:

  • Support for a Dark Mode in Ultra Courses
  • Ability to add metadata to questions in tests and banks
  • Organising Pools

If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with the Digital Education Group.

Weekly Resource Roundup – 4/2/2025

WordPress User [mhj] Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

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

February

March

May

June

Resources and publications

Other

  • Call for proposals (open dates) Unfiltered by EmpowerED: A Podcast Series where educators share unedited stories of inspiration and challenge
  • Call for proposals (open dates) Future Teacher Webinars
  • Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinars free open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.

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. Social media: X.com, BSky.