Month: September 2026

Welcome, Luke Butler – Digital Education Officer

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Hello!  My name is Luke and I have recently joined the Digital Education Team as a Digital Education Officer. I’m excited to assist staff and students with digital education queries, ensure that information is clear, and contribute to the wider team!

A little bit of my background- I came to Aberystwyth in 2022 to peruse a BA in Filmmaking at the university, where I specialised in practical and theoretical skills in cinematography and editing with a focus on creating period pieces. I have always been interested in the work and effort that goes into bringing film and television to life. My end of year project was a film set in the 1960s and focused on the ‘battle of the bands’ between a record label who lost their number one spot to a newly famous band! I also have a background in graphic design.

I have recently completed a masters in Behavioural Science here at Aberystwyth University where many of my projects focused on developing interventions for positive health-related behaviours and improving engagement within police, leisure and teaching settings. My master’s dissertation focused on current interest and attitudes toward emerging novel contraceptive health methods designed for men, which involved working with potential users to investigate which behaviour change informed messages where most appropriate for future advertisements and interventions to support shared responsibility.

Before my role within the Digital Education Team, I worked as a lifeguard and swimming teacher for 8 years at the sports centre here at Aberystwyth University and a leisure centre where I grew up. I taught children from the age of three to sixteen as well as adults and volunteered as an assistant coach competitive swimming club. This was a club that I was part of from the age of 6 and later re-joined as a master’s swimmer.

I have a keen interest in swimming and have more recently moved to open water swimming with hopes to enter some open water swimming races and hopefully have a go at a triathlon soon! Outside of work I enjoy motorsport and nature photography, finding nice walks and hikes with my partner, camping, and anything to do with the outdoors.  

A big thank you to everyone I have met so far for the warm welcome! I’m looking forward to meeting and working with members of staff and students across the coming months.

Turnitin and User License Agreement – an update

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The Digital Education Team is providing an update on Turnitin and User License Agreements.

You may have heard about concerns regarding Turnitin user license agreements and Generative AI.

When you log in to use Turnitin, staff and students need to accept the terms of agreement to use the platform.

Over the summer, we received a notification from Turnitin that they were updating its license agreement, with the intention that this will be applied to all users (staff and students).

As part of this license agreement, it was proposed that student submissions and staff feedback would be used to train large language models.

We, along with the rest of the sector, had concerns over this. We were unhappy with how Turnitin planned to introduce this update, without warning, and over the security of student work and staff feedback.

Working alongside UCISA, the professional membership body for digital, IT, and information systems in UK higher education, and other universities, we lobbied against this change.

Following this, Turnitin did not introduce the updated license agreement.

You might have seen that other universities are starting to move away from Turnitin. For the year ahead, we are continuing to use Turnitin.

In terms of our own license, we renew on an annual basis, and we are contracted up until July 2027. 

We ran a pilot a couple of years ago to look at the feasibility of moving away from Turnitin, but at that point the tools in Blackboard didn’t meet all our requirements. We do keep a close eye on both text-matching and submission tools in Blackboard to see whether they offer a viable alternative to Turnitin.

We meet our Turnitin Customer Account Manager regularly throughout the year, and we’re able to feedback our concerns and issues. We were in touch with them about the proposed changes to the licence agreement. We also work with sector bodies who lobby and advocate with software vendors on behalf HE institutions.

If you’d prefer not to use Turnitin, Blackboard Assignment has submission and marking tools which you can use – all the guidance is available on our web pages, and we’d be happy to work with anyone who would like to switch to using it. It does offer a number of benefits that Turnitin doesn’t have – for example, multi-part submissions and group assignments. However, there are some limitations – the biggest 2 are that marks aren’t released automatically on a ‘Post Date’ and it’s not possible to submit work on behalf of students.

If you have any concerns about this update, you are welcome to contact the Digital Education Team on elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Welsh-English Module Partners

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Do you teach a course in Welsh that’s been merged with its English equivalent? Or maybe you’re the coordinator of an English module that has been merged with its Welsh partner?

This year’s Blackboard Required Minimum Presence encourages staff to use the bilingual Welsh template for merged Welsh / English courses.

To make this easy, we have a template course that you can use to copy the bilingual template items into your course. If you’d like to be added, email us on elearning@aber.ac.uk. Information about how to copy content is in our FAQ How do I copy material in from one Blackboard module to another?

You could also include bilingual elements using the Learning Object Repository – here’s a list of the items that are available in the Learning Object Repository.

Gwybodaeth am y Modiwl / Module Information

  • Cipio Darlithoedd (Panopto) / Lecture Capture (Panopto)
  • SgiliauAber
  • AberSkills

Asesu ac Adborth / Assessment and Feedback

  • Canllawiau Cyflwyno / Submission Guidance

Information about using the Learning Object Repository is in our FAQ How do I add an item from Blackboard’s Learning Object Repository to my course?

Guidance on Panopto pausing

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Policies and Information

Staff should be aware that Panopto keeps recording even when you click Pause. Students cannot access what is recorded during a paused section, but other instructors on the course and system administrators can.

Mute your microphone if you do not want anything you say during a pause to be recorded. Please remember to un-mute it before continuing your lecture.

Also, when you edit and delete part of a Panopto recording, that part is hidden from students rather than permanently deleted.,

If you need to permanently remove part of a recording, use the Save As option (see Panopto’s How to use Save As guide – only available in English).

Continuing to record during pauses can be helpful if you forget to restart the recording, as you can make that content available to students later by editing the recording.

14th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference – Materials Available

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Between the 8-10 September, Library Academic and Digital Services hosted the 14th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference.

The materials from the conference are now available on our webpages.

We would like to thank all of our contributors and attendees. The sessions were of such high quality.

We’re already heading into planning our 15th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference which is scheduled to take place in July 2027 (date TBC).

We hope to see you at a forthcoming event.

Welcome to the Academic Year 2026-27: Updates to Blackboard for returning students

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A warm welcome to new students joining us and those who are returning to study at Aberystwyth University.

In this blogpost, we will outline the changes that have been made to your digital learning environment, Blackboard, ready for the start of the academic year 2026-27

If you need help using Blackboard, see our Student Guide which contains all kinds of useful information.

We’ve also got FAQs available for the other tools that we support, including Turnitin for e-submission and Panopto for lecture capture.

AI Use Statement

Across the university, there will be new requirements for declaring the use of generative AI in assignments in the 2026-27 academic year. Students will now be expected to include this AI Tool-Use statement at the end of their assignments. The AI Tool-Use statement comes in the form of a tick box table and asks students to declare the type of tools that were used to help with their assignment. 

Vevox

Vevox is Aberystwyth University’s polling tool. Vevox offers an interactive and collaborative experience for learners and teachers and can be used for activities such as gauging opinion or to provide participants with question & answer opportunities. As Vevox is used throughout the university, we would encourage students to bring a mobile device or tablet to their classes in order to participate in the Vevox activities.

Turnitin in Blackboard Assignments

Recently, an update has been rolled that allows Turnitin to be integrated into Blackboard Assignments at Aberystwyth University. During 2026-27 we are encouraging all staff currently using Blackboard Assignment to enable Turnitin on appropriate assignments. The submission, marking and feedback workflows will be the same as previously. All aspects of the process, apart from the Turnitin report, will be available in Welsh. Guidance on setting up and using Turnitin in Blackboard Assignment can be found in our Guide. For more information on Turnitin in Blackboard Assignment, have a look at our blog post.

Blackboard Ally

Following last years’ progress in stipulating a minimum accessibility score on all modules, work is continuing to ensure that content is as compatible with Blackboard Ally as possible. Blackboard Ally is a tool available to staff and students at Aberystwyth University to improve the accessibility of materials and content on Blackboard. From the instructor’s perspective Ally has features which allow you to assess the accessibility of materials and will provide recommendations for alternative formats to improve any weak areas. From a student’s perspective Ally has a number of tools available to make content easier to read, understand, and engage with.

Pronouns

For the upcoming academic year, an integration has been developed between the student record and Blackboard. This means that the pronouns you select on the student record will automatically update in Blackboard. The clearer visibility of staff and students’ gender expression strengthens the university’s commitment to gender diversity and inclusivity, in the classroom and online.

Course Access

Students will be able to gain access to their Blackboard courses once they have completed their enrolment. This webpage contains more details about the enrolment process.

Welcome new staff joining Aberystwyth University, 2026-27

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A warm welcome to new staff joining Aberystwyth University.

In this blogpost we aim to provide you with information related to technology in learning and teaching, our training provision, support channels, and events that we run.

All the information that you need is on our webpages.

We write a blog full of the latest updates, details on events and training sessions, and resources.

If you need to get in touch with us, you can do so using elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Introduction to E-learning Tools

Virtual Learning Environment: Blackboard

Each module has its own dedicated course in Blackboard. Students can expect to find information about the module, learning materials, and e-submission guidance, as well as links to reading lists and lecture capture.

The University has a Blackboard Required Minimum Presence policy for all modules.

Please see our staff guide for further information.

Lecture Capture: Panopto

When teaching in person, be aware that all lectures (that is, teaching where the focus is on information being transmitted from staff to students) should be recorded using Panopto, our Lecture Capture software.

See details of our Lecture Capture Policy.

E-submission: Turnitin and Blackboard Assignment

At Aberystwyth University, students must submit all text-based and word-processed work electronically as outlined in the University’s E-submission policy.

 For this, we use our e-submission tools: Turnitin and Blackboard Assignment. Turnitin provides an automatic text matching functionality. We use Blackboard Tests to run online exams.

Polling tool: Vevox

Vevox is Aberystwyth University’s polling tool.

Polling can be used in learning and teaching activities as well as meetings to make the session interactive and collaborative with many different possibilities for use.

Resources and further help

We have a number of Guides and FAQs to help you use our software.

Training Provision

To support all staff with their teaching, we run a series of training sessions across the following strands:

  • E-learning Essentials: designed for colleagues new to the university, teaching, or who would like to get a refresher. The aim of these sessions is to ensure that colleagues can meet the university’s digital learning and teaching policies.
  • E-learning Enhanced: designed to build on the skills gained in our e-learning essentials series, colleagues will create an activity or assessment unique to their learning and teaching contexts.
  • E-learning Excellence: designed to offer colleagues the opportunity to create exemplary learning and teaching opportunities – often unique and sector leading.

You can find details of our annual CPD programme and book your place to attend via Book a Course page.

Events

We run a range of events, including the Annual Learning and Teaching Conference and Mini-Conferences

All of these are great opportunities to meet people from across the university and discuss Learning and Teaching issues and developments.

We look forward to seeing you at a forthcoming event. In the meantime, feel free to get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk if you have any questions.