As December starts to approach, we thought it would be useful to outline the support available for the Component Marks Transfer process. This process transfers marks from the Blackboard Grade Centre columns into AStRA’s Assessment marks per Module (STF080) page.
The tool is available in each Blackboard module and also in the Component Marks tool in MyAdmin. Departmental Administrative Staff are able to view and transfer modules for each module in their department whereas Module Co-ordinators are able to view and transfer marks for their modules.
To support the Component Marks Transfer process, we have:
Our next Academy Forum will be taking place online on Thursday 2nd December, 10am-11.30am. In this Academy Forum, participants will be sharing their experiences and approaches to designing blended learning.
In response to the pandemic, many of us had to adapt our teaching practices considerably. For most, this relied on an increase in the use of technology and online activities for students to undertake in their own time asynchronously. Blended Learning design looks at how you might approach or integrate online interactions with face-to-face teaching.
Participants will be reflecting on their current approaches to teaching and how they design online and face to face activities. We’ll be looking at some frameworks that will be helpful in planning for blended learning and be thinking about strategies for successfully and gracefully integrating online teaching into face to face interactions, and face to face interactions into online teaching.
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 31st January 2022.
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:
8th December, 2pm-3.30pm
14th January, 11am-12.30pm
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.
Information Services is working to re-introduce neck microphones in teaching rooms.
For those who are new to the institution or would like a refresher, neck mics are hooked up to the audio systems in teaching rooms, worn around the neck of the presenter, and can be used for Panopto recordings and Teams Meetings. Take a look at our FAQ on how to use the Neck Microphones.
Health and Safety Information
The reintroduction of neck microphones means that some additional hygiene guidance needs to be followed:
Regular hand hygiene helps to reduce transmission of illnesses and diseases; please wash hands regularly and use the hand sanitisers on entry to buildings.
To reduce contact points, only one person should use the neck microphone in a teaching session
The neck microphone should be wiped down with wipes effective against COVID-19 as per other equipment before and after its use
Although the neck mic gives staff greater freedom to move around the teaching room, staff are encouraged to maintain physical distancing of at least 2 metres, where possible, and maintain good hand hygiene practices before and after handling the neck mics (as noted in the Aberystwyth University COVID Risk Assessment October 2021).
In most rooms, the lectern microphones will also stay in place and can still be used (provided staff stay near the lectern). In a small number of rooms, only a neck microphone will be available.
How will the rollout be managed?
Changes to the teaching rooms will be taking place gradually so you may notice the reintroduction of the neck mic imminently. All neck mics will be in place ready for the start of teaching in Semester 2.
Use the neck mic in Panopto
The neck mic can be used on your Panopto recording. When you start Panopto, change the microphone to Neck Mic by clicking on the dropdown menu to the right of the Audio field in the Panopto recorder:
Use the neck mic in Teams Meetings
The neck mic can be used as the microphone Teams meetings. To change your microphone in the Teams meeting:
Select the … more options button:
And then Device Settings
Under microphone select Neck Mic.
Further Help
We’ve got our Teaching Room Guide 2021-22 which outlines how to use the teaching room equipment. If you are having difficulties with the teaching room equipment in a centrally timetabled teaching room, pick up a phone and it will come through to the workshop.
Contact us if you have any questions (is@aber.ac.uk).
Since the pandemic, many conferences have shifted from face to face to online events. Here in the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit we’ve run two annual learning and teaching conferences online as well as some mini conferences and Academy Forums. In this blogpost, we’ll be offering you some of our top tips to help you organise your event.
1. Choose the right platform
There’s a lot of video conferencing software to choose from, but here at AU we use Teams as our default video conferencing tool. We do have a limited number of licences for Zoom but these are reserved for functionality that can’t be achieved in Teams. For example, for simultaneous translation, or for sessions with more than 250 participants.
You can set up Teams meetings for the sessions from a calendar. Alternatively, you can set up a Teams site but this will be limited to .ac.uk domains so be aware of that, especially with External Speakers.
We like to put our links on a webpage so that we can quickly pass the sessions onto anyone who signs up late. Alternatively, you can use a word document or an email that has the links embedded.
We are pleased to announce that our first external speaker joining us at this year’s Mini Conference, Using Polling Software for Learning and Teaching Activities, is Dr Christina Stanley.
Dr Stanley’s session will be entitled Polling to Boost Student Confidence and Promote Inclusivity.
Dr Stanley is a Senior Lecturer in Animal Behaviour and Welfare and is MSc Programme Lead and the University of Chester.
The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit are excited to announce the date for the 10th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference. The conference will be taking place between Monday 12th September and Wednesday 14th September 2022.
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.
We also have a Conference Steering Group who help with the organisation, design, and publicity of the conference. The Steering Group meets a couple of times a year. If you want to join the Steering Group for next year’s conference, then please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.
Not to worry. Vevox run regular online webinars, so if you’ve not used our new polling software before and want a great beginner’s guide, sign up to their online webinar Zero to Hero (in 15 minutes!). Running on Tuesday afternoons through to the end of November.
We’ve also got our guides and FAQs available on our Vevox webpages.
The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce that it’s next Mini Conference will be taking place on Thursday 16th December, online via Teams.
We’ll be taking a look at polling software – a tool that can be used to engage students in their learning and drive-up understanding of complex topics. This year, the University procured Vevox, an online polling tool, that is fully integrated in Teams and can make your face to face activities interactive.
Call for Proposals:
We’re looking for colleagues that make use of polling software in their learning and teaching to present at the Mini Conference. Potential topics might include:
Using polling for induction and ice-breaker activities
As the start of term kicks off, we’d like to invite you to the forthcoming Academy Forums over the next academic year. Our academy forums take place around a particular topic or theme relevant to learning and teaching. They’re an informal space to reflect on and share teaching practice, build connections with colleagues from other disciplines, and keep up to date with debates in the HE sector.
Based on feedback from our successful sessions last year, we’ve extended our Academy Forums to 90 minutes.
Our first session is taking place on 2nd November, 11am-12.30pm. In this session, we’ll be taking a look at the results from the Digital Insights survey. The survey is run by JISC and asks students about their digital learning experiences. For the academic 2020-21, we had over a thousand responses. Come along to this session if you want to hear about the findings and also think about ways in which you can build the results into your digital teaching.
Second up, on the 2nd December (10am-11.30am), we’ll be thinking about designing blended learning. Over the past eighteen months, colleagues have delivered purely online, purely face to face, and also Hyflex teaching activities for students. If you want to consider how to blend the online teaching activities with in person teaching activities, then come along to this session. You’ll be able to reflect on the resources that you’ve produced and how you might go about tweaking them for the current teaching context.
Following the winter vacation period, our third Academy Forum session will be taking place on 10th February (10am-11.30am). This session will take a look at strategies for designing authentic assessments. JISC outline, in their paper The Future of Assessment: five principles, five targets for 2025, that one of the key tenets of assessment design is to make it authentic. Participants will be given the opportunity to enhance an existing assessment or design a new one from scratch.
Into spring now, and our fourth Academy Forum of the year will be looking at peer feedback opportunities. Students develop greater cognitive processing through being given the opportunity to work with their peers – from paraphrasing complex theories, through to sensitively critiquing other students’ work, peer feedback activities can be used to great effect. This Academy Forum will be taking place on the 3rd March, 11am-12.30am.
Our final academy forum will be looking at Students as Partners on 27th April, 11am-12.30pm. There are different approaches that can be used for Students as Partners projects. We’ll be looking at these – from student co-design to enhancement projects. In LTEU, we’ve worked on a number of student as partners initiatives and will be sharing our projects as well as giving you opportunities to establish you own project at session, module, course, or departmental level.
For now, our Academy Forums will be taking place online. Book your place on our Course Booking site. Hope to see you there.
