Blackboard will be unavailable between 10:00 and 16:00 on Saturday 14 December 2024 for scheduled maintenance.
We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Author: WordPress User [jbw]
Exemplary Course Award 2024-25
We are delighted to announce that the Exemplary Course Award for 2024-25 is now open.
The ECA is judged across 4 categories:
- Course Design
- Interaction and Collaboration
- Assessment
- Learner Support
Applicants are asked to introduce 3 standout practices for their Course to help frame their application before self-assessing their course – this can be a 1,000 word narrative or an 8-minute Panopto recording.
Following the self-assessment, the courses are assessed by a panel of experts.
The changes to this year’s form include:
- The addition of 1.13 criteria: a Blackboard Ally score of 85% or more.
- The ability to request reports on your course (Student Engagement and Course Summary). These reports can be requested from the Digital Education Group (elearning@aber.ac.uk).
To help prepare for applications, two workshops are being run by the Digital Education Group on:
- 14 January 2025, 14:10-15:30
- 20 January 2025, 10:10-11:30
Places can be booked via the online booking page.
Application forms can be downloaded from the Digital Education Group’s webpages.
Completed applications need to be emailed to elearning@aber.ac.uk before 12 noon on Friday 31 January 2025.
If you have any questions about this process, please contact the Digital Education Group (elearning@aber.ac.uk).
Information Services User Survey 2024
The IS User Survey gives you an opportunity to tell us what you think about our services and how we can improve them. It is also a chance to win one of two £50 vouchers for 10 minutes of your time!
Have your say today: https://app.onlinesurveys.jisc.ac.uk/s/aber/is24
Vevox: Polling Tool
Aberystwyth University uses Vevox, a Polling Tool, that allows you to get real time information from people in your teaching sessions or those in your meeting.
We’ve been using Vevox for over 3 years now and were pleased to see it being used in Welcome Talks offering students the opportunity to ask anonymous questions.
We are running some training sessions on using E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Vevox for Learning and Teaching:
- 4 October, 10:10-11:30
- 8 October, 14:10-15:30
These sessions will be taking place online via Teams.
In addition to our in house training sessions, Vevox are also running webinars sharing best practice and case studies from their other clients.
If you’re unable to join our sessions, Vevox host their own and you can register for those here: Getting started with Vevox I Your guide to Unmissable Classes
For further help using Vevox, take a look at our Support Materials.
12th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference Materials Available
Between the 10 and 12 September, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit hosted the 12th Annual Learning and Teaching 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 13th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference which is scheduled to take place in July 2025 (date TBC).
We hope to see you at a forthcoming event.
Welcome to new staff joining Aberystwyth University
We’re the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit. Based in Information Services, we work with staff across the university to support and develop learning and teaching. We run a wide range of activities to do this.
All the information that you need is on the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit 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 one of two email addresses:
- lteu@aber.ac.uk (for pedagogical and design questions, or to arrange a consultation) or
- elearning@aber.ac.uk (for technical queries regarding our e-learning tools listed below).
Introduction to E-learning Tools
Virtual Learning Environment: Blackboard
Each module has its own dedicated course in Blackboard. These courses contain online content, such as reading lists, and teaching staff details. This is the main point of information for your students for any given module, including access to lecture recordings and assignment submission. 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.
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, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit runs a series of training sessions. These include:
- practical sessions to familiarise staff with the different elements of the VLE,
- the Active Learning agenda,
- assessment and feedback,
- accessibility,
- presentation skills, and more.
- artificial intelligence
We also offer a range of events and training programmes. You can find details of our annual CPD programme and book your place to attend via our Book a Course page. We deliver some sessions ourselves, while others are delivered by university staff whose teaching features good practice in those areas. Look for (L&T) in the session title.
Events
The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit runs a range of events, including the Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Mini-Conferences, Mini-Fests, and Academy Forums. All of these are great opportunities to meet people from across the university and discuss Learning and Teaching issues and developments.
Programmes
The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit also runs programmes to support your continued professional development. This includes the Teaching for Postgraduates at Aberystwyth University (TPAU) programme, and the Master’s level Postgraduate Certificate in Teaching in Higher Education (PGCTHE), and a Fellowship (ARCHE) Scheme.
Welcome to the Academic Year 2024-25: Updates to Blackboard for students
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 2024-25.
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.
Updated Template
All courses have been created this year using a slightly different template.
Module Information and Assessment and Feedback have been replaced with Learning Modules. Learning Modules are a more visual way to organise and arrange content.
In Module Information you can expect to find items relating to the administration of the course.
In Assessment and Feedback you can expect to find your submission points, assignment briefs, and marking criteria.
You might find that your lecturers have also used Learning Modules for your Learning Materials.
Progress Tracker
Another change is that Progress Tracker has been turned on by default on all content on your course. This allows you to track your progress through the course by marking tasks as complete. Blackboard’s guidance provides further information.
Blackboard Ally
A reminder that we have Blackboard Ally enabled on all your courses. Blackboard Ally allows you to download content into different formats. This includes .mp3 files, immersive readers, and electronic Braille. For help, look at Ally guidance.
Blackboard Assignment
We will be running a series of pilots with some courses across the University using Blackboard Assignment. For those of you used to submitting via Turnitin, Blackboard Assignment offers similar functionality. We have a dedicated student FAQ on how to submit using Blackboard Assignment.If you have any difficulties submitting please contact Information Services (is@aber.ac.uk) and your academic department.
Departmental Organisation
Lastly, the final stage of our Ultra project was to move Departmental Organisations onto Ultra. Organisations are similar to Courses but they are not modules that you can take. Organisations are used to provide you with useful information about your Department. They are also used for training and test purposes, such as the Referencing and Plagiarism quiz. You can access your Organisations from the left-hand menu in Blackboard.
If you have any questions about using Blackboard, please contact Information Services (is@aber.ac.uk).
Vevox Polling: Summer 2024 Update
The University has a subscription to Vevox Polling. You can run polling activities in your classroom with participants using mobile devices.
Vevox’s update for summer 2024 includes some new functionality that we wish to draw your attention to.
New question type: Rating scale Poll
This question type allows you to set a rating scale from 1 to the highest value. You can rename the bottom of the scale and the top of the scale and add multiple items to the rating.
This question type would be useful for activities such as muddiest point or identifying topics for revision.
You can replace the rating scale with a star rating instead.
To use the rating scale question, select create new and choose Rating Scale from the question type menu.
Images as choices in multichoice polls
You can give your respondents the option to choose an image as a selection in the multichoice style question.
Rather than entering text, images allow you to create a more visual response to the question type.
You can use the Unsplash image library to help you find images relevant to your questions.
Question specific settings
Previously the settings that you applied to your poll applied to all questions. Now there’s functionality to choose different settings for different poll questions.
You can choose to amend:
- The display of real-time results
- The display of results on poll close
- Different countdown timer music selection
- Automatic countdown timer
To amend settings on individual questions, choose Use custom settings for this poll in the question interface.
Multiple Survey/ self-paced quizzes
For colleagues who make use of self-paced quizzes and surveys, it’s now possible to run more than one at a time. This means that you can embed them across different modules.
Shuffle Survey questions
If you want to randomise the order in which survey questions appear, select Shuffle question order on the Survey interface.
Image history
Vevox will now save images that you upload to use in Polls. This will help save time with uploading and recreating questions.
See our support pages for using Vevox. You can also read previous updates on the blog.
Vevox run regular webinars on how to use the software. Sign up for these online.
If you have any questions, contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (elearning@aber.ac.uk).
Blackboard Learn Ultra: Enhancements to Documents
The Blackboard Learn Ultra August update included enhancements to the creating and editing functionality of Blackboard Learn Ultra Documents.
For those unfamiliar with Documents, they are an easy way to create content in Ultra, ensuring compatibility with mobile devices and Blackboard Ally. As this update to Documents is a significant change to content organisation, we are producing this separate blogpost. You can read about other enhancements in the August update blogpost.
The latest update gives instructors more power and control over how content appears. It functions as a webpage, with a variety of block types that can be used to create and organise content. These blocks can be moved around to give instructors more options over the layout of their content.
In summary:
- Images can be brought in-line with text
- Bilingual content can be arranged more easily
- Headings can be used to aid with navigation
- Files can be uploaded and converted into an Ultra Document, retaining the original formatting
An example of a Document created using the new content editor can be seen below:
For all instructors, the biggest change is that the content creator appears at the top of the page. You can still use the + icon to create content which will then give you the menu that you see below:
The convert a file option is new functionality that allows you to upload a file. This will convert it into an Ultra Document retaining the formatting of the original file.
Selecting Content will take you to the usual content editor.
This allows you to add content and resize.
You can easily move content around bringing images in line with text.
As you work with re-organising and re-arranging content, we recommend that you save your work as you go to ensure that changes remain.
For further information on creating and using documents, see Blackboard Help Guidance.
Annual Learning and Teaching Conference: Reminder
We are just over a month away from our annual learning and teaching conference, taking place between 10-12 September 2024.
You can book your place online.
There are many highlights to this year’s programme and we are grateful to colleagues for sharing their innovative teaching practices with us.
The conference starts with an online keynote and workshop from Professor Lisa Taylor (University of East Anglia). Professor Taylor will introduce how employability can be embedded in the curriculum before highlighting her pioneering work around work-based online placements.
In the subsequent workshop, colleagues will be given the opportunity to apply these principles to their own disciplines. Professor Taylor’s abstract provides further information.
Building on Professor Taylor’s session, colleagues from across the University will be sharing their approaches to embedding employability in the curriculum, culminating in a workshop from Bev Herring on curriculum design for employability development.
As well as employability, we have sessions on:
- Using AI in Learning and Teaching
- Decolonising curricula
- Neurodiversity in Education
- Approaches to team-taught teaching
- Enhancing student engagement
- Simulation-based learning
- Trauma informed teaching
And so much more.
Take a look at the full programme online and book your place.
This conference is free for Aberystwyth University staff and students to attend.