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Mini Conference: Blackboard Exemplary Practice: Materials Available

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Conference, Exemplary Course Award, Generative AI, Mini Conference 2024 Blackboard Exemplary Practice, Ultra Leave a comment
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Happy New Year!

On Wednesday 18 December, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit hosted an online mini conference taking a look at Blackboard Exemplary Practice. With over 40 attendees, and 5 sessions, it was one of our biggest mini conferences.

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

We were delighted to welcome Carol Chatten from Edge Hill University and Robert Farmer from Northampton University to showcase their award-winning courses.

Carol’s course is designed for medical professionals completing their placements. Robert’s course introduced undergraduates to critical thinking skills. Both courses have been awarded Blackboard’s Exemplary Course Programme Award.

We were then joined by Dom Gore and Richard Gibbons from Anthology (Blackboard). They gave an overview of the new developments that are coming in Blackboard, as well as introducing attendees to the new AI Conversations tool. We have enabled AI Conversations and have updated our Blackboard AI Design Assistant training. Take a look at our blogpost for further information.

Finally, Law and Criminology’s Lauren Harvey, and School of Education’s Panna Karlinger gave tours of their exemplary courses. Both submitted applications to last year’s Exemplary Course Award. The deadline for 2025 is Friday 31 January 2025. Further information is available on our blogpost.

NEW: AI Conversations in Blackboard

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Generative AI, Technical Updates, Training and Support, Ultra, Ultra Leave a comment

The latest AI Design Assistant feature has been enabled in Blackboard.

AI Conversations provides a chat bot for students to interact with as part of a learning activity.

There are two AI Conversation options:

  • Socratic questioning
    • This encourages students to think critically through continuous questioning prompts
  • Role play
    • This allows students to play out a scenario with the AI persona designed and created by the instructor

Once set up, students can engage in these activities to further their knowledge and understanding of the topic.

Students type a response to the questions posed by the AI chat bot. At the end of the activity, students respond to a reflective question to outline how the conversation helped with their understanding of the topic.

We will be showcasing AI Conversations at our online Mini Conference on Wednesday 18 December. Further information is available on our blogpost.

Our E-learning Enhanced: Introduction to the AI Design Assistant training has also been updated to include AI Conversations. You can book your place on the course on the Events and Training booking system.

For further information, see Blackboard’s AI Conversation guidance.

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Blackboard Original Practice Organisations to be removed

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Technical Updates, Ultra Leave a comment

Blackboard Original Practice Organisations will be removed on Thursday 9 January 2025.

These Practice Organisations are in Original, the old version of Blackboard.

All staff have an Ultra practice organisations with the naming convention First Name, Last Name Ymarfer Ultra / Ultra Practice Course (Ultra_username) which can be accessed from the Organisation tab on the lefthand menu.

Content from the Original Practice Organisation can be copied over to the Ultra Practice Organisation. See our FAQ for further information.

Further information on the move of Organisations from Original to Ultra is available on this blogpost.

Please contact  elearning@aber.ac.uk if you have got any questions regarding this process.

Online Mini Conference: Exemplary Blackboard Presence

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Conference, Events and Networks, Exemplary Course Award, Mini Conference 2024 Blackboard Exemplary Practice Leave a comment
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The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce its final event of the year.

On Wednesday 18 December (10:00-14:30), we will be hosting an online Mini Conference looking at Exemplary Blackboard Presence.

We’re delighted to be joined by two external presenters.

  • Carol Chatten is from the University of Edge Hill and will be showcasing their Medical and Education Course. This course recently won Blackboard’s ECP.
  • Robert Farmer from the University Northampton will be sharing their course on Critical Thinking which also won Blackboard’s ECP.

Also joining us to share their winning courses are School of Education’s Panna Karlinger and Law and Criminology’s Lauren Harvey. Both entered our internal Exemplary Course Award last year.

We’re hoping that this event will inspire attendees and give colleagues ideas as to how they can develop their courses ahead of Semester 2.

We’re also using this event as a springboard to start thinking about an enhanced Blackboard presence.

And finally, we’ll be sharing the latest AI Design Assistant tool that we’re looking to enable in January: AI Conversations. This builds on the other AI Design Assistant tools that we already have enabled in Blackboard.

Colleagues can book for this half day event via the online booking system and a Teams invitation will be sent out.

We hope that you can join us.

Do let us know if you have any questions (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Exemplary Course Award 2024-25

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Exemplary Course Award Leave a comment
ECA logo: Exemplary Course Award with the four criteria showing in a circle: Course design Interaction and Collaboration Assessment Learner Support

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:

  1. The addition of 1.13 criteria: a Blackboard Ally score of 85% or more.
  2. 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).

Vevox: Polling Tool

WordPress User [jbw] Polling Software, Training and Support, Vevox Leave a comment

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

WordPress User [jbw] Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2024, Conference Leave a comment

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.