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Merged Courses – our most frequently asked topic in September

WordPress User [kaw] Blackboard Leave a comment
Policies and Information

We’ve had a look at all the queries that came into the elearning@aber.ac.uk inbox over September to see what the most common query was. And the answer is … Merged Courses.

So, here’s some useful information about merging courses which can help to answer some of your queries:

  1. A merge links two or more courses together in Blackboard. It is an effective way of dealing with separate courses that have the same content, so you don’t have to upload materials to more than one course. More information is available on the blog. Some cases where this might be useful are
    • Modules are taught the same content but there’s a module available for 2nd and 3rd years.
    • Modules that bring together different degree schemes and have different module IDs, e.g. dissertation modules.
  2. Courses aren’t merged automatically so you will either need to merge them via our new Module Partners tool or by emailing elearning@aber.ac.uk . If your courses were merged last year, you need to merge them again for 2025-26. If you want to check whether your courses have already been merged, you can use Module Partners (or email elearning@aber.ac.uk)  
  3. Students will see the module code and title of whichever course they are registered on. If you find that students can’t see content in courses that you think are merged, please check in Module Partners or email elearning@aber.ac.uk to check.

We’ve also had questions about enrolments – information about how enrolments work is available in our Access to Blackboard Courses FAQ.

Note: we produced the summary of our most common support queries using Microsoft Copilot.

Uploading Offline Panopto recordings 

WordPress User [kaw] Panopto Leave a comment
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Some staff will have made offline Panopto recordings because of the impact of an Amazon Web Services service disruption on Panopto on Monday 20th October.

All offline recordings will need to be uploaded to the Panopto servers before they can be made available to students. Instructions are available in our FAQ How do I manually upload Panopto recordings via the Panopto Recorder program? You can check teaching room availability from myadmin.aber.ac.uk > AAA/ATO (Aberystwyth Timetable Online)

We recommend that you upload any offline recordings with the next 7 days. If you have any questions, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk  

Join us for Fix Your Content Day 2025

WordPress User [kaw] Accessibility, Blackboard Leave a comment
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On November 18, Aberystwyth University will join institutions worldwide for Fix Your Content Day 2025, hosted by Anthology. This 24-hour competition is part of our ongoing commitment to inclusive education.

We’ll be hosting a drop-in on 18th November between 2pm and 4pm in B23 Llandinam. E-learning Staff will be available to answer questions and help you use Ally (tea and biscuits also provided).

Together, we’ll aim to fix as many accessibility issues and course files as possible using Anthology® Ally. Every fix—big or small—contributes to a more inclusive learning environment for all students.

How you can help:

  • Review your courses for red and orange indicators
  • Focus on quick wins like adding image descriptions or improving Microsoft Word documents
  • Start fixing on November 18 and keep things going throughout the day
  • Aim for 100%, but improvement is what counts!

For more information on how to fix files using Anthology Ally, have a look at our FAQ on Ally.

What’s new in Blackboard Ally

WordPress User [kaw] Accessibility, Blackboard, Technical Updates, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment
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Over the summer there have been some updates to Blackboard Ally which colleagues will find help them to fix issues with images and PDFs in Blackboard.

AI Auto-generate description

The AI auto-generate description tool has been improved to write better alternative text for charts, text in images, STEM content, and handwriting in images. Like all the AI tools in Blackboard staff can edit any aspect of the AI output and adapt it if needed. The AI tool also provides a good starting point for learning more about writing alternative text.  And if you use Blackboard in Welsh, the AI tool will create Welsh alternative text.

To use the AI tool:

  • Click on the Ally indicator for your image (or access it via Books and Tools > Ally Adroddiad Hygyrchedd / Accessibility Report > Content)
  • Under Edit image description, click Auto-generate description
  • You can then click Save to use the description or edit the description before clicking Save.
  • If you don’t want to use the description, click Remove from image, and type your own description. 

OCR layer on scanned documents

Around 15% of PDFs in 2024-25 courses were non-OCR documents. This causes a problem for anyone who needs to change the size of the text or use a screen reader because the text appears as an image rather than readable text. Ally now provides tools to add a readable OCR layer on top of a non-OCR document. The quality of this layer will depend on the nature of the content (typewritten documents work better than images or handwriting) as well as the quality of the scan.

We suggest that you try the OCR layer tool and see whether it may help you to provide more accessible PDFs. Remember that you can also use the Library Digitisation service which provides OCR readable scans of journal articles and book chapters.

To use the OCR layer:

  • Click on the Ally indicator for your image (or access it via Books and Tools [Llyfrau ac Offer] > Ally Adroddiad Hygyrchedd / Accessibility Report > Content)
  • Click on the Preview and Apply button to add the layer
  • A preview will appear – use your mouse to highlight the text on the preview. This will show you what text will be add to the file.
  • If you are happy to use it, click Apply. If not, choose Cancel
  • If you don’t use the OCR layer, the Learn how to fix PDFs button will give you options for adding a library reference.

PDF Language and Title

PDFs without language or title set can now be fixed directly in Ally:

  • Click on the Ally indicator for your PDF (or access it via Books and Tools > Ally Adroddiad Hygyrchedd / Accessibility Report > Content)
  • Under Add PDF Language, select the language of the document and click Apply fix
  • Type the title of your document in the Set PDF Title box and then click Apply fix.

Guidance for students

To help you encourage your students to use the Ally Alternative Formats, we have a Learning Object Repository (LOR) item on Ally that you can use in your course. See our FAQ on adding an item from the LOR to your course.

More changes are planned for Ally over the next three months, and we’ll keep colleagues updated via the blog. For more information on Ally, have a look at the Ally help pages

Panopto

WordPress User [kaw] Accessibility, Panopto Leave a comment

Panopto has now been set-up ready for 2025-26.

Automatic Captions  

Automatic captioning has now been set-up for all 2025-26 folders in Panopto. The language for captioning matches the language of your Blackboard course template.   

For bilingual courses we recommend creating a sub-folder to hold the recordings for one of the languages of your course delivery (see FAQ).   

When you make your recordings, you must select the correct language folder before pressing record. This is because Welsh captions cannot be added to recordings copied or moved from other folders.   

You can find information about automatic captioning in the AU Lecture Capture Policy (section 12). 

Linking to All Panopto Recordings 

You can create a link to the Panopto folder in your Blackboard course. This means that students will be able to see the recordings for the course all in one place.  

Finding your Panopto folder  

Panopto folders for all this year’s modules are in the 2025-26 folder.  

To find the Panopto folder you want to record into: 

  • Click the dropdown button on the right-hand side of the Folder box. 
  • Click the dropdown arrow to the left of the academic year folder to expand it. 
  • Select the Panopto folder you want to record into. 

You can also search for the Panopto folder you want to record into: 

  • In the Folder box start typing the module code or name of the Panopto folder you want to Record into 
  • Select the folder you want to record into. 

What to do if you can’t see your Panopto folder 

In a small number of courses, the Panopto folder wasn’t created over the summer. If you can’t find your Panopto folder using the steps above, you can create a folder from Blackboard: 

  1. Login to Blackboard and find your course 
  1. Click on Books and Tools > View course and institution tools
  1. Click on Holl Fideo Panopto / All Panopto Videos 

You should then be able to find the Panopto folder to make a recording.  

Blackboard Ally

WordPress User [kaw] Accessibility, Blackboard, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment
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Blackboard Ally continues to be a popular part of Blackboard with more staff and students making use of it during academic year 2024-25.

The number of downloads into alternative format more than doubled last year –over 62,000 documents were downloaded into alternative formats.  And over 4000 users used this option.

Staff also made more use of the tools to fix accessibility issues in their courses – over 800 files were fixed last year (compared to 295 in 2024-25).

For the first time this year, the Blackboard Required Minimum Presence states that all Blackboard courses should have an Ally score of 70%. If you want to check your Ally score have a look at our blog post. You can also a book a place on one of the E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Blackboard Ally training courses in September.

Learning Object Repository Policy

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Policies and Information

In April, Blackboard introduced the Learning Object Repository [LOR] – we wrote about this in our monthly update blog. We also recently added Generative AI Assessment statements into the Repository for staff to use.

We have now written an LOR Policy for colleagues who are interested in adding content to the Repository for others to use.

The LOR allows us to create items centrally for colleagues to copy into their courses and organisations. LOR items can be updated, applying changes to content items across all courses and organisations. For more information, see the Blackboard help site.

The LOR is ideal for standardised content that is required across many courses. For example:

  • Standard items to be included in courses
  • Policies
  • Support information
  • Generative AI statements
  • Skills guidance and support

If you have any questions about the LOR or the new Policy, please contact us (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Merging Courses 2025-26

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Now that the 2025-26 modules are available to teaching staff, we can link them together at the module co-ordinator’s request. This process is called merging courses (previously known as parent-childing) and works with courses in Blackboard Ultra. Linking courses together is an effective way of dealing with separate courses with the same content so you don’t have to upload materials to two or more different courses.

This process makes one course the Primary (previously parent), whilst the other course(s) becomes Secondary (previously child). There’s no limit on how many secondary courses you can make but there can only be one primary.

If you’d like to merge any courses, we invite module coordinators to contact elearning@aber.ac.uk 
indicating the module codes for the primary and every secondary course in the following format:

Primary module code: secondary module code/s

Examples from Aberystwyth

Many members of staff are currently using the merge course facility across the institution. Some examples are:

  1. Modules are taught the same content but there’s a module available for different years.
  2. Modules that bring together different degree schemes and have different module IDs, e.g. dissertation modules.

Essentially, any module/course that shares the same content is ideal for Merging courses.

What do students see?

Students will see the name of the course that they are enrolled on (even if it’s the secondary course) when they log into Blackboard but they will see all the content placed in the primary course. Instructors will not be able to place content in the secondary course.

Things to consider

Now, before the start of term and whilst course content is being built, is the perfect time for linking your courses. Whilst the linking of courses does save time in the loading of materials, here are some points to consider:

  • All content can be viewed as soon as the courses are merged (as long as students are enrolled on the course). In addition to PowerPoints and lecture materials, this also includes Announcements and other interactive tools on your primary course.
  • Historical student interactions on a secondary course (such as using blogs or posting in discussion boards) won’t be available once the courses have been merged.
  • Any submission points created on a secondary module before the merge takes place will no longer be able to be viewed. We would advise creating these again in the primary course.

How do I control content so that it is only viewable to a module cohort?

Whilst all content is automatically visible once the courses are merged, you can use groups and adaptive release if you only want the content to be visible to a specific module cohort. This might be useful, for example, if you have merged a 2nd year and 3rd year course but your students on the different courses have separate assignments. You can use groups – 1 for the 2nd year students and one for 3rd year students and limit who can see the assignment information and submission point. See our guidance on Creating Groups and Release Conditions (previously ‘adaptive relesease’ in Blackboard Original).

Merging Courses and the Grade Book

Once the merging takes place, all students will appear in the Grade Book of the primary course. You can, however, determine whether they are enrolled on the parent course as this information displays against the student in the Grade Book columns. 

If you’d like further information on this process or have any questions, please contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Course Creation 2025-26

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All courses for 2025-26 have been created and are available to staff in Blackboard. 

This year’s course template will include some new items which we hope will help both staff and students:  

  • An item about Panopto recording and captions (see our caption blog post for more information)  
  • A link to the AberSkills web pages  
  • Information about AI and Unacceptable Academic Practice  

Putting this information into the course template means that all students see the same information. It also means that staff don’t have to include the information when setting up their courses for the new academic year.   

All AU Blackboard course sites use an agreed template with areas for core information along with agreed content for university-level policies. The course template is agreed by the Quality and Standards Committee annually. Module Coordinators have responsibility for the organisation of materials in their courses. Staff should not delete template content.  

Consult the Required Minimum Presence for what should be included in the course.  

If you need any assistance with Blackboard courses, see Staff Blackboard Guide.   

Once courses have been created, we will run a weekly feed between the Module Management System and Blackboard to reflect any updates or changes.  We have made some changes to course roles this year, and more details are available on our blog post.  

Students won’t come onto courses until registration has been completed in September.