In our previous blogpost we outlined some of the changes to Panopto with our move to Blackboard Learn Ultra.
In this blogpost we’ll outline the changes to using Panopto for Assignments. Panopto Assignments are used for students to submit a recording or presentation.
As part of this change, we recommend that you:
Create a Blackboard Assignment
Students submit via Blackboard Assignment and upload via the Panopto submission tool
The advantages to this new workflow are that:
The workflow for submission and marking is easier
Marks and feedback automatically go into the Gradebook
Students receive an email receipt for their submission
If you’re a busy bee preparing your courses before the students arrive and don’t have any time to attend training sessions, how about visiting our new bite sized training video clips on how to work in Blackboard Ultra.
If you’re unsure about how to do something specific in Ultra or just need a quick refresher then take a look at our bilingual training videos. Here’s a breakdown of the individual video clips:
As part of the wider Blackboard Ultra project, our Panopto integration has been upgraded to work with Blackboard Ultra. This has provided us with an opportunity to make some changes and improvements.
Panopto folders are now organised by academic year.
Staff have frequently requested that the Panopto folders for their Blackboard Courses are organised by academic year rather than as a long list. The Panopto upgrade work gave us an opportunity to restructure our folders as requested.
Top level year folders will appear greyed out, but you still have access to your Panopto folders within.
When you open the Panopto Recorder in a teaching room:
You can either find the Panopto folder you want to record into via the folders or search for the Panopto folder you want to record into.
To find the Panopto folder you want to record into via the folders:
Click the dropdown button in the Folder field.
Double-click an academic year folder to expand it. or
Click the dropdown arrow to the left of the academic year folder to expand it.
Select the Panopto folder you want to record into.
To search for the Panopto folder you want to record into:
In the Folder field start typing the module code or name of the Panopto folder you want to Record into
Select the folder you want to record into.
Sharing Panopto recordings from Previous years.
To share Panopto recordings from previous years Panopto folders, copy the recordings into the current years’ folder of the course. This can be done via Panopto.aber.ac.uk. This grants all students enrolled on the current years’ course in Blackboard access to view the recordings. See this FAQ.
My Folder
Everyone now has a folder in Panopto called My Folder that they can record into. In the Panopto Recorder it can be found under Quick Access.
My Folder is useful for recordings that staff or students do not want to share with others immediately or when they cannot find a suitable folder to record into.
Recordings can be moved from My Folder into another Panopto Folder later. To copy or move a Panopto recording to another folder See this FAQ.
Now is a good time to check whether the content in this year’s Blackboard courses is visible to students. With our move to Blackboard Learn Ultra, any materials copied from previous years’ courses are hidden from students by default.
You can change the visibility of individual items (see Blackboard help site for making items available). You can make them visible immediately or use the Release Conditions (date/time, specific students / groups, student performance – see Blackboard help site for Release Content guidance for further information).
If you have a lot of hidden material, don’t forget that you can use the Batch Edit tool to make multiple items of content visible all at once (see Blackboard help site for using Batch Edit). Be careful not to make the External Examiners folder available.
When you use Batch Edit to make a folder visible it will also make all the content items in the folder visible.
Remember that you can use the Student Preview tool (see Blackboard help site for using Student Preview) to see how your course and content looks to students.
Learning Modules offer a way for you to organise your content. For further information, see Learning Modules guidance.
3. Ultra Accessibility Checker
To ensure that your content is as accessible as possible, use the accessibility checker.
As you create your content, your accessibility score will be generated to alert you to any changes that you might want to make.
4. Flexible Test grading
When it comes to grading tests, you can now grade by question or student in Ultra. See Blackboard’s test guidance and flex grading for further information.
The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit has now completed their cycle of departmental training sessions for E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Blackboard Ultra.
This training session was designed to ensure that staff had the opportunity to familiarise themselves with Blackboard Ultra and achieve the Blackboard Required Minimum Presence.
Since May, we have trained over 300 members of staff in both in person and online sessions.
For those of you at the first day of the conference you will have seen the exciting features that are coming to Blackboard Ultra over the next few years.
If you haven’t managed to attend one of your departmental sessions or would like a refresher, then we are running the sessions in English and Welsh online.
The big news since our last update on the Blackboard Ultra project is that we have started departmental training sessions. It’s been great getting to meet staff and demonstrate the basics of using Ultra. To date 200 people have attended a session, and we’ve got more sessions lined up over the summer.
If you’re not able to attend your departmental training session, then we’ve got a number of centrally organised ones for you to join.
In addition to this, and to make sure that colleagues have access to full Ultra functionality, we’ve got the following sessions scheduled (available in Welsh and English):
We’re also working behind the scenes on our integrations with other tools. At the moment, we are working on making it easier for you to find the correct academic year Panopto folder when you create recordings. We think that this is going to make things much easier when teaching starts again. Keep an eye out for news on this.
We’re looking forward to welcoming colleagues from Anthology / Blackboard and Bangor University to the annual learning and teaching conference. We’ve got a whole day of Ultra-related events on 4th July. If you haven’t booked your place at the conference, you can do it on our conference webpages.
If you’ve got any questions about Ultra, contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (elearning@aber.ac.uk).
![Grid view of Gradebook]](https://wordpress.aber.ac.uk/e-learning/files/2023/09/image-19.png)
