Interactive Blackboard Tools Series – Journals and Blogs (Part 1)

23rd November 202028th April 2021 Anna Udalowska [aeu] Blackboard, Blackboard Blogs, Blackboard Journals, Blogs and Journals, Online Teaching, Other Tools, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) 3 Comments

Teaching staff at Aberystwyth University make excellent use of basic functions of Blackboard keeping it consistent and easy to navigate, meeting the needs of their students. Some staff go beyond Blackboard Required Minimum Presence, using additional, interactive functions in many different creative ways. Considering the current emphasis on online learning and the use of asynchronous online activities we would like to introduce you to some of the more advanced (although still easy to use!) tools in Blackboard:

Journals and Blogs
Wikis
Tests

We have already written about discussion board – perhaps the most versatile of all the Blackboard tools. In this blog post we will focus on blogs and journals and the value these tools could bring to your teaching.

Both journals and blogs, typically written in an informal way, are tools conducive to reflection and personal expression. The difference in their use is determined by whether or not they are aimed at being shared with others. Journals in Blackboard can be set up in two ways:

Private journals cannot be anonymous, are seen only by the lecturer and the student who wrote it, if enabled other students may view them but not comment or edit.
Group journals enable students to write individual entries into one group journal, group members can view and comment on all entries.

Watch a tutorial on creating journals

Alternative activities to in-person teaching

19th November 202028th April 2021 Sioned Llywelyn [sil12] Blackboard, HyFlex, Online Teaching, Other Tools, Panopto, Polling Software, Teaching Continuity, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment

There may be occasions where it is not practically possible for you to simultaneously deliver non-lecture activities (e.g. seminars, workshops, etc.) to students in-person and students joining via MS Teams.

In this blog post, we will explore some different options for delivering alternative activities for those students that cannot join in-person sessions. Before you begin to design an alternative activity, consider the following points:

Which alternative activity will best emulate the experience that students in the original in-person session are getting?
What are my intended learning outcomes and which activities will best achieve these?
How long will it take me to plan an activity and do I have the capacity to do this?
Think carefully about your assessment criteria – will the alternative activity that you provide allow the students to undertake the module assessments successfully?
Clarity and focus are at the heart of any well-designed online activity. Ensure that students using your alternative activity know exactly what they are doing and why they are doing it. If you ask students to use any technology, you must provide students with clear and concise guidance on how to use these.

Welsh-Medium Continued Professional Development – What’s on?

13th November 202028th April 2021 Sioned Llywelyn [sil12] Blackboard, Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol, Online Teaching, Panopto, Training and Support, Turnitin Leave a comment

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit offers several sessions for Continued Professional Development (CPD) covering a range of topics. We offer sessions in both English and Welsh and Welsh-medium sessions will appear in Welsh on the staff training website. Here is an overview of the Welsh-medium sessions that we are offering throughout the rest of the semester:

November 2020

16.11.20 (11:00-12:30): CDU: Datblygu eich arferion addysgu (D & A: Ar-lein)

17.11.20 (14:00-15:30): CDU: Defnyddio MS Teams, Offer yr Ystafell Ddysgu ac Addysgu syncronaidd (D & A: Ar-lein)

20.11.20 (14:00-15:00): Hanfodion E-ddysgu: Cyflwyniad i Turnitin (D & A: Ar-lein)

25.11.20 (11:00-12:00): Hanfodion E-ddysgu: Cyflwyniad i Panopto (D & A: Ar-lein)

Helping Students to Make Most of Recorded Lectures – Using Discussion and Notes in Panopto

5th November 202028th April 2021 Anna Udalowska [aeu] Information for Students, Online Teaching, Panopto 1 Comment

Panopto recordings have been heavily used by students even before the move to partly online delivery. This year they rely on pre-recorded content even more. Facilitating active learning using asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings can be challenging. We have previously shared with you the guide on using lecture recordings for students outlining six key strategies helping them to make most of the recordings. In one of our previous posts we have also explored the use of Panopto captions and quizzes which enables your recordings to be more accessible and interactive. Today we would like to introduce you to two additional Panopto functionalities – discussion and notes.

The image shows where the Discussion function in Panopto is located. It is between the Contents and Notes tabs on the left hand side of the Panopto editor.

Conducting blended teaching sessions – synchronously face-to-face and via Teams

26th October 202028th April 2021 Anna Udalowska [aeu] HyFlex, Online Teaching, Teaching Continuity, Teaching Rooms, Technical Updates Leave a comment

Teaching staff are encouraged to provide access to teaching sessions for students unable to attend them in person. The guidelines below provide a step-by-step checklist of all things that need to be completed to conduct an effective session for both students sitting in the classroom and those joining via MS Teams.

Before the session:

Create a Teams meeting for the session using the Blackboard Teams Meeting tool
Inform students about the possibility of joining the session via Teams and provide them with guidelines on how to do it.

Note: Make it clear that this has been provided for students who are not able to attend the session in person and that all students who are well and not self-isolating are expected to attend the sessions in-person and that attendance during face-to–face session will be closely monitored.

Revise the teaching room guide and watch videos demonstrating using the new teaching room set-up:

Teaching Rooms Guide

Teaching Rooms demonstrations

Weekly Resource Roundup – 19/10/2020

19th October 202028th April 2021 Mary Jacob [mhj] Online Teaching, Training and Support, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE), Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

As lecturer in learning and teaching responsible for the PGCTHE, I keep an eye out for new resources to help our staff teach effectively online. This includes externally-provided webinars, toolkits, publications and other resources. Because active learning is high on our university agenda, I’m particularly keen to share guidance for moving active learning online. Below I’ve listed items that came to my attention in the past week. In the interest of clarity, our policy is to show the titles and descriptions in the language of delivery.

20/10/2020 AbilityNet, “How to do accessible social media”
20/10/2020 Jisc, “Online teaching: overcoming the challenges”
21/10/2020 Centre for Distance Education (CDE) “Autumn 2020 Supporting Student Success event”
21/10/2020 Learning & Teaching in HE Tweetchat, “#LTHEchat187: The Value of Fiction in Learning and Teaching”
22/10/2020 ACUE, “Examining and Mitigating Implicit Bias”
27/10/2020 Faculty Focus, “Engaging College Students Using Active Learning Techniques”
28/10/2020 Chronicle of Higher Education, “Campus Wellbeing Post-Pandemic”
28/10/2020 Future Teacher, “Inclusive practice”
5/11/2020 Centre for Distance Education (CDE) “Adventures in synchronous online teaching”
6/11/2020 National Forum for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning in Higher Education “Developing feedback literacy in both staff and students and redesigning assessment to build on this new-found understanding”
16/12/2020 LTEU Aberystwyth University Mini-conference, “Advice for Action: Promoting Good Feedback Practice” proposal and booking
Clark, D. (12/10/2020) “Practice – mostly forgotten yet where most learning takes place…“, Donald Clark Plan B
Crook, A. & Crook, T. W. (26/8/2020) “6 tips for Teaching Online and In Person Simultaneously“, Inside Higher Ed
EdTech VoiceNotes podcast series
Dyer, S & Harris, L. (16/10/2020) “Let’s take the remote out of online learning“, WonkHE blog
Hiscox, T. J. (11/10/2020) “E-learning in the face of a pandemic through the eyes of the students” Post-Pandemic University
Penn, P. (16/10/2020) “How to plan your essays: key advice from psychology”
Thomas, (16/10/2020) “Learning theories timeline: key ideas from educational psychology“, myBRAINisOPEN
RAISE Researching, “Advancing & Inspiring Student Engagement Partnership Special Interest Group Resources”
Retrieval Practice, (11/5/2018) “Boost note-taking. Try Retrieve-Taking!” Weekly Teaching Tips
Sundar, K. (17/9/2020) “The Student Engagement Trap, and How to Avoid It” Edutopia
Swansea University, “Resources for Teaching”

Please see the Staff Training booking page for training offered by the LTEU and other Aberystwyth University staff. I hope you find this weekly resource roundup useful. If you have questions or suggestions, please contact our team at lteu@aber.ac.uk. You may also wish to follow my Twitter feed, Mary Jacob L&T.

Tips for monitoring chat for online and in person sessions

14th October 202028th April 2021 James Woolley [jbw] HyFlex, Microsoft Teams, Online Teaching, Other Tools 5 Comments

Distance Learner Banner In this blogpost, we’ll be looking at some tips for monitoring a Teams chat when you’ve also got attendees joining in person and online.

The planning of the synchronous activity and what you want your students to be able to do after they have engaged with the activity shapes the purpose of the chat. Ask yourself: what role do you want the chat to have in your teaching session?

For example, do you want the chat to be used for students joining online to communicate their ideas with you? Do you want it to be used for them to chat with each other? Do you want the chat contributions to be communicated with those joining in person?

In addition to that, you want to think about how you are asking your online students to engage in the session. Do you want them, for example, to use the raise the hand function to attract your attention? Or, do you want them to only use the chat.

Additional MS Teams Drop-in Sessions

8th October 202028th April 2021 Sioned Llywelyn [sil12] Microsoft Teams, Online Teaching, Training and Support Leave a comment

Following the success of our drop-in sessions on using MS Teams for Learning and Teaching Activities, we have decided to run these sessions throughout October.

These sessions are an informal opportunity to speak with our Online Learning Specialists and to address any queries that may have arisen during the first weeks of term. You’re welcome to ask us for advice on any aspects relating to using MS Teams – from technical advice to advice on using MS Teams for students who are unable to join face-to-face sessions.

*Please note that sessions with an asterisk (*) will be bilingual sessions, and all sessions without an asterisk will run as English-medium sessions.

These drop-in sessions will take place on:

09.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting *

13.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting *

14.10.2020 (14:00-15:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

16.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting *

20.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting *

21.10.2020 (14:00-15:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

23.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting *

27.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting *

28.10.2020 (14:00-15:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

30.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting *

MS Teams: Drop-in Sessions

5th October 202028th April 2021 Sioned Llywelyn [sil12] Microsoft Teams, Online Teaching, Training and Support Leave a comment

We would like to offer all staff members at the University the opportunity to join us in our drop-in sessions on using MS Teams for Learning and Teaching Activities. These will be an informal opportunity to speak with our Online Learning Specialists and to address any queries that may have arisen during the first weeks of term.

All drop-in sessions will be held via MS Teams and there is no need to book, just click on the links below.

These drop-in sessions will take place on:

06.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

07.10.2020 (14:00-15:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

09.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

13.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

14.10.2020 (14:00-15:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

16.10.2020 (10:00-11:00): Join Microsoft Teams Meeting

We hope that these sessions will provide you with an opportunity to clarify any questions about your teaching needs.

Academy Forums 2020/21

5th October 202028th April 2021 Sioned Llywelyn [sil12] Academy Forum, Online Teaching, Resources and Webinars 1 Comment

The Academy Forum provides a platform for sharing good practice in learning and teaching. The Forum is open to members of the University community: teaching staff, postgraduate tutors, support staff, and students are all welcome. All forums will be held online for the year 2020/21 and you can click here to book your place.

The Academy Forums for the year 2020/21 are:

07.10.2020 (14:00-15:30): Creating a Learning and Teaching Community

19.10.2020 (11:00-12:30): Creating Podcasts in Panopto

19.11.2020 (10:00-11:30): Why and how to help students to reflect on their learning?

30.11.2020 (14:00-15:30): Motivation strategies for Online Learning Engagement

27.01.2021 (15:00-16:30): How can I plan online and in person activities?

19.02.2021 (10:00-11:30): How can I make my teaching more inclusive?

We hope that you will be able to attend these forums. Please contact us with any questions (lteu@aber.ac.uk).