Category: Technical Updates

Welcome to the Academic Year 2024-25: Updates to Blackboard for students

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, E-submission, Information for Students, Panopto, Technical Updates Leave a comment

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

WordPress User [jbw] Polling Software, Technical Updates Leave a comment

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

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

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:

Full view of an enhanced Document with blocks filled with text and images

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:

Image of content creator block in Ultra Documents

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.

Blogpost: Blackboard Learn Ultra Organisations: Important Information

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

As part of the Blackboard Learn Ultra project, we are now turning our attention to Organisations ready for September 2024.

Organisations are Blackboard sites for non-academic purposes. They have the same functionality as a Blackboard Course and can be used to provide information, online training, and access to materials. Unlike Courses, Organisations are created with no template. Organisations have the same features and functionality as Courses.

There are 3 types of Organisations:

Departmental Organisations

Every department has got 3 departmental Organisations: 1 for Undergraduate students, 1 for Postgraduate students, and 1 for Departmental staff. These are automatically created.

Bespoke and Training Organisations

These are Organisations that have been requested by individuals. They can be created with automatic feeds, such as types of students, students on specific study schemes, or staff members in a particular department. Some of these Organisations hold training packages that we are asked to undertake.

Practice Organisations

These are individual for each staff member and have no students enrolled on them. As part of the move to Ultra, we created all staff their own Ultra practice Organisation.

As we move to Blackboard Learn Ultra for Organisations, we have worked on a new Organisation policy outlining the types of activities they can be used for as well as their retention period. This new policy was approved by Academic Enhancement Committee on 7 February and can be viewed on our webpages.

Departmental Organisations

New Ultra Departmental Organisations will be created shortly but  will not be made available to students until September 2024.

All departments will have a separate Organisation for UG, PG, and Staff in their department.  

These are in the form: 

DEPT-[departmental letter]-UG (e.g. DEPT-N-UG) 

New students and staff members will automatically feed onto the Organisation once they have activated their account. Once these Organisations are available, we will contact Departmental Directors of Learning and Teaching, Faculty Registrars, and Heads of Department to help facilitate the move to Ultra Organisations.

Bespoke and Training Organisations

These are Organisations that have been requested individually for a specific purpose. We have never removed or deleted Organisations before (unless this has been requested).

As part of this work, we will:

  1. Remove access to all bespoke Organisations that have not been accessed in 3 years with a view to retire the Organisation.
  2. Contact those who still have responsibility for an existing Organisation to see if they are required and facilitate the move to Ultra for these Organisations.

Practice Organisations

Staff members currently have access to two practice Organisations – one in Original and one in Ultra.

We will be retiring the Original Organisations in September 2024. Colleagues need to copy any materials they want to retain onto the Ultra version of the Organisation.

If you have any questions about Organisations, please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Blackboard Learn Ultra Update: Building Blocks Retiring

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

On 31 December 2023, Blackboard is retiring Building Blocks as an integration solution for third party tools and they will no longer function in Blackboard. This will not affect Blackboard Learn Ultra Courses.

Whilst we made use of Building Blocks in Blackboard Learn Original (courses which ran before 2023-24), your Blackboard Learn Ultra Courses do not use them.

Building Blocks are installed software packages used to integrate tools such as Panopto and Turnitin (among many others) into Blackboard. Over the past two years we have upgraded these tools to LTI (Learning Tools Interoperability) integrations. The retiring of Building Blocks was one of the drivers for moving to Blackboard Learn Ultra.

LTIs offer us access to regular updates, bugs fixes, and ongoing developments and enhancements designed for Blackboard Ultra. Building Blocks required manual upgrades and received infrequent updates as this form of integration approached retirement.

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit has done extensive testing to ensure that this change will have as minimal an impact as possible on current Blackboard Learn Ultra courses.

We will undertake the work of disabling Building Blocks on Tuesday 12 December during the regular IS Tuesday Morning Maintenance window in preparation for their final retirement.

If you come across any issues, please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Retirement of AirServer

WordPress User [jbw] Teaching Rooms, Technical Updates Leave a comment

AirServer, the software used to connect mobile devices to teaching room equipment, is being retired.

Over increasing years, AirServer has been unable to cater for different types of mobile devices.

A workaround using Microsoft Teams can be used to link your tablet devices to teaching room equipment.

Take a look at our FAQ: How do I connect a tablet / mobile device to a teaching room machine?

If you have any questions, please contact Information Services (is@aber.ac.uk).

Panopto Assignment Workflow in Blackboard Learn Ultra

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, E-submission, Panopto, Technical Updates, Ultra, Uncategorised 2 Comments

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:

  1. Create a Blackboard Assignment
  2. Students submit via Blackboard Assignment and upload via the Panopto submission tool

The advantages to this new workflow are that:

  1. The workflow for submission and marking is easier
  2. Marks and feedback automatically go into the Gradebook
  3. Students receive an email receipt for their submission

To support staff with this process, we have a Panopto Assignment guide that takes you through setting up the assignment, student submission, and marking on our Lecture Capture webpages.

We’ve also got a FAQ for staff and students.

If you’ve got any questions, please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit (elearning@aber.ac.uk).

Panopto Update for Staff: September 2023

WordPress User [rsf09] Blackboard, Panopto, Teaching Rooms, Technical Updates, Ultra Leave a comment

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.

Accessing Panopto

You can now access the Panopto server via Panopto.aber.ac.uk

Panopto Folders

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.
An animated gif of accessing a Panopto folder in the Panopto Recorder.

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.
An animated gif of accessing a Panopto folder using the search function in the Panopto Recorder.

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.

Blackboard Ally

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

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce that Information Services has procured Blackboard Ally as part of our move to Blackboard Learn Ultra.

Blackboard Ally integrates into our Blackboard Learn Ultra environment and focuses on making digital content more accessible.

For colleagues creating content you will be able to amend the accessibility of your content. This means that your content will be more accessible to assistive technologies, such as screen readers.

Another benefit of Blackboard Ally is that content can be downloaded in multiple formats. This means that your lecture notes, PowerPoints, and other documents can be converted into many different formats, including:

  • Immersive readers
  • Audio files
  • Electronic braille

There’s nothing that you need to do to enable Ally on your course. It will automatically be enabled on Monday 11 September on 2023-24 Courses onwards and Organisations.

For more information on using Blackboard Ally, take a look at our staff or student FAQ.

If you want to know further information about creating accessible learning materials, take a look at our resources.