Weekly Resource Roundup – 1/3/2021

As leader of our PGCTHE programme, I keep an eye out for resources to help staff teach effectively. These include webinars, podcasts, online toolkits, publications and more. Topics include active learning, online/blended teaching, accessibility/inclusion, and effective learning design based on cognitive science. 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. 

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.  

Weekly Resource Roundup – 8/2/2021

Weekly Resource Roundup with Mary Jacob, Lecturer in Learning and Teaching As leader of our PGCTHE programme, I keep an eye out for resources to help staff teach effectively. These include webinars, podcasts, online toolkits, publications and more. Topics include active learning, online/blended teaching, accessibility/inclusion, and effective learning design based on cognitive science. 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.   

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.  

Mini-Conference: Embedding Well-being in the Curriculum (Call for proposals)

On Thursday 25th March, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will be hosting the second Academy Mini-Conference online of this academic year. The theme will be ‘Embedding Well-being in the Curriculum’, where will explore the links between mental well-being and learning and how this could help to maximise success for both students and staff.

The three main strands for this Mini-Conference are:

  • Building resilience in students
  • Recognising barriers to student well-being
  • Encouraging students to flourish

We are looking for proposals from staff, postgraduate teaching assistants and students to give presentations, demonstrations, workshops, and discussions on their current practices on embedding well-being in the curriculum. Even if your proposal does not particularly fit the strands above, other relevant proposals are very welcome.

If you would like to submit a proposal to this year’s Mini-Conference, please fill in this online form before Friday 26th February.

You can register to attend the Mini-Conference by clicking on this link. If you have any queries, please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.

Weekly Resource Roundup – 1/2/2021

Weekly Resource Roundup with Mary Jacob, Lecturer in Learning and Teaching As leader of our PGCTHE programme, I keep an eye out for resources to help staff teach effectively. These include webinars, podcasts, online toolkits, publications and more. Topics include active learning, online/blended teaching, accessibility/inclusion, and effective learning design based on cognitive science. 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.   

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.  

Support for teaching online – here we go again!

As we have once again found ourselves in online teaching scenario, we wanted to revisit some of the resources and support available to you.

The best place to start would be visiting the Supporting your Teaching webpages which includes resources such as:


Secondly, please visit our training page to book a space on our upcoming training:

  • 19/01/2021 – Active Learning and Online Engagement
  • 27/01/2021 – Academy Forum 5: How can I plan online and in-person activities 
  • 09/02/2021 – E-learning Enhanced: Using the advanced features of Panopto 

We are also planning to offer additional training sessions on using breakout rooms as well as e-learning drop-in sessions every Tuesday at 10:00-11:00 and Thursday at 14:00-15:00 between 19th of January and 4th of February). Links to the drop-ins are available on our blog.


Finally, please visit our blog including further tips and guidelines:


To reiterate some of the key points from the resources above, when it comes to online teaching and engagement best are:

  • Make it shorter, students will not be able to focus on an hour-long recording.
  • Make it engaging, whether it is a Panopto recording or a live session in Teams, there are multiple functionalities and ways of facilitating active learning rather than creating transmission based content.
  • Integrate all your teaching components, in recorded lectures refer to live seminars, readings, focus on creating a continuous learning path for students.

We have no doubt that all staff will successfully meet the demands of the current situation. Please do get in touch with any queries or suggestions of needed training and resources: lteu@aber.ac.uk.

Weekly Resource Roundup – 11/1/2021

Weekly Resource Roundup with Mary Jacob, Lecturer in Learning and Teaching As leader of our PGCTHE programme, I keep an eye out for resources to help staff teach effectively. These include webinars, podcasts, online toolkits, publications and more. Topics include active learning, online/blended teaching, accessibility/inclusion, and effective learning design based on cognitive science. 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.   

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.  

Continued Professional Development: E-learning Essentials sessions in January 2021 – What’s on?

Here is an overview of the E-learning Essentials sessions that the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will be offering to University staff throughout January. We offer sessions in both English and Welsh and Welsh-medium sessions will appear with Welsh titles on the staff training website and on the table below.

DateTitleTimeDetails
06-01-2021E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Blackboard (L & T: Online)15:00 - 16:00Details
07-01-2021E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Turnitin (L & T: Online)11:00 - 12:00Details
08-01-2021E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Panopto (L & T: Online)14:00 - 15:00Details
11-01-2021E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Component Marks Transfer (L & T: Online)11:00 - 12:00Details
12-01-2021Hanfodion E-ddysgu: Cyflwyniad i Blackboard, Panopto a Turnitin (D & A: Ar-lein)10:00 - 11:30Details
14-01-2021E-learning Essentials: Moving to Online Teaching (L & T: Online)10:00 - 11:30Details
15-01-2021E-learning Essentials: Using MS Teams for Learning and Teaching Activities (L & T: Online)11:00 - 12:00Details
18-01-2021Hanfodion E-ddysgu: Defnyddio MS Teams a symud i Addysgu Ar-lein (D & A: Ar-lein)14:00 - 15:30Details

For a full list of all sessions throughout the next semester and to book a place on any course, please visit the staff training website. We will also be running a series of E-learning Enhanced session next semester and we will publish further information on this in the new year.

If you have any questions about any of the sessions, please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.

From everyone at the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit, thank you for supporting our work throughout the year and we would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

NEW feature – Breakout Rooms in MS Teams

One of the most anticipated features in MS Teams has finally arrived…. Breakout Rooms! Breakout rooms allow meeting organisers to create and name up to 50 separate rooms within scheduled and ‘meet now’ meetings. Organisers can then assign attendees to those rooms either automatically or manually.

We will be releasing guidance on how to create and manage breakout rooms (for staff) and how to participate in breakout rooms (for students) next week. For the time being, here is a guide from Microsoft on how to create and manage breakout rooms in Teams.

What does the icon for breakout rooms look like?
The icon for breakout rooms is displayed as two boxes (as is highlighted below by the blue box). This should appear on your control bar.
Breakout Room Icon

Why can’t I see this icon?
If you are not able to see this icon, there are two likely reasons:

    • 1. Only meeting organisers can create and manage breakout rooms. If you are not the meeting organiser, then you will not be able to create and manage breakout rooms in Teams and you won’t see the icon during that meeting.

 

    2. MS Teams might not have automatically updated. To do this yourself, click on your image from the top-right hand corner of the screen (see yellow box on image below) and then select ‘Check for updates’ (see orange box).

Settings bar in Teams
If you have any questions about using Teams, please contact Information Services (is@aber.ac.uk). [:cy]Mae un o’r nodweddion mwyaf disgwyliedig MS Teams wedi cyrraedd o’r diwedd…. Ystafelloedd Trafod (Breakout Rooms)! Mae ystafelloedd trafod yn caniatáu i drefnwyr cyfarfodydd greu ac enwi hyd at 50 o ystafelloedd ar wahân, mewn cyfarfodydd sydd wedi’u hamserlennu ac o fewn cyfarfodydd ‘meet now’. Gall trefnwyr yna benodi mynychwyr i’r ystafelloedd hynny naill ai’n awtomatig neu â llaw.

Byddwn yn rhyddhau canllawiau ar sut i greu a rheoli ystafelloedd trafod (i staff) a sut i gymryd rhan o fewn ystafelloedd trafod (i fyfyrwyr) yr wythnos nesaf. Am y tro, dyma ganllaw gan Microsoft ar sut i greu a rheoli ystafelloedd trafod o fewn Teams.

Sut mae’r eicon ar gyfer ystafelloedd trafod yn edrych?
Mae’r eicon ar gyfer ystafelloedd trafod wedi’i arddangos fel dau flwch (fel y nodir isod o fewn y blwch glas). Dylai hyn ymddangos ar eich bar rheoli.
Breakout Room Icon
Pam na allaf weld yr eicon hwn?
Os na allwch weld yr eicon hwn, mae dau reswm tebygol:

    • 1. Dim ond trefnwyr cyfarfodydd all greu a rheoli ystafelloedd trafod. Os nad chi yw trefnydd y cyfarfod, yna ni fyddwch yn gallu creu a rheoli ystafelloedd trafod o fewn Teams ac ni fyddwch chwaith yn gallu gweld yr eicon yn ystod y cyfarfod hwnnw.

 

    • 2. Efallai fod MS Teams heb ddiweddaru’n awtomatig. I wneud hyn eich hun, cliciwch ar eich delwedd yng nghornel dde uchaf y sgrin (gweler y blwch melyn ar y ddelwedd isod) ac yna dewiswch ‘

Check for Updates

    ‘ (gweler y blwch oren).

Settings bar in Teams
Os oes gennych chi unrhyw gwestiynau am sut i ddefnyddio Teams, cysylltwch â Gwasanaethau Gwybodaeth (gg@aber.ac.uk).

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Weekly Resource Roundup – 24/8/2020

Weekly Resource Roundup with Mary Jacob, Lecturer in Learning and Teaching 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.

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.