A small number of users are having problems with the new Content Editor in Blackboard. This may stop you being able to add or edit text.
We are working closely with Blackboard to resolve this problem as quickly as possible.
Category: Virtual Learning Environment(VLE)
An Updated Content Editor for Blackboard
On November 5th, 2020 Blackboard is rolling out an update to the Content Editor (aka WYSIWYG editor). This is the primary input method in Blackboard.
This is what it looks like:
Weekly Resource Roundup – 19/10/2020
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.
Weekly Resource Roundup – 5/10/2020
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 Inspera. “The Pedagogical Impact of Online Assessment”
- 23/10/2020 SEDA. “Decolonising the curriculum: why the concept requires a wider conversation and how do educational developers bring about effective change?”
- Agbonifo O. C., Sarumi O. A., & Akinola Y. M. (2020). “A chemistry laboratory platform enhanced with virtual reality for students’ adaptive learning“. Research in Learning Technology, 28.
- Buckley, C. (29/9/2020) “Transforming Solent’s Learning Delivery during covid-19 – Adapting our teaching and learning provision was key to Solent continuing to provide an excellent learning experience during the Covid-19 pandemic. This case study highlights the work done by the SLTI team in building the Transformation Academy.”
- Clark, A. (2014) “Blogging Student Essays”. University of Edinburgh Case Studies.
- Future Teacher Talks, “Social media for teaching and learning – Resources and recording now available”
- Khuri, S. & Reed, M. (1/10/2020) “Tips and tools for making your online meetings and workshops more interactive”
- Mehta, Neil. “Pedagogy in the Age of Zoom – Application of key education and learning theories and concepts to teaching in a virtual classroom”
- Learning technologist at the University of London. myBRAINisOPEN. “The main aim of this website is to synthesise some of the key ideas and research findings from the fields of instructional design, learning design and multimedia learning and to show how they can be applied to the design and development of blended and online learning in higher education.”
- Morris, N. (3/4/2018) “Blogging and innovative assessment practice at Edinburgh“. Teaching Matters Blog.
- Pearson, J. “Vlogging in student-led seminars“. Assessment for Learning at King’s College London.
- Penn, P. “Psychology of Effective Studying YouTube Channel“.
- Penn, P. (2020). The psychology of effective studying: How to succeed in your degree. London; New York, NY: Routledge.
- Practitioner Research in Higher Education
- Sambell, K. & Graham, L. (21/9/2020) ““We need to change what we’re doing.” Using pedagogic action research to improve teacher management of exemplars.” Practitioner Research in Higher Education 13(1)
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.
Useful Information: Online Teaching
Setting up sessions through MS Teams:
- Unless otherwise agreed, Microsoft Teams should be used to run all online teaching sessions.
- Details of online teaching sessions should be posted in Blackboard (see our FAQ how to set up a Teams meeting in Blackboard?).
- Please note that for any sessions set up through Blackboard, students will be able to use the link to join the session 15 minutes before the chosen start time. Any time prior to this, students have the option to add the session to their Office365 calendars (see our student FAQ).
Keeping students informed:
- Use the announcements feature in Blackboard to communicate with your students. (See our FAQ How do I add an announcement to my Blackboard module?)
- Ensure that your Blackboard contacts page has your contact information and clear instructions on how and when students should contact you.
Delivering online sessions from the University:
- If required, you may come into the University to deliver your online session from the teaching rooms in the allotted timetabled slots. Please ensure you are using the correct room and time allocated to your activity.
CPD sessions:
- The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will be running a number of CPD sessions for staff members over the coming weeks, focusing specifically on online learning and teaching and associated E-learning tools.
For any technical assistance with using MS Teams or any of the E-learning tools, please email elearning@aber.ac.uk. If you wish to discuss any aspect of learning and teaching, please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.
Learning and Teaching Updates – September 2020
We would like to provide you with an overview of recent developments and support materials that we have worked on for the past few months.
This information is also available at: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/it-services/elearning/continuity/
Scheduling MS Teams meeting from Blackboard
All teaching sessions held in MS Teams should be scheduled in Blackboard. This includes timetabled online activities.
Setting up a meeting: https://faqs.aber.ac.uk/3067
Information for students: https://faqs.aber.ac.uk/3061
Recording seminars and Teams activities
There are privacy concerns which need to be considered when recording a meeting in MS Teams.
Further information: Guidance on recording seminars and Teams activities
Using teaching rooms
Information about using teaching rooms this academic year, including how to use MS Teams in an in-person teaching session is available at Teaching Room Guide 2020-21
Support materials for students
Supporting your Learning resources for students are now available at https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/important-info/living-and-learning-in-aberystwyth-2020-21/students/supporting-your-learning/. We will add to this page during the semester as things change or we approach key points for students.
Changes to the Blackboard Required Minimum Presence (RMP)
We have updated the RMP to respond to the Covid-19 situation. The new RMP contains items that will help support students with their online learning. It has been developed by the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Group (LTEU) with significant input from sub-groups of the Learning and Teaching Scenario Planning Group (LTSPG).
What’s New?
All new or altered items are highlighted in bold in the new RMP. They represent some good practice currently in place around AU as well as responding to some of the queries received by the LTEU from staff and students during the Covid-19 crisis. Some highlights include:
- A Panopto recording of a module tour to help students to familiarise themselves with how the module will run
- Induction activities – see below
- Providing clear information to students on what they need to do online, how they should do it, and what to do if they have problems
- Recommendations on providing lecture materials via short Panopto recordings.
Induction materials
The IBERS Distance Learning modules make use of an induction folder (known as Unit 0). This introduces all students to a range of activities which must be completed to ensure that students are able to successfully study online. We recommend this approach for modules in the coming year. The types of activities you may want to include will vary between modules and will depend on what tools and approaches you are using in the module. Some examples may be:
- A practice Turnitin or Blackboard Assignment submission to check submission and that students can view their feedback
- Viewing a Panopto recording and completing a quiz
- Posting an introductory message to a discussion forum
- Completing a formative Blackboard test
- Locating library materials through the Aspire Reading List
If you need any help or support with the new RMP, please email elearning@aber.ac.uk
Parent-child modules
Now that the 2020-21 modules are available to staff, we can link them together at the module co-ordinator’s request. This process is known as parent-childing. Linking modules together is an effective way of dealing with separate modules with the same content so you don’t have to upload materials to two or more different modules.
This process makes one module the parent, whilst the other module(s) become a child. There’s no limit on how many modules you make a child but there can only be one parent.
If you’d like to parent-child your modules, and you’re the module co-coordinator, contact elearning@aber.ac.uk with the module codes for the parent and child modules.
Weekly Resource Roundup 22/6/2020
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.
- 23-24/6/2020 St Mary’s Festival of Learning https://www.stmarys.ac.uk/events/2020/06/festival-of-learning
- 26/6/2020 “AdvanceHE webinar Active Digital Design” https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/programmes-events/calendar/active-digtial-design
- 26/6/2020 “Future Teacher Webinars – Self Assessment and Mastery Learning” https://xot.futureteacher.eu/play.php?template_id=4#selfassessment
- 1/7/2020 “Jisc Learning and Teaching Reimagined webinar – How Staff Needs are Changing” https://www.jisc.ac.uk/events/learning-and-teaching-reimagined-how-are-staff-needs-changing-01-jul-2020
- 15/7/2020 “Transforming Assessment Webinars – ‘Feedback is useless if no-one can get what it means’ – The effect of technology-mediated peer feedback on uptake and literacy. James Michael Wood (Seoul National University, South Korea); Inclusive assessment design: what can we learn from assessment adjustments?. Joanna Tai, Mary Dracup, Merrin Mccracken, Yasmin Mobayad (Deakin University, Australia); Assessment and digital competences: building capacity with academic staff. Rob Lowne and Suzanne Stone (Dublin City University, Ireland)” http://taw.fi/15jul2020
- “Call for papers for Compass: Journal of Learning and Teaching – Compass is an open access, peer-reviewed journal that welcomes research articles, case studies, opinion pieces and reviews relating to learning, teaching, assessment, and the wider student experience within higher education.” https://journals.gre.ac.uk/index.php/compass
- “Jisc Podcasts Responding to COVID-19” https://www.jisc.ac.uk/podcasts
- Beard, Mary “The end of the university as we know it? – Mary Beard asks if the iconic university lecture might have had its day, in the aftermath of the pandemic” BBC Radio 4 https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000k2cq
- Clay, James “Why online learning doesn’t have to be a poor experience” https://universitybusiness.co.uk/comment/why-online-learning-doesnt-have-to-be-a-poor-experience/
- Hosseini, Dustin. “Podcast episode 12: a flipped classroom through digital chalk talks” https://digitaleducationpractices.com/2020/06/16/episode-12-a-flipped-classroom-through-digital-chalk-talks/
- Jisc, “Higher education sector comes together to reimagine learning and teaching” https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/higher-education-sector-comes-together-to-reimagine-learning-and-teaching-05-jun-2020
- Jisc, “How COVID-19 has changed student assessment for good” https://www.jisc.ac.uk/news/how-covid-19-has-changed-student-assessment-for-good-15-jun-2020
- Tan, E., Small, A., & Lewis, P. (2020). Have a question? Just ask it: using an anonymous mobile discussion platform for student engagement and peer interaction to support large group teaching. Research in Learning Technology, 28. https://journal.alt.ac.uk/index.php/rlt/article/view/2323
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 15/6/2020
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.
Calling @AberUni staff. Do you use short Panopto lectures or Panopto quizzes in your online teaching? We’re after examples to use in our new good practice module. Email lteu@aber.ac.uk if you’d like to share your materials with us.
- 18/6/2020 “TILE Network – Back To School: What Did We Do? What Did We Learn?” https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/webinar-back-to-school-what-did-we-do-what-did-we-learn-registration-109125816254
- 23/6/2020 “How to localise ABC Learning Design?” https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/webinar-4-abc-ld-localisation-tickets-108845020386 Twitter https://twitter.com/ABC_LD
- 24/6/2020 “ALT – Preparing for our ‘new normal’: how can effective student feedback help universities to survive and thrive in the next academic year? Student feedback webinar. Topics to be covered include; Is student evaluation still as important, and what does this look like in the ‘new normal’?; How are universities developing their student feedback mechanisms to reflect what the next academic year is really going to be like?; What are the new, and emerging opportunities, for capturing student feedback?; Is it possible to engage the dis-engaged and traditionally harder-to-reach groups?; How are academic and professional teams being supported to deliver this agenda?” https://go.alt.ac.uk/3e1Xvbe
- 24/6/2020 “Ucisa – Virtual Stratified Medicine Lab – intro to basic lab skills. (Designing a virtual lab tour to promote the learning and teaching of Stratified Medicine)” https://www.ucisa.ac.uk/Events/2020/June/Spotlight-on-Digital-capabilities-webinar-2
- “Teaching Innovation & Learning Enhancement (TILE network)“ blog https://tile.psy.gla.ac.uk/blog/ Twitter https://twitter.com/TILEnetwork
- Association for Learning Technology (ALT), “Call for chapters: Designing Courses with Digital Technologies: Evidence and Examples by and for Higher Education Instructors” Higher education is currently undergoing a digital transformation. As most higher education institutions are integrating digital technologies, instructors need guidance. In this book, to be published by Routledge, instructors from around the world, representing different subject disciplines, will write short chapters with concrete examples of how they use digital technologies to support teaching and learning informed by evidence. The book will be written by and for instructors. https://go.alt.ac.uk/30MLdQf
- Educause Review, “Editor’s Picks”: “Can HyFlex Options Support Students in the Midst of Uncertainty?”, “Teaching during COVID-19: Why We’re Fortunate”, “Orienting Students to Online Learning: A Must for Student Success” https://er.educause.edu/editors-picks
- Gierdowski, Dana and Joseph Galanek, “ECAR Study of the Technology Needs of Students with Disabilities, 2020 – building accessible infrastructure for all students with Universal Design for Learning (UDL)”, Educause Review, 1/6/2020 https://er.educause.edu/blogs/2020/6/ecar-study-of-the-technology-needs-of-students-with-disabilities-2020
- Okpala, Jude, “COVID-19, Online Learning, and Beijing Jiaotong University, Weihai: Outbreak Narrative or Paradigm Shift?”, Educause Review, 28/5/2020 https://er.educause.edu/articles/2020/5/covid-19-online-learning-and-beijing-jiaotong-university-weihai-outbreak-narrative-or-paradigm-shift
- O’Toole, Robert, “Peer learning and breakout groups in live online lectures”, 20/5/2020 http://www.inspireslearning.com/journal/peer-learning-and-breakout-groups-in-live-online-lectures/
- Rossi, Virna, “Inclusive Learning Design – a rich picture”, https://inclusivelearningdesign.com/inclusive-tree/
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.