Welcome to our newest member of staff, Caitlin Evans, to her role as a Digital Education Co-ordinator.
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14th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference: Programme Announced
We’re delighted to announce the programme for our 14th Education and Student Experience Conference taking place between 8 and 10 September 2026.
You can book your place online.
Tuesday 8 September will be online. Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 September will be in person.
See our webpages for the full programme.
Our keynote will be delivered by Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra who is Head of Educational Development at De Montfort University.
Dr Kaur Basra has led the Decolonising DMU project. This keynote and workshop will build on our own Race Equality Charter work. This session will be complemented by colleagues engaged in decolonising the curriculum at Aberystwyth.
We’re welcoming Professor Ruth Healey from Chester University who is an expert on students as co-creators.
UndebAber will be delivering a session on skills alongside WONKHE’s Jim Dickinson.
Colleagues from Blackboard will be joining us to highlight new accessibility initiatives with Blackboard Ally and roadmaps of new features. We’ll be presenting with the Department of Life Sciences on using achievements to record skills.
Recipients of the inaugural Education and Student Experience Awards will provide updates on their 4 projects and we’ll be launching the 2nd year of this initiative at the conference.
There are workshops and presentations across the 3 days – thank you to our colleagues and students who are contributing.
We hope to see you there and we’re looking forward to what promises to be an amazing event.
Keynote Announcement: 14th Education and Student Experience Conference: Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra
We are delighted to announce our keynote for our forthcoming Education and Student Experience Conference (8-10 September).
Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra will be joining us in person for a keynote presentation and a workshop.
We will get so much valuable input from Dr Basra that will really help us to enhance our education and student experience offering as well as build on the incredible work of the Race Equality Charter.
See below for Dr Basra’s biography.
Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra (PFHEA, NTF, CATE) is an Associate Professor of Teaching and Learning and Inclusive Education Lead at De Montfort University. With over two decades of experience in higher education, she is a nationally recognised leader in inclusive, anti-racist and decolonising pedagogies. Her work spans institutional strategy, curriculum transformation and academic development, with a sustained focus on improving student outcomes, belonging and equity.
Hardeep has led major institution-wide initiatives, including advancing inclusive curricula, addressing awarding gaps and shaping Access and Participation strategies. She has played a key role in sector-leading work such as Decolonising DMU, contributing to Race Equality Charter success, and designs impactful staff development programmes including the PG Cert in Empowering Education.
As a Principal Fellow of Advance HE, National Teaching Fellow and CATE award holder, she contributes to national conversations on equity, excellence and transformational change in higher education.
Our call for proposals is currently open – with submissions closing on 22 May.
Alongside this, we’ve got our second year of Education and Student Experience Awards.
We’ll be releasing further information about the event in due course.
Tell us about your recent digital learning experience
Take part in the Student Digital Experience Insights Survey – a short online survey to find out how you use technology and how this affects your learning experience.
An opportunity to voice your opinions, shape your digital experience and to win a £100 or £20 voucher.
Welcome, Daniel Bryant – Digital Education Co-ordinator
Hello! It’s great to be able to introduce myself in my first blog post in my new role. I’m Dan, and I joined the Digital Education Team just after Easter as a part-time Digital Education Co-ordinator. I’ve taken on this role alongside my PhD, which I am studying at the Department of International Politics.
I moved to Aberystwyth in 2022 to start my 1+3 research course at the university. After completing the research training component of the course, I began my PhD project on ‘the multi-level governance of second homes’ in 2023. During my time as a research student at the university, I have also gained valuable experience as a seminar teacher in the Department of International Politics, and as a Study Skills Tutor with Student Services.
As I head into the final straight of my PhD project, I’m very much looking forward to taking on this exciting new role. I’m very grateful for all the opportunities that the university has given me so far and I can’t wait to contribute to the excellent work of the Digital Education Team.
Before coming to Aberystwyth, I studied my previous degrees at Cardiff University and then worked in a couple of jobs in the politics sector of Cardiff Bay. Politics is never far from my mind, so I’ll be keeping a beady eye on the Senedd election campaign over the next month!
Other than politics, I have a keen interest in sports. As someone originally from Burry Port in Carmarthenshire, I am a big fan of the Scarlets and Swansea City FC. I also enjoy participating in sport myself, and over the summer I will be using the beautiful terrain of Ceredigion to help me train for a number of triathlons that I have entered in the Welsh Super Series. Last year, I also decided to come out of my rugby retirement to join Tregaron rugby club, where I play as a full-back.
When I want to take a more leisurely break from work, I enjoy going for a walk with my partner to see the farm animals near our flat in Lovesgrove, or going for a stroll down the prom in Aberystwyth to eat some ice cream.
I’m looking forward to getting to know more staff and students from across the university over the coming weeks and months!
Mini Conference: Neurodiversity, Tuesday 14 April: Programme Announcement
On 14 April, Student Journey with the Department of Psychology will be hosting their next Mini Conference, this time focusing on Neurodiversity.
This event will take place in person.
We’re excited to announce our programme.
The programme is available on our webpages.
We’ve got topics on neurodiversity and ai, neurodiversity and employability, and improving teaching for neurodiverse students amongst many other topics.
In the afternoon, we are running a series of workshops which delegates can sign up to attend.
There is still time for colleagues to sign up.
Please sign up via the training booking site.
If you have any further questions, please contact the conference organisers on elearning@aber.ac.uk.
Exemplary Course Award Winners 2025-26
We are delighted to announce the winner of this year’s annual Exemplary Course Award.
Congratulations to our joint winners:
- Dr Christopher Phillips from International Politis for the award-winning course: IP25320: Warfare after Waterloo: Military History 1815-1918
- Dr Catrin Wyn-Edwards from International Politics for the award-winning course: IPM3120: Race, (Im)mobility, and Incarceration.
The panel noted exemplary practices in the following areas:
- Community ethos and student co-creation activities
- Seminar packs with clear guidance and additional materials to expand on the main topic
- Ethos of the module as part of the welcome and orientation
- Clear and accessible module structures
- Variety of source types
- A range of assessment and feedback opportunities
- Optional exercises for developing essay writing and critical thinking skills
- Reading list organised into different sections
- Embedding learning outcomes throughout the course
Many congratulations to our highly commended and commended recipients:
Department of Geography and Earth Sciences’ Dr Tristram Irvine-Fynn and Dr Hywel Griffiths for the course GS25520: Glacial and Fluvial Processes and Theatre Film and Television Studies’ Dr Lara Kipp for the course FM22120: Production Design Skills.
These 2 courses demonstrated some excellent practices, including innovative virtual field trip activities, anonymous student feedback mechanisms, authentic assessment design, and clarity on generative AI usage. The award is assessed based on a rubric across four areas:
- Course Design
- Interaction and Collaboration
- Assessment
- Learner Support
The courses were of such a high standard, and we look forward to sharing their practices with you in due course.
Many congratulations to this year’s well-deserved recipients.
Call for Proposals: 14th Education and Student Experience Conference, 8-10 September 2026
We are now inviting proposals for the 14th Annual Education and Student Experience Conference, Tuesday 8-Thursday 10 September 2026.
Submit and view the call for proposals online.
Please complete this form no later than 22 May 2026.
The theme for this year’s conference is:
Co‑Creating Inclusive Futures: Flexible, Diverse, and Competency‑Driven Learning
The main strands of this year’s conference are:
Diversifying the Curriculum for Equity and Belonging
Building inclusive, decolonised curricula that reflect diverse identities and experiences, advancing the Race Equality Charter.
Flexible Learning for a Changing Landscape
Hybrid, blended, and accessible learning designs that support varied learner needs through thoughtful pacing, structure, and technology.
Competency‑Driven Learning
Clear, meaningful integration of skills, graduate attributes, and real‑world application of competencies.
Students as Co‑Creators and Collaborators
Authentic student–staff collaboration in curriculum design, assessment, research, and decision‑making.
Staff and students are welcome to propose sessions on any topic relating to learning and teaching, especially those that focus on the incorporation and use of technology. Even if your suggestion doesn’t fit into a particular strand, other topics are welcome.
We seek to encourage presenters to consider using alternative formats that reflect and suit the content of their sessions. As such, we are not specifying a standardised presentation format.
Booking already open
Colleagues can already book their place at this year’s Education and Student Experience. Please complete this booking form.
If you have any questions, please contact the Digital Education Team: elearning@aber.ac.uk.
What’s new in Blackboard January 2026
Happy New Year! In the January update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements:
- Minor Update to the Blackboard Interface
- Improvements to Document’s layouts
- More options for true and false questions
- Changes to multiple choice and multiple answer workflows
Minor Update to the Blackboard Interface
There is no downtime associated with this update, and Blackboard will continue to function normally during this period.
These changes include:
- Change in order of menu items on the main navigation menu:
- A new home button in a course to take you back to the landing page:
- A quick link to navigate to your recently accessed courses
In addition to this, to maximise screen space, Blackboard will remove the nested folder view.
Improvements to Document’s layouts
To improve usability and accessibility, we restructured the menu for document block layout. Previously, all options for changing the row, size, or position of a block were in a single dropdown list. Now, these options are organized by type of change (row, size, and position).
Selecting the edit icon for a block prompts a menu with three options: Change row, Change [block/column] size, and Change [block/column] position. Each of these options have a sub-menu, with the related actions.
- Change row
- Move to row above
- Move to row below
- New row above
- Change [block/column] size
- Expand to the left
- Expand to the right
- Shrink from the left
- Shrink from the right
- Change [block/column] position
- Move to the left
- Move to the right
Image 1: How document block styling options displayed before
Image 2: How document block styling options display now
More options for true and false questions
We expanded the display options for true/false questions to include:
- True/False
- Yes/No
- Right/Wrong
- Agree/Disagree
These additional answer options display when:
- Instructors create or edit this question type when building a test or in a question bank
- Students answer the question
- Instructors grade the question
- Students review their submission or graded question
Image 1: True/false questions now include additional options.
Changes to multiple choice and multiple answer workflows
ow students interact with questions. These changes support greater flexibility in assessment design and an improved experience for students.
Instructors
To reduce setup time when creating a multiple choice question, we changed the default number of answer options from three to four. Instructors can add or remove answer options.
Instructors can now define the number of answer selections that a student can make for each multiple choice question. When the student takes the assessment, the system enforces the instructor’s selection limit.
The default is:
- 4 answer options
- partial/negative credit is off (no additional changes made to partial/negative credit for this release)
- students can select up to 4 answers
- if additional answers are added, selection limit remains at 4
- if answers are removed, instructor must select the selection limit
Image 1: Instructors can define the number of answer selections for each multiple choice question.
Students
For questions where students can select only one answer, the selection mechanism is radio buttons. For questions where students can select more than one answer, the selection mechanism is checkboxes.
Image 2: The student’s selection mechanism of checkbox or radio button is determined by how many answers they can select.
If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk.
Why take part in Fix Your Content Day?
On November 18, Aberystwyth University will join institutions worldwide for Fix Your Content Day 2025, hosted by Anthology. If you are wondering about what this means, or whether to take part, then here are a few reasons to get involved.
Every change – big or small – makes a difference to our students. Making Blackboard content as accessible as possible benefits all our students. Having materials in a format that students can use easily means that they can focus on their learning rather than struggling with inaccessible formats. The choices that staff make to design accessible materials, as well as the Ally Alternative Format tools, help us to make sure that all students can engage with their studies.
It’s particularly important here at AU, as the latest HERA data show that over 28% of our students have a declared disability (compared to 16.7% nationally).
Drop-in session open to all. Although our e-learning staff are always willing to help you with accessibility, we’ll have dedicated support available in B23 Llandinam during the afternoon of 18th. Come along and we can show you how to use Ally or discuss any particular issues you have with your course materials. And tea and biscuits will be available!
And finally, taking part in Fix Your Content Day is part of our ongoing commitment to ensuring that all students can engage with learning materials.