Continued Professional Development – What’s on Offer?

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit offers a number of sessions for Continued Professional Development (CPD) covering a range of topics. We offer sessions in both English and Welsh. Welsh-language sessions will appear in Welsh on the staff training website.
In this blog post, I will detail the range of sessions on offer for you between now and January, who to contact to find out more about them, and how to book a place for a session.
Here is what’s on offer in the coming months:

November:

Sessions aimed at Graduate Teaching Assistants, both on Developing your Teaching Practice and on Using MS Teams, Teaching Room Equipment & Synchronous Delivery (English and Welsh language sessions available)
A session on Facilitating Intrinsic Motivation in Students – the Self Determination Theory Perspective (English language only)
Sessions on E-Learning Essentials: Introductions to Blackboard, TurnitIn, and Panopto (the former in English, the latter two in Welsh)
Sessions on Creating Accessible Learning Materials, Learning Environments, and Techniques for Teaching Scientific Subjects as well as Using Jisc Online Surveys (all English language)
Two Academy forums on Why and How to Help Students to Reflect on Their Learning, and on Motivation Strategies for Online Learning Engagement

MS Teams: 10 Common Questions

2nd October 202028th April 2021 Sioned Llywelyn [sil12] Blackboard, HyFlex, Microsoft Teams, Online Teaching, Panopto, Training and Support Leave a comment

Following training sessions that we have conducted over the past few weeks on using MS Teams for learning and teaching activities, here are answers to 10 common questions. Further information on using MS Teams can be found in our Microsoft Teams FAQs, and please do not hesitate getting in touch with us if you have any further queries (lteu@aber.ac.uk).

Q1: If I am sharing my screen can I still see the chat function?
A1: Unfortunately, unless you have two screens then this will not be possible. You could either ask a student to monitor the chat for you or you could stop sharing your screen from time to time to check what has been posted in the chat. There are some advanced share screen options that may enable you to see the chat in some instances, and we’re happy to discuss these with you further.

Q2: I would like to add an external individual from outside Aberystwyth University to one of my ‘teams’ within MS Teams, is this possible?
A2: It is possible to add external individuals who have an Office 365 account with an ac.uk domain, but any external individual who has an email account that is not an ac.uk address will need to complete a request form to have their domain added to AU Teams access. Alternatively, you could set up meetings with external individuals through MS Teams without having to request access.

Q3: After recording a meeting, how would I access the recording and how long is it available for?
A3: After ending a meeting the recording will appear in the meeting’s chat and this will be available to download for 22 days. Please familiarise yourself with the University’s Lecture Capture Policy for details on what type of sessions are appropriate to record.

Using the Whiteboard Feature in Microsoft Teams

22nd June 202010th May 2021 James Woolley [jbw] Online Teaching, Other Tools 7 Comments

In this blogpost we will be taking a look at one of the tools available to make your teaching in a Microsoft Teams session more interactive. The Whiteboard is a space where you and your students can collaborate.

The whiteboard can be used for:

Students sharing ideas or thoughts
Talking your students through a complicated diagram
Mind-mapping ideas or concepts
Sharing or charting a complex process

There’s a great video on using the Whiteboard in Teams by The Virtual Training Team: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDqtWRu0rTA