If you are stuck for ideas for the alternative text on your images, the Ally AI Alt Text Assistant can give you suggestions.
You should always check the suggestion provided by the AI Assistant as it may not always provide an accurate description of the image. You can edit any the AI generated suggestions.
Have a look at the accessible learning material guidance to find out why Alt Text is important. The Poet training tool provides guidance on how and when to use Alt Text as well as online tools to practice creating useful Alt text for images (please note that the Poet web site is an external site and is not available in Welsh).
Instructors can now print tests that include questions from Question Pools. An answer key will also be printed with the corresponding test. This ensures that Instructors always have an answer key that matches the test. Blackboard generates the answer key and prints it ahead of the test. The answer key is also clearly labelled to ensure awareness.
The system generates a different version of the answer key and test each time a test is printed when the test:
Randomizes questions or answer options
Includes Question Pools
Instructors can use the print option to save the answer key and test as a PDF.
To help with resizing blocks that are vertically tall, Blackboard have modified the resize handle. Now, instructors can resize a block by selecting the vertical edge of a block. It is not necessary to place the mouse directly over the handle.
“Change dates to a specific date and/or time” is the most popular option used in Batch Edit to change dates in a batch, so it is now the default option. This change simplifies the process for users and helps instructors to prepare courses for teaching and learning even faster.
We are delighted to announce that the Exemplary Course Award for 2024-25 is now open.
The ECA is judged across 4 categories:
Course Design
Interaction and Collaboration
Assessment
Learner Support
Applicants are asked to introduce 3 standout practices for their Course to help frame their application before self-assessing their course – this can be a 1,000 word narrative or an 8-minute Panopto recording.
Following the self-assessment, the courses are assessed by a panel of experts.
The changes to this year’s form include:
The addition of 1.13 criteria: a Blackboard Ally score of 85% or more.
The ability to request reports on your course (Student Engagement and Course Summary). These reports can be requested from the Digital Education Group (elearning@aber.ac.uk).
To help prepare for applications, two workshops are being run by the Digital Education Group on:
The IS User Survey gives you an opportunity to tell us what you think about our services and how we can improve them. It is also a chance to win one of two £50 vouchers for 10 minutes of your time!
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.
21/11/2024Compassionate Assessment Event 6 Dr. Juuso Henrik Nieminen, “Dr Nieminen has particularly focused on understanding the social effects of assessment on students’ inclusion, belonging and identities.”
Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinarsfree open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.
Subscribe to SEDA’s mailing list for email discussions about educational development and emerging teaching practices. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Join the #LTHEchat on Twitter Wednesday nights for one hour of lively discussion about learning and teaching in HE. I often find out about good resources for the Roundup from the chat.
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.
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.
21/11/2024Compassionate Assessment Event 6 Dr. Juuso Henrik Nieminen, “Dr Nieminen has particularly focused on understanding the social effects of assessment on students’ inclusion, belonging and identities.”
Pedagodzilla, the pedagogic podcast with the pop culture core
RAISE Reading Group webinars ‘Our monthly Reading Group regularly takes place on the first Monday of the month, at 16:00 (GMT). We like to discuss a pre-decided paper related to student engagement.’
Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinarsfree open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.
Subscribe to SEDA’s mailing list for email discussions about educational development and emerging teaching practices. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Join the #LTHEchat on Twitter Wednesday nights for one hour of lively discussion about learning and teaching in HE. I often find out about good resources for the Roundup from the chat.
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.
Creating questions is time consuming. Instructors now have the option to generate questions in a question bank. Generating question banks from course materials provides inspiration and saves time.
To generate a question bank, select the Auto-generate option from the + on the Question Banks page.
Image 1. Auto-generate a question bank
From the menu, instructors can select content items. These content items provide context for the questions. Instructors can further refine the questions they ask by entering a description of the learning objectives or topic.
Image 2. The context picker for creating new questions
Instructors can select the type of question to generate, such as multiple choice or fill in the blank. The complexity of the questions can also be adjusted. Instructors choose which questions to include in the question bank.
To encourage participation in discussions, Blackboard have expanded notifications to include email. Emails are sent when users opt for Email me right away notifications.
Key Enhancements:
User Notification Settings: New notification options allow users to manage their emails for discussions they follow. To help with consistency, these settings align with the user’s settings for their activity stream.
Activity on my responses
Activity on responses I have replied to
Responses from instructors
Responses for followed discussions
Replies for followed discussions
How to access your Email notification settings:
In Blackboard go into your Profile
Under Global Notification Settings click on Email notifications
Email notifications highlighted under Global Notification settings
Adjust your settings as you prefer
Image 2. An example of an email for discussion activity
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.
Online events and webinars
October
14/10/2024 Compassionate Assessment Event 5 Martin Compton, “Dr Compton is the lead for AI and innovation and for assessment design at King’s College London”
21/11/2024Compassionate Assessment Event 6 Dr. Juuso Henrik Nieminen, “Dr Nieminen has particularly focused on understanding the social effects of assessment on students’ inclusion, belonging and identities.”
Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinarsfree open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.
Subscribe to SEDA’s mailing list for email discussions about educational development and emerging teaching practices. This is one of the sources I use when identifying useful material for the Roundup.
Join the #LTHEchat on Twitter Wednesday nights for one hour of lively discussion about learning and teaching in HE. I often find out about good resources for the Roundup from the chat.
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.
As teaching starts, you may find this information about Panopto useful. These are the answers to our most frequently asked questions about Panopto over the last few weeks.
Linking to All Panopto Recordings
You can create a link to the Panopto folder in your Blackboard course. This means that students will be able to see the recordings for the course all in one place.
Finding your Panopto folder
Panopto folders for all this year’s modules are in the 2024-25 folder.
To find the Panopto folder you want to record into:
Click the dropdown button on the right-hand side of the Folder box.
Click the dropdown arrow to the left of the academic year folder to expand it.
Select the Panopto folder you want to record into.
You can also search for the Panopto folder you want to record into:
In the Folder box start typing the module code or name of the Panopto folder you want to Record into
Select the folder you want to record into.
What to do if you can’t see your Panopto folder
In a small number of courses, the Panopto folder wasn’t created over the summer. If you can’t find your Panopto folder using the steps above, you can create a folder from Blackboard:
Login to Blackboard and find your course
Click on Books and Tools > View course and institution tools
Click on Holl Fideo Panopto / All Panopto Videos
You should then be able to find the Panopto folder to make a recording.
