We’re delighted to welcome some more external speakers to our Annual Education and Student Experience Conference.
On Thursday 10 September, Blackboard’s Ruben Jacquart will be joining us.
Ruben Jacquart is a Senior Solutions Engineer with over 10 years of experience supporting higher education institutions in their digital learning transformation journeys. Based in Amsterdam, he works closely with universities and business schools across Europe and the UK to help institutions enhance teaching, learning, accessibility, and student success through innovative educational technology.
His expertise spans learning management systems, digital accessibility, learning analytics, artificial intelligence, interoperability standards, and enterprise integrations. Ruben regularly collaborates with institutional leaders, academic staff, and technology teams to address strategic and operational challenges in digital education.
He is particularly passionate about advancing accessibility in education and helping institutions create more inclusive learning environments. Through his work with Ally, he supports universities in improving the accessibility of digital course content, empowering educators to adopt inclusive practices, and ensuring that all learners have equitable access to educational resources. Ruben is also deeply interested in how AI and data-informed approaches can further enhance the learner experience while strengthening inclusion and student success.
Ruben will be running a 1-hour session.
The session will include latest updates to:
Blackboard Ally
Blackboard AI Design Assistant
New features roadmap for Blackboard
We’re really excited about some of the new features that are included in the Blackboard Ally update.
In the next 1-3 months, there’s going to be a new enhanced reader for students. In addition to all the great features already included in Ally, this will include features that help focus attention.
Following Blackboard’s session, Ifat Shah from Life Sciences and Jim Woolley from Student Journey will be giving a presentation on Blackboard Achievements. Colleagues in Life Sciences have been using it this year to record the DLS Skills Passport.
We’re delighted to welcome several stands across our in-person days at this year’s Annual Education and Student Experience Conference.
All stands will be in the Think Tank on Wednesday 9 September and Thursday 10 September.
AberSkills
Library Academic and Digital Services’ Non Jones will be hosting a stand to showcase the latest news from AberSkills, the home of skills development at Aberystwyth University. We’ve got some sessions as part of the conference focusing on Skills – Jim Dickinson from WONKHE and Trish McGrath from UndebAber will be leading a session, and Joy Cadwallader and Keziah Garratt-Smithson will be launching the Digital Discovery Tool.
Education and Student Experience Award Recipients
Recipients of last year’s Education and Student Experience Awards will be staffing stands so that delegates can hear all about the projects:
The Aber Medieval Physic Garden
Developing a Sustainable Student Gear Hub
Inclusivity and Accessibility in Assessment Design and Feedback Practices
Pulling together– supporting teamwork assessment more effectively
RLF Writing Stand
On Wednesday 9 and Thursday 10 September, we are delighted to welcome Samanthan Wynne-Rhydderch who will be hosting a stand.
Samantha is the Royal Literary Fellow here at Aberystwyth.
The RLF Fellowship scheme for writers was launched in autumn 1999 and is based in UK universities. About 750 writers work as Fellows at over 100 different institutions. The principal aim of the Fellow’s work is to foster good writing practice across all disciplines and media by showing students how to write with clarity and flow. Typically, a student will see the Fellow, a professional published author, one-to-one, for 50 minutes.
Our Digital Education training programme is now available for staff to book onto on the staff booking page
Our training is split across 3 levels:
E-learning Essentials:
Our E-learning Essentials sessions provide a practical introduction to the University’s core digital learning technologies and the policies that support their use. These sessions are ideal for colleagues who are new to a tool, taking on a new teaching role, or looking to refresh their knowledge.
You will gain confidence in using technologies such as Blackboard, Turnitin, Panopto, Microsoft Copilot, and Vevox, as well as learn about key processes that support learning, teaching, and assessment.
Sessions available:
Become a Document Pro
Introduction to Blackboard Ally
Introduction to Blackboard Ultra
Introduction to Component Marks Transfer
Introduction to Microsoft Copilot for Learning and Teaching Activities
Introduction to Panopto Lecture Capture and Teaching Room Equipment (bilingual)
Introduction to Turnitin (bilingual)
Introduction to Vevox Polling Software
E-learning Enhanced:
OurE-learning Enhancedsessions focus on designing and creating engaging learning activities using digital tools within your own teaching context.
These hands-on workshops will help you explore innovative approaches to learning design, assessment, accessibility, and student engagement, enabling you to make more effective use of the University’s digital learning environment.
Sessions available:
Becoming an Alternative Text Pro
Design Interactive Online Learning Activities Using Blackboard Discussions and Journals
Designing Blackboard Tests
Designing Learning and Teaching Activities Using Vevox
Introduction to the Blackboard AI Design Assistant
Measuring and Increasing Engagement Using Blackboard Tools
Peer Assessment with Turnitin
Preparing for Your Blackboard Exam
Using the Advanced Features of Panopto
E-learning Excellence:
Our E-learning Excellence programmeis designed for colleagues who want to create outstanding digital learning experiences and align their courses with recognised best practice.
Based on theBlackboard Exemplary Course Award rubric, these sessions explore the key elements of high-quality course design and effective digital pedagogy. While the sessions are designed as a complementary four-part series, you are welcome to attend individual sessions according to your interests and needs.
Sessions available:
Exemplary Assessment Design
Exemplary Course Design
Exemplary Interaction and Collaboration
Exemplary Learner Support
Submitting an Exemplary Course Award
We are committed to making our training as accessible and inclusive as possible. If you are unable to attend a session but would like access to the training materials, or if you would like to discuss any aspect of the session format or accessibility requirements, please contact the Digital Education Group at elearning@aber.ac.uk.
We look forward to seeing you at a forthcoming session.
In the August update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements:
Manage group membership with drag and drop
Create multiple groups at once
Make notifications more accurate and reliable
Add sorting controls for users in Discussions
Restructured Gradebook grid view (Instructors)
Export question banks (Instructors)
Display answer-level feedback for selected options only (Instructors and Students)
Navigate courses faster with an improved user interface
Set release conditions based on journal submissions
Manage group membership with drag and drop
Managing groups is now quicker thanks to new drag-and-drop functionality.
Instructors
From the Groups management area, instructors can now:
Drag students directly from the unassigned list into a group.
Remove individual students from a group without having to clear all members.
Continue using existing assignment methods alongside drag and drop.
This makes it much easier to create and adjust groups, particularly when making small changes to membership or balancing students across several groups.
Image 1: Instructors can drag and drop students to assign them to a group.
Image 2: Instructors can remove individual students from a group instead of removing them all at once.
Create multiple groups at once
Setting up groups has also become much more efficient.
Instructors
Instead of creating groups one by one, instructors can now create multiple groups in a single action. Anywhere from two to 5,000 groups can be generated at once, making setup much faster for large modules.
After groups are created, members can be added manually, imported, or assigned automatically.
A few things to note:
When using Automatically assign, Blackboard creates the required number of groups based on your chosen group size.
When using Self-enrol, three groups are created automatically. Any additional groups created through the bulk creation option are added to those existing groups.
This update significantly reduces the amount of repetitive setup required when preparing collaborative activities.
Image 1: Instructors can now create multiple groups at once instead of adding them one at a time.
Image 2: Instructors can indicate how many groups to create at once, with the minimum 2 and the maximum 5,000.
Make notifications more accurate and reliable
Blackboard has improved the reliability of its notification system by fixing several issues that previously caused missing, duplicated, or mistimed notifications.
Instructors and Students
Improvements include:
Students only receive due and overdue notifications for groups they are actually assigned to.
Duplicate notifications for copied Group Discussions have been removed.
Notifications for discussions, blogs, journals, and wikis now work correctly after course content is copied.
Digest emails now include information about grade updates and cleared grades.
Failed digest emails are no longer incorrectly marked as delivered.
Announcement emails are sent only after their configured start date, ensuring students do not receive messages before content becomes available.
These changes should reduce unnecessary notification traffic while increasing confidence that alerts reflect what is happening in a course.
Add sorting controls for users in Discussions
Discussion areas now include sorting controls to help users navigate long conversations more easily.
Instructors and Students
Users can now:
Sort posts by Newest first or Oldest first.
Return to discussions and find them displayed in the same order they previously selected.
Sorting applies throughout the discussion, including reply threads, and works consistently on mobile devices.
This makes it easier to follow active discussions, review contributions, and find recent activity.
Restructured Gradebook grid view
The Gradebook Grid View has been reorganised to provide a more streamlined grading experience for instructors.
Question banks can now be exported directly from Blackboard.
Instructors
From the question bank management page, instructors can export a question bank as a file and save it locally.
This allows staff to:
Create backups of assessment content.
Share question banks with colleagues.
Reuse content across multiple courses.
The export process gives instructors greater flexibility when managing and preserving assessment materials.
Display answer-level feedback for selected options only
Blackboard has changed how feedback is displayed for multiple-choice questions.
Instructors
There are no changes to the way feedback is created. Staff can continue adding feedback to individual answer options using the existing workflow.
Students
After submitting an assessment attempt, students now only see feedback for the answer options they selected.
Previously, students could see feedback for all options. The new approach provides more focused guidance while preventing students from viewing feedback linked to answers they did not choose.
This allows feedback to remain targeted and relevant to individual responses.
Navigate courses faster with an improved user interface
Blackboard has continued its work to improve navigation and overall user experience.
These changes are intended to:
Make it easier to understand where you are within a course.
Reduce accidental navigation mistakes.
Improve consistency and performance.
Help students stay focused during assessments.
Importantly, course structures and content remain unchanged, so instructors do not need to redesign anything.
Full-page content navigation
Learning modules, folders, documents, assessments, media, and other content items now open as full pages rather than in overlay panels.
Opening content in a dedicated page creates a more consistent experience and makes it easier to move back through course materials without losing your place.
Image 1: Content now opens as a full page with consistent headers and navigation, rather than as stacked overlay panels.
Breadcrumbs for contextual clarity
Content pages now include breadcrumb navigation.
Breadcrumbs show where an item sits within a course structure and provide quick access back to parent folders and modules. They are automatically generated and require no setup from instructors.
This additional context helps users keep track of their location within a course and move around more efficiently.
Image 2: Breadcrumbs on a content page show the user’s location and allow quick movement back through modules and folders.
Clearer, intentional exit from content
The purple “X” previously used to leave content has been replaced with a clearly labelled exit option in the navigation area.
Making the exit control more visible and deliberate helps reduce accidental page closures and makes navigation more predictable.
Image 3: The exit option now sits within the navigation banner, reducing accidental exits.
Focus state for tests and assignments (Students)
When students open a test or assignment, Blackboard automatically switches to a focus state.
This view reduces visual distractions by minimising non-essential navigation elements and presenting a cleaner assessment screen.
The feature:
Helps students concentrate on assessments.
Does not affect grading or functionality.
Still allows students to navigate elsewhere if needed.
Requires no action from instructors.
Focus state is enabled automatically and cannot be switched off.
Image 4: In focus state, nonessential navigation is minimized so students can concentrate on completing an assessment.
Set release conditions based on journal submissions
Release conditions can now be linked to journal submissions.
Instructors
When configuring release conditions, instructors can choose journal submission status as a requirement. Once a student submits the required journal entry, the associated content becomes available automatically.
Importantly, instructors do not need to grade the journal before content is released. Blackboard records the submission as complete within progress tracking and uses that status to trigger content release.
This provides greater flexibility when designing structured learning pathways and prerequisite activities.
Image 1: Instructors select Engagement as the activity requirement for a journal.
Students
Students automatically gain access to new content once they submit the journal entry linked to a release condition.
There is no need to wait for marking or instructor approval before progressing, creating a smoother learning experience and reducing delays between activities.
The Annual Education and Student Experience Conference brings colleagues together to celebrate, share and showcase the innovative work taking place across our University to enhance learning, teaching and the student experience.
This year, a total of £10,000 is available, with applications welcomed for projects of up to £2,000 each.
Projects should align to this year’s conference themes.
Diversifying the curriculum
Skills, graduate attributes, and real-world application of competencies
Students as co-creators and collaborators
The awards are funded through the Education and Student Experience Fund and the Race Equality Charter Fund.
We encourage applications from across the University community and welcome proposals which would make a difference to our education and student experience.
Applicants should attend this year’s conference, which is taking place between 8-10 September. You can book your place using this online form.
The conference programme includes presentations from recipients of last year’s awards.
Are you thinking about coming to the Education and Student Experience conference in September? Maybe you’ve never attended before, or you are new to the university. Perhaps you’re not sure whether it would be a good use of your time. With just under a month to go, we wanted to release a blogpost outlining previous conference feedback.
Of course, we would say it’s the best three days in the diary (we do organise it!), but what do attendees from last year say?
Every year we run a feedback survey with people who have been to the conference. And last year 97% of people who responded rated the conference as 4 or 5 out of 5. And 90% said that it met their expectations.
The aspects of the conference that attendees valued the most were that it provided an opportunity to discuss up-to-date topics in learning and teaching, and community building. The mix of internal and external speakers means you have the chance to find out what’s going on in other AU departments, as well as universities in the UK and beyond. And you can meet staff in other departments who may share the same teaching or research interests as you. There’s plenty of time during breaks to meet new people as well as catch-up with colleagues you haven’t seen for a while.
Not only is the conference a great event, but attendees say that it has a direct impact on their teaching practice. Through both the conference papers and workshops, and the conversations, staff say that they use new approaches learnt from the conference in their teaching. After last year’s conference, several staff members told us they were going to explore using AI in their teaching. If you are thinking of applying for AdvanceHE fellowship, the conference is also a great way of taking part in CPD and reflecting on your teaching practice.
One of the messages that attendees suggested that we share more widely is that you’re welcome to dip in and out of the conference. We know that you may not be able to spend all three days attending, but you can come along for a couple of talks that really interest you. And of course, you can stay for as long as you like if you find that you want to carry on the conversation, or another session catches your eye.
So, it’s not just the organising team who rate the conference highly – staff from across the university agree that it’s a good way of meeting colleagues, discussing teaching topics, and learning something that they can use in their teaching. Come along and join them and find out for yourself. We’d love to see you there.
Merging courses is an effective way of dealing with separate courses with the same content so you don’t have to upload materials to two or more different courses.
This process makes one course the Primary (previously parent), whilst the other course(s) becomes Secondary (previously child). There’s no limit on how many secondary courses you can make but there can only be one primary.
Examples from Aberystwyth
Many members of staff are currently using the merge course facility across the institution. Some examples are:
Modules are taught the same content but there’s a module available for different years.
Modules that bring together different degree schemes and have different module IDs, e.g. dissertation modules.
Essentially, any module/course that shares the same content is ideal for Merging courses.
What do students see?
Students will see the name of the course that they are enrolled on (even if it’s the secondary course) when they log into Blackboard but they will see all the content placed in the primary course. Instructors will not be able to place content in the secondary course.
Things to consider
Now, before the start of term and whilst course content is being built, is the perfect time for linking your courses. Whilst the linking of courses does save time in the loading of materials, here are some points to consider:
All content can be viewed as soon as the courses are merged (as long as students are enrolled on the course). In addition to PowerPoints and lecture materials, this also includes Announcements and other interactive tools on your primary course.
Historical student interactions on a secondary course (such as using blogs or posting in discussion boards) won’t be available once the courses have been merged.
Any submission points created on a secondary module before the merge takes place will no longer be able to be viewed. We would advise creating these again in the primary course.
How do I control content so that it is only viewable to a module cohort?
Whilst all content is automatically visible once the courses are merged, you can use groups and adaptive release if you only want the content to be visible to a specific module cohort. This might be useful, for example, if you have merged a 2nd year and 3rd year course but your students on the different courses have separate assignments. You can use groups – 1 for the 2nd year students and one for 3rd year students and limit who can see the assignment information and submission point. See our guidance on Creating Groups and Release Conditions.
Merging Courses and the Grade Book
Once the merging takes place, all students will appear in the Grade Book of the primary course. It is possible to filter the gradebook using Merged Modules so that you only see the information for students on the relevant modules.
Click the filter button highlighted below and choose from the dropdown for merged courses:
If you’d like further information on this process or have any questions, please contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.
In just over a week’s time, the August Blackboard update will be released. This includes an overhaul of the Gradebook. Please see below for further information.
The monthly August Blackboard release has a new user interface for the Gradebook.
Given the nature of this update, we have a separate blogpost dedicated to it.
If you have any questions about the updated Gradebook or grading, please contact the Digital Education Team (elearning@aber.ac.uk).
Every course has the Gradebook, which is used to manage all aspects of the administration of marks. It can be accessed via the top menu of Blackboard courses.
As part of this update, the following processes are not changing:
Grades, calculations, and overall grade configuration
Grade schemas and grading settings
Course-level accommodations
The List View
All existing grades and submission history
The component marks transfer process also remains unchanged.
Change 1: Default view
The default view of the Gradebook is now the grid view
You can swap between the grid view and the list view by clicking between the views:
Change 2: To do list
The Gradebook Overview is now called the To Do List which is available in grid and list views:
From here, you can see what work there is to mark and post:
A reminder that marks need to be posted in order to be included in the marks transfer.
Change 3: Entering Grades
The ways to enter grades into columns has changed.
Click on the pencil icon to change and enter the grade:
You can then post the marks from this screen by clicking on the post icon:
You can also leave feedback from this view by clicking on the mark
If you want to mark and leave feedback on all Blackboard marked items, click on this icon:
This will then open the assignment mark screen.
Change 4: Updating and editing columns
Editing columns now take place via the list view.
Change 5: Filtering by merged module
It is possible to filter the gradebook using Merged Modules so that you only see the information for students on the relevant modules.
Click the filter button highlighted below and choose from the dropdown for merged courses:
Change 6: File upload and download gradebook
The functionality for downloading and uploading to the gradebook has moved.
Click on the settings cog:
Choose Download marks or Upload marks depending on what you want to do.
Change 7: Checking the visibility of a column
The visibility status of columns can no longer be seen in the grid view.
To check the visibility of the column, navigate to the list view:
You can amend the visibility of the column by clicking on the ….
We are now working to update our guidance to reflect the changes in the Gradebook.
If you need any further information or have any questions, please contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.
We previously announced our keynote speaker at this year’s Annual Education and Student Experience Conference: Dr Hardeep Kaur Basra.
We’re now delighted to announce our second external speakers: Professor Ruth Healey and Millie Leach.
They’ll be joining us on Day 1 of the conference with the session: From tokenistic to authentic: meaningful co-creation with students.
Please see below for their biographies:
Ruth Healey is a Professor of Learning and Teaching in Higher Education, at the University of Chester. She is a National Teaching Fellow (NTF) (2017); a Fellow of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL) (2019), a Senior Fellow of the Staff and Educational Development Association (SEDA) (2024), and a Principal Fellow of the Higher Education Academy (PFHEA) (2026). She is one of the inaugural editors of the International Journal for Students as Partners(2016-).
Millie Leach is an undergraduate BSc Cybersecurity student at the University of Chester, working alongside her degree as a Student Learning Consultant for the university’s Centre for Academic Innovation and Development. She is a recipient of Staff and Educational Development Association’s (SEDA) ‘Student Partnership Impact Award’ (2025) and recently become an editor of the International Journal for Students as Partners(2025-).
