Blackboard Tests – Creating Online Assessment Activities for your Students

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Online tests and quizzes can be created for your students using the Tests function in Blackboard. Tests can be provided as a formative method of assessment, as a self-assessment method for students, or as a more formal means of assessing student performance. 

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit have recently updated our Blackboard Tests guidance, to support staff in providing online assessment activities for students.

Why Use Blackboard Tests in my module?
Benefits to Students:

  • Reinforce learning. Research has shown that tests and quizzes are powerful tools to promote retrieval practice, aid revision and improve learning.
  • Valuable feedback. Blackboard Tests can provide varied, additional feedback opportunities for students.
  • Media rich experience. Videos, images and links to recordings and external resources can be provided within the questions and answers.
    Continue reading →

    • Using Third Party Software for Learning and Teaching

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    As we move to planning and delivering teaching online, we have to become creative with the tools that we use.

    Whilst advice so far has been to use technologies that both you and your students are familiar with, there might be a good reason to try a different platform that is not supported or hosted by AU.

    If you are considering using a different platform, do bear in mind the company’s privacy statements and find out what they do with personal data (yours and your students’). For example, Zoom, a video conferencing software, has some great functionality especially around creating breakout rooms. Their privacy statement does, however, show that they collect a wide range of information from both the meeting organiser and participants.

    The same principles apply to polling software by third parties. In a previous blogpost, we wrote about being mindful of what is happening to yours and your students’ data. Do ask yourselves when selecting a third party platform:

    • what personal data the company in question is collecting about you;
    • what personal data your students may be required to give;
    • how are your presentations stored;
    • how and where your data is kept.

    Most companies make their Privacy Policy easy to find. On most sites, you can find a link at the bottom of the homepage under the heading Privacy.

    We are on hand to help you and your students transition to online learning.  Do be aware that our expertise is in supporting the technologies we host here at AU, so it may take a little longer to assist you with queries about other platforms. Many of the principles and best practice about teaching with technology apply regardless of platform, and we will be more than happy to help you with this.

    We’re not discouraging you from using these platforms, but we do want you to consider the implications for your and your students’ data before doing so, so that you can make an informed choice on how to deliver learning.

    If you have any questions about online teaching, please don’t hesitate to contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk / 01970 622472.

    If you have any questions about data protection and using third party software, including potential personal data breaches, please contact the Information Governance Manager on infocompliance@aber.ac.uk.

    You can find further information on Learning and Teaching Continuity on our webpages as well as our FAQs.

    Teaching Online? How to make Blackboard Activities more interactive with Adaptive Release

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    Following the move to online teaching, this blogpost is intended to give you some ideas about how to make your Blackboard Course Site more interactive for students. In the first of this series of blogposts, we’ll be looking explicitly at a feature called Adaptive Release.

    The move to online teaching, if anything, shows us that Blackboard is a powerful learning tool that can be used for a wide variety of learning activities and not solely as a place in which materials are accessed, lectures are watched, and assignments are submitted. Key to the design of online and digital learning is thinking about what activities you want your students to be doing in addition to what resources they need access to.

    One of the most powerful, yet underused tools, in Blackboard is Adaptive Release. Adaptive Release gives you the opportunity to release content based on a series of rules. The most common of these is to limit content based on dates and times or by a user or group of students, but you can also use Adaptive Release to release content after students have completed a certain activity or reviewed certain materials.

    For example, if you’ve got two lectures that students have got to view but you don’t want them to move straight onto the second lecture without having assessed their understanding of the first lecture. Additionally, understanding the content of the second lecture might be dependent on the content covered in the first lecture.

    If you’d like to limit moving onto the second lecture:

    Adaptive Release such as the above scenario links to a Grade in the Grade Centre. There are a number of rules that you can apply. For example, you could set the rule so that students have to get a specific mark in the test before they are able to see the content to demonstrate their understanding.

    In this scenario, you can ensure that students have gained sufficient knowledge and understanding from the content whilst also creating an environment that responds directly to their activity.

     

    Monitoring Student Engagement while teaching online

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    Distance Learner BannerThis blogpost aims to provide you with information on some useful tools in Blackboard that can help you monitor student engagement. This was initially produced for a Distance Learner forum but the tools discussed apply to teaching online. In addition to providing some guidance on Blackboard tools, there are also some resources on student engagement and teaching online at the end of this document.

    Statistics Tracking

    Statistics Tracking is a useful way for you to monitor how many of your students have engaged with your course materials. This tool is available in Blackboard.
    How do I track students’ use of items in my Blackboard Module? https://faqs.aber.ac.uk/index.php?id=628

    Review Status

    Review Status ask learners to mark that they have a reviewed a piece of content. This will allow you to track where learners are with their modules and their items. 

    Using Review Status places the emphasis on giving students their own review status.
    What is the Review Status in Blackboard? https://faqs.aber.ac.uk/index.php?search=2869

    Adaptive Release

    Adaptive release gives Instructors a flexible way to control which items in a Blackboard module are available to students. You can customise your material to fit the needs of individual students or groups. This is especially useful if you have both core and supplementary materials. For example, you might want to release supplementary material only to those students who score poorly on an assessment, but not to the whole class. You can set up a path of contingent prerequisites, such that students cannot see more advanced material until they have viewed the introductory material. You can make material available only for the time period when it is relevant, such as before or after a laboratory practical. You may also wish to make material available only to a selected group of students, perhaps releasing information to a group of students on their group project topic.
    How do I use adaptive release to control when items in Blackboard are made available? https://faqs.aber.ac.uk/index.php?id=582
    Irwin, B. et al. 2013. ‘Engaging students with feedback through adaptive release’. Innovations in Education and Teaching International. 50: 1. DOI: 10.1080/14703297.2012.748333. Pp. 51-61. Last Accessed 21.10.2019. This article looks at the impact of using adaptive release for releasing student feedback. The aim of this approach was to encourage students to engage more fully with their feedback. Using adaptive release in this way can also be used to engage students with their learning tasks.

    You can use adaptive release via the grade centre and the completion of a test or quiz, for example, to release the next unit to students. Not only that, you can also use it to hide content once it’s completed.

    Resources on Student Engagement

    Blessinger, P. & C. Wankel. Ed. 2013. Increasing Student Engagement and Retention in e-Learning Environments: Web 2.0 and Blended Learning Technologies. Bradford: Emerald Publishing Limited. Last Accessed: 18.10.2019.

    Especially:

    Starr-Glass, D. 2013. ‘From Connectivity to Connected Learners: Transactional Distance and Social Presence.’ Pp. 113-143

    This publication looks at how technology can be used to engage students. The edited collection provides lots of guidance on learning technologies in teaching.

    As the editors identify, ‘any technology, novelty or technical sophistication alone cannot guarantee engagement of learners. These technologies should be used in a purposeful and integrated way and within an appropriate theoretical framework germane to the teaching and learning context’ (2013: 5-6).

    One chapter of note is Starr-Glass (Pp. 113-143) who emphasises building a learning community and offering opportunities for collaboration as a way to engage students who are studying at a distance. 

    Starr-Glass uses Michael Moore’s theory of transactional difference to look at the repercussions of separating the learner from their peers and instructors. The author encourages learners to rely on more than just the technology.  Distance Learning also seen as an early form of learner-centric activities.

    Starr-Glass argues that we are now at a Fifth Generation of Distance Learning (2005- ) – The intelligent flexible learning model (2013: 118). This is characterised by access to technology environments where ‘[l]earners are viewed as knowledgeable, self-assured, and capable of accessing informational networks’ (ibid.). Opportunities for creating communities amongst peers are also explored.
    Krull, G. & J. M Duart. 2019. ‘Supporting seamless learners: exploring patterns of multiple device use in an open and distance learning context’. Research in Learning Technology. 2017. http://dx.doi.org/10.25304/rlt.v27.2215. Pp. 1-13. Last Accessed: 18.10.2019. 

    We often think about content of Distance Learning courses but we don’t necessarily think about how our students are accessing their content. In this article, Greig Krull and Joseph Duart look at how students make use of multiple devices. They used semi- structured interviews to analyse their findings.

    Their findings suggest that students studying via distance learning tend to work in multiple locations (private and public) ‘demonstrating the potential for seamless learning’ (4).

    The study also found that students had access to between 2 and 5 digital devices for learning. On average, students used 3 devices for learning (4).

    As the authors indicate, ‘[a]n area for future research is how educators can better support students using multiple devices and how to reduce any potential ‘seams’ in their learning experiences’ (10).
    Meyer, K. 2014. Student Engagement Online: What works and why. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons. Last Accessed 21.10.2019.

    Meyer examines online learning against a context of retention in Higher Education. Of most interest, might be the section on Experiential and Active Learning (p. 28).Meyer also discusses the importance of fostering an online community amongst learners to encourage engagement with resources. The monograph borrows the National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to consider how you might engage students in online learning.

    These include:

    1.       Level of academic challenge

    2.       Active and collaborative learning

    3.       Student-faculty interaction

    4.       Enriching educational experience

    5.       Supportive campus (online) environment

    (7-8)

     

     

    Teaching Tips: Teaching and Learning Continuity

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    Distance Learner BannerGeneral Points 

    • Provide clear and easy to understand instructions. This cuts down on the number of emails and queries you will receive.  
    • Use the technology that you and your students know and can use. Remember that you can include links to our FAQs in your Blackboard course to help your students. 
    • If you are using your own computer, check that you can do everything you will need to do. If you have any questions you can contact is@aber.ac.uk. These FAQs will help you: 

    Further resources

    View the excellent set of resources in the ACUE online teaching toolkit:  

    See guidance from UK Copyright Literacy on Copyright, Fair Dealing and Online Teaching at a Time of Crisis. 

    Manage your content

    • Active learning at a distance: Think about the learning tasks that you want students to carry out, not just the content covered. Make sure that the tasks are made clear to the students. If the learning task is clear, it will promote active learning even at a distance.   For example, a somewhat vague learning task would be to read three articles. A more active task would be to read the three articles and evaluate their arguments relative to each other, or analyse data across several sources to identify patterns, etc.  
    • Accessibility: Apply principles of good accessibility practice to your PowerPoints, Word documents, and other materials.  
      • Apply ALT tags to images in any materials. 
      • Ensure that speaker notes are included in your PowerPoint files and upload the PPT file into Blackboard. Do not just upload a PDF. This gives students another channel to get all of the information you want them to have. 
      • Use plain English as much as possible. If your students don’t understand something well, they won’t be able to ask you during lecture. 
    • Make sure that your Blackboard course is easy for students to navigate. They should be able to find the relevant material for each week easily and quickly. 
    • Reading materials: Ensure that all reading material is accessible through Blackboard. Use Aspire reading lists. If some material is only available in print form (e.g. books in the library), find alternative e-books or online sources they can use instead. 
    • Adaptive Release: You can use Adaptive Release so your materials appear at set times. Try and avoid too many complicated adaptive release rules as they can make it difficult work out why a student can’t see documents.  
    • Box of Broadcasts is an excellent resource for TV and radio material. You can arrange recordings of upcoming material or use previously broadcast programmes. 

    Blackboard Tests and Surveys 

    Tests are an excellent way for students to check their understanding of a topic and help you know more about their progress. 

    • Be sure to include feedback on right and wrong answers, so that your students can learn from the formative quiz.  
    • You don’t have to give the correct answer but can give links to readings, or further resources to help learn the material. 
    • Write questions that help your students engage with the material, rather than just remembering facts. You can write questions that require them to analyse material, work with scenarios, and do calculations etc. 

    Discussion Boards 

    Discussion boards are an excellent way to run a remote seminar. They allow students to engage at times that work for them. They are also familiar to many.  

    • Activities: Provide activities for the students to engage with on the discussion boards – set starter questions that require them to actively engage, for example analysing data, comparing articles, summarising their reading, creating questions from the materials they have read. 
    • Guidance on engagement: Provide guidance for students on how you want them to engage with the discussion boards.  
      • For example, you could ask them to write their own posts, and comment on others.  
      • Tell them how often you want the students to engage and how often you will engage. 
      • If you are running a thread for each seminar, you may want to keep the discussion going for a week and then start a new one at a set time. 
    • Guidance on writing:  
      • Do you want them to write formally or informally? 
      • Should they reference their reading? 
      • Short posts are better than essays – the aim of discussion boards is for students to interact rather than just post their essays  

    Blogs, Wikis and Journals 

    Blogs and Journals are a good way of students to document an ongoing process or practice – for example a reading journal. Students can use text, images, video etc. Blogs are visible to all class members, and Journals are private between the student and the instructor. 

    Wikis are good for group work. They can be used by all the class, or you can split into groups, and each group can have a wiki. Students can use text, images and video, and you can see each student’s contribution. 

    • Give students clear instructions about how to use the blogs, wikis or journals. Tell them what you expect: how often you want them to contribute and how often you will engage with them. 
    • Example contributions can be useful to help students understand what you expect. 
    • You can make comments on posts to provide feedback.
    • All three types of activity can be graded if you want to use them as an assessment method. 

    Panopto Recordings 

    Panopto recordings are a good way of presenting information to your students along with PowerPoint slides. You can re-use recordings you have already made, but if you are making new recordings specifically for continuity purposes, bear the following in mind: 

    • Make your videos shorter than a standard lecture. Students will find it easier to concentrate on shorter videos. 
    • Link the recording to a learning activity for your students. Encourage active listening with questions, or other activities. 
    • Make the PowerPoint and speakers notes (if you use them) available on Blackboard. 
    • If you are still working on campus, use teaching rooms or AU equipment to create Panopto recordings. If you are experiencing problems with installing Panopto on your own equipment, consider re-using recordings you have made in previous years until these have been resolved. 

    Panopto Quizzes

    Quizzes are a good way of breaking up your recording, similar to the way you would use questions in a lecture 

    • Write clear questions that will help your students engage with the recording actively. 

    Annual Learning and Teaching Conference 2020 Keynote Speaker: Professor Ale Armellini

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    We are very excited to announce that Professor Ale Armellini will be attending this year’s Learning and Teaching Conference as our Keynote speaker.

    From developing, implementing and evaluating Northampton University’s own Learning and Teaching plan, we are highly anticipating Professor Ale Armellini’s thoughts and ideas on this year’s conference theme of Enhancing the Curriculum: Inspire Learning and Invigorate Teaching!

    Northampton University’s Learning and Teaching Plan and the Aberystwyth Pedagogical Excellence (APEX) Strategy both emphasise the importance of active learning, and are trying to implement active learning on a wider scale across their respective universities. Active learning is one of this year’s key points of the conference, so to have Professor Armellini as keynote speaker will certainly be a highlight of the event.

    Over three phases, Aberystwyth University aims to promote a more sustained student active learning ethos, by following a series of both key strategies and ongoing strategies, through the mediums of Welsh and English. This includes our Active Learning Project, and Staff and Student Mental Health Development as two key areas of strategy, as well as Personal Tutor Enhancement, and Employability Initiatives as part of our ongoing strategic concerns. Ultimately, by the summer of 2022, Aberystwyth University strives to have transformed how we teach and how our students learn, and hopefully encourage other Universities to do the same.

    Northampton University’s Learning and Teaching Objectives, developed by our keynote speaker, have some similarities which highlight the importance of pedagogic innovation. Professor Armellini’s role in providing leadership in learning and teaching across the entirety of Northampton University and research on learning innovation and online pedagogy, to name a few of his research areas, means he will be providing the attendees of our conference with invaluable advice and insight.

    The Annual Learning and Teaching Conference at Aberystwyth University will be held from the 7th September 2020, to 9th September 2020. 

    You can follow his twitter feed at @alejandroa

    Teaching and Learning Continuity

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    This FAQ outlines the e-learning tools available to staff to provide teaching and learning continuity

    Information Services guidance for working from home can be found in the FAQ here

    Human Resources (HR) guidance for working from home can be found on the HR website here

    We recommend staff and students use Google Chrome or Mozilla Firefox web browsers

    Blackboard as a Learning Environment

    What can I do?

    How do I do it?
    Familiarise yourself with Blackboard See our Getting Started in Blackboard Guide

    If you do not see all your modules see our FAQ on how Staff are enrolled on modules

    See our Blackboard FAQs
    Manage your learning content effectively See our FAQ on uploading files and content to Blackboard

    See our FAQ on managing your links and folders

    See our Checklist on making your documents accessible

    See our Teaching Tips
    Use Announcements within Blackboard to communicate with the students on your module See our FAQ on adding an announcement in Blackboard
    Let your students know how to contact you by adding contact information to your profile See our FAQ on adding Staff information to a Blackboard module
    Use Blackboard tests and surveys for formative assessment See our FAQ on Creating a test or survey in Blackboard

    See our guidance on tests and surveys

    See our Teaching Tips
    Enable students to engage with yourself and each other via a discussion board See our FAQ on adding a discussion board to your Blackboard module

    See our guidance on discussion boards

    See our Teaching Tips
    Utilise blogs, wikis and journals for student reflection and collaboration See our guidance on blogs

    See our guidance on wikis

    See our guidance on journals

    See our Teaching Tips

    E-submission

    What can I do?

    How do I do it?
    Familiarise yourself with using Turnitin for E-submission See our Quick Start Guide to Turnitin

    See our Turnitin FAQs
    Create Turnitin submission points for your students to submit their assignments to See our FAQ on creating a Turnitin submission point
    Mark Turnitin submissions and provide feedback online See our FAQ on marking assignments in Turnitin

    Lecture Recording

    What can I do?

    How do I do it?
    Install Panopto on your own computer so you can make recordings from wherever you are working See our FAQ on installing Panopto on your computer
    Check your microphone is working See our FAQ on checking your microphone is picking up sound
    Make a Panopto recording See our FAQ on making a Panopto recording

    See our FAQ on re-using recordings you have previously made

    See our Teaching Tips
    Add quizzes to your Panopto recording See our FAQ on adding a quiz to your Panopto recording

    See our Teaching Tips

    Virtual Meetings

    What can I do?

    How do I do it?
    Familiarise yourself with using Skype for Business for Virtual Meetings. See our Skype for Business Guide

    See our guide for Learning and Teaching Activities using Skype for Business. 
    Install Skype for Business on your machine See our FAQ on installing Skype for Business (Windows)

    See our FAQ on installing Skype for Business (Android)

    See our FAQ on installing Skype for Business (Mac)
    Arrange a meeting or virtual teaching session See our FAQ on how do I set up a meeting or video conference using Skype for Business

     

    For further help and guidance please see the E-learning webpages and our Guides and Documents webpage

    Practice Organisations available for all teaching staff

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    Practice ModulesWe have created Practice Organisations for all staff with teaching roles. These organisations are spaces where you can try out the many different features of Blackboard and preload materials without working on a live Blackboard module.

    To access the Practice Organisation, log into Blackboard, and scroll down to My Organisations. You will see your practice module with the code PRAC_username.

    If you build something in your practice organisation then you are able to copy content over into a live module. We’ve got the following FAQs for copying:

    In addition to this, there are many more FAQs and Guides to support your use of Blackboard, in addition to further information on our website.

    As these are practice courses, they don’t contain enrolments and there are certain items that can’t be copied, such as:

    • Turnitin submission points
    • Items that have adaptive release enabled
    • Any assessed items linked to the grade centre
    • Blackboard groups

    You are welcome to use your practice course at any time. Practice organisations are not subject to Blank Course Copy and the content will rollover every year.

    If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

    Call for Proposals: Learning and Teaching Conference 2020

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    We are now inviting proposals for the 8th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference, Monday 7th – Wednesday 9th September 2020.

    Submit and view the call for proposals here.

    This year’s conference theme, Enhancing the Curriculum: Inspire Learning and Invigorate Teaching aims to reflect the commitment that AU staff have to enhance the student learning experience. The four main strands of this year’s conference are:

    • Creating a Learning Community
    • Developing Wellbeing in the Curriculum
    • Embedding Active Learning
    • Working with Students as Partners

    Staff, postgraduate teaching assistants, 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 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.

    Please complete this form no later than 26th June 2020.

    If you have any questions, please contact the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit at elearning@aber.ac.uk  or phone us on extension 2472.

    Kate Exley Workshop

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    The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is pleased to announce that Dr Kate Exley will be running two workshops on Tuesday 24th March 2020. 

    Dr Exley is Senior Staff Development Officer at the University of Leeds and a Consultant in Higher Education. She has particular expertise in Higher Education Teaching and Learning, Assessment and Accreditation, Supervising Research Students and Career Review, and Course Design and Curriculum Change.   

    These workshops have been specifically designed to support the implementation of the forthcoming Active Learning projects that form part of the Learning and Teaching Strategy 2019-2022. The workshops will focus on Active Learning for small and large group teaching. The workshops are open to all members of the University community but we strongly recommend that staff members or their nominee involved in the implementation of the Active Learning projects attend.   

    To ensure that as many people as possible can attend, the workshop will run twice – once 9.30am-12pm and again 12.30-3pm. Places are limited and booking is recommended.  

    To book your place, fill in your details on this online form and specify which workshop you would prefer to attend.  

    If you have any queries regarding these workshops please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.