2021

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

Self-paced MOOC, Disability Awareness, Universal Design for Learning in Tertiary Education, “Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a learning design approach that recognises there is no ‘average’ learner.”
Multiple dates through 2/2022 AdvanceHE, Inclusive learning and teaching workshop series
Multiple dates through 31/1/2022 Education and Training Foundation, EdTech Accessibility Training
11-12/1/2022 University of Nottingham, Designing Programmes for Learning: Foundations and Aspirations, “design of curricula and assessment at programme level”, includes some case studies on students-as-partners co-design
12/1/2022 University of Nottingham, Hybrid Teaching and Learning in HE – a futuristic model or a realistic model for the future?
24-28/1/2022 University of Liverpool, Liverpool Learning Summit: Equality, Diversity, Inclusion
8-9/3/3022 Jisc, Digifest

Resources and publications

Boud, D. & Dawson, P. (19/4/2021) What feedback literate teachers do: an empirically-derived competency framework, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
Centre for Global Higher Education (25/9/2020), Book Launch: Transforming University Education – A manifesto (1 hour video)
Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (31/10/2021), Special Edition, Compendium of Innovative Practice: Learning Development in a Time of Disruption
McVitty, D. (13/12/2021), What’s the best way to staff a university?, WonkHE blog
Mihai, A. (10/12/2021), Students as partners in learning design, The Educationalist
Naik, N. (18/11/2021), The ‘next normal’ according to teaching and learning experts, Talis: Teaching and Learning Connected
Nordmann E., Horlin C., Hutchison J., Murray J.-A., Robson L., Seery M. K,. et al. (1/10/2020), Ten simple rules for supporting a temporary online pivot in higher education, PLoS Computational Biology 16(10): e1008242.
Piatt, K. (10/12/2021), PlayLearn December round-up, Playful Learning Association
Raduescul, C. & El-den, S. (7/12/2021), Co-Designing Learning for Complexity, University of Sidney Business School Co-design Research Group
Redmond, P., Foote, S. M., Brown, A. et al. (10/6/2021), Adopting a framework to support the process of critical reflection and understanding of online engagement, Journal of Computing in Higher Education
Review of General Psychology (12/2021), Special Issue: Decolonial Perspectives in (and on) Psychology
Specia, A. & Osman, A. A. (2015), Education as a Practice of Freedom: Reflections on bell hooks, Journal of Education and Practice
Stevenson, J., Havemann, L., & Perkins, H. (6/12/2021), Higher education research: compassion, openness, and impact, WonkHE blog
Webster, H., rattus scholasticus: My personal blog – musings on Learning Development in Higher Education

Other

Call for papers 21/12/202: Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference, Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching UK
Call for papers 18/1/2022: Duke Learning Innovation Pandemic Pedagogy Research Symposium, “How do we move from pandemic innovation to real, lasting transformation?”
Call for papers 24/1/2022: Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference, Contemporary assessment practice in the new age of higher education

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.

Vevox updates December 2021

One of the advantages to having an institution subscription is that we can benefit from enhancements and updates.

One of the recent enhancements was to the word cloud style question. Previously only one word was able to be submitted to the word cloud style question, but now participants can provide multi-word submissions as well as single words. Word clouds also accept non-English characters and emojis. Vevox has also been working on the accessibility of the word cloud question and the colour scheme has been enhanced to improve its display.

We’re really pleased at how colleagues are making use of Vevox. If you’re after some ideas on how you can use it in your teaching, then Kate and myself recently presented a webinar on Vevox’s behalf. As well as giving an overview of our rollout of Vevox since we procured it in March, we also outlined some exemplary practices taking place by colleagues:

Module Evaluation (Dr Emmanual Isibor and Dr Chris Loftus, Computer Science)
Stats generation (Dr Maire Gorman, Physics and Graduate School)
Anonymous Q and A (Dr Megan Talbot, Law and Criminology)
Peer assessment and word associations (Dr Michael Toomey, International Politics)
Asynchronous Q and A (Dr Victoria Wright, Psychology)
Pin on image and session impact (Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit)

Thank you for the colleagues above for sharing their practices and experiences with us. A recording of the webinar is available on YouTube.

We’ve also got our Mini Conference on Thursday looking at how polling software can be used to enhance learning and teaching activities. There’s still time to book onto that. We’re grateful to be joined by Joe and Izzy from Vevox, as well as our external speaker, Dr Christina Stanley from the University of Chester.

Vevox guidance is available on our webpages. If you’ve not used Vevox before then sign up for the Zero to Hero sessions which are run every Tuesday at 3pm. We’re also re-running our training session Designing Teaching Activities using Vevox on 16 March 2022 at 10am. You can sign up via our Course Booking page.

What is a well-designed Blackboard module? Project

8th December 20218th December 2021 WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Students as Partners, Uncategorised Leave a comment

Written by Ania Udalowska

A well-designed Blackboard module may mean different things for different people. We asked our group of Student Learning Ambassadors to brainstorm what does it mean to them that a module is well-design. The findings of this discussion divided into categories can be found below.

Module Information

Teaching schedule – showing what is expected throughout the semester (which is carried out throughout the design of the module in folders). It is not necessary to have to release all content at the start of the module rather a roadmap showing students what they need to plan for. Download the teaching schedule example:

Teaching-schedule-example Download

Module handbook – one of the students explained that the handbook is almost like a contract between a student and a module coordinator. It should include all essential information (which may be, and in some cases, should be also included in different sections, e.g., all assessment-related information in Assessment & Feedback). Take a look at this blog post on comprehensive handbooks.

FAQs on the module – FAQs could be generated throughout the module based on queries received by the module coordinator and could be then used to help future students, e.g., what textbook is best / how do you set the assignment out/ suggestions of resources to help with a tricky concept etc. You could use the discussion board functionality to ask students for questions they want to know answers to.

Short introduction video – it would be nice to include a video that welcomes students into the module, explains how to navigate it and briefly outlines what will the teaching schedule look like. It does not have to be long nor formal!

Learning Materials

Folders – content should be divided into weeks (or topics). It should correspond with the teaching schedule. Consistency within folders is just as important, try to include the same type of learning materials in each folder (you can use small icons to indicate the type of activity) and keep them in a consistent order:

Live session preparation tasks – make it clear what needs to be done.
Teams links to live sessions.
Pre-recorded lectures (clear/ small chunks/ and no background noise)
Lecture slides and lecture handouts with space for notes (how to convert PowerPoint slides into handouts)
Activities to complete that give instant results/feedback to test knowledge. You could use Blackboard tests or Panopto quizzes.
Examples, relating theory to real-world as much as possible.
Reading – which items from the reading list refer to that week’s content.

Note: Where possible use review status and adaptive release – students progress at a different pace, some prefer for the content to be released all at once, others in stages. Having the review status and adaptive release can give students control over how much content they see at once and it also helps them to stay organised.

Workaround for Blackboard 404 error when accessing files using the Microsoft Edge browser.

6th December 20216th December 2021 WordPress User [rsf09] Blackboard, Technical Updates 1 Comment

The Microsoft Edge browser attempts to open Microsoft Office files directly in the browser. When accessing files in Blackboard this is causing an error with the message; “404 – File or directory not found.”

A suggested workaround for this is to use either the Google Chrome or Firefox browsers.

Alternatively you can change the following setting in Microsoft Edge:

Open the Edge menu by clicking the three dots and click Settings

An image of the Edge menu with settings highlighted

Click Downloads

Turn off the setting Open Office files in the browser

An image of the settings under downloads

If you require further assistance please contact elearning@aber.ac.uk

Weekly Resource Roundup – 5/12/2021

5th December 20216th December 2021 WordPress User [mhj] Resources and Webinars, Weekly Resource Roundup Leave a comment

Online events and webinars

8/12/2021 Echo 360, Developing Inclusive Educational Practices with Video-Based Learning
10/12/2021 University of Calgary, Managing Academic Integrity
15/12/2021 The University of Winchester’s Centre for Student Engagement, Interrogating ‘belonging’ in Higher Education
Self-paced MOOC, Disability Awareness, Universal Design for Learning in Tertiary Education, “Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is a learning design approach that recognises there is no ‘average’ learner.”
Multiple dates through 2/2022 AdvanceHE, Inclusive learning and teaching workshop series
11-12/1/2022 University of Nottingham, Designing Programmes for Learning: Foundations and Aspirations, “design of curricula and assessment at programme level”, includes some case studies on students-as-partners co-design
12/1/2022 University of Nottingham, Hybrid Teaching and Learning in HE – a futuristic model or a realistic model for the future?
8-9/3/3022 Jisc, Digifest

Resources and publications

Digitally Enhanced Education Webinars (2/12/2021), Webinar 11: Multimedia and accessibility: Making online work for everyone YouTube playlist (each talk is about 15 minutes)
dlink, Office for Digital Learning & Inquiry, Middlebury College (n.d.), The Asynchronous Cookbook: recipes for engaged & active online learning
Guild of Students, University of Birmingham and NUS (2020), Decolonisation in Practice conference recordings
Hounsell, D. (12/2021), Feedback in postgraduate online learning: perspectives and practices, in Beyond Technology: Online Postgraduate Education in a Postdigital World, available through ResearchGate.
Merry, K. (2021), Dr Kevin L. Merry, “Learners are more diverse than ever before. As such, it has never been more important to make learning inclusive and accessible, optimising value, authenticity and relevance. Implementing the principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is critical when supporting diverse learners.”
Mosley, N. (n.d.), 5 tips for approaching video in online learning, Neil Mosley blog
Race, P. (n.d.), Archived downloads, Phil Race: Assessment, learning and teaching in higher education. “This page includes a range of bits and pieces, not least the ‘statements’ exercise (slides and handout) which I still use in workshops.”
Thibodeau, D. & De Wilde, J. (22/11/2021), Identity and belonging at the centre of new models of learning, Advance HE News
University of Birmingham Higher Education Futures Institute (HEFi) (22/2/2021), How to Decolonise the Curriculum: MicroCPD (2-minute video)
University of Edinburgh (11/2021), Five things that we realised about hybrid/online teaching from the Teaching Matters’ ‘Revisiting the Hybrid Teaching Exchange’ series, Teaching Matters NewsLetter
University of Liverpool Centre for Innovation in Education (23/11/2021), Treasure Island Pedagogies: Episode 14 – the one with the kai, “our discussion featured Māori, Confucian and Arabic traditions and contexts, the focus on the whole person and creating the right environment for learning, including the importance of rituals that facilitate flexible and informal learning, such as through ‘kai’ (food) time.”
UNSW Sidney (n.s.), Course Design Model – RASE (5-minute video)
Ying, Z. (24/11/2021), Developing and validating a student feedback literacy scale, Assessment & Evaluation in Higher Education
Zingaretti, M. (25/11/2021), Learning and teaching approaches in Higher Education: Promoting deep learning through constructive alignment, Teaching Matters blog

Other

Call for papers 21/12/202: Interdisciplinary Learning and Teaching Conference, Interdisciplinary Learning & Teaching UK
Call for papers 18/1/2022: Duke Learning Innovation Pandemic Pedagogy Research Symposium, “How do we move from pandemic innovation to real, lasting transformation?”
Call for papers 24/1/2022: Assessment in Higher Education (AHE) Conference, Contemporary assessment practice in the new age of higher education

Implementing ‘Tools for Academic Writing’ across all departments – Student Learning Ambassadors

2nd December 20212nd December 2021 WordPress User [jbw] Information for Students, Online Teaching, Students as Partners Leave a comment

Written by Lucie Andrews, English and Creative Writing

The best Blackboard modules are organised effectively, easy to navigate and kept updated. However, I would like to focus on how Blackboard could be used as a resource for study skills and excellent academic practice. During the Student Learning Ambassadors project, we discussed what is a well-designed Blackboard module and some of the feedback included the way we felt that the referencing and citing guide was not easily accessible nor comprehensive enough to cover all student’s needs. We also talked about the idea of including assignment model answers as a template of what needs to be included and how to format assignments correctly. One way to act upon this feedback would be to include a new folder within the assessment and feedback section that focuses on study skills in order to improve Blackboard as a student resource.

When analysing the different approaches to how different departments used Blackboard during the usability testing, I realised there was a useful section in the module menu called ‘Tools for Academic Writing’ in my department of English and Creative Writing that was not in the other departmental menus. Therefore, I would recommend that we should implement ‘Tools for Academic Writing’ across all departments by creating an additional folder within the assessment and feedback section to act upon some of the student feedback. Why should you consider this? And what will this new folder include? As Blackboard is the site used for the learning and academic aspect of the student experience, I believe that all students would gain from a folder dedicated to providing students with study skills and tips that will enable them to achieve excellent academic practice. Within this folder, it would provide a unique list of study skills relating to each department’s needs. Here is a general template of what this folder could include:

a detailed referencing and citing guide that meets each department’s stylesheet
a guide of essential study tips and skills including essay writing pointers
links to workshops offered by the university on study skills
a FAQ on study skills and general module information

As a student, I have personally found that there is mostly a focus on the material covered in lectures, seminars and workshops and a focus on the marks scheme and assessment criteria. However, there is generally less focus on how you can improve your writing/study skills independently and how to write an essay/assessment / referencing to the expectations that meets the standards of university practices. Therefore, this folder on ‘Tools for Academic Writing’ should be implemented in all department’s assessment and feedback section across the University as it would offer Blackboard something new that would enhance the student academic experience, and this would aid students to achieve better grades. Thus, I feel that by implementing a folder dedicated to study skills within each module that is specific to what students on that module need would enhance student’s learning experience on Blackboard and improve its resources.

The importance of comprehensive module handbooks (Student Learning Ambassadors)

1st December 20211st December 2021 WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, Students as Partners 1 Comment

Written by Nathalia Kinsey, History and Welsh History

One of the things we discussed during the Student Learning Ambassadors project was how helpful module handbooks can be for students. Throughout my three years in the History department, module handbooks have been my go-to source of key information about each module. I often downloaded module handbooks at the start of the semester and kept them on my desktop, easy to reach for when I needed to glance at the marking criteria for an essay, double-check a due date, or find out what I needed to read for my next seminar. Having all this key information in one document meant I always knew where to look when I needed something, with no searching through Blackboard, wondering where a lecturer had put a particular piece of information. The key pieces of information included in the handbooks were:

contact details for the lecturer;
a brief introduction to the module;
numbered lists of lecturer and seminar titles, with information about the preparation needed;
assignment deadlines, word counts and the department assignment length policy;
a list of essay titles to choose from (although this may not be relevant, or could be adapted for other departments)
marking criteria.

They also often included other details specific to the module, such as maps or family trees, as well as notes on referencing, frequently used primary sources, or spelling names that might have multiple versions across texts. Overall, I and others participating in this project have found module handbooks to be incredibly useful documents that would be helpful to have across departments; they provide a single place where all the key information about a module can be easily accessed and kept near at hand.

Example of a comprehensive module handbook:

Medieval-Mind-handbook-2020-21 Download

Information on Assessments – Tips from Students (Student Learning Ambassadors)

30th November 202130th November 2021 WordPress User [jbw] Students as Partners Leave a comment

Written by Elisa Long Perez, Department of Law & Criminology

Assessments are the predominant way for lecturers to test students’ knowledge in a module or subject. To make that possible, students need to know what criteria they are expected to adhere to, as well as where and when to submit. In some modules, this essential information are not as easily accessible as needed. 

During the usability testing activities, I completed as part of the Student Learning Ambassadors project, I noticed that some modules either had no marking criteria or had marking criteria that were not easily accessible to students. The absence of this key document often leaves students confused as to how they should approach their assignments, leading to lower marks. Other issues I found were to do with submission points and deadlines. Submission points were often included at the bottom of the Assessment and Feedback section or in a different section altogether which may lead to students either not submitting their assignments on time or they don’t submit them at all. Secondly, if the deadline isn’t emphasised enough or is easily missed the same thing happens; students won’t know when they are due to submit their assignments and may end up rushing to submit at the last minute or fail to submit on time.

My suggestions to teaching staff would be to: always include the marking criteria in the Assessment and Feedback section and the module handbook; make sure the submission points are on top of the section and highlight the deadline in bold; send a reminder one month, one week and one day before the deadline.

Written by Gabriele Sidekerskyte, Aberystwyth Business School

Being a part of the Student Learning Ambassadors group was one of the most interesting projects I have participated in at the University. I am very glad that I was able to use my student experience as a tool to improve Blackboard and other students’ experience at Aberystwyth University. The fact, that students are the ones deciding how Blackboard modules should look like and what they should contain is amazing because students are the ones that are and will be using it, so their opinion is most important. In the past years, especially during the pandemic, Blackboard played a very important role in my student life. I came across some issues like accessing reading materials and assignments. The reading lists provided by module coordinators are great, however, sometimes not all reading is accessible to students. Making sure that all materials on the reading lists are available in an electronic version is essential.

In terms of the Assessment and Feedback section, the most important information included there are: the submission deadline and submission point, assignment requirements, marks and feedback. Although some modules include this information in the module handbook, it is much easier and more intuitive if they are included in the Assessment and Feedback section. It would be ideal if the submission deadlines for all assignments would be provided as early as possible so students can plan their time effectively. If the deadline has been extended, that should be announced clearly for everyone. Assignment topics, requirements, literature if available and weight of the assignment on the overall module mark should also be included in the Assessment and Feedback section, in the same place where students will have to submit their work. Similarly, it should be clearly communicated when students can expect their marks and feedback, especially if it changes. I think it would be great if students would get notified once the mark and feedback are available. Feedback should be clear and detailed, with examples and explanations of the mistakes made and suggestions for improvements as only then students can get better.

I hope these words will be taken into consideration. I enjoyed this experience and I hope this project will improve the Blackboard experience for everyone. The teamwork and organisation side of the project were great, the meetings were just perfect length, and the activities were interesting. Thank you for the experience.

Mini Conference Programme Announced

30th November 202130th November 2021 WordPress User [jbw] Conference, Mini Conference 2021 Polling Software Leave a comment

On Thursday 16th December, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will be hosting the second Academy Mini-Conference online of this academic year.

The theme will be ‘Using Polling Software to Enhance Learning and Teaching Activities’. Since we procured Vevox earlier this year, we’ve seen a proliferation in the use of polling software in learning and teaching activities.

The Mini-Conference will run from 10:30-15:00. We’re excited to confirm our programme:

Dr Christina Stanley – keynote (Chester University): Polling to boost student confidence and promote inclusivity
Joe Probert & Izzy Whitley: Vevox
Dr Maire Gorman (Physics & Graduate School): Inter & Intra-cohort bonding (and peer learning) in statistics teaching
Bruce Wight (Aberystwyth Business School): How much does a Polar Bear weigh? Enough to break the ice! Using Vevox for Icebreaker Activities
Dr Jennifer Wood (Modern Languages): Is there anybody out there? Using Polling Software in the Language Classroom: Breaching the void.

For session abstracts and timings, please see the programme on our webpages.

We hope that you will be able to join us.

You can register to attend the Mini-Conference by clicking on this link.

If you have any queries, please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.

Component Marks Transfer

24th November 202124th November 2021 WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, E-submission, Turnitin Leave a comment

As December starts to approach, we thought it would be useful to outline the support available for the Component Marks Transfer process. This process transfers marks from the Blackboard Grade Centre columns into AStRA’s Assessment marks per Module (STF080) page.

The tool is available in each Blackboard module and also in the Component Marks tool in MyAdmin. Departmental Administrative Staff are able to view and transfer modules for each module in their department whereas Module Co-ordinators are able to view and transfer marks for their modules.

To support the Component Marks Transfer process, we have:

Training Sessions on:
- Monday 13^th December, 11am-12pm
- Wednesday 5^th January, 1pm-2pm

Book your place online.

If you have any questions about this process, email elearning@aber.ac.uk.