A small number of users are having problems with the new Content Editor in Blackboard. This may stop you being able to add or edit text.
We are working closely with Blackboard to resolve this problem as quickly as possible.
Helping Students to Make Most of Recorded Lectures – Using Discussion and Notes in Panopto
Panopto recordings have been heavily used by students even before the move to partly online delivery. This year they rely on pre-recorded content even more. Facilitating active learning using asynchronous materials such as lecture recordings can be challenging. We have previously shared with you the guide on using lecture recordings for students outlining six key strategies helping them to make most of the recordings. In one of our previous posts we have also explored the use of Panopto captions and quizzes which enables your recordings to be more accessible and interactive. Today we would like to introduce you to two additional Panopto functionalities – discussion and notes.
Using Podcasts for Teaching
The second Academy Forum session this year focused on creating podcasts in Panopto. The discussion emphasised podcasts’ unique potential for facilitating a sense of connection. Usually based on informal monologues, interviews and discussions podcasts provide their users with opportunities to listen in to unconstructed reflections and conversations. As explained by Street (2014) audio storytelling creates a ‘partnership between imagination and memory’ triggering a unique and personal reaction to it (as cited in McHugh, 2014, p.143). Podcasts can provide us with company; unlike with videos or written texts, we can listen to them during other daily activities.
These unique properties of podcasts hold great potential for its use in education. University of Cambridge created a collection of short podcasts from various subject areas. Podcasts are also used by individual educators, Ian Wilson, a Senior Lecturer in Education at York St John University Ian Wilson created a series of podcasts aimed at supporting learners on placements. His podcast focused on providing students with instructions on what the students should be doing the following week, answering any of their questions and providing some motivational advice. Although podcasting may not necessarily be the best solution for delivering the key learning material, as discussed during the Academy Forum session, it can complement your current teaching practice by fostering reflection, increasing learner’s engagement and foster a sense of community.
An Updated Content Editor for Blackboard
On November 5th, 2020 Blackboard is rolling out an update to the Content Editor (aka WYSIWYG editor). This is the primary input method in Blackboard.
This is what it looks like:
Flags and the Insight Panel in Turnitin Feedback Studio
Staff who have graded assignment submissions via Turnitin will be familiar with the Similarity Report the Feedback Studio. The Feedback Studio interface highlights matches with online sources.
Turnitin have updated the interface of the Feedback Studio to now highlight for review textual inconsistencies in submission. These highlights are termed Flags.
Flags pick up potential integrity issues such as:
•Replaced text characters which could be inserted to circumvent a similarity match.
•Hidden text such as quotation marks that could impact the percentage of quoted material and enable the passing off of such content as original.
Vocal Warm Ups and Techniques for Recording at Home
Speaking into the void of your computer for pre-recorded materials is hard. Without an audience to interact with, it is difficult to know whether the delivery of materials is clear and engaging. On top of that, we use our voices very differently depending on the circumstance we speak in – recording in your office, or at home, your use of voice when recording will differ from your normal in-person delivery. Here are a few tips aimed at helping you make your pre-recorded vignettes as engaging as your live sessions:
1. Overenunciate – this will help automatic captions and emphasise individual words, making it easier to understand and follow what you are saying
2. Vary speed of delivery – take your time with the things that need it, but beware of setting into too regular a rhythm. Changes in speed will refocus your listeners’ attention onto what you are saying.
3. Use different parts of your vocal range – we’re not suggesting you act out different characters, but consciously avoid monotone: you know what you are talking about, but your students may encounter it for the first time. Monotone makes it seem boring and unimportant, when it really isn’t.
The above are ways of imitating the variances that happen in face-to-face conversations, and live events where you feed off your audience’s reactions and engagement. No one asks that you retrain as a YouTuber, but some vocal techniques used in videos like that can become useful tools for making pre-recorded materials more engaging. It takes a lot of energy and focus to speak into nothing but your own computer. The above are simple but effective linguistic and vocal tricks that help you speak engagingly to an imaginary audience.
Here’s a video to help you.
Conducting blended teaching sessions – synchronously face-to-face and via Teams
Teaching staff are encouraged to provide access to teaching sessions for students unable to attend them in person. The guidelines below provide a step-by-step checklist of all things that need to be completed to conduct an effective session for both students sitting in the classroom and those joining via MS Teams.
Before the session:
- Create a Teams meeting for the session using the Blackboard Teams Meeting tool
- Inform students about the possibility of joining the session via Teams and provide them with guidelines on how to do it.
Note: Make it clear that this has been provided for students who are not able to attend the session in person and that all students who are well and not self-isolating are expected to attend the sessions in-person and that attendance during face-to–face session will be closely monitored.
- Revise the teaching room guide and watch videos demonstrating using the new teaching room set-up:
Academy Mini-Conference (call for proposals) – ‘Advice for Action: Promoting Good Feedback Practice’
On Wednesday 16th December, the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit will be hosting the first of this year’s Academy Mini-Conferences online. The theme will be ‘Advice for Action: Promoting Good Feedback Practice’, where we will explore how to make feedback more useful and engaging for students.
The three main strands for this Mini-Conference are:
- Marking group assessments
- Peer assessment and feedback
- Improving student learning through feedback
We are looking for proposals from staff, postgraduate teaching assistants and students to give presentations, demonstrations, workshops and discussions on their current feedback and assessment practices. Even if your proposal does not particularly fit the strands above, other relevant proposals are very welcome.
If you would like to submit a proposal to this year’s Mini-Conference, please fill in this online form before Wednesday 18th November.
You can register to attend the Mini-Conference by clicking on this link. If you have any queries, please email lteu@aber.ac.uk.
Tips for monitoring chat for online and in person sessions
In this blogpost, we’ll be looking at some tips for monitoring a Teams chat when you’ve also got attendees joining in person and online.
The planning of the synchronous activity and what you want your students to be able to do after they have engaged with the activity shapes the purpose of the chat. Ask yourself: what role do you want the chat to have in your teaching session?
For example, do you want the chat to be used for students joining online to communicate their ideas with you? Do you want it to be used for them to chat with each other? Do you want the chat contributions to be communicated with those joining in person?
In addition to that, you want to think about how you are asking your online students to engage in the session. Do you want them, for example, to use the raise the hand function to attract your attention? Or, do you want them to only use the chat.
Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol: October Training
Training for research students
The Coleg Cymraeg Cenedlaethol will be running several workshops for research students throughout the year as part of their Research Skills Programme. Here is a copy of the full programme for 2020/21. You will need to register in advance for each workshop and you can do so through the following link.
Here is a look at the workshops that will be running throughout October:
Tuesday (13 October), 11:00-11:30 – ‘Cyfres Iechyd a Lles myfyrwyr ôl-radd (Edrych ar ôl eich hun)’ – Andrew Tamplin
Friday (16 October), 14:00-16:00 – ‘Sgiliau Addysgu ar gyfer Myfyrwyr Ôl-radd’ – Dyddgu Hywel
Tuesday (20 October), 11:00-12:00 – Rheoli amser a phwysau gwaith (gyda ffocws ar weithio o bell)’ – Mari Ellis Roberts
Friday (23 October), 11:00-12:00 – ‘Rheoli’ch goruchwyliwr (gyda ffocws ar weithio o bell)’ – Nia Gwynn Meacher & Seren Evans.
Training for staff
Also, as part of the Staff Development Programme (2020/21), the series ‘Iechyd a Lles: Chi fel Staff a’ch Myfyrwyr’ continues next Tuesday morning (9:30-10:00). All staff members are welcome to register and you can do so through the following link.