Over 180 colleagues across the University made use of Vevox, our polling tool, last year.
Close to 4000 polls were created across nearly 1000 sessions, with over 27,000 participants.
Vevox allows your participants to use their mobile devices to respond to a series of questions.
You can use this for many activities in the classroom:
Q and A
Knowledge checks
Quizzes
Opinion gathering
Decision making
Team games
Revision activities
Mind mapping
Resource creating
And so much more…
With our institutional licence, all members of the community can make use of Vevox. Students can use it in their presentations; colleagues can use it in their meetings. Last year, we were really pleased that Vevox was used in the University welcome talks which will continue again this year.
We’ll also be running our enhanced training session on designing learning activities using polling software in November. See this and our other enhanced sessions and book online.
A warm welcome to new students joining us and those who are returning to study at Aberystwyth University.
In this blogpost, we will outline the changes that have been made to your digital learning environment, Blackboard, ready for the start of the academic year 2025-26
If you need help using Blackboard, see our Student Guide which contains all kinds of useful information.
We’ve also got FAQs available for the other tools that we support, including Turnitin for e-submission and Panopto for lecture capture.
Updated Template
All courses have been created this year using a slightly different template.
Module Information
Item about Lecture Capture (Panopto) under Module Information
AberSkills
Assessment and Feedback
Submission Guidance has been updated to include information on academic integrity and unacceptable practice and using Generative AI in your assessments.
Availability of Content
The Blackboard Required Minimum Presence, which is the policy that outlines to staff and students the minimum amount of content on a course, has been updated to request that teaching materials are uploaded at least one day before the session.
Automatic Captions in Panopto
Captions will now be added to all lecture recordings automatically in 2025-26 making them even more accessible. The quality and reliability of automatic captioning varies due to the language and subject matter of the recording.
Students should be aware that the captioning is not 100% accurate. For clarification on captions, students should speak to their lecturer.
Name pronunciation and pronouns available in Blackboard
You can now add your name pronunciation and pronouns to your Blackboard profile. For further information, see our FAQ.
Accessible content
We are working to improve the accessibility of content in your Blackboard courses. This year the Required Minimum Presence has stipulated a requirement for a minimum accessibility score. This means that content is as compatible with Blackboard Ally as possible.
Blackboard Organisations
Organisations are like Courses in Blackboard but they are not modules that students take. Things like training and departmental information can be found in Organisations. For the first time, we have a Required Minimum Presence for Organisations which outlines to staff and students what they can expect to find as a minimum.
If you have any questions about using Blackboard, please contact us on elearning@aber.ac.uk.
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.
Varga-Atkins, T. (16/6/2025), Treasure Island Pedagogies: Episode 42, the one with the Kitenge (53-minute audio recording), Treasure Island Pedagogies podcast series, University of Liverpool, “In Episode 42, in addition to lightbulb moments, treasure island pedagogies/props and luxury items, our discussion focused on supporting doctoral journeys as supervisors including themes of agency and the transformative power of students taking ownership of their own development, holistic and student-centred approaches; the importance of the pedagogy of care and creating inclusive communities for doctoral education.”
Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinarsfree open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.
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.
Staff and students can now use the Pronunciation section of the Blackboard Profile page to record their name. They can also select the pronouns they use. For further information, see our FAQ.
Automatic captioning has now been set-up for all 2025-26 folders in Panopto. The language for captioning matches the language of your Blackboard course template.
For bilingual courses we recommend creating a sub-folder to hold the recordings for one of the languages of your course delivery (see FAQ).
When you make your recordings, you must select the correct language folder before pressing record. This is because Welsh captions cannot be added to recordings copied or moved from other folders.
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 2025-26 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.
A warm welcome to new staff joining Aberystwyth University.
In this blogpost we aim to provide you with information related to technology in learning and teaching, our training provision, support channels, and events that we run.
All the information that you need is on our webpages.
We write a blog full of the latest updates, details on events and training sessions, and resources.
Each module has its own dedicated course in Blackboard. Students can expect to find information about the module, learning materials, and e-submission guidance, as well as links to reading lists and lecture capture.
Please see our staff guide for further information.
Lecture Capture: Panopto
When teaching in person, be aware that all lectures (that is, teaching where the focus is on information being transmitted from staff to students) should be recorded using Panopto, our Lecture Capture software.
At Aberystwyth University, students must submit all text-based and word-processed work electronically as outlined in the University’s E-submission policy.
For this, we use our e-submission tools: Turnitin andBlackboard Assignment. Turnitin provides an automatic text matching functionality. We use Blackboard Tests to run online exams.
Polling can be used in learning and teaching activities as well as meetings to make the session interactive and collaborative with many different possibilities for use.
Resources and further help
We have a number of Guides and FAQs to help you use our software.
Training Provision
To support all staff with their teaching, we run a series of training sessions across the following strands:
E-learning Essentials: designed for colleagues new to the university, teaching, or who would like to get a refresher. The aim of these sessions is to ensure that colleagues can meet the university’s digital learning and teaching policies.
E-learning Enhanced: designed to build on the skills gained in our e-learning essentials series, colleagues will create an activity or assessment unique to their learning and teaching contexts.
E-learning Excellence: designed to offer colleagues the opportunity to create exemplary learning and teaching opportunities – often unique and sector leading.
You can find details of our annual CPD programme and book your place to attend via Book a Course page.
All of these are great opportunities to meet people from across the university and discuss Learning and Teaching issues and developments.
We look forward to seeing you at a forthcoming event. In the meantime, feel free to get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk if you have any questions.
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.
Ahmad, M., Grose, J. & McMillan Cottom, T. (12/8/2025), What A.I. Really Means for Learning: A.I. is fueling a “poverty of imagination.” Here’s how we can fix it, The New York Times
LCC Changemakers (n.d.), Changemaking led by students, Changemakers, London College of Communication, University of the Arts London “We are a team of 9 students as partners committed to decolonising the academia.”
Monthly series European Network for Academic Integrity, ENAI monthly webinarsfree open webinars on various topics related to academic integrity.
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. Social media: BSky, X.com.
Blackboard Ally continues to be a popular part of Blackboard with more staff and students making use of it during academic year 2024-25.
The number of downloads into alternative format more than doubled last year –over 62,000 documents were downloaded into alternative formats. And over 4000 users used this option.
Staff also made more use of the tools to fix accessibility issues in their courses – over 800 files were fixed last year (compared to 295 in 2024-25).
For the first time this year, the Blackboard Required Minimum Presence states that all Blackboard courses should have an Ally score of 70%. If you want to check your Ally score have a look at our blog post. You can also a book a place on one of the E-learning Essentials: Introduction to Blackboard Ally training courses in September.
In the August update, we want to draw your attention to the table of contents feature being added to Learning Modules.
In addition to this, there are enhancements to documents with block styling options, and increased accessibility across student gradebook and student overview pages.
New: Adding Table of Contents to Learning Modules for students
We’ve redesigned the Learning Module experience for students by adding a collapsible Table of Contents. This update improves navigation, orientation, and progress tracking.
As part of this improvement, assessments now open in a full panel instead of a smaller panel.
Students now have a simplified way to navigate and track progress in Learning Modules. Updates include:
A table of contents for the items in a Learning Module. Select Contents to open and collapse the table of contents
Image 1: Learning Modules now contain a Table of Contents panel to orient students within Learning Modules for their courses. The panel can be collapsed with the arrow button at the top of the Table of Contents.
Easy navigation between items
Manual or automatic item completion tracking from within the Learning Module
Next and Previous buttons moved closer together at the top of the page for an improved experience.
Image 2: The navigation buttons Previous and Next now appear closer to each other in the user interface within Learning Modules to give an improved user experience.
Assessments within Learning Modules. Assessments now open in a full panel, providing a consistent and distraction-free experience.
Image 3: The Assessments pages within Learning Modules now appear as a full-sized panel.
Forced sequence in Learning Modules. When sequencing is enforced, students must use the Next and Previous buttons to move through content in order. Students can’t jump ahead using the table of contents unless they have already completed the item they are navigating to. Skipping ahead without completing a Learning Module item is disabled in this mode.
Enhance Documents with block styling options
We added block styling to Documents, giving instructors new ways to enhance visual appeal and guide student attention. The styling options feature both color and icons. The style options include:
Question
Tip
Key points
Next steps
Highlight
Image 1. Instructors can select styling options from a dropdown menu that appears in Edit mode on all block types.
Our forthcoming training session E-learning Enhanced: Become a Document Pro will explore this and other document functionality to help colleagues create dynamic content. You can book your place online.
Increased accessibility in the student gradebook
To improve accessibility, we updated the student Gradebook to use a semantic HTML table structure. This change replaces the previous layout, which relied on stacked <div> elements. The new structure improves screen reader support and keyboard navigation.
Increased accessibility in the student overview page
To improve accessibility, we updated the student Overview page to use a semantic HTML table structure. This change replaces the previous layout, which relied on stacked <div> elements. The new structure improves screen reader support and keyboard navigation.
If you have any enhancements to request from Blackboard, please get in touch with us via elearning@aber.ac.uk.
