AU Digital experience insights survey for teaching staff 2018-19 now open

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We have recently closed the Digital Experience Insights surveys for students where we asked about their experiences of digital learning and digital services. We would also like to know how teaching staff experience these services.

There are only about 20 questions that ask about your digital teaching methods and your experience of our digital provision. Please spare ten minutes and have your say so we can improve the digital experience for our staff and students.

https://staffinsights2019.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/aberystwyth-univeristy

 

Subscribe to the LTEU Blog

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You can now subscribe to the LTEU Blog so that you receive an email notification whenever a new post is written. Keep up-to-date with software developments, new initiatives, training sessions and events that help support technology-enhanced learning and teaching activities.

Some of our latest blogposts include:

  • Blackboard Grade Centre – in addition to recording and managing assignment marks, there are some additional features and options that will help you to use the Grade Centre to its fullest potential. In this series, we will introduce you to these features.
  • Equipment that is available to hire from Information Services – did you know that IS have pieces of equipment that you can borrow? In this blogpost, we let you know what is available and how you can book out the equipment.
  • Inserting quizzes into your Panopto recordings – do you want to test knowledge whilst students are watching lecture recordings? If so, why not insert a quiz into your Panopto recording? Find out how to in this blogpost.

Subscribing to the blog will ensure that you receive up-to-date information as soon as we’ve written about it. To subscribe is simple:

  • Go to the LTEU Blog
  • Scroll down the page and enter your email address and click Subscribe:
  • An email will be sent to you to confirm your subscription. Click Confirm Follow.
  • You’ll then be all set up and will receive an email notification whenever a new post is written

We’re always on the lookout for guest bloggers too – if you’d like to write a blog post about how you’re using technology in your learning and teaching then let us know (lteu@aber.ac.uk).  Also drop us an email if you’d like to suggest a topic or would like us to write about a particular E-learning tool.

 

Academy Mini-Conference: Inclusive Education

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This year’s Academy Mini Conference will be held on Wednesday 10th April at 2pm in E3, E-learning Training Room, Aber Academy, Hugh Owen Building. Following the introduction of new Accessibility Regulations for online content in September 2018 and with an increased awareness of ensuring learning experiences are open to all, this year’s mini-conference theme will focus on Inclusive Education.

We are looking for expressions of interest from members of the University to give presentations, demonstrations, workshops and discussions on their inclusive teaching practices.

Potential topics might include:

  • Inclusive and creative assessments
  • Widening participation
  • Use of technology for inclusive learning experiences

If you would like to contribute to submit a proposal to this year’s mini-conference, please fill in this online form before Friday 15th March.

You can register to attend the Mini Conference by clicking on this link. If you have any queries, please email elearning@aber.ac.uk.

Blackboard Grade Centre

WordPress User [kaw] Blackboard, E-submission, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) 3 Comments

The Blackboard Grade Centre is probably the most powerful yet underused part of a Blackboard module. Every Blackboard module has one, but how often do you use it and are you getting the most out of it? I’m a big fan of the Blackboard Grade Centre so I’m using this series of blog posts to introduce to some of the hidden features which could make your marking and assessment life easier.

The first post is about setting up the Grade Centre. Like many things, a little bit of thought and planning before you start goes a long way. Some advance organisational work will make your life a lot easier in the long run.

So, what sort of things should you consider?

  1. Organise before you create. Some features like categories and Marking Periods are added to columns when you create them. It’s useful to set these up first, rather than go back and edit afterwards (although that it is possible).
    1. Categories. There are built in categories for types of tools (e.g. Tests, Assignments ) etc. which are applied automatically when you create them. But you can also create your own. For example, you might want a category for Exams or Presentations. You can also do calculations based on the category of a column using the Calculated Column options. Blackboard help on Categories.
    2. Marking Periods. These are time periods for when the work is marked. This would be useful if you are putting a lot of marks directly into the Grade Centre for a long-thin module. You could have a Semester 1 and Semester 2 grading period and then filter by these so you only see the relevant columns. Blackboard help on Marking Periods.
  2. Do you need any additional columns? Anything that you can grade in Blackboard generates a Grade Centre column when you create it. So, if you have a Turnitin Assignment, graded Discussion Board or Wiki, you have a column in the Grade Centre already. If you want to store marks for presentations, exams, in-class tests, oral exams etc., you can create your own columns. Blackboard help on creating columns.
  3. Think careful when you name your columns (either manually created columns, or the ones created when you set-up Turnitin etc.). They should be meaningful and easy to understand which assessment component they relate to. This is especially important when mapping components for marks transfer. A common problem is two e-submission points both called Essay; make sure you use titles which make sense such as Essay 1 and Essay 2 or Nutrition Essay and Exercise Essay.
  4. Do you want to make any calculations or combine marks? AStRA takes care of the weighting of your assignments in the overall module mark calculations, but you may want to group together small assignments to make calculations or show to the students. For example, you might have a set of weekly tests that make up one component of your module assessment. To do this you can create one of the calculated columns. Blackboard help on Calculated Columns.
  5. What do you want the students to see? Most people know that you can hide Grade Centre columns to the students, but did you know that there is a Primary and Secondary Grade. This means that you can show the students a letter grade, or even that the work has been marked, without showing the grade. This is a way of giving feedback before the releasing a mark.
  6. Viewing and filtering. There are a number of ways you can organise your Grade Centre to help you see only the things you want to see. Depending on how many columns you have and what you need to do, one of the following might be useful:
    1. Smart Views and Favourites. You know the Needs Marking and Assignments items under Full Grade Centre in your menu? These are shortcuts that take you to filtered views of the Grade Centre. Did you know you can add your own shortcuts here, using categories or groups of students as the criteria? Blackboard help on Smart Views.
    2. Filtering. Like Excel spreadsheets it is possible to filter your view of the Grade Centre, to only certain sets of information. Blackboard help of filtering.
  7. Colour coding. This is my personal favourite. You can colour code the Grade Centre to quickly show which students are getting very high marks, and which students might need a little more help. This is particularly useful for tests which are marked automatically and you may not see the results straightaway. It provides you with a quick visual way of seeing who might need some further help. Blackboard help on colour coding.

The next instalment of this series will be marking and dealing with grades. If you want any help with setting up your Grade Centre, get in touch and we can go through your requirements and get you up and running.

 

Making use of the captioning and quiz function in Panopto

WordPress User [jbw] Panopto 8 Comments

 

Panopto is the University’s Lecture Capture software. In summer 2018, Panopto moved to a cloud hosted environment which means that in addition to fewer instances of downtime, we also benefit from regular updates and enhancements to the software. Whilst using Panopto for lecture capture remains its primary function, we have also seen an increase in innovative uses from across the University, including using it to record assessments, using it in the creation of assignments and also in creating performances.

A scheduled Panopto update in December to version 6.0 saw the introduction of quizzes, captioning and better statistics so that you can see more information on how viewers are using your Panopto content. This blogpost is looking specifically at making use of the captioning functionality and also the use of quizzes (if you’d like more information on the increased functionality of statistics, see this blogpost and our FAQ).

Using the captioning function in Panopto

Although it’s not 100% accurate, you are able to import automatic captions for your recordings. To do this, go to the video in abercast.aber.ac.uk that you wish to get captions for and follow the guidance in this FAQ. In addition to providing transcripts for those who want to view the lecture, those who conduct interviews as part of their research or dissertation might also find the automatic captioning useful as a basis for transcription. If you’d like to record an interview, download Panopto, create a recording and import the caption.

Using the quiz function in Panopto

In addition to being able to caption recordings, Panopto now also has the ability to add quizzes so that viewers can interact with lecture recordings in a more meaningful way. There are currently three types of questions and the ability to stop a viewer progressing through the recording until they’ve answered the questions. You’ve also got the ability to download the results so that you can view progress. We see a massive increase in Panopto usage during exam time. From the end of term in December 2018 until the end of the examination period in January 2019, 768,594 minutes of recordings were viewed. This equates to 12810 hours or 534 days. Adding quizzes to Panopto recordings will mean that viewers will be able to test their knowledge as they’re watching. If you’re interested in using quizzes then we’ve got this FAQ and also this guide.

If you’ve got any questions about using captioning or quizzes in Panopto then get in touch (elearning@aber.ac.uk / 01970 62 2472). We’re also running an E-learning Enhanced Training session on Using E-learning Tools for Revision Activities on Wednesday 27th March at 3pm. You can book onto that course here.

Panopto Viewer Statistics

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To see who’s watching your Panopto videos, for how long, when, and which portions take a look at the statistics for your Panopto videos.

From September 2018 Panopto users with Creator access can see the number of views by date for a recording, the length of time a recording has been viewed, a list of users who have viewed the recording with the number of views they have made and the amount of minutes they have viewed, and a heat map, showing which points of a video viewers have engaged with for their Panopto videos.

Users can view the number of views per day, including unique visitors and minutes watched and viewer engagement with the video, check which users have viewed their video, how many times and for how long as well as downloading Excel reports of views per day, viewer engagement and top viewers.

To find and review the statistics for your Panopto videos see Faq 697 .

Note: Users can only access statistics for videos they have created or uploaded.

New Webinar: Create a Turnitin Submission Point

WordPress User [jbw] E-submission, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment

The E-learning Group will be running a webinar on Wednesday February 6th at 3pm. In this webinar, the E-learning Group will be demonstrating how to set up a Turnitin submission point and all the optional settings that are available to you.

It is quick and easy for you to join the webinar – you can do so from your own office, all you need is an Internet connection. First, book on the webinar by going to the course booking page which can be found here. You’ll then be sent an Outlook Meeting appointment which you can add to your calendar. When it’s time to join the webinar, you can do so by double-clicking the link on the meeting appointment. Alternatively, you can join the webinar by clicking on this link here.  The webinar will be recorded and made available to staff after the session.

The webinar will be using Skype for Business. For more information on Skype for Business, please see this guide available here.

If you have any questions about the webinar, email elearning@aber.ac.uk.

My Placement with the E-leaning Team

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Hello I’m Jude Billingsley, a graduate currently working with the E-leaning team as part of the Aber-Forward Program, a scheme designed to help graduates adapt to a working environment and develop transferable skills. During my placement I will be contributing to the E-leaning blog, familiarising myself with Blackboard by building module content and comparing other institutions’ E-leaning websites to our own in order to find areas to improve. I will also be assisting in the organisation of the Annual Learning and Teaching Conference and helping out with the day to day tasks in the office.As an aspiring author I intend to create my own website so the software skills I am learning on the scheme will be valuable. Learning how to maintain a blog will be very useful as well, blogging being a necessity in many creative fields. I am hoping the scheme can show me how creativity and technology can aid each other in order to create engaging and informative content and allow me to implement skills I have learnt at university into an office environment. I am enjoying getting to grips with software, programing and website maintenance as well as seeing the behind the scenes running of the university. My time on the team is brief but I hope to learn a lot!

E-learning Support for Learning and Teaching Activities

WordPress User [jbw] Blackboard, E-submission, Panopto, Training and Support, Virtual Learning Environment(VLE) Leave a comment

The E-learning Group hope you had an enjoyable break over holiday period. As we begin to enter into the examination period, we thought that it would be useful for us to identify what support is on offer for colleagues who provide administrative support for learning and teaching activities.

Our FAQ, What FAQs are useful for providing administrative support for E-learning systems?, might be a good starting point. This is a FAQ designed specifically to bring all our FAQs pertaining to administrative support together so that you are able to find an answer to your question as quickly as possible.

In addition to our FAQs, we also have E-learning Guides available on our webpages. These guides are designed to guide you through the entirety of a process from beginning to end and are useful for those who would like to gain an understanding for a whole process. We’re also happy to meet you face-to-face and of course we provide help and support over the phone and via email. We’re also happy to provide training to yourself and your colleagues. If you and your colleagues would like to request a training session, just get in touch. There may also be some training sessions that you will find useful. Our full training programme for 2018/19 can be found on our webpages.

elearning@aber.ac.uk

01970 62 2472

www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/it-services/elearning

E-learning Blog

Digital Experience Insights 2018-19: How do you rate technology at Aberystwyth University?

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For the second time Aberystwyth is taking part in the Digital Experience Insights project aiming to explore our students’ experiences of technology. The project is based on online surveys designed by Jisc and used by different institutions across UK.

It allows us to get better insights on how students use technology and benchmark our results against other HE intuitions in our sector.

We would greatly appreciate your help in promoting this survey to all students: