Learning Edge

In LTD we get asked a lot of questions by staff and students about various ‘hot topics’.
We have tried to gather as many of these current issues in the hope of answering them here.

1. Can I forward emails from my student email address to an external address?
Of course! Just like your personal email address, you can forward your student emails out of your student account so you can read them in your preferred email client (such as Hotmail, Yahoo, BT etc.  Follow this document – Forwarding Email – for the steps to do this (the document is for Gmail student accounts).

2. I know I now need to make my course available for my students. How do I do this?

• In your ‘Control Panel‘ for your course
• Click on ‘Customisation‘
• Click on ‘Properties‘
• Set Availability to ‘Make Course Available – Yes‘
• Click Submit.

3. Where is the best place for me to mark my students’ Turnitin assignments?
The best place to mark Turnitin assignments is through Turnitin itself (rather than ‘Grade Centre’)

• In your ‘Control Panel‘ for your course
• Click on ‘Course Tools‘
• Click on ‘TurnitinUK Assignments’
• Click on the assignment you wish to mark
• Your list of students will now appear
• Click on the pencil next to the student you wish to mark the work of.

4. I’d like to get some kind of interactive classroom in my course on Learning Edge What is available to me to do this?
We have a few options for you so that you can really interact with your students in a virtual classroom.  There is a basic tool within Learning Edge itself and we also have some ‘seats’ available for Wimba Classroom.  We like to keep track of who is using Wimba in their course so if you are interested in this option, please come and speak to one of your Learning Technology Development Officers and we can discuss how to make it work for you in your course for your students.

5. Is there a way I can embed audio in my Powerpoint?
Yes! Follow this document – embed audio – to discover how to do this.  If you are having trouble, come and speak to one of the Learning Technology team.

6. I have some videos of my lectures that I’d like to share with my students.  Can I put them into Learning Edge somehow?
We have university systems that can offer you secure ‘hosting’ of your video content (a little bit  like YouTube, but just for our staff and students!) If you speak to the Media Development team or to any Learning Technology Officer they will be able to help you out in getting your videos onto this system and then getting it into your course content in Learning Edge.
(Make sure you give us some time to prepare your videos as sometimes it can take a little while).

7. The work that I need my students to submit doesn’t really fit in Turnitin. are there any alternative tools that I can use?

Yes! You can use the Blackboard 9.1 Assignment tool as an alternative to Turnitin.  This allows a greater number of file formats to be submitted including Powerpoint, Images and more unusual file types.

• From your course, within a content folder
• Click on ‘Create Assessment’
• Click on ‘Assignment’
• Give the Assignment a name
• Complete the details on the page (any that are starred as compulsory!)
• Click submit when you are ready.

8. I would like to set a group activity for my students.  I’d like to split them up into groups in Learning Edge – is this possible?
Yes!  You can use groups for a number of tools such as creating group blogs, wikis, discussion boards or even set tasks and activities for individual groups. The following instructions are just to get you started. Please ask a member of Learning Technology if you wish to find out what else you can use groups for.

• Under the ‘Control Panel‘ of your course
• Click on ‘Users and Groups‘
• Click on ‘Groups‘
• Click on ‘Create Single Group‘
• Click on ‘Manual Enroll‘
• Give the group a name
• Decide which tools you want the group to contribute to (only that group will be able to see and contribute to the group’s tools).
• Add the students into the group by selecting the student and then clicking on the arrow to add or remove them.
• Click Submit
• Repeat the process to create more grouped activities.

Any further questions, please email them to one of the team and we will endevour to answer them for you.  If you would like to arrange a meeting with one of the team, please ring 01695 650 754  (or internal 7754).

 

 Carol Chatten, Learning Technology Development Officer