-
19th May – Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD)
To mark GAAD, ‘Anthology and Blackboard’ is hosting a 24-hour global event called…
Along with other institutions Edge Hill University is excited to be taking part, following our success in the event last year, Edge Hill University was placed 3rd in Europe for the most fixes.
The event is focused on making accessible and inclusive digital learning content. The goal is to encourage staff to fix as many digital course files as possible using “Blackboard Ally”.
Make sure your content counts.
Any fix you achieve, however small, on ‘Fix Your Content Day (19th May)’, through the Ally tool will be included in the count and added to the total number of fixes made by Edge Hill University.
Remember Ally can also be used to improve WYSIWYG (text editor) content, fixes here will count too. Here’s a demonstration of using the WYSIWYG editor with Ally.
Support for participation.
Learning Services is holding a two-hour Fixathon 12-2pm (19th May), in person from the Catalyst ‘Oak Room’ and online via web conference, where you can drop in, ask questions about accessibility and bring any documents you want to work on.
Are you up for the challenge?
Get involved by making improvements to your content during ‘Fix Your Content Day’. Simply click where you see the red, orange or green Ally indicators next to the content you share with your students and follow the guidance to make those positive changes.
Track the Leaderboard.
When the clock strikes May 19th in the first time zone on Earth (Kiribati), the global leaderboard is launched and the competition begins.
Leveraging usage data from Blackboard Ally, the Leaderboard ranks each participating institution by their total number of files improved out of their total number of students and also tallies the total number of files improved across all Blackboard Ally users over the 24 hours.
Earlier posts may help you on your accessibility journey.
-
How can YOU use LinkedIn Learning?
All staff and students at Edge Hill University have access to LinkedIn Learning. It is a library of training courses that you can use to help you develop business, technology, and creative skills.
How can I get started?
There is a LinkedIn Learning page on the Edge Hill University website containing videos that will show you how to set up an account and log in. Once you are in, the How to Use LinkedIn Learning course contains lots of videos about how LinkedIn Learning works.
Can I use it for my own professional development?
Jennifer Rouse Barbeau has written about her use of LinkedIn Learning as part of planned professional development time. Jennifer suggests planning to use 20-25% of your personal development time actually watching the videos and the rest for note taking and hands on practice.
Here at Edge Hill University, Chris Nicholas, a Computer Science Research Assistant, spoke to us about using LinkedIn Learning (when it was called Lynda.com) to improve his knowledge of software development. Oladotun Omosebi, a Computer Science Doctoral Tutor, talked to us about his experiences too.
What courses do you recommend?
Last year Laura Glancey wrote a post on this blog sharing her five favourite courses. Katie McCarthy and Daniel Bresnahan have shared some course recommendations here too.
If you don’t have time to go through a whole course then the weekly tips courses might be for you, or even the new TikTok style Nano Tips courses.
How could I use LinkedIn Learning with my students?
The book ‘Applications of LinkedIn Learning in Ontario’s Post-Secondary Institutions‘, edited by Anne-Marie Taylor shares experiences from a few courses where LinkedIn Learning resources were used. We see the resources being used:
- to “reduce the burden of creating new content” (Chapter 1)
- to help students learn to use audio editing software that the teacher was not familiar with (Chapter 2)
- to replace ‘click-and-follow’ demos in class which weren’t working well (Chapter 3)
- as a framework for student-led courses. This involved identifying knowledge gaps, looking at available resources, deciding on an area of focus, and developing a curriculum and study plan based on this (Chapter 7).
In Chapter 6 ‘Exemplary Practices for Integrating LinkedIn Learning Video Assets in Online Post-Secondary Courses’, Amanda Baker Robinson advises on three stages of using the videos with students, i.e. preparation, integration and consolidation.
Finally, Xiangping Du reports that some Master’s students found LinkedIn Learning useful for the following things. Your use could take these into consideration.
- “1. enhancing their knowledge and understanding beyond classroom delivery
- 2. boosting their professional profile by gaining certificates attached to their LinkedIn profiles
- 3. improving their research skills and helping with their final research project
- 4. enhancing their employability by learning industry-relevant technical skills
- 5. inspiring them to embark on more LiL courses for continuous professional development”
Peter Beaumont
Learning Technology Development Officer“Iphone Apple Photo” by Freestocks.org is marked with CC0 1.0.
-
Caption.Ed – What Students are Saying!
Here at Edge Hill University, Learning Services offer students their own Caption.Ed account. Caption.Ed is a real-time and pre-recorded captioning tool that can be used to caption live taught sessions or recordings they produce and save to their computer.
Automatic captions can offer students a means to engage with academic content, the resulting editable captions can be improved so that recordings are meaningful to users.
It is important to note that automated captions are not entirely accurate and are not a substitute where communication support is required.
Student Volunteers
Five Student Advisors volunteered to try the new Caption.Ed app in ways that helps and supports them through their studies.
This is what our students had to say about Caption.Ed and how they are using it not only to generate captions, but also to create an editable transcript of a recording or live session, they also liked how simple Caption.Ed is to set up and use.
Callie HortonCallie is in the 3rd year of her BA (Hons) History with Politics degree. Callie used Caption.Ed during lectures to capture a transcript of what her tutor was saying. She described to us how it enabled her to fully listen to the lecture, knowing that Caption.Ed was working in the background capturing the transcript. “This meant I could fully listen to the content rather than desperately trying to note everything down”.
Find out how Callie has been using Caption.Ed.
Alexander EvansAlex is a third year BSc (Hons) Geography & Geology student. Alex used Caption.Ed to add captions to YouTube videos where the auto captioning feature may have not been accurate and also for online lectures. When asked about the benefits of the desktop and browser app his response was: “The desktop app can be used to caption any video, not just something in a specific browser which means its possibilities are endless…..The browser app is very useful due to its pure ease of access, once pinned in the top right hand side of your screen it can be used to caption anything within the browser almost instantly.”
Find out how Alex has been using Caption.Ed
Laura GlancyLaura is studying MA English and Nineteenth-Century Studies. Laura used Caption.Ed to provide transcripts of meetings. She found this really helpful in preparing her research notes and found the timestamps particularly beneficial. When asked how Caption.Ed supported her studies Laura commented: “It also saves excessive notetaking, which would be handy in seminars/lectures.”
Find out how Laura has been using Caption.Ed
Maya GibsonIs a third year BA Hons (Film and Television Production) Student. Maya used Caption.Ed to generate captions to add to films that she had produced in her course. Maya loved using the browser version and commented how the software is “Very clear and easy to use with quick results.”
Find out how Maya has been using Caption.Ed
Paula GarlicPaula is studying her third year BSc (Hons) in Psychology. Paula used Caption.Ed to transcribe interviews which was part of her dissertation. She described to us how it really cut down her usual process of doing this and asked if she would recommend Caption.Ed to other students her response was: “Definitely, I think it is a really worthwhile tool and I will be using it in the future”.
Find out how Paula has been using Caption.Ed
How do I get access?
To get your free account, email a request here. Our team will process your request and you will receive an invite with further instructions on how to access the software.
Further Reading: Caption.Ed for Online Learning!.
