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Mobile Matters! Who’s using an app?
The way Edge Hill students and staff are choosing to access Learning Edge appears to be changing, and more than ever we’re seeing usage patterns that show how important mobile access is.
There is an increasing trend for users to access Learning Edge via tablets and smart phones rather than the traditional PC. VLE use in general has increased – up by 33% compared with last September, but it’s even more interesting to see how mobile access has rocketed – up by a whopping 175%!
Over the last 12 months almost 17,000 individuals used the Mobile Learn app to access Learning Edge – with an impressive 6,000 in the first few weeks of term. Use of the app itself is even more impressive. Visits via the app in September 2012 totaled 17,703 compared with 53,785 in the same period this year – an increase of 204%!
It is good to see that both staff and students are taking advantage of the flexibility and ease of access that the mobile app offers.
Raising Awareness
At the start of term, to help students #Getconnected to the mobile technology available to them, Learning Services and IT colleagues spoke to over 1600 students at the freshers fair. With improved awareness of the Mobile Learn app, and better than ever features, steadily more users are opting to use the app (66%), as opposed to their mobile browser.
Advice for Staff: Recommended Practices for Mobile-Friendly Courses
As more and more students choose to access Learning Edge on their mobile devices, making sure your course is optimised to work with the Mobile Learn app will improve your students’ experience and ability to engage with the course wherever they are. The Mobile Learn app doesn’t replace the need for students or staff to access Learning Edge via a PC, but it does offer new opportunities to access features that work well on the go. So any time you edit or develop your Learning Edge Course, ask yourself, “is this mobile friendly?”
The following guides from Blackboard offer useful guidance:
The Learning Services Learning Technology Development team are also here to help. If you’d like advice on developing your course to make best use of the Mobile Learn app contact your learning technologist, come to one of our Developing Digital Excellence staff development sessions and browse the Learning Edge: Blackboard Mobile Learn guide collection available on eShare.
Nina Unsworth
Learning Technology Development Operations Coordinator
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NEW! Blackboard Profile Cards
Take control of your online academic identity with the new Cloud Profile Tools
You probably noticed a nice big welcome if you recently logged into Learning Edge, as we’ve switched on a new tool called Cloud Profiles.
The information screen you’ll see when you log in explains what’s new and how to set up your profile (or opt to “do it later”), but I thought it would be useful to explain what it all means.I’d also like to ask you if you think this will be useful?
What are the new Cloud Profile Tools in Learning Edge?Cloud Profiles are a new set of cloud-based features available in Learning Edge Blackboard 9.1, that consist of basic Profiles called Profile Cards, the People tool, and enhancements to the Posts tool.
Using your Profile Card you can personalise your online presence in Blackboard by sharing a photo of yourself, information about your area of study/work, and an “about me” description.
The tool is optional, so if you don’t want to create a profile just yet, that’s fine, you’ll still be able to use the system. If you do complete your profile, your information will be saved to the cloud (on Blackboard’s servers) and your picture will appear in various places throughout Learning Edge Blackboard 9.1, such as Discussion Boards, Blogs, Journals, and Wikis. When someone hover’s over this picture, your profile card will automatically pop-up so they can learn more about you.
In some areas a small thumbnail is used:
In other areas a large version is displayed – so it’s worth choosing a good quality likeness of yourself:
Your profile can appear in the new People Tool – a tool to help students, teaching staff and support staff put a face to your name, and when Social Profiles are enabled, connect with you. There are privacy options, so you can choose whether you want to keep your profile hidden, make it available to just the people who are enrolled into the same courses as you, or make it available to everyone at Edge Hill.
Your profile can also appear in the Posts page which displays the latest discussion, blog and wiki activity taking place in the courses you are enrolled in.
If you want to create a Profile Card:
You can edit your Blackboard profile from the Welcome screen – click Facebook, Twitter or ‘I’ll update it myself’. If you select ‘I’ll do it later’, you won’t see the welcome screen next time you log in – so you’ll need to click the profile icon in the global navigation bar (top right).
When you first create your profile, you have the option to start by pulling in information from Facebook or Twitter – such as your profile picture or the “about me” description. If you do choose to do this, you must make sure the information you pull in to share is suitable for this professional academic environment. Also be mindful of your own safety and don’t share anything too personal. We recommend you require others’ request permission to follow you.
You can also choose to add a link to your Facebook or Twitter profiles on your Blackboard Profile Card to help people who view your profile to connect with you outside of the Blackboard environment. Again this is entirely optional. If you don’t use these services, or want to keep them separate from your work at the University that is ok – you don’t need to link to these social networks for profiles to work.
Finally, you will be asked to add a personal email address to verify your account. This is because by creating a Cloud Profile, your information will be saved to Blackboard servers and you’ll have the option to use the same profile on other Blackboard platforms, perhaps if you take a MOOC on Coursesites, or work at another Institution. We recommend that you do not display your email address on your profile card. Staff and students at the University will be able to contact you via your Edge Hill email address should they need to.
*Social Profiles Coming Soon!
In addition to the Cloud Profile tools discussed here, we will also soon be adding Social Profiles.
Social Profiles will introduce an additional set of cloud-based features that consist of full Profiles, Spaces, Messages, and even more enhancements to Profile Cards, the People tool, and the Posts tool.
These enhanced Social Profiles and Tools are not available just yet as we still need to do a bit of work behind the scenes, but you’ll hopefully see them next month (subject to testing). We’ll tell you more about these features in a later post!
Learn More
If you want to learn more before you decide whether to use these features you can check out the videos and information pages provided by Blackboard:
- Blackboard Quick Hit Video – Profiles
- Blackboard Help Website – Profiles
- Blackboard Help Website – Social Learning Tools FAQs
- Blackboard – Privacy Policy
So, what do you think?
If have questions about setting up your profile or want to let us know what you think about these features please leave a comment here and we’ll get back to you. You can also speak to someone in person at the Learning Services #EHUGetConnected Roadshow, on every day next week in the HUB.
Meg Juss
Learning Technology Development Manager
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Geography are hands-on with Assignment Handler
Edge Hill’s approach to eAssignment is to offer a number of flexible tools and not tie departments down to any one method. After considering the choices available to them, each Faculty has gone with their preferred method of assignment submission.Learning Edge currently has 3 tools: Blackboard Assignment, Assignment Handler and Turnitin.
Nigel Richardson (Head of Geography) explains the direction Geography has taken and why Assignment Handler was the right choice for their students and staff.
“Introducing electronic submission to the programme was prompted by an institutional strategy aimed at enhancing the student experience and accommodating their changing expectations. Our students were increasingly submitting assignments to us via email, rather than traveling to University to submit their work and the student feedback was also indicating some difficulties in reading staff feedback (handwriting) on assignments. Taking all of this into account, it seemed the right time to move to online submission.
We listened to the advice of the Learning Technology Officers on the various options available, before deciding on Assignment Handler. Initially staff had mixed feelings – some were extremely positive and others were apprehensive. The technology and the processes were new, and primary concerns centered on the impact that Assignment Handler would have on them, such as how long it would take to learn how to mark assignments and become proficient in doing so.”
Staff have since had training with Assignment Handler – All aspects including uploading assignments; downloading submissions; uploading feedback; general file handing e.g. use of zip files etc.
Students training included; how to access assignment details, submit an assignment; where to find feedback and marks.
It has been more than 12 months since Geography began on their eAssignment journey, so we asked Nigel to give us an update on the latest impression of both staff and students and how things have gone since implementation;
Generally staff are positive having gained experience of using Assignment Handler and some of the advantages of providing feedback electronically. Staff have a few concerns/queries but those are largely operational things rather than an issue with online submission and feedback. This is part of the natural course of improving what we do. The department will aim to review our processes before the start of the next academic year.
For the Student, as noted above, there are advantages with flexibility of submission and also being able to read staff feedback. Also students can receive feedback and marks at any time of the day rather than waiting until the next module session for assignments to be handed out.
Geography have embraced Assignment Handler as their preferred method of assignment submission for their students and will continue to push the boundaries in terms of the way forward ensuring their students have the best possible experience.
Nigel added some advice for other colleagues deciding on the right assignment tool;
- Ensure that it is user friendly both for students and staff.
- Ensure that it can handle the types of coursework assignment you use, and submissions that you expect from students.
- Think about how you are going to handle large numbers of files e.g. sending samples to external examiners; management and archiving of the files.
If you have any queries regarding eAssessment please don’t hesitate to contact the Learning Technology Development team on 01695 650754 or via [email protected]
Martin Baxter
Learning Technology Development
