We’d like to take the opportunity to report on, and thank those who attended the very first Staff Development session delivered entirely online!

Last Wednesday (27th March) saw the ‘Avoiding Digital Disasters in your Presentations‘ session delivered via the University’s web conferencing solution ‘Collaborate‘.  Staff self enrolled onto the Developing Digital Excellence course and navigated their way to the online conferencing room where they joined other attendees virtually.  Each member of staff was able to take part anywhere they wanted (where they had a PC, laptop or iPad connected to the internet) and on a decidedly chilly day didn’t have to trek across the campus to attend!

The session covered topics such as creating and finding images to use in presentations, ensuring the images ‘look’ correct (aspect, colours, cropping) and also using video in presentations; where to find them, how to link or embed and also how to stream or download.

The session was well received with many saying they would like to see other sessions delivered this way.  We know how busy everyone is and it was a pleasure to offer staff training and development in such a new and fun way and being able to let staff join in from wherever they feel most comfortable, saving valuable time in not having to journey from building to building – or even from another location to the campus!

Our thanks go to Geof, Rachel, Pamela, Julia and Jo for joining us in a very significant event and we hope you enjoyed the session.

If you would like any further information about sessions we are hoping to offer online, or suggestions for what you would like to see offered, please contact the Learning Technology Department on [email protected] or ext. 7754.

 

 

Carol Chatten
Learning Technology Development Officer

 

 

Martin Baxter
Learning Technology Development Officer

With the imminent conclusion of Semester 2 on the horizon and marking being at an increasingly busy time we’ve had quite a number of calls regarding the premature release of grades to students.  Many pieces of work will be submitted and marked over this period and after Easter – using many different e-assessment tools to do so.

There are currently 3 main tools available for e-submission of assignments (not including gradeable tools such as blogs, wikis, journals and tests.  These are [Blackboard] Assignment, Turnitin and Assignment Handler.

There’s also the Grade Centre that collates the grades and feedback in a table for tutors to refer to and also My Grades for students to view their marks and feedback.  If using [Blackboard] Assignment or Turnitin, you will have to do the following if you wish to prevent students seeing their grades too early;

1. Hide My Grades and Tools from your Programme or Module area.  It comes as default in most areas.
2. Hide the column (from users) in the Grade Centre of the grades until they are ready to be released.

If you are using Assignment Handler [Edge Hill Assignment] then it will do all the work for you as long as when you set it up you put in the correct ‘release’ details.

 

There is a guide available to help you set up your assignments and columns correctly.  It is worth doing this now for your end of term submissions!

More information about managing the columns in Grade Centre can be found in this document.

This gives details on how to hide or show columns in the tutor view of the Grade Centre as opposed to hiding the grades to students (as in the above document).

Please share this information with your colleagues as it may also help them in managing their eSubmissions.  If you have any further queries, please contact either your Learning Technology Development Officer or LTD support on [email protected]

 

Carol Chatten

Learning Technology Development Officer

 

Technology Roadshow

Learning Services and IT Services are again joining forces to offer advice on the latest technology developments. We will be setting up a pop-up stall in the University Library where all your students can come along and ask us questions at the ‘Technology Roadshow’.

 

 

 

 

 

The aim of the Technology Roadshow is to demystify some of the things they’ve heard about but don’t know how to use, so they can get the best out of resources such as Learning Edge, the campus wifi, mobile apps and electronic library resources.

It is important we get the message out to as many students as possible.  Learning Services is conducting a campaign to promote the event so that we reach as many students as possible, however you are by far the best resource we have in terms of letting students know about the event.

So please mention the Technology Roadshow to all your students so that they know where and when they can talk to us.

• The Technology Roadshow will be held in the University Library                  (11am – 2pm) on Tuesday 26th March.

For students working off campus or are unable to attend they can contact us during the event (and beyond) via our social media channels: Facebook and Twitter. We’ll be using the #EHUmobileclinic hashtag so if they have something to say or a question to ask about using technologies for their studies, they can get in touch.

If you are passing, why not take time to pop in and talk to us at the Technology Roadshow, who knows you might have questions too!

 

 

 

Martin Baxter – Learning Technology Development