Library & Learning Services

We have be aware for some time how close to students’ hearts their reading list is.  You can find out about the feedback we received around how students utilise reading lists and our steps to improve reading list accessibility.  The research we undertook is the lead story in the latest Learning Services newsletter.  It’s the summer edition but we are using the term very loosely…

Our newsletter also includes three faculty updates to highlight to colleagues some of the work we have been undertaking with staff and students in faculties as well as lots of general news and developments.

As well as faculty updates we have articles on:

The Digital Office, Office 365 and the move to Outlook

Roving student assistants

Our support for media students and the development of VibeTV

Please take a look and leave a comment if there are any developments you would like to know about

Rachel Bury

Academic Liaison Manager – Quality, Marketing and Communication

We are pleased to announce that Learning Edge (Blackboard 9.1) will be upgraded this summer. This essential work will not only ensure a reliable service for 2013-14 but will also introduce a number of new and improved features. We’ve listened to your feedback over the past year and can tell you that this upgrade will address many of your comments and suggestions, with improvements to general navigation, the calendar, discussion board, and much, much more!

The date you need for your diary is 21-22^nd July 2013 as this is when the system will be unavailable for a short time.

Once the work is complete, you will be able to log in as normal but will notice a number of enhancements. Over the next month or so will be posting in detail about the features you can look forward to but for now here are a few early highlights:

Global Navigation & My Blackboard
You told us you don’t want to have to go to multiple places to keep up-to-date with on what’s going on across all your courses. With the introduction of My Blackboard you will have one place to conveniently access your Profile, Posts, Updates, My Grades, and People. Always present in the top right corner, the new navigation menu will also give you one-click access to your Courses, Settings, Help.

Learn more about the My Blackboard Posts Tool in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit – My Blackboard Posts

Learn more about the My Blackboard Profile tool in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit – Profiles

Discussions
An overhauled interface will introduce a much simpler way to look at all the messages in a thread at once. Profile pictures will also help you put faces to names and messages, and instructor posts will be highlighted to help you spot your tutor’s messages in the forums.

Learn more about the new Discussion Board in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit: Discussions

Calendar
Dramatic improvements means it now looks great and does all the things you’d expect from a modern calendar. You can personalise your view of the calendar, filter by course, apply colours and labels, move items with drag and drop and export to Outlook or Google Calendar.

Learn more about the new look Calendar in this short video: Blackboard Learn Quick Hit: Calendar Feature

We hope you like the look of these new features and would be happy to hear your thoughts via the comments below.

If you have any queries regarding this upgrade please don’t hesitate to contact the Learning Technology Development team on 01695 650754 or via [email protected]

Nina Unsworth

Learning Technology Development Operations Coordinator.

One of the great things about blogs is that you can subscribe to them. This means that you receive notifications when they are updated, rather than having to keep checking the blog yourself.

We’ve just added links to make it easier for you to subscribe to the Learning Services and Learning Edge blogs. You can choose to subscribe to receive email notifications, or if you use a Feed Reader you can subscribe with that.

Go to the blog’s home page by clicking on it’s title near the top of the page. Then just click on one of the links in the section labelled ‘Subscribe’ which is usually found on the right hand side of the screen.

If you need help we have a guide on eShare that will talk you through the process.

Peter Beaumont
Learning Technologist