Listen Again Mashup

A ‘mashup’ for Listen Again has been added to Succeed. Like the YouTube and other mashups, the Listen Again mashup allows you to pick individual videos from a Listen Again series and have that lecture embedded into Succeed. This means that it is now straight-forward to add the recorded lectures for, say, Week 2 into the Week 2 folder in Succeed (or phase 2 or section 2 or block 2 …). Thus a link to the complete series of recording can be added via the Tools menu or individual lectures added in the appropriate place via the mashup — ideally both can appear.

Here is an example of what an embedded Listen Again looks like:

Listen Again Mashup
Listen Again Mashup

The video can be played directly from the controls and/or can be expanded to fullscreen.

The mashup can be found in the usual places in Succeed, Build -> (Mashups) -> Listen Again and within the text editor (there is a Mashups button among the buttons on the bottom row).

Information Security Awareness

A new online Information Security Awareness course for staff has been launched by the University.

The course has been developed by the Universities and Colleges Information Systems Association (UCISA) and is aimed at all staff who routinely use IT in their working day but also in their personal lives too.

Participants will develop a broad awareness of information security issues. In today’s online world internet security is paramount not only to protect the University but to protect ourselves from the growing threat of online crime such as internet fraud, ID theft and system breakdowns caused by hackers.

It is therefore important that all staff who use IT also understand the possible security implications for the University and that they know how to protect the data they are working with – particularly if they are working remotely, use multiple devices and are sharing documents though cloud systems such as Box.

Course content
The course is broken down into a number of short sections, covering:

• Why do we need to protect information
• Physical security and good practice
• Accessing and sharing information
• Threats and protection
• Working away from your desk
• Your responsibilities – How can you can help
• Phishing
• Bring your own device (BYOD)
• Cloud computing
• Assessment

The course can be taken either in stages or can be completed as a whole. The entire course will take around an hour and a half culminating in an assessment which is estimated to take 20 minutes.

To access the course staff will need to go on to Succeed, and then follow this path:

Learning and Development – My Learning -> UCISA Information Security Awareness

Turnitin

Turnitin are re-branding their product suite (Turnitin, GradeMark and PeerMark) as Feedback Studio. Feedback Studio is more than a re-branding as it also includes a modern, responsive design integrating Turnitin and GradeMark into a single interface — PeerMark is unchanged.

Here is the Turnitin marketing video for the product:

Note that until July 2017 when using Turnitin the current Turnitin/GradeMark interface remains the default with an option to use Feedback Studio:

TurnitinFS

Note the ‘Try the new Feedback Studio’ link which when clicked opens up the new integrated interface (Feedback Studio):

TurnitinFS1

When students view the originality report and feedback they are taken directly to Feedback Studio with an option to view Turnitin Classic.

A working demonstration of Feedback Studio can be accessed here:

http://turnitin.com/assets/en_us/media/feedback-studio-demo/

Feedback Studio will be available from Monday 29th August.

New Module Template

We have received many comments from students advising  that they have some difficulty finding information in Succeed modules.  This has been attributed to a lack of consistency between modules.

In order to address this issue, we have consulted with the Directors of Learning and Teaching, and students, and re-designed the standard module template which all modules should be based upon.

The short video below gives an overview of what is included in the new template.

Succeed Upgrade

The latest release of Succeed will be installed in on Saturday 6th August. This particular release, called Q2 2016, is mainly technical changes but does bring a major enhancement to the user interface as it incorporates a responsive design, meaning that Succeed will play nicely with smartphones and tablets. The technical changes are an update to the Java version used by Succeed which incorporates a number of security updates — this change has no effect on your PC/Mac — and an early release of the new REST API.

Also, included are the updates that came with the Q4 2015 release. The headlines here are:

Goal Performance Dashboard
A competency-based education Building Block to map goals to courses within Learn. The Goal Performance Dashboard evaluates evidence of competencies individually, allowing for true measurement of mastery.

Grades Journey
Grades Journey integrates your institution’s Student Information System (SITS) with Learn. Grades Journey allows you to exchange grade information between two separate systems. Note implementing this is a major piece of work (if we decide to do this) from both a technical and procedural prospective.

For both releases there is a long list of bug fixes.

Responsive Design
By way of comparison, here a screen from a phone using the current version of Succeed:

Succeed on a smartphone

and the same page on a smart phone from Q2 2016:

Updated Succeed on a smartphone

Note how the responsive design is laid out sensibly on the phone as opposed to the standard web page being scaled (on the current system). The left-hand menu is hiding under the blue-bar along the left-hand side and tapping on this bar reveals the menu:

Module Menu

Note that the colours are different and these can’t be changed with the current release of the responsive design. This means that modules with modified colours schemes are not supported. All-in-all the responsive design makes Succeed work very nicely on a smartphone/tablet.

On the desktop, Succeed will look like:Succeed

The main difference is the use of a modern typeface and the colour scheme taken from Blackboard’s new design language (as the company) refers to it. Overall it gives Succeed a much more modern look and feel. The typeface is local change and aligns the typeface between the phone and desktop versions. This typeface is much more elegant than Arial which is used in the current version of Succeed.

Resource Lists

You may have spotted that the Resource List links disappeared from all the modules you are taking as a student or looking after as a member of staff. The cause we know was an update to the underlying tool in Succeed which links the Succeed module  to the corresponding Resource List but why this happened we do not understand. We are working with the providers of Succeed (Blackboard) to understand the causes so that it can be avoided in the future.

In the meantime, we have developed some software to add the links back into modules and was run in this morning (Friday 10th June) and so the links are now back. The one item that can not be guaranteed is placing the links back in the same position in the left-hand menu but it will be there.

The My Resource Lists panel also was removed from My Succeed at the same time and this needs to be added back via Add Panel, My Resource Lists.

Blackboard Integration Error: 124 with GradeMark

Students have been reporting that they get the following error when trying to view their feedback in GradeMark via the My Grades link in Succeed.

error 124

 

 

 

 

 

 

To fix the problem go to:

Control Panel > Module Tools > Turnitin Assignments.
Next click on the Sync Grades link for the relevant assignment.


synch_grades

 

 

 

Students will now be able to access their feedback.


Checking the problem

Instructors can check to see if an assignment has this problem by doing the following:

  1. Go to the Grade Centre
  2. In the column for the assignment, click the arrow next to a student’s grade and
    select Attempt details
    attempt2

 

 

 

3. On the next page, click on the icon next to either User’s Paper or Originality Report.
assignment info2

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you get the error now you will need to Sync Grades. If you can see the student’s paper, then this assignment doesn’t have the error.

Turnitin are aware of the issue and are currently working on a fix.

Qwickly trial

We are currently running a trial of Qwickly, a plug-in for Blackboard (Succeed).  Qwickly makes the task of communicating with and adding content to multiple courses faster and easier.

“Qwickly allows users to upload DropBox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and Box documents to Learn™ through modules or course tools. Qwickly allows faculty to make courses available, send emails, post announcements, and post content to multiple courses at once. Qwickly connects students together, facilitating group interaction.”  http://www.goqwickly.com/

We are also trialling Qwickly+  and Qwickly Attendance.  Qwickly+ adds functionality enabiling faculty to post content to many modules and also upload from Box and other cloud services

Qwickly attendance enables faculty to take attendance and automatically grade it using the grade centre in Succeed.

The trial version will be available until the end of April – If you are interesting in trialling the use of Qwickly, or you have any questions or comments about it, please contact sarah.grayston@stir.ac.uk

Teaching Bites

The next set of Teaching Bites sessions will start on 16th March 2016. The sessions running are:

Wednesday 16th March, 3-4pm,  S10 –  Working Towards Interdisciplinary Teaching and Learning

This Teaching Bite will enable delegates to explore how they might weave interdiscplinarity into their teaching practice.

  • Participants will have the opportunity to: explore examples of interdisciplinary practice from a national and international perspective
  • consider how these examples might work in their own context

Tuesday 22nd March, 10-11am, S10 – Teaching in an Internationalised Context

Given the increasing numbers of international students, many universities have explored ways of internationalising the curriculum to meet the changing needs and expectations of their students. This Teaching Bite is a taster of what that could look like in your own context.

Participants will have the opportunity to:

  • Gain knowledge of current practices in internationalising the curriculum in a UK context
  • Examine their own practice and identify potential for change

Tuesday 29th March, 11-12, S10 –  The Research-Teaching Nexus

What is the research-teaching nexus and what does it mean for you? This Teaching Bite offers a chance to explore the possible connections between your research and your teaching, as well as the potential for your students.

Delegates will have the opportunity to:

  • Examine different models of the research-teaching nexus
  • Work with colleagues to explore what model could work in your discipline and your context

Wednesday 13th April, 3-4pm, S10 – Student Mobility 

This Teaching Bite will be of interest to all staff considering ways to develop effective student mobility opportunities for students to stay or study abroad.

  • Consider different types of student mobility approaches across various disciplines
  • Reflect on the benefits and impact of student mobility for the institution and student learning experience
  • Explore the barriers to student mobility in your own institution and identify strategies/approaches to help you to plan for change

An additional session entitled Academic Writing led by Dr Jennie Osborn will also run (details are still to be confirmed).

To book, go to Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites -> and book into the relevant session(s)

 

Teaching Bites

Wednesday 27th January,  12-1pm,  S10: Module Design — Make Your Succeed a Better Place
Building a module in Succeed where the content is easy for the students to navigate is not as straight-forward as it might first appear. This session looks at some easy wins:

  • Using Content Areas affectively
  • Naming Content and the Description area
  • Use of the Table of Content (left-hand menu/navigation)
  • Consistency

Sarah Grayston, e-Learning Developer

Thursday 28th January, 1-2pm, S10: Enhancing conversations using Talking Mats

Talking Mats is a visual card sort tool that is highly effective in enabling students to express their views or plan and organise their thinking.
This session will look at ways in which staff in the Career Development Centre have been working with the Talking Mats team who created the tool to research its uses in a Higher Education setting and will explore it’s potential uses for Personal Tutors, Advisers of Study and its scope for use to great effect in teaching sessions, seminars and tutorials.

Elaine Watson, CDC

Friday 29th January, 1-2pm, S10: Qwizdom – Engaging Learners

Transform the classroom into learning environment that engages students and improves understanding. Qwizdom works with mobile phones (QVR) and clickers (we have 50) and integrates with PowerPoint to provide immediate feedback/grading/performance tracking. Come along and find out how it works.

Simon Booth, e-Learning Manager

Monday 1st February, 1-2pm, S10: Engaging employers in the curriculum

Research underpinning the development of employability in higher education places high importance on the value of employer engagement. This applies to both vocational and non-vocational subjects alike. This session will explore the different forms of employer engagement and how to progress their development in the curriculum.

Pam Crawford/Lesley Grayburn, CDC

Thursday 4th February: 1-2pm, S10: Quizzes/Surveys
The session will look at the Tests, Surveys and Pools area of Succeed. Users will be shown how to set up a test or a survey and how to add questions to it. An explanation of the available question types will be given. The session will also cover how to edit the settings for a test or survey so it is made available to the relevant users at the relevant time, including how to set up exceptions for AAA students who require more time to complete their assessments. An explanation will also be given of the question pool, and how to add questions to this pool, and how to select questions from the pool to add to tests and surveys.

Steve Boulton, e-Learning Developer

Friday 5th February, 1-2pm, S10: Turnitin – GradeMark
Turnitin offers much more than plagiarism detection. It has tools to facilitate peer marking and online marking (‘GradeMark’). This talk will demonstrate how to use GradeMark and discuss the positive and negative features of marking online.

Simon Booth, e-Learning Manager

Thursday 18th February, 1-2pm, S10: Students as reflective learners

This session will explore practical tools and strategies which staff can employ to help develop students’ reflective practice. We will be discussing:

  • What a reflective learner is.
  • The issues students face in trying to self-assess what their strengths and development needs are.
  • Practical strategies to help students learn to reflect.

Ruth Watkins, Student Learning Services

To book, Succeed -> Learning and Development – My Learning -> Teaching Bites -> and booking into the relevant session(s)