Category Archives: Uncategorized

VLE supplier presentations – update

There have been some changes to the venues and schedule of supplier presentations for the new VLE. The new details are:

Wed 5 April
9.00-10.30 – Canvas, Court Room 1 & 2
11.00-12.30 – Brightspace, Court Room 1 & 2

Fri 7 April
11.00-12.30 – Blackboard, Court Room 1 & 2

The suppliers who were presenting on 6 April have withdrawn from the process.

All staff are invited to attend these sessions – please sign up at https://stirling.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/vle-presentations-2. Student participation is being co-ordinated by the Students’ Union.

Also, a reminder that there will be a drop-in session in Training Room 1 in the Library from 10am to 4pm on Monday 10 April where all students and staff are invited to test each of the systems and provide feedback.

Digital Assessment Forum – 20th February, 12.30pm-4.30pm

Visiting Speaker: Dr Susie Schofield, University of Dundee
An opportunity to explore themes and issues around assessment in the digital domain with external and internal speakers. Our Keynote speaker, Dr Susie Schofield, will deliver a presentation entitled Improving digital assessment literacy through online feedback dialogue: the interact case study. We will encourage the sharing of good practice across the disciplines around the use and value of appropriate learning technologies. Lunch will be provided.

For further details of the event, including speakers and topics, download the Digital Assessment Forum Schedule.

Please book here: https://succeed.stir.ac.uk/webapps/oslt-signUpList-BBLEARN/single/signUp.jsp?course_id=_370_1&content_id=_879742_1&gt

If you have any questions please contact: Sarah Anderson, Academic Development Coordinator academic.development@stir.ac.uk

Find out more about Academic Development: http://www.stir.ac.uk/learningandteaching/
HR&OD department, Cottrell Building, University of Stirling, FK9 4LA,
T: 01786 466129
E: academicdevelopment@stir.ac.uk

From VLE to LMS : Next Generation Digital Learning Environment

Information Services (IS) is beginning a tendering process for the University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) with a view to implementing a new integrated, next generation Learning Management Sysetm (LMS)  in time for Academic Year 2017/2018.

IS is interested to hear colleagues’ views on what a digital learning environment should offer and are keen to hear of positive and negative experiences with the current platform, Succeed/Blackboard.   Over the coming weeks a series of feedback sessions will be held, and academic and support staff are invited to attend these to share their views. The sessions will be arranged with each faculty and colleagues will receive further details on times and locations when these have been confirmed.

Please contact Sarah Grayston (sarah.grayston@stir.ac.uk) for further details and subscribe to this blog for updates.

 

 

BYOD4L – informal CPD opportunity

‘Bring Your Own Device for Learning’ (BYOD4L)

16-20 January 2017

BYOD4L is a bite-size facilitated open course offered over 5 days for educators and students in HE but also anybody else who would like to learn with us as to how we can utilise our digital devices for professional, lifelong and lifewide learning.

Together we will explore the following topics based on the 5C Framework:

    • connecting
    • communicating
    • curating
    • collaborating
    • creating

Using an inquiry-based approach that will enable us to learn with others and/or on your own within a supportive community. You are very welcome to join one or all of the above topics and work towards an open badge or two. There will be seven open badges available in total. One for each topic, one for the community and a course badge if you successfully complete the whole course. All work submitted will be peer reviewed and can be used as evidence of CPD.

There will be regular updates at https://byod4learning.wordpress.com/, and please also follow @BYOD4L on Twitter to keep up-to-date with all course announcements and activity. The course hashtag is #BYOD4L.

You can join the Google+ community at https://plus.google.com/communities/115166756393440336480 where discussions and collaborations will also take place.

Each evening there will be a tweetchat between 8-9pm GMT. There is an opportunity to both listen in and contribute to a discussion on Twitter via the hashtag #BYOD4Lchat. In the previous three iterations of the course this has been a vibrant learning space where participants share ideas and learn together.

Please note, this is a registration-free course. You can access all collaborative spaces and resources without additional logins.
BYOD4L is openly licensed and has been developed by colleagues at Manchester Metropolitan University and Sheffield Hallam University. This is the 5th time BYOD4L is offered since January 2014.

We look forward to seeing you on the 16th if not before.

Neil Withnell, University of Salford @neilwithnell,
Alex Spiers, University of Liverpool @alexgspiers,
Sheila MacNeill, Glasgow Caledonian University @sheilmc

Succeed Scrolling Issues on iPad

There is a known problem scrolling some Succeed content on the iPad when content is being delivered in HTML format. The video below demonstrates the issue.

It shows that scrolling down on a page showing many icons is fine (as shown in the section 00:00 to 00:04 seconds in the video), but then if you go into a Learning Module in Succeed (built up of HTML pages) and try to scroll down on the main part of the page (as shown from 00:10 to 00:12 in the video) then this will not scroll properly. What users have to do is scroll by specifically placing their finger on the bar that separates the main part of the page from the Course Menu on the left and scroll up and down using that (as shown from 00:13 in the video onwards).

Also, it is recommended to set items to open in a new browser tab in Succeed (rather than in the main frame of the page) so they display more readily on tablet devices.

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).

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.

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