Tel Tales

Adventures in Technology Enhanced Learning @ UoP

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TEL in 2020

TEL in 2020

December 18, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Well … 2020 has been quite a year. The most extraordinary 12 months any of us have experienced. Although 2020 has had its stresses (to put it mildly) I’m proud at how the TEL team has helped the University maintain its mission. Our existing students were able to progress and new students have been able to start their University career. Without technology, that would have been impossible.   

Like many people, we understood the disruptive potential of Covid-19 in late February. By early March we started thinking about the support we could offer if the University had to deliver teaching remotely. We thus had the elearning Tools website ready to publish when the VC sent his email about home working.  

That move to home working affected the TEL team less than many other teams in the University – partly because many of us already had some experience of home working and partly because we work with technology on a daily basis. All we need to do the basics of our job is a fast, stable internet connection. (One team member, stuck abroad when airlines began to remove scheduled flights, spent several days working from Australia. For a while we truly were providing around-the-clock service!) It helped the team enormously that we used SLACK: the platform held a record of our thinking and enabled people to catch up on discussions they might otherwise have missed.  

That’s not to say working at home (or living at work?) was without challenges – especially for those of us who were homeschooling children or who had other caring responsibilities. One lesson I think we learned far too late was this: when we’re working at home we don’t need to be available all the time. Too many of us jumped to respond to a SLACK message immediately or to answer an email the moment it reached our inbox. It’s nice to know our team members are conscientious – but that “always-there” mentality is ultimately self-defeating. And although SLACK enabled us to work efficiently while we were remote, it’s undeniable that face-to-face communication is quicker and less prone to misunderstanding than text-based communication. All that raises an interesting question: when we get back to some sort of normality, will we all rush back into the office? Not many people miss their commute, but some do miss the office environment – so will we work more flexibly, with one or two days spent in the office and the rest working at home? Or will some of us become full-time home-workers?  

Returning from speculation on future events to events that happened back in the spring of 2020: the University started to develop its “Blended and Connected” approach to the new academic year. To support that initiative, the TEL team created the website Preparing for teaching in a blended learning context, with content coming from across the whole of DCQE. We also worked closely with our colleagues in Academic Development to put on the TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival (and more recently a Blended Learning Mini-Fest).

The “Blended and Connected” approach allowed us to address a long-standing complaint from students. In response to our yearly Digital Experience Tracker, students regularly criticised the lack of consistency across their Moodle modules. We now had the chance to develop and implement a templated approach to Moodle. The TEL team also improved the Moodle theme, in light of co-creation work with a group of University computing students studying UX/UI design.

Of course, all those other tasks involved in running a large Moodle installation did not go away because of the pandemic. Integrations with other systems (more of which below) had to be managed, the upgrade to Moodle version 3.9 had to take place, and all of this took place as the University moved from Quercus to SITS. (Can anything be more stressful for a university than changing Student Record systems in the middle of a pandemic?) The SITS project touched most aspects of University life; for us, it required the development of new feeds into Moodle. 

Moodle itself has performed robustly since the start of the academic year, despite routinely serving numbers of students that in previous years would have been considered extraordinary. By the start of December our new Moodle had clocked up 1,264,306 logins and students had engaged in 14,088,187 activities (read/writes). Phew… 

Throughout 2019, discussions and consultations around content capture had taken place (and a new policy on content capture was eventually agreed). We entered 2020, however, in a difficult place. We were concerned about the technologies we had available to support content capture: our existing platforms had reached end-of-life. The team facilitated a number of supplier demonstrations early in the year, with the last demonstration taking place just before the work-from-home directive took hold, and UoP chose Panopto – the most widely adopted video platform within universities. The implementation and roll-out of such a platform would normally take place over the course of a full year, but we made Panopto available (complete with Moodle integration and a support website) within six weeks. Quite an achievement! And the platform is being heavily used: by November, we had 29,793 videos created; 10,464 hours of video created; 736,081 views and downloads; and 97,759 hours of video delivered. Again, phew…    

To support synchronous delivery for the new “Blended and Connected” approach, the University purchased Zoom. And, of course, we were quick to integrate this with Moodle. One useful feature in Zoom, which at that point could not easily be replicated by existing options such as Meet and WebEx, was the easy creation of breakout rooms. (Offering a plethora of technologies that do similar things – Zoom, WebEx, Meet – has the potential to lead to confusion for staff and an inconsistent experience for students. It can be difficult to take options away from people; in some cases, it might be technically impossible to remove options. But – in the interests of a consistent student experience – perhaps we need to be firmer in our recommendations of what tools to use?)

We invested in other tools, too: Padlet to facilitate collaboration; Vevox as an audience response system; and we continued to push Nearpod for interactive lessons. For all of these, we continued to provide our usual training support for staff, and offered face-to-face and small-group sessions – mediated by Zoom, WebEx, and Meet! 

Throughout the pandemic, the TEL team has been active on social media – and the stream of positive, uplifting, motivational messages from TEL accounts were well received during the lockdown. More than one member of staff said the posts cheered them up!

We worked with staff across DCQE to help them create support sites (for example the Wellbeing and ASK sites) and with staff across the University in workstrands, workstreams, and elsewhere. We supported departments in adapting to an online alternative to their usual ‘go-to method’ of face to face presenting such as the Staff Induction Welcome Event for new staff members held by HR. I hope that cross-institution working carries on when we return to some form of normality because everyone agrees it has been beneficial.

What else? Well, we have kept abreast of accessibility issues and our responsibilities under PSBAR. This is a difficult issue for all universities: the legislation was written, I believe, with static content in mind. But a VLE contains rapidly changing content from thousands of users. The sector as a whole is grappling with the implications of this.

We hope to develop our (externally hosted) CPD Moodle. As more people become aware of the platform, more courses are going on there. And we are working closely with CEG Digital, the University’s partners for expanding our DL offering. 

Questions around analytics and data have been of interest and, when we’ve had any spare time (hah!), we’ve tried to make progress in this area. We have liaised with a Business Analyst on the creation of a Student Engagement and Monitoring dashboard; locally, we have started to look at how to surface useful statistics on the Moodle dashboard. Watch for developments over the coming months! 

I could write much, much more about the team’s attainments – but I’ll leave it there.

We have encountered many setbacks and challenges – inevitably so, given the amount of change that has been implemented over such a short period of time – but the team, as part of the wider University, has achieved so much this year. We can leave the plague year behind us and enter 2021 knowing we have a bright future.

A cartoon drawing of a person sitting at a desk with a screen in front of them. The screen has people in different small boxes and a teacher in a larger box with a screen with writing on behind her

Zoom vs Webex vs Google Meet: Important Features to Compare and Consider

November 23, 2020 / / 0 Comments

There is a growing need to deliver lectures online and capture online live lectures with the new Blended and Connected learning approach, which was recently introduced by our University to help our students in this challenging time. The Blended and Connected learning approach is driven by our Content Capture policy which emphasizes that “…all students should have access to learning from all formal teaching sessions regardless of whether they are able to physically attend.” Furthermore, with the regulatory requirement that our content needs to meet the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications)(No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018, it is now more important than ever to ensure that our online taught content is captured and captioned. 

The University has a few online conferencing tools available to meet this need. They are all easy to use with some differences between them. This document compares and considers important teaching and learning features in each tool to hopefully help you find the best tool to use for your needs.

On top of that, the University has acquired Panopto which helps to pre-record lectures and has a built-in auto caption facility. It is advisable that all formal teaching sessions, including online live lectures, are captured, uploaded and stored in the Panopto server for caption, security and storage purposes.

But of course, it is almost impossible for any caption, generated by automated speech recognition tools, to achieve 100 per cent accuracy. So, please do check and edit your captions to ensure the accuracy, and add a disclaimer to the video or module site. 

The following text has been officially signed off by Harriet Dunbar-Morris, Dean of Teaching and Learning.

“Currently our video content, delivered via Panopto, uses closed captions generated using automated speech recognition. This is about 70–80% accurate depending on the topic, audio quality and lecturer. We advise you not to rely solely on the captions when reviewing your video content. Make sure you check the captions against the PowerPoint and readings to ensure you have a good understanding of the topic and the terminology used. If you are reliant on these captions due to a disability or additional learning need then please contact ASDAC for advice on additional support for your study.“

Below is the list of online conferencing tools available in the University and their important learning and teaching features to compare and consider.

Zoom

Zoom is the new online conferencing tool that the University has acquired to support our Blended and Connected learning environment.

Screen or application sharing

  • Zoom allows hosts to easily share their device screen with meeting participants. There’s an option to choose between sharing the complete screen or to share a specific app or document such as Powerpoint or MS word. 
  • Hosts can enable or disable the participant’s ability to share audio, video, and the screen in the meeting.

Mute/Unmute

  • Hosts have a distinct level of control during the meeting. As the host or co-host in a meeting, you can manage your participants, including muting and unmuting participants, to manage background noise and distractions.

Breakout rooms

Remote control

Storage and Caption

  • All Zoom sessions recorded with the ‘cloud recording’ option are automatically uploaded to Panopto and captioned. Please check your captions to ensure the accuracy and add a disclaimer to the video or module site. 

Webex

Webex is a web conferencing and video conferencing application by Cisco Systems.

Screen or application sharing

  • Hosts can easily share their device screen with meeting participants. There’s an option to choose between sharing the complete screen or to share a specific app or document such as Powerpoint or MS word. 

Webex Meeting Center

    • Participants can share the content in the meeting by simply selecting ‘Share’ on the Quick Start tab, Menu Bar and Floating Icon Tray. This feature is enabled by default to make it easier to change presenters in a meeting and improves the overall collaboration experience. If hosts want more control over sharing, they can disable this feature while the meeting is in progress by selecting ‘Participant’ -> uncheck ‘Anyone Can Share’.

Screenshot showing that anyone can share

Webex Training Center

    • By default, the host has to designate participants as the presenter before they can share contents or screen. Hosts can reclaim the presenter role or change the presenter at any time by right-clicking the name on the Participants panel, including the host themselves, then select Change Role To -> Presenter.

A screenshot of how to change the role to presenter

Mute/Unmute

Webex Meeting Center

    • For Webex Meetings, you can choose to prevent attendees from unmuting themselves until you grant them permission to. 

Webex Training Center

    • When you mute participants in Webex Training, only you can unmute them, they can’t unmute themselves.

Breakout rooms

Remote control

(To assign this privilege, while in the session -> select ‘Participant’ -> ‘Assign Privileges’ -> Control shared applications, Web browser, or desktop remotely).

A screenshot of the label showing where to assign privileges

To remote control another participant’s screen in the meeting, the host needs to assign them the presenter role then request them to grant remote access control to the host.

Storage and Caption

  • All recorded Webex sessions should be downloaded and uploaded to Panopto for storage and captioning. Please check your captions to ensure the accuracy and add a disclaimer to the video or module site. 

Webex Meeting Center 

Webex Meeting Center session is recorded in mp4 format. It can be easily uploaded to Panopto.

Webex Training Center

Webex Training Center session is recorded in a Cisco specific .arf format. It needs to be converted to mp4 before uploading to Panopto.

Google meet

Previously known as Hangout, is Google’s video conferencing solution.

Screen or application sharing

  • By default, all participants can share their whole screen or a specific window, or chrome tab during the meeting. Through screen sharing, one can share documents, spreadsheets, presentations, and more. When you share a Chrome tab, it shares the tab’s audio by default. Hence, you can play an online video as well.
  • Hosts can prevent participants from sharing their screen but they need to update this setting for every new call, even if it is a recurring event. 

To prevent sharing:

  1. Join a Meet video call.
  2. At the bottom, click ‘Host controls’.
  3. Turn off ‘Share their screen’.

Mute/Unmute

  • Anyone in a Google Meet conference can mute anyone else.
  • If you mute someone, no one in the conference will be able to hear them.
  • When you mute someone, everyone will be notified that you have muted the person.
  • You cannot unmute someone once they have been muted. They have to unmute themselves. Google says this is for privacy reasons.

Breakout rooms

Remote control

  • Google Meet does not have a built-in option to give remote control over to another person. However, Google has provided a tool that can be used right alongside Google Meet to accomplish this. That tool is called Chrome Remote Desktop.

Storage and Caption

  • All recorded Google meet sessions should be downloaded from Google Drive and uploaded to Panopto for storage and caption. Please check your captions to ensure the accuracy and add a disclaimer to the video or module site. 

 

Credit Image: Image by Hatice EROL from Pixabay

A person holding a tablet with the view over their shoulder of them holding something in their hand touching the screen

A different way of welcoming students

November 16, 2020 / / 0 Comments

For both staff and students, the start of a new academic year is, even in normal times, an exciting (and sometimes stressful) occasion. With this year being far from normal, departments are having to adapt to a more virtual environment and for some degree apprenticeship courses, this is going to mean welcoming new students online. On top of the barrage of information all new students have to deal with, our apprentices have additional requirements to meet such as creating an ePortfolio. Indeed, degree apprenticeship applicants to the School of Civil Engineering and Surveying had an online welcome to the department in mid-August while applicants to Business and Law Leadership and Management and Project Management were also welcomed online rather than face to face.

Welcoming and inducting new students is an essential part of starting out on a new educational adventure and moving online does not have to mean losing out completely on the experience of face to face sessions. Applicants to our surveying degree apprenticeship programme were able to ‘meet’ the staff long before they set a foot on campus through welcome videos hosted on a Google site.

Screenshot of the Google Site containing the Welcome page for the School of Civil Engineering & Surveying

Screenshot from the SCES pre-applicant site.

The SCES pre-applicant site provided a user-friendly platform allowing the department to offer prospective apprentices with a wealth of information, helping to create an early connection with the University. Through this site, the pre-applicants could be made aware not just of the demands of the surveying course but also the requirements of the apprenticeship aspects of the course such as the need to maintain a log of their off the job training.

In the words of Module Coordinator Tom Woodbury,
“Due to the restrictions imposed due to the COVID-19 crisis, our Applicant Open Day moved to an online-only format. Working with TECH OCD, we developed the content for the session using a Google Plus site which meant that as well as having the content organised for the day, applicants that could not attend and those wanting to revisit the content were able to access at their convenience. In the end, this method worked out really well, and seemed very well-received by attendees.”

The sites helped prepare students for some of the skills that they will need to help complete their course successfully, for example, what IT skills will be required and offered early access to study support information and library facilities.

This model was also used by the faculty of Business and Law for their Chartered Manager DA, Project Management DA and their MBA DA course. The ease with which Google sites can be used to create web pages also meant the sites could be put together and published relatively quickly. However, the structure that Google sites forces on the user can be a little frustrating at times, but this can be overcome with some bespoke HTML.

Screen shot of one of the pages on the Google Site it's titled: IT Skills Required

For courses starting before the official October re-opening of the University, the sites were an important way to communicate with students. The sites were not made public and anyone accessing the site needed the actual link that was sent out to the prospective students. Google Analytics was used to monitor the level of access and early data indicated many applicants were using the sites. With Google sites already being used extensively by Business and Law degree apprentices for their ePortfolios, using them as a way of welcoming new apprentices in these unusual times seemed a logical and workable solution but it will be interesting to collect feedback from the students.

Photo by Kaboompics .com from Pexels

Another 6 months of working from home - don't panic!

Another 6 months of working from home – don’t panic!

October 26, 2020 / / 0 Comments

2020 has been a rollercoaster of a year. With the latest announcements and guidance from the government, plus the extension of working remotely for many of us, it’s inevitably starting to take it’s toll. For some working from home is challenging and can often feel daunting and very isolating. Not everyone is tech-savvy and with the use of more and more new technologies, particularly in higher education to teach, learn and to simply communicate with our colleagues, it can feel quite overwhelming. With the added bonus of the pressures of family life thrown in, it’s important to look out for each other and most importantly take time out for you!

Finding the balance

Working days seem longer since lockdown and our workloads have increased, with ongoing pressures and deadlines, it can feel like we are drowning in constant emails and online meetings. So what can be done? What little things can we do, to take some control back in our lives? How do we find the balance between work and life?

Back at the beginning of lockdown, we put together some Top Tips from TEL to help our followers on social media (and us), adjust to this new way of working. For many of us we will be continuing working from home for the foreseeable future, with this in mind we thought it might be useful to revisit them, before the panic takes over!

Take regular breaksTake regular breaks

It’s important to make sure we take time away from our screens during our busy days (something I’m especially guilty of not doing!). It’s not only good for our mental and physical health but also good for our productivity. It’s better to have shorter breaks more often from your workstation than longer breaks less often. Try to schedule in a short walk, an exercise or a short meditation session.

DEDICATED WORK SPACECreate a dedicated workspace

We’ve become remote workers overnight and it’s often difficult to find ‘space’ in our homes to work. Some of us are fortunate to have a spare room which we can transform into a quiet office space. Others have created a workspace at their dining room tables. It’s important to create a dedicated workspace where you are able to work from home – this way you can feel like you are at work even if you aren’t physically in the office.

Write a to-do listwrite a list

Write a to-do list at the start of every week, this is a must for me. It not only helps you to plan out your week but also to prioritise your tasks. Try and achieve one thing on your list, don’t be surprised if it all goes at the window. At the end of the day reflect on what happened, what went right, think positively. Don’t beat yourself up – tomorrow is another day!

Don't panic if you get disconnectedDon’t panic if you get disconnected

I think we’ve all experienced this when working remotely. Things aren’t working quite like you thought they would and it’s easy to panic – but don’t! All technologies can be glitchy at times. Remember, if you lose connections, maybe a video conference, don’t worry – everyone is in the same boat and we’ll muddle through together.

Don’t lose contact with
your work colleaguesDon't lose contact with work colleagues

As I’ve mentioned above, working from home can often feel isolating. It’s important to keep in contact with our colleagues for our own well-being. Although we are all experiencing this crazy year together, we are all in very different circumstances with very different pressures. Some may be thriving under this new way of working and living, others may be struggling – it’s important to reach out, be kind and support one another.

 

20-20-20 RuleRemember the 20-20-20 rule

Suffering from headaches and sore eyes since working from home is common, which is often the result of too much screen time. Remember to practice the 20-20-20 rule: 20 minutes on-screen needs a 20-second break during which you should blink 20 times. Give it a go!

Make sure to clock off
and switch offclock off - switch off

Our working days have increased. We are starting work earlier and turning off our computers well into the night. We seem to be working more hours than ever before. It’s important for our mental health and wellbeing that we don’t burn out! Make sure that you try and have regular breaks from your screen throughout the day and log off when your working day is over. Turn off notifications on your phones to make sure that when you do clock off, you also switch off. Work/Life balance is hard to juggle when we are stuck indoors but being mindful to separate both mentally is essential.

learn to deal with distractionsLearn to deal with distractions

There are often distractions with working remotely. However, when the whole family are also thrown into the mix, learning not to be distracted can feel like an impossible task. Try to tackle things in small chunks and if you can’t achieve everything that you set out to in the day, then there’s always the next day. Don’t feel ashamed to call on your colleagues, friends or family to help out if they are able to. Be understanding of one another and take everything one step at a time.

Make time for exercisemake time for exercise

Whatever your go-to exercise, it’s important to factor some into your day. It’s not only good for your body, but it also keeps your mind healthy. Exercise is the miracle cure we’ve always had! If you can’t get to a gym, then there are lots of online videos that can help you carry out home workouts, such as Joe Wicks, the nation’s favourite PE teacher and our own UoP Sport and Recreations Facebook page.

work when you're at your most productiveWork when you’re at your most productive

Nobody rushes through their work from morning to night – your motivation will naturally dip and rise throughout the day. When we are working from home, however, it’s more important to know when those dips and rises will take place and plan your schedule around them. To make the most of productive periods, save your harder tasks for when you know you’ll be in the right headspace for them. Slower points of the day for easier tasks.

Take time out – reflect ontake time out to reflect
how far you’ve come and
how much you’ve achieved!

Take some time out, even if it’s ten minutes in the day, be grateful for the small things in life and reflect on how far you’ve come and how much you’ve achieved this year. You’ll be surprised at how productive you have been!

 

 

don't be afraid to ask for help

Don’t be afraid to ask

Lots of new tools and technologies to learn, new terminology, head full of pedagogy, best practice and resources and zero time to do anything – can often feel overwhelming. As a team, TEL, offer lots of useful training sessions to help you get to grips with online teaching, we also offer 1-2-1 sessions and we can be contacted via email, or video call if you have a question – so please don’t be afraid to ask – just contact us!

And most importantly  . . .
Be kind to yourselfbe kind to yourself

One of the most difficult things to practice and that’s putting ourselves first and being kind to ourselves. It’s often hard to schedule some time in the day especially if you have a busy work and family life. However, a bath at the end of the day, meditation, a short exercise session, reading a book, listening to music are all ways we can take time out for ourselves.

It’s been a challenging time for us all and we may find some days are more productive than others. We’ve all had to adapt to a new routine since March, a new way of working and living. Make sure to take time out for yourself and always remember tomorrow is another day. Yes we may have to do this for a little bit longer, but we have shown that we are able to.

You may not think it but you’re doing great!

Top 4 Moodle Questions - Part 2 - Students

Top 4 Moodle Questions – Part 2 Students

October 19, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Are you a new student at the University or a returning student? How has the start of Teaching Block 1 (TB1) gone so far for you? There’s just so much to think about and everything’s so different, this year more than ever. Don’t worry in a few short weeks time, things will start to fall into place and it’ll be like you’ve been here for ages. Welcome to the University of Portsmouth.

Last week’s blog post looked at the Four Top Moodle Questions for Staff, so this week we’re looking at the most frequently asked questions from students. As you’re aware many educational institutions use one form or another for their virtual learning environment (VLE) and here at Portsmouth, we use Moodle. So here are the top four students questions:

Q1) I’ve logged into Moodle and I can’t see any information, where are my modules?

This question normally starts being asked as soon as the students finish registering at the university, which can be even before Induction week!  Hopefully, by now all the students that have Teaching Block 1 (2020/21-SMSEP) and Year-long (2020/21-SMYEAR) modules can now see their sites on their dashboard. Modules are hidden from student view so that the sites can be updated and are usually released by the lecturer in their first taught session with students. This isn’t written in stone and the lecturer can unhide the site any time once the module is ready.

Q2) I’ve got some modules, but some are still missing, can you add them to my Moodle dashboard?  

Teaching Block 2 (TB2) modules are normally kept hidden until the beginning of Teaching Block 2, which this year starts on Monday 8th February 2021. Some lecturers release these modules before January but others prefer for students to view their material in chronological order.  If you’re still missing modules in February 2021, please contact us at the servicedesk@port.ac.uk so we can investigate the issue further.  

Q3) Where can I find my timetable in Moodle? 

The answer to this question is, you won’t be able to find your timetable in Moodle.  Your timetable can be found on MyPort. Once on MyPort scroll down the page until you come to the three main sections ‘Application’, ‘Manage my course’ and ‘Services and Support’. In the middle section ‘Manager my course’ you’ll see the title ‘My Timetable’, click on here. Once you’ve logged in using your student ID  you’ll see your calendar with your timetable on, you can look at it daily, weekly or monthly. The information shown is the length of the lecture, the building where your lecture is taking place, plus the room number, along with the title of the lecture.

Three sections taken from My Port they are ‘Application’, ‘Manage my course’ and ‘Services and Support’.

Q4) I’ve been given the wrong year modules. Why do my modules end with the date of the last year?  

This question normally appears in January and may not happen this year as the codes now include both years that the academic reflects. Most academic Undergraduate courses begin in September/October and end in July, so regardless of which Teaching Block it is, the module will include 2020/21. It is the year that August/September starts in, which indicates what year appears on the code and not the calendar year. So in January 2021, you’ll see that your modules will end with 2020/21-SMJAN.

We hope you find this blog post useful and that maybe it’s preempted some questions, but either way, don’t forget to contact us for further assistance should you need it by emailing us at servicedesk@port.ac.uk.  

Good Luck with your studies!

Top 4 Moodle Questions

Top Four Moodle Questions – Part 1 Staff

October 12, 2020 / / 0 Comments

After the most unusual academic year ever, with everyone adapting their teaching style and working online. It was the TEL Team’s mission, along with help from the Online Course Developers to get this academic year 2020/21 modules redesigned and ready to go.  All their hard work has paid off, but would you believe it, the same top four questions appear again this year!

Q1) I cannot see my module(s) on my Moodle dashboard, why not?

Are you a new member of staff or have you recently taken over the module? Has the module changed name/code and has it had a Moodle presence previously? These are some of the reasons you may not be able to see a module on your dashboard, to help us resolve the issue we will require some details about the module(s) – the module title and/or the module code, the level of access that you require for the module(s), and your username. With this information, we can add you to the module or create a blank module (or clone an existing one) for you to build.

Q2) My students are not attached to my modules, why not?

Students are added to modules in Moodle by mapping course codes and registration instances, or modules codes and attendance groups against Student Records. We do not manually add students as this access will not update should they change their modules of study.  Let us know if you are missing students and we will try to see if we can resolve this problem for you or bring it to the attention of your Admin Hub if a change needs to be made in Student Records.

Q3) I can see my students are attached to my module, but they are saying that they can’t see the module on their homepage, why not?

It could be that your module is still hidden from the student view.  

To unhide your module, go to the module, click on the ‘Actions Menu’ (top right-hand-side), click on ‘Edit settings’, click on the drop-down arrow in the box alongside the ‘Course visibility’ title, click on ‘Show’ scroll down and click on ‘Save and display’.  Once your students have refreshed their Moodle page, students should be able to see the module.  If students still cannot see the module, please supply the module’s details and we will investigate to see if we can resolve this issue. 

screenshot of the words Course Visibility next to a box with a drop down arrow showing the word Show

Here is a screenshot of the drop-down box, if it says Hide click on Show.

It is also important to remember that modules ending in JAN stay hidden from student view until Teaching Block 2 starts (or until the module is unhidden).  So you’ll see the students, but the students won’t see the module.

Q4) My colleague needs access to my module, can I add them myself?

Yes you can – on the module page click on the ‘Actions Menu’ (top right-hand-side), click on ‘More’ at the bottom of the list. Click on the tab ‘Users’, then in the ‘Users’ section click on ‘Enrolled users’ (first title).  This will take you to the participants’ page, click on the box that says ‘Enrol users’ a box will appear, first assign the role you wish your colleague to have from the drop-down menu, then type their name in the top search box, where it says ‘Select users’. When the name you require appears click on it, so it appears above the box, then click on the ‘Enrol selected users and cohorts’ button.  

screenshot of the enrol users box showing details of where to click

Here is a sample of the Enrol users box.

When your colleague refreshes their page or logs into Moodle the module will appear on their dashboard.  With Lecturer access you can give a colleague a ‘Lecturer’, ‘non-editing Teacher’ or ‘Guest’ role, you cannot assign the ‘Student’ role.

Alternatively, complete the Moodle Request form on My Services and we’ll add new users for you. 

Don’t forget the TEL Team are here to help with your queries and questions so please do get in touch with us at servicedesk@port.ac.uk

Credit Image: Photo by Raychel Espiritu on Unsplash

Hands holding an electronic device, on the screen are social media icons

Zoom Vs Meet Vs WebEx

September 21, 2020 / / 0 Comments

With the new term fast approaching it can feel pretty daunting with all this new terminology and jargon to learn. Within the TEL team, we have received quite a few queries from staff about what’s the ‘best’ technology to use when it comes to online video conferencing and meetings, particularly when it comes to Zoom, Meet and WebEX. It’s a good question! The short answer is all of them, which doesn’t help I know. So firstly we advise to think about what you want to ‘achieve’, what’s the purpose of using the technology, is it to create an online classroom within Moodle? Is it to create an event, with conference-style presentations? Or is it just for a one-to-one chat? All have pros and cons which we have tried to outline in this post below. We hope you find it useful!

Let’s get started!

There are many articles that cover what each system does and the benefits of each one, some of which are featured below: 

From the University’s perspective, we have licences for all 3. So where articles talk about the limitations of a free licence, they do not apply to us for Zoom, WebEx or Meet. 

My quick summary of each tool from a “Virtual Classroom” and learning and teaching perspective is this:

Zoom
  • Can add a classroom directly in Moodle
  • Has video-enabled breakout rooms
  • There is no link between Moodle and the creation of the breakout sessions. 
  • 300 users with no time limit
  • Can be password protected
  • Has a waiting room
  • Can be set to allow access before the host
WebEx
  • The biggest issue with WebEx is it is actually four products with each version offering something different. 
    • WebEx Meeting – For Meetings, has no breakouts
    • WebEx Training Centre – For teaching, has breakouts but poor video share (most geared towards a virtual classroom with permissions etc)
    • WebEx Events – For conference-style presentations
    • WebEx Support – For providing a supportive environment.
  • Can add a classroom directly in Moodle
  • Has audio-only breakout rooms using WebEx Training centre.
  • 1000 users with no time limit
  • No waiting room
Google Meet
  • Not designed as a classroom
  • No admin features
  • No breakout sessions
  • No Moodle integration
  • Loads of plugin features such as Tactiq for a live transcription which saves to your Google Drive.

What I would like to offer, however, is the ability for you to share your experiences of each system, both positive and negative, so that a more realistic and natural picture can be shared between academic staff.

Made with Padlet

Remember we, the TEL team, are here to support you to get to grips with these new technologies, so please feel free to contact us at elearn@port.ac.uk if you do have a query. We also offer TEL Me How Surgeries twice quickly where we can go over any questions or queries you may have. The 2-hour sessions focus on supporting staff with the transition to online delivery and offering guidance around alternative forms of online assessment, please book your place here.

Credit Image: Photo by NordWood Themes on Unsplash

Icons around a speech bubble. The speech bubble says 'Let's Recap'

Recap of available support for teaching in a blended learning context

September 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

Over the past few weeks TEL and the Academic Development Team have been super busy developing and collating lots of resources to support our colleagues across the University in preparation to teach in a blended learning context.

It is crazy to reflect on the amount of work that has gone on in the last few months – so I just wanted to highlight some key resources and communication channels that we have developed – new and old –  that can support and inform you in the coming weeks ahead as we plan for TB1.

Preparing for teaching in a blended learning context website

Banner for the homepage a lady at a desk looking at her laptop

Information on this site includes:

Learning Well resources to support student wellbeing and inclusion.

elearning tools website

The elearning tool banner which is a photo of part of a laptop, part of a pen and notebook and part of a cup and saucer

This website was set up in the immediate week after Covid-19 lockdown began but is pretty much updated daily with new resources. 

The site covers:

  • teaching remotely guidance on lectures, seminars, assessments etc.
  • elearning tools and how to use them in the correct context.
  • a huge resource bank of relevant articles and other media. 
  • links to upcoming internal and external events to support you in teaching in a blended learning context.

TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival

The TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival banner, which is a big wheel, some festival tents and shapes of people along the bottom

The TEL Tales Blended Learning Festival may well have finished but you can still visit this website and engage with the recorded sessions from this super successful week-long event. 

Training events calendar

We have a wide-range of virtual training sessions covering teaching in a blending learning context and the functionality of tools within Moodle and beyond.

A screen shot of the TEL Training programme with training information, dates, times etc.

Digital Learning Portsmouth

Visit our YouTube channel – dedicated to providing support for Moodle, Turnitin and other interesting technologies that can be used in teaching.

Screen Shot of the banner which is different coloured icons

The TEL Team

Of course, if any of the above doesn’t have the support that you require – please do not hesitate to contact us (elearn@port.ac.uk). We are a lovely bunch who will do our best to help at all times!

Cartoon images of the TEL Team standing in a row

Our Social Media

Follow us on Instagram and Twitter to keep up-to-date with our posts, sharing information about upcoming events and resources.

TEL's Instagram header including numbers of followers and us following

 

TEL's Twitter Image including number details of Followers and Following

Credit: https://fontawesome.com/icons

Learning in lockdown – 5 months on

August 24, 2020 / / 0 Comments

It’s been around 5 months since I started my degree, and what a time it has been! (Laughs maniacally, cries a little bit).

Seriously, what did I tell you in my last blog? Go read it if you haven’t, but didn’t I tell you my life is nothing but hectic, didn’t I?! I knew things would be tough, but I didn’t foresee a pandemic to be thrown in the mix. As usual, things always go a little bit mental when I start something. But never mind! If we don’t go through upset and discord then how do we grow and learn? I know, like most do, that this too shall pass so what’s more to say and do except for roll up our sleeves and move forward.

And roll up my sleeves up, I have. I’ve just submitted my second assignment and completed 10 different projects. Past Becky was a bit naive and thought this would be a piece of cake. Ah my sweet summer past Becky, how wrong you were. I have learned an incredible amount since I’ve started my online degree. I thought that in my line of work, I would somehow have the magic key that would give me a head start. It didn’t. Like everyone else that studies entirely online I’ve learned the hard way that it is my responsibility to set myself time aside to do things, to get feedback from my peers, friends and family, and to go outside of my comfort zone and experiment and try again. The learning journey is indeed that, a journey, and for this degree, in particular, it’s not about creating the best art, but to show the process. Asking questions like how did I get here? Who is my audience? Will they understand this symbolism? Could I try a different texture here?

Just like the pandemic is teaching us different things about ourselves, and the importance of community, this degree has taught me a lot. Here’s what I’ve learned so far.

Setting aside study time – I’m currently lucky enough to work from home at my desk, and as soon as the clock ticks over 17:15 pm I can get started on studying. I’m really good at it now, but the discipline I’m now practising has been learned…the hard way..as usual. It is so, so important to do this. I like to use Trello and my Google calendar to organise myself.

Finding a quiet place to study – At the beginning of lockdown I was working at my dining table. This got really distracting in the evening (three words, Midsomer Murders repeats). So eventually I commandeered my husband’s desk and got into a far better routine, with no distractions. I’ve also started taking myself out with my iPad on a free, sunny day, studying outside in the sun with a coffee. I’ve found it very freeing and I get so much more done!

Reflect, reflect, REFLECT! – It’s so easy to get wrapped up in something you can get lost in the initial brief and go off tangent. Getting constant feedback from your peers, and stepping back from your project is so important and refocuses what you are doing. To get constructive criticism for your peers and tutors is never a negative thing, it’s all part of the process. It’s also important to be able to show your tutors how you got to your final piece. Showing them a final product is almost useless if they have no clue as to how you got there in the first place!

Communication – Online learning can be a lonely place since you have no bricks and mortar campus to connect with others. I’ve been making the most of the forums, Zoom sessions and Discord channels to communicate. I’ve already made lots of friends and we regularly meet up online to play Drawful! I would have certainly struggled if I hadn’t had these places to chat or share ideas.

So what about the OCA itself? Has it given me food for thought on how we as a university can deliver our online learning better….well, it has and it hasn’t. To be blunt, I had expected an institution associated with a TEF Gold university to be leaps and bounds ahead of us when it comes to online delivery. Well, they are not, in fact, they are only really starting to blossom, in my opinion, along with so many other institutions. What has really stood out is how the student body has found many innovative ways itself to up the ante with communications, but I can see so many things that the OCA can do better with their VLE and that’s why you are now looking at the newly elected student representative in TEL and IT for the OCA Student Association. Because, you know, I don’t have enough to do. But seriously, I really think I can help make a difference working with their TEL team and the student body. I’ll update you all on what has happened with that in my next blog.

I definitely do not regret my decision to study online. My little brain may be working overtime, but I’m enjoying it immensely. I keep seeing lately that there is no wrong path, and it’s so true, so if you’re putting off taking something on like this then do it! 

Until next time, stay safe!

Credit Image: Becky Holman – Southsea Seafront

 

Three different coloured text boxes with the titles of each step

Situational judgement assessment

August 17, 2020 / / 1 Comment

So I think it is fair to say, Covid-19 has thrown us all into having to think outside of the box when it comes to developing the usual, more ‘normal’, course assessment delivery types. This couldn’t be more true for our academics within the Paramedic Cert HE course. 

A few weeks ago, I was asked to support a colleague within this team to help deliver an online assessment that would replicate what would have been a practical examination on adult and paediatric resuscitation. 

With COVID not going away anytime soon, and practical assessment dates looming, we had a very short space of time to develop an online assessment that would best simulate ‘hands-on’ resuscitation scenarios.

As a response to the need to deliver an alternative assessment, Jane Reid – the Course Leader for the Paramedic Cert HE course – wrote four situational judgement assessments; each scenario had sequential situations and each situation had a series of serious judgement questions to test a student’s knowledge of actions to take within the ever-changing scenario.

Situational judgement assessment has been used in healthcare for years. It allows participants to experience as close to real-life scenarios as possible, without risk (in our case COVID), enabling them to identify, in order, their responses to given situations.

Three different coloured text boxes displaying the steps

Storyboarding a situational judgement test:

  1. Scenario – Includes detailed descriptive text, containing key information that sets the scene. This can also include images, audio or video to further illustrate the scenario.
  2. Situation 1 – Content that builds on the initial scenario, it contains the next layer of information relating to the scenario at hand and includes the first set of serious judgement questions.
  3. Situation 2 – Content builds on the previous situation and includes the next set of serious judgement questions… and so on until the end of the scenario.

There were many considerations that had to be made whilst developing this assessment type – mainly to keep the assessment as authentic as possible. For example:

  • providing media to set the scene; 
  • keeping the narrative on track – ‘time’ is of the essence in any resuscitation scenario, so it was important to include timely details within the situations; and 
  • replicating the quick thinking process that would be required in a real-life situation by using the sequential format in the quiz, so that students had to take notes or work from memory as they couldn’t return to previous situations to guide them.

The student experience was another really important factor in delivering this assessment – most of whom may never have experienced this type of examination. It was essential to provide clear and consistent instructions to guide them through this process. Before the main assessment, we also created a formative version of the quiz so that students could familiarise themselves with what was expected from the assessment.

We used a Google Document, with tables, to structure the content in the development stage and a Moodle Quiz Activity (Multiple Choice) to build and deliver the assessment which worked very well. The feedback from both students and examiners has been really positive, with more scope for using this assessment as a CPD exercise for practitioners. 

Interest has also been shown by academics at other universities who wish to explore this particular method of assessment along with Ambulance Trust managers. The methods for assessing the learning of resuscitation has seen little evolution from the traditional OSCE format therefore, this format that was created for a small group of students may well develop over time.

Developing this was by no means easy given the time constraints. However, it is a great example of an alternative assessment that has been developed from creative thinking during the lockdown.  

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