Category: Digital Learning and Teaching

Vignette of Practice: Course design and development including enhanced use of Pebble Pad and the Pebble Pocket App for undergraduate level 4-6 teaching

Josh Simpson

Course design and development including enhanced use of Pebble Pad and the Pebble Pocket App for undergraduate level 4-6 teaching Glyn Harding, Michelle Morgan, Craig Williams and David Mycock – School of Sport and Exercise Science One of the assessments in SPRT 2034 ethics requires students to collaborate with Drama and Law staff and students to participate in a real-life innovation cross department experience court case to analyse the ‘ethical implications’ of applied practice. Through this approach, we underpin our delivery with the School of Sport and Exercise Science core teaching values (see Figure 1) to ensure high-quality teaching and the promotion of inclusive practice. Furthermore, synchronous online learning (developed through Covid 19) has enabled students and lecturers to interact live, retaining the student-teacher interactions… Read moreVignette of Practice: Course design and development including enhanced use of Pebble Pad and the Pebble Pocket App for undergraduate level 4-6 teaching

Get ready for GAAD

ElaineS
Global Accessibility Awareness Day Logo

Can you help us on Global Accessibility Awareness Day? This is a day to raise awareness of how we can all help support digital accessibility and this year it’s on 19th May. It’s an opportunity to take a small amount time to focus on the digital accessibility of your courses or any content that you might want to improve. There are lots of events worldwide and you can find out more about the range of events on the dedicated website. Blackboard are running a Fix Your Content 24-hour global event– challenging institutions and Blackboard Ally users everywhere to look at how they can improve the accessibility of their content. To help with improving the digital accessibility, colleagues from QED, IT, the TEL Unit, the Library,… Read moreGet ready for GAAD

Vignette of Practice – Going Online in a Pandemic: Staff and Student Voices at the Heart of Inclusive Teaching

ctay5

Going Online in a Pandemic: Staff and Student Voices at the Heart of Inclusive Teaching Jennifer Hatley, Course Leader Education Studies, School of Education       I am the course leader for Education Studies and like most courses at the University, myself and my team found ourselves moving to online teaching quickly in response to the Covid-19 pandemic. We are in a unique position. We were not just teaching any subject; we were teaching Education. Pedagogy and andragogy are what we do all day, every day, so we knew that we couldn’t simply put resources online and expect learning to happen as it does when face-to-face. Nonetheless, with the need to act quickly, that is in effect what we had to do. This constituted… Read moreVignette of Practice – Going Online in a Pandemic: Staff and Student Voices at the Heart of Inclusive Teaching

New Guidance – Teaching Large Groups Online

ElaineS
coffee cup and laptop displaying online meeting

Teaching large groups online always brings a range of considerations. Some new guidance has been produced to support colleagues who are reflecting on the different approaches they can employ with large groups, especially when delivering online or as part of a blended course or module. The guidance is a collection of suggested approaches and strategies to consider when planning to deliver learning and teaching to large cohorts online. The guidance briefly covers topics such planning, communicating and building presence with students, online delivery as well signposting additional resources. You access the guidance using the link or from the Resources Page Teaching Large Groups Online

New Student As Partners Project – Digital Citizenship

ElaineS

Our new Learning and Teaching Strategy is introducing five new graduate attributes alongside our learning and teaching strategy goals. These attributes are: Social Responsibility Reflective and resilient lifelong learning Problem Solving Teamwork and effective communication Digital citizenship We describe Digital Citizenship in terms of graduates who have high degrees of digital capability to actively and responsibly create, communicate and collaborate online. Digital Capabilities and Digital Citizenship Our learning and teaching strategy recognises the importance of developing digital capabilities in both our staff and students and this past year has highlighted the significance of developing those digital skills and capabilities that will support us all, as we continue to reflect on the changes in learning and work brought about through the pandemic. Digital Citizenship can be… Read moreNew Student As Partners Project – Digital Citizenship

Teaching in Physically distanced classrooms or Dual Teaching: Guidance Documentation

ElaineS

We’ve previously written about preparing for teaching in physically distanced classrooms. While we’re still rolling out updated AV kit across the teaching estate, we’ve now pulled that together into some documentation to help staff with some of the considerations when delivering On Campus or Dual Teaching This guidance provides some practical suggestions and also links to where staff can get further help with the practicalities of delivering dual teaching.

Accessibility for the busy lecturer

ElaineS
person using computer on brown wooden table

Digital accessibility and fostering an inclusive learning environment are as important as ever with the focus on blended and online digital learning and teaching at the moment. There is a range of online guidance and support available for colleagues to use to help with making their courses accessible. To assist in making this a little easier to discover, we’ve created two new documents that bring together some key tips and sources of support. The first is a A Busy Lecturers Guide to Accessibility. This two page document provides some key tips for making the more common content types more accessible and provides links to help you get started if you’re not clear where best to start. The second is the Accessible Content Toolkit which provides some… Read moreAccessibility for the busy lecturer

Preparing to teach in physically distanced classrooms: advice, guidance and practical strategies

mstowell1

It’s been a busy summer and here we are already at the start of a new academic year facing what will certainly be a challenging Autumn semester.  As we gear up for new and continuing students to return to campus under the restrictions imposed by the pandemic, we all need to be confident about delivering high quality learning and teaching. This is not just a matter of planning online elements of delivery in modules, and it definitely is not simply a question of moving ‘large lectures’ to narrated powerpoints or pre-recorded lectures.  In this blog post we signpost some resources that can help you plan for delivery of learning and teaching in physically distanced classrooms.

Moving Online with Accessibility

ElaineS
Image of braille laptop

With the rapid transition that has been necessary due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of colleagues are looking for ideas, alternatives and suggestions for developing their learning and teaching approaches online. This series of blog posts are aimed at supporting staff looking for ways to incorporate more blended or online learning teaching whether for the short term or long term. What do we mean by accessibility? Over this last year, there’s been a focus on digital accessibility with the introduction of the new Public Sector web accessibility regulations. This requires all institutions to look at how they make their websites accessible for all users including staff and students with accessibility needs. This includes those with specific learning needs but also includes people who… Read moreMoving Online with Accessibility

Moving Online – connecting with students

ElaineS
light strings connection people

With the rapid transition that has been necessary recently due to the Covid-19 pandemic, a large number of colleagues are looking for ideas, alternatives and suggestions for developing their learning and teaching approaches online. This series of blog posts are aimed at supporting staff looking for ways to incorporate more blended or online learning teaching whether for the short term or long term. What do we mean by connecting with students online? As teaching begins for some for the summer term or students are preparing for their online exams coming up in May, it’s important to think about how we’re keeping connected with our students and helping them to connect with each other. Students can gain much from the informal, social learning that accompanies the… Read moreMoving Online – connecting with students