New Student As Partners Project – Digital Citizenship

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

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

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

Moving Online with Accessibility

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

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

Moving Online with a Menu of Digital Learning and Teaching

black and gray laptop beside teacup

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. The Moving Online Series of blog post that I’m currently writing are related to a Menu of Digital Learning and Teaching Approaches that you can download and use within your own learning and teaching as you adapt it for online/remote teaching and learning. The menu was originally developed by Sheffield Hallam University under the Changing the Learning Landscape programme and has been… Read moreMoving Online with a Menu of Digital Learning and Teaching

Moving online with self-directed learning

two person standing on gray tile paving with text saying "passion led us here" on ground

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 self-directed learning? Self-directed learning allows students to define and investigate topics of their own choosing. Students, without the help of others, determine their own learning needs and learning goals or objectives. As the motivation for this is likely to be intrinsic, it can lead to higher levels of engagement from students as they pick topics of personal… Read moreMoving online with self-directed learning

Moving Online with Reflective Practice

woman sitting on couch while using laptop computer

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 Reflective Practice? Reflection practice means the conscious reflection on personal practices, experiences and newly developed knowledge and skill. It is often part of students independent learning and allows students time to consider their development and can aid students in critically reflecting on their practice, identifying areas of personal challenge, strengths and areas for further development. Many professional… Read moreMoving Online with Reflective Practice

What is the Jisc Digital Capabilities Framework?

At a recent LTSEC meeting, the university agreed to adopt the Jisc Digital Capabilities Framework. But how much do you know about digital capabilities and how do digital capabilities differ from digital skills or digital literacy. What about digital fluency? All good questions and in this blog post I’ll try and help untangle some of those distinctions and explain how the Jisc Digital Capabilities Framework can help you as an individual, within your curriculum and help your students. You say potato, I say potahto Over the last decade there has been a range of terms used to describe those practices we engage with when we are using digital technologies, software and services. Jisc in its early explorations into this area used the term ‘digital literacy’,… Read moreWhat is the Jisc Digital Capabilities Framework?

A Month of Digital Accessibility

Page showing calendar with pen highlighting day

So, that was October. The start of term, welcoming our newest students and getting to grips with the new academic year.  We also started to raise awareness of the new Public Sector Website Accessibility Regulations. And, now, to support staff with developing accessible content we’re publishing a range of support, guidance and tips and tricks to help everyone with making their content as accessible as possible whether it’s content for a website, content for internal colleagues or learning content for our students. It can seem that creating or adapting existing content to make it accessible is quite challenging. But in reality there’s some really quick ways to achieve this. For this month there’s handy calendar of Office 365 tips and tricks which provide some ideas… Read moreA Month of Digital Accessibility