Digital Education Newsletter Vol 7 Iss 2
CTIL Updates
We have some very exciting news to share, we have hired a new Digital Education Support Officer. Welcome to Shehnaz Arshad! You will begin to see her name pop up with increasing frequency in your Help4U calls as she learns the ropes of Blackboard, Turnitin, and our variety of tools.
Semester 1 exam diet
If you are intending to run a Questionmark OnDemand (QMOD) exam during the official Semester 1 exam diet (13/12/21 – 17/12/21) and would like the Assessment team to create the exam in QMOD, then a finalised version of the examination paper must be supplied to them by Monday 1st November 2021. Our Sharing assessment papers guide outlines the process for securely sharing your assessment paper with the Assessment team. Online exam request forms should be completed and submitted once the exam timetable has been finalised and published.
If you would like to run a Questionmark assessment outwith the exam diet, please complete our Questionmark scheduling request form.
Tool updates
Blackboard (My Dundee)
Blackboard version 3900.23.0 was released on 7 October 2021. There are some exciting new updates to this version including:
- Messages bug fix: When instructors sent messages to course users and then marked the course as complete, the unread message count for students wasn’t reduced when message was read. We fixed the issue.
- Submission receipt: Blackboard now has submission receipts for their assignments (similar to Turnitin’s submission receipt). This new functionality provides students with a unique tracking number that confirms their academic submission. Students can copy and save this number as proof of their work, and evidence for academic disputes. They can also receive an email with that information if they have a registered email, and download a similar text file to keep for their records.
- Adding tables in documents: For deeper versatility in the Rich Text Editor, this 3rd milestone brings the Add Table functionality to our users. Tables are a common way for instructors and students to align and organize content in a customized manner, better suited to their own preferences.
You can read about these features in more depth on Blackboard’s release notes page.
YuJa
YuJa’s latest update on the 10th of October has some excellent new features including:
- Updated media player interface: The sidebar in the media player has multiple new options including new chapter index panel, new OCR panel, and new resources panel.
- Find-and-Replace for Editing Captions: Caption editors now have a quick find-and-replace workflow to make editing captions more efficient.
- Gradebook-Aligned Video Completion Scoring: The Video Platform now offers an LMS Gradebook-aligned video completion scoring capability based on a percentage-threshold. Click here to learn more about how to create a Playback Quiz.
Read more about these and the other product updates on YuJa’s release page.
Pedagogi-cool
Getting to Grips with Capture and Stream
As we continue to develop our skills with hybrid teaching, we thought we’d share a few resources. Keep in mind that the first two of these are more related to dual mode, which isn’t yet available – we’re currently using Capture & Stream (see the hybrid blog posts for more about C&S)
Raes, A., Detienne, L., Windey, I. et al. A systematic literature review on synchronous hybrid learning: gaps identified. Learning Environ Res 23, 269–290 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10984-019-09303-z – For those with an interest in current research, this is a lit review from 2019, so covering research pre-pandemic.
Making the most of the spaces we have: Design principles for successful hybrid and hyflex learning by Peter Bryant University of Sydney. This is looking at design issues to ensure that what is being developed at Sydney is truly transformational, and not “hybrid and hyflex learning done poorly is still bad teaching.”
Bringing it all closer to home and now – what’s worked for you? Share with others in a Padlet. Remember, we’re thinking very much about Capture & Stream, not full Dual Mode.
https://uod.padlet.org/edukewilliams/hybridhandyhints_cs
Fortnightly round-up
What we’re doing:
Two new meet-ups are starting in the Main Library CreateSpace from the 25th October, Knit and Natter on Tuesdays 5-6pm and 3D Print Club on Thursdays 6-8pm. Check out the blog post for more details!
In the meantime, don’t forget the weekly drop-ins! These are held every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 – 11:30 in the Organisation room in the eLearning Resources for Staff organisation in My Dundee.
What we’ve made:
Staff guides for Questionmark OnDemand (QMOD), starting with an overview of the Questionmark assessment process.
Student guides on how to locate and take their Questionmark assessment, including a particularly useful troubleshooting section.
Assigning alphanumeric grades in Blackboard for Turnitin assignments
CTIL Recommends:
https://theedtechpodcast.com/edtechpodcast/ – we’d particularly recommend episode 230, Audio and Learning, but the others are good too!
Teaching Machines: The History of Personalized Learning by Audrey Watters – “How ed tech was born: Twentieth-century teaching machines—from Sidney Pressey’s mechanized test-giver to B. F. Skinner’s behaviourist bell-ringing box.”
How technology SHOULD transform education – a short, 12 minute, YouTube video.
