Consult | Collaborate | Create
Like all current gatherings, the University of Kent and Kent County Council hosted this year’s Digital Accessibility Conference virtually. It ran from 9th to 11th June. In its second year, the conference aims to inform Public Sector organisations about digital
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This year, Blackboard’s Teaching and Learning Conference was held online, featuring a range of topical discussions. Further details of the programme can be found here: TLC Europe. Our colleague Matthew Deeprose contributed two well-received presentations, firstly explaining how custom changes
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During this lockdown period, our learning designer colleagues from the Digital Learning team have been extremely busy delivering three webinars a week on using university supported tools for online learning. We, at the media team have also been looking at
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The past couple of weeks have thrown up huge changes and challenges to the way we work, including the introduction of new technology and new ways of thinking about how we do things. New tech always comes with risks and
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The recent global health crisis has brought new ways of teaching to enable our students to progress with their studies. But how are you going to move from classroom to virtual teaching seamlessly? Here are six tips to help you
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At the point we launched this year’s search for examples of excellent use of virtual learning environments, we didn’t know we’d all be moving in! With learning shifted to virtual spaces, it’s useful to reflect on what this year’s nominations
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So, you have your video. What next? Chances are you probably want to add it to a course page or VLE. Currently, Blackboard isn’t the best at hosting video directly. You might get away with adding a short video, but
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So, you’re moving your teaching online; have you thought about what images you will be using? You might be looking for a range of pictures to break up a lot of text in your Blackboard course, or you might need
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Why 3D models? 3D models are useful in a multitude of disciplines: archaeology, architecture, anatomy, biology, geology, engineering and so on. This post will show you how to quickly embed models from Sketchfab into your Blackboard course in 5 simple
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With the recent announcement of the temporary closure of the University due to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Digital Learning team is now more focussed than ever on how we can support the delivery of effective online learning for both students
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This post outlines the changes made in a module at the University of Southampton, moving from an individual written assessment to a group video assessment. Below, we will describe how the students carry out this task, what support resources are
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Background We are working with colleagues in Medicine, Health Sciences, and staff at the Southampton General Hospital Emergency Department to capture a Major Trauma Resuscitation Simulation in 360 degree video. When viewed in a virtual reality headset, the audience is
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Have you incorporated interactive materials in your courses? Do you know what format they were created in? In this blog post, we explain the implications of the end of Adobe Flash on your existing teaching materials. What is Adobe Flash?
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Our final Connect event of 2019 involved ECS Teaching Fellow Oli Bills and a practical demonstration of gamification in lectures. For several years Oli has been working on Enhancement techniques for student engagement in cybersecurity education and his efforts have
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At the start of October, we were invited to film the VC Awards 2019 at St Mary’s stadium. The VC awards are an event that members of staff at the University tend to look forward to and it is a
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Last week I (and my colleague Bobbi) attended the annual, national Association of Learning Technologists’ conference (ALT-C) in Edinburgh. The conference itself ran for 3 days and was attended by over 450 delegates, with others attending remotely via live streaming
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What is Virtual Reality (VR)? Here in the Digital Learning team, we are constantly looking into new tools and technologies that will enhance education. This year was no exception as we invested time and effort into the world of Virtual
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What is an Excel Internship? And why should I do one while being enrolled in a full time course at University? These were the questions I was asking myself when I first moved to Southampton to start my Master degree.
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PfCO, what is it and why do we need it? Here in the Digital Learning team, we have owned a ‘Phantom 4’ drone for many years but have never used it to its full capacity. We have, however, produced a
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I’ve been fortunate enough to attend (and present at) two education conferences in the last fortnight. Solent Learning and Teaching Community Conference 2019 First was Solent Learning and Teaching Community Conference. This event takes place annually on the third Friday
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I went to a session on Accessible Maths from Retrofitting to Inclusive Design delivered by Dr Emma Cliffe from the University of Bath. This session covered a lot that was outside of my sphere of knowledge, so apologies if there
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Recently, Sam Cole, Matt Deeprose (both from the Managed Learning Environment team) and I travelled to Newcastle for the European Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference. In short, it’s always an engaging and inspiring conference with a wide range of attendees
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As part of the Community of Practice sessions held monthly by the Digital Learning team, Joe Brett from the Digital Learning Media team presented an introductory talk on how to produce videos using modest filming equipment: a handycam/smartphone, audio recorder
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This year saw our seventh annual Blackboard & VLE Awards, with students putting forward an impressive array of modules that offer valuable online support for their learning. Students’ insightful comments about why a particular approach works, or the benefits of
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One of the main events within the media industry is the NAB (National Association of Broadcasters) show that happens in Las Vegas every year. Just before this event, audio visual equipment sellers release and/or announce new bits of kit, and updates
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At the SOTSEF Science and Engineering Day on Saturday 16th March, the Digital Learning team provided support to the Black Sea MAP stand with their Oculus Go VR headsets. These were used to take over 800 visitors, from 2 to
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What is Universal Design for Learning? Why does UDL matter? To understand what Universal Design for Learning (UDL) is, firstly, we need to look back at the origins of Universal Design. Architect Ron Mace coined the term “universal design” to
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The end of February was the annual Media Team trip to the British Video Expo (BVE) at ExCel in London. In the past, we have used the event to investigate new equipment, chat to other industry experts and learn new
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Nominations are open for our seventh annual Blackboard & VLE Awards. Students have the opportunity to feed back on what they’ve found particularly helpful to their learning and invite recognition of the staff who are supporting them in this way. A ‘virtual
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Here in the Digital Media team, we are busy updating our eLearning content to meet the Web Content Accessibility Guideline (WCAG 2.1) AA level to ensure that our learning content is usable by the majority of learners. I am mindful
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