Our 10th Blackboard & VLE Awards gave us plenty to celebrate! Introducing ten categories to mark the Awards’ 10th anniversary meant we had our biggest ever shortlist. Students submitted thoughtful nominations, detailing the various ways colleagues have taken forward practice developed in remote learning to enhance the blended experience. This unearthed a treasure trove of course sites for staff and student judges to explore, making it both exciting and challenging to select the winners.
VLE Awards in 10 numbers
- 2022 is our 10th VLE awards. In this year’s competition there have been:
- 703 nominations from students
- 362 courses nominated
- 10 categories
- 77 courses shortlisted
- 26 judges
- 34 nominations was the highest total for a single course (FEEG1003, Thermofluids)
- The same course has also been nominated in the most years – 9 out of the 10
- 118 courses were nominated for the first time this year
- There have been 3983 nominations from students since the first awards in 2013
This year’s event
Our 10th anniversary also presented an opportunity to offer a hybrid Awards event, starting with a Twitter prelude and culminating in a grand finale with nearly 200 attendees joining in person and online. While our vision for uniting both audiences is something we’d love to develop further in future, we were very glad so many colleagues and students were able to join us. All had contributed to delivering successful, engaging learning in a virtual environment and had valuable insights to share. Responses to questions about what had worked well can all be viewed in the Blackboard & VLE Awards 2022 PowerPoint slides. (And if you’re interested, the 24 tens are all in the Ten quotes word document!)
In keeping with the virtual offering the Awards seek to champion, this year we launched a digital badge scheme. Colleagues will be able to adorn not only their course sites, but also their LinkedIn pages and social media profiles with evidence of their achievements.
Prof Phil Wright, Senior Vice-President (Academic), presented awards to the winners. We’d like to congratulation all nominated, shortlisted and winning courses – students have taken time to highlight the difference you are making to their learning, which is no doubt the real reward! The winning courses are listed below; for more details view the Winners Announcements word document.
Category winners
- Best community: FEEG1003: Thermofluids
- Best development of employability skills: MANG3052 Digital Marketing: Engaging with the customer
- Best fully online course: MEDI6081 Foundations of Allergic Disease
- Best learner support: MATH3090 Structure and Dynamics of Networks
- Best learner support: PHYS6005 Cosmology
- Best structure: CHEM1050: Fundamentals of Thermodynamics & Equilibrium
- Best structure: MEDI1031 Foundations of Medicine
- Best use of external resources/reading lists: HIST3042 From Tyranny to Revolution
- Most accessible/inclusive: GEOG3070 Gender, Sexuality and Space
- Most innovative/creative: GEOG2030 Exploring Physical Environments
- Most innovative/creative: UOSM2031 Engineering Replacement Body Parts
Staff self-nominated winners
- Best newcomer: SOCI3093 Sexuality and Intimacy
- Best use of external resources/reading lists: MANG1016 Realising Success
- Best fully online course: ENGL9001 English Language Stage 3
- Best structure: MEDI4023 Acute Care
- Most accessible/inclusive: SESA6061 Turbulence
Overall winners
MANG1016: Realising Success
This lively, active course site provides students with everything they need to succeed. As well as providing a wealth of valuable resources, it gives students a clear path through the course. Actions accompanying each section help students engage with the content, and the novel use of the learning tracker survey is a great way for students to assess their progress. Discussion boards and the placement podcast series build in meaningful student input. Throughout, there is a great level of attention to detail with a personal touch.
Judges’ comments, MANG1016
MEDI6082: Clinical Research Skills
This course site does a fantastic job of organising and sequencing the learning, presenting detailed information and resources in a way that is clear and easy to navigate throughout. It integrates a wide range of resources and types of media, embedding them to give learners a seamless experience. Learners are able to interact with the content and with each other asynchronously as well as synchronously, through thoughtful use of tools such as Padlet, chat rooms and Blackboard quizzes.
Judges’ comments, MEDI6082
PSYC1014: Psychology of Attractiveness
There is a strong sense of community and engagement in this course site, with Padlet walls buzzing with discussion. Each week, a series of short introductory videos are further enhanced by including captions. Following these, relevant accompanying links and resources give students plenty to consider in live sessions. Weekly quizzes help students consolidate their learning. The passion for teaching and the great efforts made to give students that extra mile really come across in the module site and students’ responses to it.
Judges’ comments, PSYC1014
The event concluded with a further ten anniversary awards, recognising particular features of some all-round excellent courses. These can be found towards the end of the Blackboard & VLE Awards 2022 PowerPoint slides (from Slide 71). Congratulations to all the winning courses!
Digital goody bag
No good Awards event lets you leave empty-handed, so we are offering a digital goody bag! If you’re inspired by some of the practice showcased here, the links below go to interactive resources, blog posts and short videos, sharing tips and examples.
It doesn’t stop there! We will be sharing interviews with some of the course winners and other resources over the next month or so. In the mean time do get in touch if you have any thoughts, comments or questions.