Author: Tamsyn Smith

22 February 202131 May 2023

Creating content

One of the categories that has been introduced for the 10th anniversary of our Blackboard and VLE Awards is for ‘Best use of external resources and reading lists’. In this blog post, I’ll explore some of the external resources that you could be making use of as well as discussing electronic reading lists.

26 February 20201 December 2020

On February 4th and 5th, Matt Deeprose and I took part in UDLHE Digicon. This was an online conference about Universal Design for Learning (UDL) in Higher Education. It was our first time attending this event. The conference was wholly

4 July 20191 December 2020

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?

Illustration of a group of women sitting with notepads as if at a conference.

2 July 201916 August 2023

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

4 June 20191 December 2020

Accessibility, News

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

Sam Cole presenting at Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference (BBTLC) Europe, with Matt Deeprose sitting alongside him.

10 April 201916 August 2023

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

Birds-eye view of people drinking coffee around a table with laptop and tablet used to represent ecoffee at SGH.

17 October 201830 November 2020

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

Studio shot of Lego minifigures set up as if having a board meeting and analyzing a chart.

19 September 201830 November 2020

Case study, Innovation

I learned of LEGO Serious Play in a Playful Learning Workshop organised by Digital Learning, and I immediately decided to give it a go. As a consequence, I borrowed three LEGO kits from the Digital Learning team. Then I tried

Montage featuring Goldilocks, three bears, chairs, porridge and beds.

4 September 201830 November 2020

Events

Colleagues are invited to attend the Blackboard Workshop Series, taking place every Wednesday from 19th September to 3rd October at Avenue Campus. The same series will also run at WSA, dates and times TBC. These workshops are designed to meet

30 April 201830 November 2020

Following the success of the University’s Excellence in VLE Awards, Blackboard decided to feature staff from the University of Southampton in their latest issue of e-learn. Each issue has a particular theme. The topic of this issue was Education Insights. Read

27 February 201830 November 2020

ELESIG webinars may be of interest to you. ELESIG is a community of researchers and practitioners from higher, further and skills sector education. We are involved in investigations of learners’ experiences and uses of technology in learning. If you would

Blackboard Catalyst Award winners on stage.

7 February 201830 November 2020

Have you created a Blackboard course that you are proud of? Has your Blackboard course previously won or been shortlisted for the University of Southampton VLE Awards? If you have answered ‘Yes!’ to these questions, then the Blackboard Catalyst Awards

29 January 201830 November 2020

Innovation, Tech tips

Some people find mindmapping a really helpful way of getting their thoughts together. It’s possible to take a low tech approach with a pen and a piece of paper, but sometimes you need something collaborative or presented formally, which is

NSS banner that says www.thestudentsurvey.com

19 December 20172 December 2020

Creating content

Most people will agree that a brand new Blackboard course looks a little dull. Did you know that with 10 minutes effort, you can make it look much more appealing? In that time, you could change the course theme (the