Blackboard and VLE Awards: 5 Years of New Faculties

We are in our eleventh year of the Blackboard and VLE Awards, seeking the very best examples of online learning across the university. Since 2013, there have been many readjustments to the University’s way of working, but most notably for the awards was the restructure of faculties in 2018. In the 5 years since, it is interesting to consider how each faculty has performed in the awards.

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iSolutions Digital Accessibility Community of Practice: what did we do in 2021 and what was the impact?

A diverse groups of people are presented in "Corporate Memphis" style, Elements of a graphic user interface are shown over their faces.

The iSolutions Digital Accessibility Community of Practice began in December 2020. It aims to share practices, provide peer support, and raise awareness of digital accessibility within the department. Using results from a survey of community members, this post reviews the past year and looks forward to the year to come.

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Peer feedback on group work

A graphic showing four students, graded with percentages 51% (- 12), 68% (+ 68), 63% (+ 0), 70% (+ 7). Text above reads "Rewarding contributions but the average remains the same".

The ability to work as part of a team is an essential skill for graduates, and most programmes include opportunities for students to develop it through participation in group projects. This is not always an easy experience for students who are used to individual assignments, and there are often tensions around communication and contribution. In particular, students are very unhappy if team members perceived as ‘free-loaders’ get the same shared grade as those who have done all the work.

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