Consult | Collaborate | Create
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
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
Read more
As part of our Christmas Challenge this week, can you locate the Digital Learning ‘reindeer’ in the pictures below? Ten pictures are on Highfield Campus (let us know the location or building number) and two are elsewhere (let us know which
Read more
Throughout December we would like to invite colleagues to take part in our Digital Learning Christmas Challenge. Each week there will be two challenges – one online, and one based in our Digital Learning office (35/2025). The challenges will give you an
Read more
In October’s eCoffee we looked at ways Microsoft Teams can support collaborative working and learning. Teams is part of Office 365 (https://www.southampton.ac.uk/365) and works in conjunction with Office 365’s SharePoint, helping build communication and context around documents stored here. Setting up After creating
Read more
Why Open Days? At Open days we want to give prospective students and their parents a strong sense of the UOS experience and showcase our unique selling points when it comes to Programmes of Study. For courses which include a
Read moreScene setting Following our attendance on the BIOL1001 Fieldcourse in Spain earlier this year (outputs are still in production), the Digital Learning team was invited to attend the SOES2030 Dale Field Marine Biology Fieldcourse in West Wales. Our mission was primarily to capture
Read more
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
Read more
Ready (Player One) The novel by Ernest Cline (and now a major 2018 feature film) sets out a future where most of humanity uses virtual reality software “to escape the desolation of the real world”. Sounds grim? Smartphones and tablets have become deeply
Read more
We finished a year of exciting eCoffees with an inspiring session from Dr Siobhan Lynch. Siobhan shared the story of the creation and development of the Personal Professional Development module for final year undergraduates, which is delivered predominantly online, while students are on
Read more
Here in the Digital Learning team, a number of the Learning Designers are working on completing our CM-ALT portfolios. Becoming a Certified Member of the Association of Learning Technologists is “a peer-based professional accreditation scheme developed by ALT to enable
Read more
In June’s eCoffee, Jonny Vaughan, Ayala Gordon and Hayleigh Sidhu from the university’s Communications and Marketing team visited to share the work they’ve been doing shaping the university’s social media presence. New guidelines have been developed to support university users,
Read more
Caspian Priest led May’s eCoffee, taking us on a fascinating journey through the development of an app for research and intervention. The Abreast of Health study delivers a brief electronic intervention to women attending breast clinics, taking the opportunity to highlight links
Read more
The 2018 Blackboard & VLE Awards bring the competition into its sixth year, showcasing some consistently good practice and some innovative approaches to delivering blended learning. Students had the opportunity to put forward course sites that made a real difference to
Read more
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
Read more
The outdoor ‘office’ At the end of March, members of the Digital Learning Team accompanied staff and students on fieldwork for the BIOL1001 module, Experimental and Field Biology. Students visit the south of Spain for hands-on experience in identifying plants
Read more
2018 has seen another substantial haul of nominations for our Blackboard & VLE Awards, with students sharing the numerous ways course sites have supported and inspired their learning. It’s evident that many courses do this well, and after careful consideration
Read more
Clickers have provided a good way of involving learners more actively in lectures, and with mobile devices increasingly ubiquitous, quizzing, polling and feedback are becoming easier to integrate into taught sessions. At this month’s eCoffee session we explored some of
Read more
The 15th FutureLearn Academic Network meeting took place on 28th February at the University of Exeter. Professor Lisa Harris organised the event. Despite the snow and the strike, there was a more than reasonable turnout. There was representation from several FutureLearn
Read more
Nominations are open for our sixth 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
Read more
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
Read more
Just before Christmas, the Digital Learning Team hosted a visit by Altro Orbis, a company specialising in VR experiences. We asked them to bring a couple of HTC Vive rigs (one of the market leaders in VR hardware) and invited staff from
Read more
In December’s eCoffee session, Nick Evans talked about his experiences in podcasting. He and Steve Lee co-create the popular fortnightly podcast The Science Shed, described as “an irreverent ramble through the undergrowth of academia”. The half-hour podcasts involve discussion of a range
Read more