Consult | Collaborate | Create
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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Over the last week or so, we have been asked questions about how to deal with remote teaching and tools that might help us in these uncertain times. Here are our top tips to make the next few weeks a
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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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Amie Fletcher and Isabel Whitley from Vevox joined us for February’s Connect event, to share some updates and suggestions for making the most of Vevox in teaching. The slides from the sesssion can be downloaded below. Vevox also ran a
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Nominations for the university’s annual Blackboard & VLE Awards competition are now open, giving you the opportunity to feed back on what you find most helpful in a virtual learning environment, and to put forward examples of courses that do
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We sometimes get asked for photography tips by people we work with around the University.Whilst there are plenty of resources on YouTube and articles on the web, we thought we’d sum up what we think are the top 10 photography
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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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December’s eCoffee involved an experimental live event: could we run a session about video meetings simultaneously as a face-to-face session and online for remote participants? While this sounds like something that potentially could involve specialist equipment and planning, we took
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Ahead of this month’s eCoffee we asked colleagues for recommendations for tools that support organisation, planning and efficiency, and took the opportunity during the session to try some of these out. Office 365 and Microsoft Teams Office 365 includes various
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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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Our guest contributors at July’s Digital Learning Connect event were well placed to offer insight into what makes a successful virtual learning environment, having both won university Blackboard & VLE Awards, as well as making it onto the shortlist each
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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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Medicine has seen continuing success over the seven years of the university’s Blackboard & VLE Awards, so in July’s eCoffee we explored some features of winning courses, sharing some ideas and inspiration ahead of the next academic year. Blackboard upgrade
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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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Struggling to capture students’ attention? We live in a world where most, if not all of us, use technology all day every day. No matter what subject you are teaching, it’s probable that written or verbal information alone won’t get
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In May’s eCoffee session we welcomed back Ayala Gordon and Jonny Vaughan from the Digital Team, to discuss how we provide simple, accessible, relevant, useful information, not just via university websites but digital services as a whole. In keeping with
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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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I bought my Samsung Galaxy S8+ phone last March after reading reviews about its ability to take good quality photos and videos. Since owning it, I’ve not really had a chance to test it for producing videos at a professional
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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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