Consult | Collaborate | Create
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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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
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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
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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
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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
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In January, Sarah Fielding and Chrissie Metcalf attended BETT – an education showcase event hosted by Microsoft. Bringing together 850 leading companies and 103 exciting new edtech start-ups, BETT gives its 34,700 attendees from the global education community an opportunity to
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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
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February’s eCoffee saw attendees taken on a series of virtual adventures, using Oculus Go headsets. Recent university Virtual Reality (VR) projects include creating interactive 360 experiences from footage gathered on field trips. This supports students in getting the most out of the trip by preparing
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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
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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
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Panopto: not just lecture capture was our theme for December’s eCoffee, looking at the various ways Panopto can be used to support teaching, learning and assessment. The university help pages for Panopto at http://go.soton.ac.uk/panopto are a great source to help you get started, and
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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
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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
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The Digital Learning team have been involved in developing Open Online Courses, in collaboration with various faculties, for the past four years and have successfully completed approximately twenty courses during this time. They are hosted on the Futurelearn platform (www.futurelearn.com/)
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I am so excited to share with you a Blackboard design project that I recently worked on for Charlotte Everitt, Senior Teaching fellow in Modern Languages. Charlotte was in the process of migrating the MA in ELT: Online programme from
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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
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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
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
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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
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One of the best things about my job in the Digital Learning team is that I get to play/test new technology to enhance learning. One new emerging technology is the Oculus Go Virtual Reality headset. In the past we have built
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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
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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
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