This guide describes the steps you can take to create a course that is both engaging and adheres to the Blackboard Universal Standards (BUS)
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Consult | Collaborate | Create
A recipe for creating engaging content in Blackboard Ultra
eCoffee in 2024-25
Guest speakers from both Medicine and Health Sciences have shared some really illuminating insights over the past year. It’s been a great opportunity to highlight good practice, and the ways that both simple and more ambitious innovations can transform learning.
Read moreeCoffee in 2023-24
We had a shorter eCoffee programme this year but no less packed with useful content! The opportunity for colleagues to come together and discuss how technologies can enhance our teaching, learning and working practices is always appreciated.
Read moreBlackboard and VLE Awards 2023
The Digital Learning team proudly announces the winners of the 2023 Blackboard and VLE Awards. This accolade recognises positive pedagogical considerations and great online course design. The contributions to online learning and the effective use of virtual learning environments (VLEs)
Read moreBlackboard 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.
Read moreHow did we make the University’s Teaching Excellence Framework (TEF) submission more accessible?
The process was a great learning exercise and provided hands-on experience for those involved in the principles of accessible documents.
Read moreeCoffee in 2021-22
It’s been a while since the “@SGH” part of eCoffee has been strictly accurate, but we’ve had another year of valuable virtual meet-ups.
Read moreBlackboard and VLE Awards: 10th anniversary
Our 10th Blackboard & VLE Awards gave us plenty to celebrate! In this post we reveal the winning courses and share some highlights from this year’s event.
Read moreBest Fully Online Course: Blackboard & VLE Awards
For this year’s 10th anniversary of the University’s Blackboard & VLE Awards, there are 10 award categories for staff nominations. In this blog post, the featured category is ‘Best Fully Online Course’ and we are sharing an interactive ThingLink presentation.
Read moreGood use of external resources and reading lists
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.
Read moreBuilding Community: Blackboard & VLE Awards
For this year’s 10th anniversary of the University’s Blackboard & VLE Awards, there are 10 award categories for staff nominations. Here, we are sharing a ThingLink infographic based on the category of Best Community. This infographic has some key statistics
Read moreBest development of employability skills: Blackboard and VLE Awards
For this year’s 10th anniversary of the University’s Blackboard & VLE Awards, there are 10 award categories for staff nominations. In this blog post, we focus on courses that shine when it comes to development of student employability skills.
Read moreStructure: Blackboard & VLE Awards
Another 10-minute overview, to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the University’s Blackboard & VLE Awards! In the video below we explore the Best Structure category, one of ten different awards on offer this year.
Read moreLearner support: Blackboard & VLE Awards
To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the University’s Blackboard & VLE Awards, we are offering awards in ten different categories this year. In the 10-minute video below, we delve into the Best Learner Support category.
Read moreBlackboard and VLE Awards 2022
Rewarding excellence. The 2022 Blackboard and VLE award nominations are open. Nominate your module to be shortlisted today.
Read moreSpring cleaning your Blackboard sites: are you environmentally-friendly and accessible?
A new norm- Yes, it’s a phrase that divides the audience. Some of us are weary of the over used phrases (unprecedented, anyone?). Others are excited at the prospect of real change. In education I don’t think we really want
Read moreBlackboard & VLE Awards 2021
In a year of many challenges, one common story is that students feel short-changed by their online learning experience. It’s therefore been both heartening and humbling to receive 1235 nominations from students for our 9th annual Blackboard & Virtual Learning
Read moreAn innovative new Blackboard structure for Arts and Humanities
The Digital Learning team worked on a major project last year with our Faculty of Humanities to implement new Blackboard course templates. This introduced new course menus, course menu colour schemes, and course redesign.
Read moreShould you use Significant Figures or Decimal Places when setting Answer Set options for Calculated Formula questions in Blackboard?
Blackboard tests are a hot topic at the moment. On the Digital Learning Connect Teams Area we recently received a question from Dr Gabriel Weymouth: I’m positive this is clearly documented somewhere, but I can’t find it. How do you
Read moreUsing the Blackboard ‘Self and Peer Assessment’ tool with groups
On the CHEP Community Team Dr Poshak Gandhi asked some questions about peer assessment: “My module has 170 students, split into 4 groups of about 42 students each. I want to create an assignment for peer assessment, with each group
Read moreArticulate Rise 360
Earlier this month, I was given access to an Articulate 360 license which included a whole load of goodies developed by Articulate; Storyline 360, Studio 360, Replay 360 and Peek 360, Review 360 and Rise 360. From this bundle, I
Read moreBlackboard European Teaching and Learning Conference
The Blackboard European Teaching and Learning Conference was online this year. 871 people attended from 276 educational institutions in 32 countries. Being online allowed attendees from further afield to attend such as the US, Singapore, and Lebanon. The conference ran across 3 weeks
Read moreThe awards win an award!
This year, Blackboard’s Teaching and Learning Conference was held online, featuring a range of topical discussions. Further details of the programme can be found here: TLC Europe. Our colleague Matthew Deeprose contributed two well-received presentations, firstly explaining how custom changes
Read moreBlackboard & VLE Awards 2020
The university’s Virtual Learning Environment Awards were particularly virtual this year, with winners announced via a Twitter event and a Special Edition Newsletter. Students’ insight throughout the process is key, with student representatives taking time to select a shortlist from
Read moreWhat do this year’s Blackboard & VLE Awards tell us about remote learning?
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
Read moreOnline learning resources: embedding 3D models into Blackboard
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
Read more10 things you can do now to make the next few weeks easier
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
Read moreBlackboard & VLE Awards 2020
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
Read moreConnect: VLE Swap shop
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
Read moreeCoffee @ SGH: Blackboard – what works well?
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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