TEL highlights, June 2022
Here’s a summary of the activity that took place in the Hive this June.
ALT annual conference
On June 22nd, the Association for Learning Technology held the ALT Scotland Annual Conference, titled: Digital learning skills for learners in a hybrid world.
Take a look at the conference’s agenda and padlet to get a taste from the presentations.
Digital Accessibility Matters (Short lunchtime courses)
Several, short, online sessions that covered important topics on digital accessibility took place this June. These are all recorded and made available, but you can also access the same content in the Digital Accessibility Basics Moodle course. The course are all delivered from the channel Live from the Hive.
Click here to see the remaining courses.
Moodle news
The TEL team started the annual rollover for Moodle. Read more about what is changing in the following three posts:
Standardising the categorisation of Moodle courses for Schools – Education blog (st-andrews.ac.uk)
Adjustment to rollover process that affects Moodle courses – Education blog (st-andrews.ac.uk)
Mass Actions block has been reinstated – Education blog (st-andrews.ac.uk)
Hot topic picks
There has been a lot of activity in the Hive this June. These are some of the topics that were raised and discussed within the community.
- AI and students with disabilities
AI offers a lot of opportunities to students with disabilities to overcome some of the difficulties they face when learning. See the relevant post here.
- Teams meeting and external registration
Members asked how one can have a Teams meeting or webinar that requires external registration. This can be enabled by contacting IT Service Desk.
- Transforming online learning space
Transitioning to a new virtual, learning environment, the University of Huddersfield has recently organised three off-site retreats to help staff reflect on and develop their teaching practice to better support student learning in the digital space.
Take a few minutes to read the feedback and experiences of participants, exploring the immediate and ongoing outcomes of these off-site retreats to help transform the University’s approach to technology-enhanced learning.
- Project management apps
The Hive discussed what are some of the best project management apps that are MS Teams compatible and are available to St Andrews staff.
Click here to see the relevant discussion.
- Videos and activities in teaching
What kind of interactive activities do you think will work best with an instructional video? Do you use any tools that help incorporate such activities to your videos?
Videos are now deeply embedded in university teaching. However, studies show that videos sometimes are not fulfilling learning expectations and often create a false sense of learning security. This article summarizes findings from studies that show how activities, such as quizzes, that accompany videos, drastically improve learning.
- Learning technology and student success
While politicians push for a return to ‘normal’, universities are using an ever-greater range of technologies to support students. But what do academics who do the teaching make of it all?
Read the survey and participate in the discussion by clicking here.
Don’t miss
IT Training Summer Schedule
CEED are delighted to be back delivering our full catalogue of IT Training courses on-site in PC classrooms for immersive, interactive sessions that engage and embed new skills. Choose from a vast array of courses available throughout the summer in all the main Microsoft Office desktop applications and Adobe CC as well.
For further information and booking, as well as to see the attached schedule with links to the course listings on PDMS, click here.