Teaching Technologies
Blackboard
learning environment
Every module run and programme has a site on Blackboard. Use it for making announcements, launching learning activities, providing materials, and for online assessment and feedback.
Panopto
video capture
For recording and delivering video and audio. Use it to capture your slides and desktop, to add captions and quizzes, and to securely store and release recordings in Blackboard.
Mentimeter
polling
An online polling tool to add interactivity to a live or recorded presentation. Used for icebreakers, knowledge checks, gauging opinion and prompting debate.
Collaborate
webinars
A virtual classroom webinar tool for communicating online in real time by voice or text. Use it for group discussions, collaborative activities, one-to-ones and as a social space.
PebblePad
eportfolios
An online platform where students evidence their learning in portfolios and workbooks. Use it to securely view, assess and provide feedback on students’ work as it develops.
LinkedIn Learning
training videos
LinkedIn Learning has thousands of training videos for software, design and business skills. Use it to supplement teaching and to help students develop skills.
Xerte
interactive learning materials
Xerte is a tool for creating accessible, multi-media, interactive resources. Use it to create engaging learning materials that students access using a web browser.
Reading Lists
recommended reading
A resource for students to access their recommended reading quickly and easily. Use it to create dynamic reading lists that can be embedded within Blackboard.
Dewis
assessing maths and statistics
A web-based algorithmic assessment system for maths and statistics. Use it for summative assessment or allow students to use it for formative learning.
Other tools
suitable for your subject
Lots of other great learning tools are available on the web. To help ensure tools are suitable for use with students we have a checklist of things to look out for.
Articles related to Teaching Technologies
Active learning using Bookmarks, Notes and Discussions in Panopto
Suggestions for active learning activities using Panopto tools.
Using Panopto Bookmarks, Notes and Discussions tools
Understand how your students can make use of the tools in Panopto to get more from your video recordings by adding bookmarks, taking notes and discussing with classmates.
Student tips for watching Panopto recordings
Here are some tips that students might find helpful when watching Panopto event capture recordings.
Mentimote: control your Mentimeter slides from your mobile device
Learn how to use Mentimote to control your Mentimeter presentations remotely from your smartphone.
Tests and quizzes in the (virtual) classroom
Options for running a synchronous test or quiz in a classroom or webinar.
Tests and quizzes – which tool do I choose?
Compare the different tools for running asynchronous tests and quizzes.
FET Blackboard Module Template 2020/21
Find out about the changes to the 2020/21 FET Blackboard Module Template and other support to help you create an accessible module site.
FET Blackboard Module Template 2020/21: Copying Content to a New Module Run
IMPORTANT: Please read before setting up your new 2020/21 Blackboard module runs.
Captions in Panopto
Make your desktop recordings more accessible by using Panopto automatic captioning.
Statistics from Blackboard Collaborate sessions
The Interactive Tutorials Report in Collaborate shows you who joined your live sessions.
Replacing face-to-face lectures with recorded lectures – good practice
Delivering content outside the lecture theatre – tips for desktop recordings.
Using Panopto to capture meetings in Microsoft Teams
A workaround for recording your meetings in Teams.
Recording presentations in PowerPoint
The recording feature in PowerPoint presents a convenient alternative to using Panopto to create desktop recordings. The main benefit of recording in PowerPoint is that each slide is an independent…
SafeAssign file limits
While a Blackboard submission point can accept file sizes of up to 100MB, they will not be processed by SafeAssign unless they are below 10MB. This is because SafeAssign is…
Interactive seminars, tutorials and drop-ins using Blackboard Collaborate
Whether you’re using a flipped learning model, facilitating group work or just wanting to give your students some individual support, online interaction can be done through Blackboard Collaborate Ultra. Here…
Setting up breakout groups in Blackboard Collaborate Ultra
Breakout groups allow multiple linked Collaborate sessions to happen at the same time; the online equivalent of students splitting off to work in groups in a classroom. In a breakout…
Active Learning with Mentimeter
Mentimeter for Teaching Part 2. This series of articles explores how Mentimeter can be used to enrich the student experience and boost engagement.
Using Panopto to create desktop recordings – video guides
5 short videos from the LIU covering how to make, edit and publish a desktop recording.
Uploading videos to Panopto
You can use Panopto to provide video content from guest lecturers to your students on Blackboard.
Using Mentimeter to check progress
Mentimeter for Teaching Part 3. This series of articles explores how Mentimeter can be used to enrich the student experience and boost engagement.
Creating an Assessment Submission Point in Blackboard
These instructions cover setting up a submission point for an online exam (as part of the contingency plan).
Installing Panopto
As a UWE member of staff, you can use Panopto on your work or home computer. Here’s how to do it.
Three ways to add quizzes and interactivity to Panopto recordings
Add interactivity to your videos using Panopto quizzes, Mentimeter or Xerte.
How to change your assignment deadline in Pebblepad
A short video guide to changing your assignment dates in PebblePad.
‘Access request’ to Panopto recordings
If you or your students are denied access to a recording, please read on for the solution.
Contingency plan for move to online delivery
An article on using Panopto for desktop recording and running webinars using Blackboard Collaborate Ultra.
Using Mentimeter in and out of the classroom
Mentimeter for Teaching Part 1. This series of articles explores how Mentimeter can be used to enrich the student experience and boost engagement.
Delivering effective feedback in PebblePad
Our new resource introduces you to six effective HE feedback practices, their benefits and how you can implement them in PebblePad.
Mentimeter – converting previous polls
If you have previously used a different in-class polling system such as TurningPoint, here are some things to consider when converting your polls to Mentimeter.
Mentimeter – sharing and access
Learn how to manage your Mentimeter presentations in and outside of class: how to hide results, close a poll and share both the results and the presentation itself.
Adding a YouTube caption file to your video using Panopto
If you have a self-created video resource, this post explains how to improve accessibility by associating a caption file with it using Panopto.
Creating captions using YouTube
This article explains how to improve accessibility on your self-created video resources by creating a captions file in YouTube.
Adding a YouTube caption file to your video using Kaltura
If you have a self-created video resource, this post explains how to improve accessibility by associating a caption file with it using Kaltura.
Getting started with Mentimeter
UWE has adopted Mentimeter as the new polling tool for the university. Here is a quick guide to help you find your way around.
Three great things about Xerte
Xerte is an open-source browser-based tool that allows educators to develop rich, interactive and highly accessible content quickly and easily and to seamlessly publish that content online
Panopto (Event Capture)
Use Panopto to record your lectures and classes while they happen or to record presentations at your desk.
Kaltura (desktop recording)
Record, upload, manage and deliver video and audio files. Enable students to record and submit video assignments
Help students develop their academic writing skills with SafeAssign
Find out how Blackboard’s originality checker can be used to embed good referencing practice.
Panopto: What to do if you record to the wrong folder
Step by step instructions from Blackboard Support for copying your recording(s).
Panopto recordings – The safe and effective way to include YouTube content
Use the ‘Add a YouTube video’ button to safely, and seamlessly, include YouTube content in your learning resource.
Give new life to your online topic material with Xerte
If you have teaching and learning material lying dormant in an online topic, Xerte offers you a great way to give this content new life.
Three great things about PebblePad
There are lots of good things about PebblePad (and a few not so good, too!) and in this article I will share with you my top three.
Programmatic Blackboard View
For information about the new Programmatic Blackboard view, please read on.
Kaltura: Four essential ‘how to’ guides from the LIU
To help you get started with Kaltura this September, the LIU has produced a collection of videos and instructions covering four essential tasks.
Dewis tests v Blackboard tests: which one do I choose?
The first consideration would be the type of questions your test needs to have. Blackboard has a wider variety of question types and, depending on the subject matter of the test, this may be the deciding factor.
What is Dewis?
Have you come across references to Dewis and were unsure of what it is? Does the module you teach involve numeracy and maths?
Panopto on a lectern PC routine
Following these tips should help your Panopto experience in the classroom go smoothly.
Getting ‘In the Zone’ on the St Fagans field trip, in rural Wales
(by Fabia Jeddere-Fisher) After some initial exuberance with the idea of using an app to lead the students round the outdoor museum, St Fagans; our next thoughts were “But there’s…
BB Student – an app for accessing Blackboard on mobile devices
Find out what students using a smartphone see on Blackboard
Blackboard Collaborate Ultra Experience (webinars)
Collaborate online in real time by synchronous text or voice chat
Interactive learning resources in Xerte for equipment in labs and studios
Many courses in our faculty involve students using equipment in laboratories and studios – from simple scalpels to much more complex items.
Programmatic View of Blackboard
The intention is to provide students with a more integrated student experience and cohort identity
Interactive timelines your students will love
Bring a timeline of dates to life with images, videos, maps and web pages
PebblePad (portfolios)
PebblePad provides individual and collective online spaces for students and staff to develop, share, reflect on and communicate their learning and achievement
Blackboard (VLE)
All Blackboard-related information can be accessed from this page. The key source of information on all Blackboard queries is UWE’s Blackboard Support website. Faculty approach to Blackboard module sites In…
Xerte (learning objects)
With Xerte you can create interactive, multi-media, accessible learning objects using just a web browser – no need to install any additional software on your computer. Xerte is available for any members of staff in FET to use.
TurningPoint (polling)
TurningPoint is polling software that enables students to ‘vote’ or respond to questions in classrooms and lecture theatres using ‘clickers’ and/or smartphones, tablet computers or laptops to make responses. TurningPoint can help make teaching in classrooms and lecture theatres more interactive. It can be used, for example, to survey views, assess understanding, group revision, and to give learners more control of the content or pace of lectures.
Piazza (collaboration)
Piazza is a Q&A and discussion platform designed to simulate real class discussion. It aims to get high quality answers to difficult questions, fast.
Blogs
A blog is a website which usually takes the form of a series of posts arranged in reverse-chronologocal order, i.e. the most recent post appears at the top of the page. Students writing their own blogs, commenting on other people’s blogs, and consulting blogs written by experts in their field are common learning activities in Higher Education today.
Use Twitter in the courses you teach?
It might be a good way to promote active and informal learning and to help learners make connections between academic work and the sector they wish to work in after…
Classroom Response Systems – ‘clickers’
Types of Questions
Many instructors see multiple-choice questions as limited to testing students’ recall of facts. However, multiple-choice clicker questions can actually serve many other purposes in the class, including assessing students’ higher-order thinking skills. Since clicker questions can be used not only to assess students but to engage them, some very effective clicker questions are quite different than multiple-choice questions that might appear on exams.
Here are a few types of clicker questions.
Recall Questions: These questions ask students to recall facts, concepts, or techniques relevant to class. They are often used to see if students did the reading, remember important points from prior classes, or have memorized key facts. They rarely generate discussion, however, and don’t require higher-order thinking skills.
How Slideshare spoiled my post on Social Media
I’ve been meaning to write an article about the benefits of Social Media in learning for a long time…
Finding out more about wikis in education
A wiki is a website where users can easily add, edit and delete content without specialist software or technical knowledge. Users can create new wiki pages and link them to others, and they can edit existing pages, including those created by other learners.
Teaching with ‘clickers’
In UWE we can use ‘clickers’ and software from TurningPoint to make presentations and lectures more engaging. A number of lecture theatres (4D56, 1N05, 2B020, 2B025, 2D67, 4B031 and ECC…
What’s the difference between wikis and blogs?
For several years now wikis and blogs have both been widely used in Higher Education. Both are platforms for easily publishing material to the web and both provide a platform for feedback. Both are ideal for learner-centred activities with learners taking part in collaborative tasks aiding knowledge construction. And both can be used to deliver rich content for learners to absorb.