Posts by: robhowe
During the start of the 2011 academic year, the Learning Technology team noticed an issue with staff and students receiving high numbers of old announcements from NILE. Whilst the problem was investigated, we took the decision to reduce the notification functionality.
We have been working with the supplier to investigate the problem in more detail and believe the problem is now solved and we have reactivated the full notification system.
Staff will now notice that when they post important announcements, they will see the ability to push these out to student’s email accounts again regardless of individual notification settings:
Tutors can use the announcements feature in modules on NILE to post important messages about a course or module (e.g. room changes, information on assignments etc.). Students will be able to see these announcements when logging into NILE. It is also possible to receive these via email, by making changes to personal notification settings.
Should staff or students wish to subscribe to these emails, they may need to modify their notification settings (by default most email notifications are set to ‘off’ to prevent unwanted emails being sent out to users). If you are not sure how to do this, please watch the video or follow the steps below:
To edit your preferences, go to the ‘My Places’ link at the top of any screen in NILE, and click on ‘Edit Notification Settings’. From here you have a few options:
- ‘Edit General Settings’ controls whether you receive individual emails, or a daily digest. There is also a shortcut to switch due date reminders on and off (please note these reminders depend on the tutor specifying a due date when an item is added in NILE)
- ‘Individual Module/Organisation Settings’ lets you choose what type of notifications you will receive for each module (e.g. new announcements, new content added, new message on blogs or discussion forums etc.)
- ‘Bulk Module Settings’ allows you to set your preferences for all of your modules at once.
For more details on the notification features in NILE, see the Notifications Dashboard guide.
If you notice large numbers of old announcements being sent to your email account then please email LTSupport@northampton.ac.uk with your username and details of the announcements which are being received.
Staff and students now have the technology available to record all or part of any presentation made as part of University activity.
Whilst the technology makes it easy to make the recordings, there are legal issues around these which control how they are used and promoted. The regulations for staff and students are different based on the fact that staff are employed by the institution. This guide (DOC, 40.5Kb) offers an insight into the differences in addition to a template form (DOC, 33Kb) which may be customised and adapted for staff and student’s own recording sessions.
Whilst the technology makes it easy to make the recordings, there are legal issues around these which control how they are used and promoted. The regulations for staff and students are different based on the fact that staff are employed by the institution. This guide (DOC, 40.5Kb) offers an insight into the differences in addition to a template form (DOC, 33Kb) which may be customised and adapted for staff and student’s own recording sessions.
You can choose which notifications you receive from NILE, choose not to receive any or receive a Digest which collates all announcements and notifications and will send you a summary.
To choose any of these options you need to log into NILE, click onto ‘My Places’ at the top of the screen and select ‘Edit Notification Settings’.
- To simply change your settings to only receive a once a day Digest of activity click ‘Edit General Settings‘ and specify which options you prefer. Click Submit once you are happy with your choices.
- To change settings for each module you are on click on the module name from the list under ‘Edit Individual Module Settings‘. You will see the page below. To switch all notifications off untick the On/Off box at the top left (red circle). If you would like to change your settings for individual items/activity within the module tick the relevant box to receive notifications and untick it to stop them.
Click ‘Submit’.
Repeat this for each module you would like to change the settings for.
The day was split into two main parts – an update on the roadmap and two case studies from Turnitin users:
Roadmap
December 2011 – Blackboard Direct to be released. This will be an enhanced version of Turnitin for Blackboard users
Spring 2012 – Ability to grant extensions, expanded rubric, audio comments (record and playback on pc and tablets)
Summer 2012 – Better Analytics and reporting
Winter 2012 – Translated matching – checks matching over languages – online grading for iPad and android devices.
iParadigms offer a range a training sessions to support users of their tools the full list is available at: http://www.plagiarismadvice.org/advice
Question and Answer Session with iParadigms
For interest, Barry Calvert noted that Wikipedia had the highest number of matches from all systems – 12% of all matches.
Multiple access for groups in Grademark is planned but no release date yet
There was a question over the single quote marks being included – this seems to be a UK issue and we need to vote for this on the feedback forum
Non numeric grade scales also appear to be a UK issue only and can also be voted for in the feedback forum.
Case Study 1 – Efficacy of turnitin in support for an institutional policy – Simon Starr – Canterbury Christ Church
Simon suggested the following guidelines for Turnitin use:
- Educate first – punish second
- All information should be up front
- Use in a formative manner first to allow for time on rich feedback after this the policy at CCC indicates that it may be used summatively.
From his research he noted that students mainly feel that Turnitin is about detection and policy rather than about education. Some students felt that the use of Turnitin separates students who try to write and reference correctly and those who do not.
Simon noted that students still had problems interpreting originality reports. He noted that Oxford Brookes have created some good videos which may be of use – noted that these are currently being updated at https://mw.brookes.ac.uk/display/ce6/Turnitin+help.
He noted that most student information comes from the tutors rather than any central guidance. This shows the importance of tutors having correct and up to date knowledge of the tools.
Case Study 2 – Implementing Grademark – Lessons from Cardiff University – Nathan Roberts and Judy Cousins
Cardiff have about 50,000 papers submitted per year
Grademark is being used to address NSS scores at Cardiff (Assessment Matters project)
The project has shown how a technologist and an academic working together can achieve more than either alone.
They had to provide many training sessions for the assessors on Grademark – these worked best when the actual assessment was due. If the training was done too early then information was not retained. It was noted that the technologist role was crucial at this point.
Each school developed their own rubrics within Grademark – these were checked through the quality committees.
It was found that students liked Grademark – finding it equitable and clear
Cardiff had technical problems with Internet Explorer / Grademark – they advised staff to use firefox !!
Students liked the annotation facility – however they did not like comments such as good/bad without further feedback.
Assessors were all very positive about grademark – it was noted that this could save up to 30% in time with better feedback. Some technical problems slowed this down E.g. NHS assessor had problems access the Grademark tool.
The team noted that modertation and second marking is a problem – they do not have a solution yet. It was also noted that assessors wanted a spell check facility.
Despite the reservations listed above it was stressed that Grademark generally works well and was valued by staff and students.
Rob Howe
On 6th September, JISC launched a new guide: Emerging Practice in a Digital Age: A guide to technology-enhanced institutional innovation available at http://www.jisc.ac.uk/digiemerge. To augment this guide, JISC infoNet also developed a Mobile Learning infoKit with version 0.1 of this resource now available at http://bit.ly/mobilelearninginfokit.
We were very pleased that our own Learning Technologist, Julie Usher, was able to contibute to the Mobile Learning Infokit as this reflects the recognition that Northampton is doing useful research within this area
The Mobile Learning infoKit is a practical guide for educational institutions planning to implement mobile learning initiatives. Currently, it comprises of a wiki-based resource collating information and guidance from JISC and others sources. It will develop to include a section on future trends, incorporate additional examples, and be made available in a variety of formats.
In July, the Learntech team posted information about rethinking the way in which inductions are handled. This was also suplemented with some top tips for staff as they prepare for the new academic year.
The information below builds on this with more recent information for staff who will be using technology in the context of their module.
As you plan your induction for students there are some key items of information of which you / your students need to be aware, that will help ease their progression into the University.
Accounts: All students at enrolment will be provided with a username and password for their University account, which enable them to access key resources such as the University computers, NILE, and Library materials. Full support is provided in both libraries to help any student log into the systems and access their accounts. Support via phone and email is also available, details are provided at the end of this message.
Students should use their University ID number (shown on the student card) as their username. The password will be their date of birth in a six digit format, followed by the first two letters of the family name (with the first letter being a capital letter and the second letter being in lower case) and followed by the = sign. [This is known as the University login.]
Example
username 31234567
password 081086Fa=
(This example shows what the password would be if the family name is Farmer and the student’s date of birth is 8 October 1986.)
All students need to go to the User Portal, set up their security questions, and change their initial password BEFORE they start to use the main university resources. It is important that they are encouraged to do this, as the initial password is a temporary one and will expire after 15 logins if it is not changed.
NILE: Students may then use their University account to login to NILE. They will then need to add the modules which are relevant to their course to their account. To help with this, tutors need to ensure they provide the exact module code(s) and name(s) to students, so that they can search effectively. Students will also find it helpful to be given some context of how tutors anticipate using NILE within the module, and guidance on the information they can expect to find there.
Training: Staff may request bespoke sessions for particular aspects of Learning Technology or specific use of NILE by using the general enquiry form
Email: The student’s personal email account which they provided at enrolment will be used for all electronic University communication. The student may find which account is being used by the University. A University provided email account is available for those students who do not wish to use their own account for University business. Students who wish to change the email address used by the University will need to contact their relevant Administration Team.
Should any student have a problem with any of the above then they should contact the library either in person or by the main contacts below:
Phone: 01604 893089
Email: libraryhelp@northampton.ac.uk
We are currently experiencing issues with emails from the Announcements and Email tool. We are investigating and apologise for the inconvenience. We are aware that some users are receiving multiple, back dated notifications. Please ignore these messages for now. We will post an update once it has been resolved. Thanks for your patience.
Kardi talked about her work in creating more engaging NILE modules and the impact on the student experience at The University of Northampton’s Technology Enhanced Learning Showcase 7/7/11. The event used Twitter hashtag #TELUoN.
Richard presented on his experiences of SaGE (Submission and Grading Electronically) at The University of Northampton’s Technology Enhanced Learning Showcase 7/7/11. The event used Twitter hashtag #TELUoN.
Veronica presented on her experiences of using Flip Cams at The University of Northampton’s Technology Enhanced Learning Showcase 7/7/11. The event used Twitter hashtag #TELUoN.
It has now become very easy to capture video material using webcams and Veronica talked about her experiences of using these devices within a specific environment.
