Currently viewing the category:
"LearnTech News"
GDPR – General Data Protection Regulation – Image from Pixabay (No attribution required)
The introduction of EU GDPR legislation in 2016 and it’s enforcement in May 2018 means that everyone who manages personal data is now responsible for ensuring that it is secure and that data is safeguarded using the highest privacy settings appropriate so that data is not publicly available without a lawfulness of processing criteria identified as required by GDPR Article 6. Although our VLE – NILE, is a secure network for students this law still applies and can guide us in how we best go about our day to day duties.
Device security.
When saving data it is best to either use the cloud storage ‘OneDrive’ or your network drives as locally saved data can be easily hacked should you lose your device. Article 9 of GDPR expects greater degrees of security for sensitive personal data (known as ‘special category data’) and so any personal information of this sort should also be password protected.
If you are unable to work online and are working on documents which contain student data such as Excel, then you should password protect these. – sensitive personal data should not be worked on offline and snapshots of University databases should never be used to process personal data offline.
When users login to NILE it is usually automated due to ‘single sign-on’ or your password may be held in the browser cache so anyone with access to your computer will be able to login to NILE to view student data. Therefore we strongly advise you do not allow any other users access to your machine, or leave it unattended. When not in use you should always lock the screen (Windows Key + L’ / Mac ‘Control + Shift + Power’).
If you lose either your work device or a mobile device which is linked to data such as your email, you should report this as a data breach to IT immediately via the UoN Service Desk. so they can secure your account, and the University Data Records Manager Phil Oakman, Phil.Oakman@northampton.ac.uk
Personal data breach.
If you become aware of a data breach you should inform the University Data Records Manager Phil Oakman, Phil.Oakman@northampton.ac.uk
Personal data breaches include:
- Access by an unauthorised third party,
- Deliberate or accidental action (or inaction) by a controller or processor,
- Sending personal data to an incorrect recipient,
- Alteration of personal data without permission,
- Loss of availability of personal data.
- Loss of personal data
- Personal data stolen
Secure passwords.
Basic passwords can be cracked very easily. This Tech.co article lists some good and bad examples of password
We suggest you don’t use your work password for any other sites, as this leaves our NILE and IT systems open to hacking, also don’t write your password down anywhere or send it on an email.
If you use your smartphone for work, then it is best to choose a longer passcode. A device called ‘GrayKey’ software is used by government agencies to access iPhones, and can crack a 4 digit security code in a few hours, and a 6 digit code in a few days, but an 8 digit code would take much longer to crack. It is highly likely that hackers use similar software to crack passwords on both IoS and Android, so it is best to increase the number of digits beyond 6.
If you suspect your password is not secure change it here: https://www.northampton.ac.uk/user
Sending data via Email.
Sending student data by emails is problematic for a couple of reasons; firstly data can be intercepted by email servers, and secondly, it is easy to send an email to the wrong person.
Do not include personal data and especially sensitive personal data in the body of an email.
To make these more secure you should password protect any files containing student data – such as grades exported from NILE, that you are sending, and send the password in a separate email within an attachment. (not titled ‘password’)
Releasing grades.
When revealing grades to students, only use the functionality within our VLE – NILE, as this ensures that this private data is only seen by the student to who it applies.
Staff should not use Announcements or Content areas to release grades or use group names or student numbers to anonymise them – as these are pseudo-anonymous and in breach of GDPR.
Group grades & feedback.
Any information posted into the ‘Feedback to Learner’ area in of a Blackboard Group assignment is released to all students in a group, therefore you should not include any grades in this area as this would be in breach of GDPR.
Identifying students by name.
Using student names to set up groups or perform tasks necessary for facilitating teaching and learning is a ‘Legitimate interest’ of data. However, staff should be aware that adding additional information such as student numbers, telephone number, address, or age, would be a potential security risk to the students NILE and University account.
Collecting data in collaborative activities.
Tools such as blogs, discussion boards and Padlets are often used for online collaborative activities (such as ice-breakers) in which students’ may be asked to share information about themselves. Data such as ethnicity, and sex is recorded in self-portraits and videos, or students may include information such as their home town, or sexual orientation in the written form.
Be particularly cautious of asking students to provide details which are commonly used for (banking) security questions such as; home town, name of pet, mother’s maiden name, favourite book and favourite holiday destination.
You may wish to consider whether the activity is a ‘legitimate interest’ of data as it is linked to the learning of the course, or whether you could redesign the activity to achieve the same learning outcomes without the need for students to provide personal data.
If it is necessary, you may wish to flag up to your students the issues of sharing personal data in a shared digital space. or ask their consent to be 100% GDPR compliant.
Video recordings and virtual classrooms.
In the virtual classroom platform Collaborate Ultra, students attending can share their webcams or microphones and post questions in the chat box, this becomes a GDPR issue when sessions are recorded, as all of these are held in recordings.
We recommend that staff either inform the students of the recording prior to the session – including details of where the recording will be made available and to whom. Or make the chat anonymous and remove the ability for students to share their camera and microphone in the session settings.
As it is possible to start and stop the recording during the session staff may choose to anonymise the chat and restrict access to the webcam and microphone during the recorded ‘instructional’ aspects of the session, then stop recording and make these available for when students are actively participating.
Use of Social Media Platforms.
The University’s policy on the use of social media in teaching and learning is that students should not be disadvantaged if they do not wish to sign up to these social media platforms.
The reason for this is that these providers are not licensed by the University and we can not expect our students to sign up to third-party terms and conditions. Therefore staff should only adopt social media tools to share content if all students can view the content without signing up for an account, examples of these are Twitter and Instagram.
For the same reason, staff should not ask students to use social media platforms (such as Facebook or WhatsApp) for class communications. There are already tools in the group settings within the VLE to do this such as discussion boards, blogs, email or Collaborate (groups)
If the use of Social Media is a learning outcome for a module, the course leader will need to make all potential students aware of this prior to enrolling on the course through a declaration on the course information page within the university website.
The use of social media is also relevant to GDPR, because social media platforms contain personal data which is not available in the VLE NILE and students are sharing data with third parties.
Third Party Tools
There are many very useful online tools such as Socrative, Kahoot and Prezi which are commonly used for teaching and learning but are not supported by Learning Technology. In a similar way to the University’s policy on social media accounts, the University policy says that students should not be disadvantaged if they do not wish to sign up to third-party tools. Therefore staff should either only use tools allow students to participate without setting up a new account, or provide a supported alternative option which does not prejudice the student.
This is relevant to GDPR because students are sharing data with third party providers.
Supported tools and licensed third-party publishers.
Tool and content providers within NILE have all provided GDPR policies to ensure they meet current legislation and confirm that our student data is secure. This includes a number of third-party content providers.
Please note, subjects which require students sign up to new accounts with third-party providers, should post a declaration on the course information page on the university website prior to enrolment to make students aware of this.
Sharing student data in research.
Before you start any research project you need to consider the implications of the data that you will be collecting, including how you will be obtaining this, how it will be stored, and how it will be preserved. A good data management plan will take you through these steps and will assist you in successfully obtaining research ethics approval. You can use https://dmponline.dcc.ac.uk/ using your university login details to create a data management plan. Further resources can be found on the research support yammer group.
Anonymisation or Pseudonymisation – GPDR
Two distinct techniques that permit data controllers and processors to use de-identified data. The difference between the two techniques rests on whether the data can be re-identified.
Recital 26 of the GDPR defines anonymised data as “data rendered anonymous in such a way that the data subject is not or no longer identifiable.” Emphasises that anonymised data must be stripped of any identifiable information, making it impossible to derive insights on a discreet individual, even by the party that is responsible for the anonymisation. When done properly, anonymisation places the processing and storage of personal data outside the scope of the GDPR.
GDPR defines pseudonymisation as “the processing of personal data in such a way that the data can no longer be attributed to a specific data subject without the use of additional information.”
By holding the de-identified data separately from the “additional information.” GDPR permits data handlers to use personal data more liberally without fear of infringing the rights of data subjects. This is because the data only becomes identifiable when both elements are held together.
By rendering data pseudonymous, researchers can benefit from new, relaxed standards under GDPR. For example, Article 6(4)(e) permits the processing of pseudonymised data for uses beyond the purpose for which the data was originally collected.
Recommended Software: ARX – http://arx.deidentifier.org/ (open source)
Post Contributors:
Richard Byles – Learning Technologist.
Phil Oakman – Data Records Manager.
Dawn Hibbert – Head of Research Support
Emma Dillon and Anna O’Neill
Emma and Anna
Emma Dillon RMN,BSc,PGCE,MSc,FHEA.
MHFA Adult Instructor.
Senior Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing.
MHFA Adult Instructor.
Senior Lecturer in Mental Health Nursing.
“As module leader for NPR3028P I really enjoyed working with Anne to develop a Xerte for the year 3 skills week for BSc Nursing. Anne helped me to transform my ideas into an interactive e-learning package looking at well-being of the student/graduate nurse. It was fun to create and has really positive feedback from the students: “the well-being Xerte really motivated me to look after myself, it was fun and interactive – it really made me think” – “the Xerte reminded me of the core values of nursing and resilience”-” the well-being Xerte really bought the skills week together“.
Xerte E-Learning Package for Skills Week
Anna O’Neill
Lecturer in Practice Development
Faculty of Health and Society
Lecturer in Practice Development
Faculty of Health and Society
“I thoroughly enjoyed learning about Xerte and the experience of using this package with our third-year student nurses.
Anne’s teaching style was such that I felt comfortable to develop the Xerte with support, so as to truly experience setting up the Xerte, learning to incorporate pictures, links and the ability for students to download their work to upload onto PebblePad.
Xerte is a fantastic way of supporting blended learning and/or distance learning.
We used Xerte for our year 3 skills development package in line with our move to Waterside and our students feedback was extremely positive”.
Xerte E-Learning Package – Skills Week
Xerte E-Learning Package – Skills Week
Blackboard Learn (NILE) is being upgraded on Saturday 18th August 2018 and will be unavailable from 22:30 BST until 10:30 on Sunday 19th.
The upgrade is necessary to maintain performance, stability, and security. This upgrade will also bring a new look to NILE, designed to work better on small screens and mobile devices. Some of the colours and layout will be slightly different and there will be standardised colours across all sites. If you have previously used fontawesome icons in your NILE sites, these will no longer be displayed after the upgrade, but the surrounding content will be preserved.
Written by Jim Lusted, Learning Designer/Senior Lecturer in Sport Studies
Since the University moved to online assignment submission some years ago it has been much easier to judge the originality of student work. If an assignment is set up using a Turnitin submission point, a similarity report is automatically generated for each assignment. This provides the marker with a % score of how much of the student work matches material contained in Turnitin’s vast database – some 62 billion webpages, 734 million student papers and 165 million academic sources.
While this automated process has really helped staff judge the credibility of student assignments, your own judgement is still needed to interpret the similarity report. This blog offers some tips about how to ‘read’ Turnitin reports – and to consider a range of factors beyond just the overall similarity % score to help you make a judgement about whether you should refer an assignment to the academic integrity and misconduct process.
Get the set up right to get the most accurate report
Start by making sure the similarity report generated is as accurate and useful as possible. When you first set up a Turnitin submission point in NILE, you are offered a daunting list of options to select from. Follow this help guide from the LearnTech team to ensure your similarity reports check exactly what you want them to.
Before you begin marking, a useful tip is to overlay the similarity view with the marking view of the Turnitin site (see right). 
This allows you to continually keep a check on originality as you go through the process of marking the work – and helps you contextualise the areas of similarity. You’ll be able to easily spot where exactly the larger pockets of similarity are being used across the assignment.
Look beyond the percentage score..
The overall % score gives us a quick, rough indicator of how original a student submission might be. It’s certainly a good starting point, but it shouldn’t solely determine your verdict of the assignment and it’s really best not to set a benchmark score to guide your overall judgement – the process ultimately requires a qualitative judgement to be made. Let’s look at a couple of scenarios where the percentage originality score (high or low) might not necessarily tell the full story of who has written the assignment.
a) A small score but a big problem?
Anything below 20% is fine, right? A score like this does indicate that the vast majority of the assignment is original. But…
- A small percentage score could ‘hide’ one or two (or more) long paragraphs of ‘copied’ text that is acknowledged as such. While only taking up a small proportion of the assignment, such large chunks of unsourced text may lead you to concerns about possible plagiarism.
- A similarity score of zero may also raise some concerns. If an assignment contains absolutely no material derived from other sources, particularly if you are sure that the work contains the use of quotes and paraphrasing, you may want to question why the report is so ‘squeaky-clean’. There are all kinds of tips on the internet for students to try to ‘trick’ Turnitin that might possibly be at play. You might also be entering the world of contract cheating, which is much harder to identify (and prove).
b) A big score but with good reason?
Anything over 30% must be a problem, right? Not necessarily – ask whether there might be any plausible reasons for the large score, particularly if it is repeated across several students in your cohort. Potentially valid reasons for high similarity scores might include:
- The use of a generic template or pro-forma that students have used to structure their assignment – is this the primary cause of the high score?
- The inclusion of appendices in a student’s work are these being highlighted?
- Several students referring directly to the same source or quote or content (e.g. a prescription protocol) that has been used regularly in the module
- Several small passages of quotes being used appropriately and suitably referenced
Look beyond the similarity score – there may be a perfectly good reason for the relatively high % score.
The grey areas where your judgement is needed
This may all sound straightforward, but there are always going to be difficult judgements to be made when cases are not as clear cut as those above. The ‘grey areas’ tend to relate to two main areas:
1. Paraphrasing another source – is the student trying to re-phrase another person’s work? Some students are better at this than others, and there are online tools like Grammarly that students may be tempted to use to help paraphrase (often with poor results). You need to decide whether this paraphrasing is a deliberate attempt by the student to claim the work as their own, or more a case of poor academic practice.
2. Referencing – are the sections under scrutiny indicative of a student presenting the work of others as their original efforts, or perhaps the result of poor referencing practice? Consider the quality and style of referencing through the work (good or bad) to help decide how ‘deliberate’ the student is being in failing to acknowledge other sources of work. Again, the judgement here is between willful academic misconduct or poor academic practice.
In these types of ‘grey’ cases, its best to seek a second opinion – from a trusted colleague, an experienced member of your team or even a quick chat with an Academic Integrity Officer (AIO) before you decide whether to formally refer the student to the academic integrity and misconduct process. Getting a second opinion usually helps you come to the right verdict in the end.
We are pleased to announce that your 1819 module and programme sites have been created and are now ready to receive your content, so you can self-enrol now.
This year (as last) we have again chosen to differentiate between courses taught at the University and those delivered by our academic partners, to reflect the different needs of all concerned and so LearnTech has developed and updated separate templates, making for a more tailored student (and staff) experience.
The template and NILE Standards have been updated for 2018-19 following recommendations approved at the University’s Student Experience Committee and Faculty SECs. Please refer to these for up-to-date guidance on what to include in which section of your NILE sites when preparing them for the coming academic year.
You will note that in-site guidance has again been streamlined to allow for any necessary dynamic updates throughout the academic year, incorporating links to existing support, thus avoiding duplication and avoiding potentially conflicting advice. We have again included the ‘Support for Tutors’ and ‘Support for Students’ resources lists, so please also refer to these for your own assistance and for that of your students.
The template is designed to build on last year’s updating of content: you should therefore all find yourselves in a strong position for this year’s plan to copy over only what is required for the coming years teaching. N.B. If you are using Pearsons content, please do not copy over any site content without first contacting Learning Technology.
For those of you unfamiliar with the process of preparing your sites for the coming year, we have provided updated guidance on how to do this, as well as having Learning Technology team members on standby should you require extra support and assistance. Please email LearnTech Support in the first instance or contact your designated LearnTech.
NILE is integrated into the Active Blended Learning (ABL) process at The University of Northampton and we need to ensure that it is being used effectively by staff in order to provide a quality student experience.
Building on the guidance which was initially produced in January 2012, the framework has now been updated to cover the minimum standards which are expected on a NILE site. This was approved at University SEC on 28th February, 2018 and is subsequently being used as the basis for the new NILE templates which have been developed for the 2018/19 academic year.
The LearnTech team is pleased to share some updates and improvements around assessments and related processes in NILE.
Firstly, the Team had been tasked with exploring existing options for applying prompts for students within NILE for both Turnitin and Blackboard assignments as soon as the submission deadline had passed, and non-submission of assessments had been identified. The following solution will provide consistent standardised responses and so allow for appropriate action to be taken to support students. The text going out to students has been approved at the Student Experience Committee.
Updated guidance has been produced as a result and is now available. For Turnitin and Blackboard assignments, tutors have an option to send emails to students who have not submitted an assignment by the due date (including tests, surveys, graded discussion boards, journals or blogs):
Q. How do I send emails to non-submitters from Blackboard?
While staff may have used Turnitin’s ‘Email non-submitters’ option previously, you should be aware that students who are unavailable in your NILE sites will still receive these notifications. Our recommended guidance avoids this outcome.
Secondly, tutors will notice that they now have another option available to them when setting up assessments in NILE – Qwickly Jot. This tool allows you to select an image for students to markup and submit as a piece of work: for example, you may want your students to label a biological diagram or plot a graph. The submissions are linked directly with the Blackboard grade centre, so they can be viewed and marked directly from your module site. Further information and guidance on how to use the tool are available here:
And finally, those of you who are familiar with the LearnTech FAQs may have noticed that they have migrated to a new home, LibAnswers – a central place for Library and Learning Services help.
You can find these along with our NILE Guides by clicking the HELP tab at the top of NILE.
Within the new FAQ’s you can filter your results by selecting “Learning Technology (NILE)” under “Groups” and “Staff” or “Students” under “Topics” on the right-hand side.
As an advocate for using technology enhanced learning Senior Lecturer in Cross Cultural Management Diepiriye Kuku-Siemons discusses his motivations, process, and reflections for integrating mobile technologies into the classroom.
In this first video, he provides some guidance on how he facilitates the use of mobile technologies when students are working in groups and describes his role as a facilitator in learning sessions. The purpose of this video was to share his own thoughts about the use of mobile technologies in teaching and learning with the wider academic community via the UN Staff Facebook group.
His second video describes how using mobile devices allows students to interact with research in a more immediate and accessible way and advises that activities should be structured in a way that ensures students are mindful of the purpose of the learning activities and are not distracted by existing social media channels.
To give a full picture of the activity, students from the group volunteered to provide feedback of their experiences using mobile devices in the classroom.
The film was produced with Learning Technologist, Richard Byles, during two sessions; in the first session students used mobile technology for research and brought them back to the group for discussion. In the second Diepiriye facilitated a classroom activity in which students discussed how mobile technology provides both opportunities and challenges for business.
Click to view video – Using mobile technology in class with Diepiriye Kuku-Siemons
If you would like to see Richard Byles and Deipiriye Kuku-Siemons speaking about their ongoing work please register for the forthcoming LLS Conference on the 4th of May where they will be giving a presentation on ‘Facilitating mobile technologies in the classroom’.
On Monday 8th January around 1pm there was a routine housekeeping check on NILE to ensure that it was in line with the student record system data. Unfortunately, this did not work correctly and as a result, some students were made unavailable on sites. The students were not removed from the sites but just lost the ability to view these on their NILE list. Any assessment work previously submitted by the student to the site was retained.
The Learntech team along with IT Services worked on the problem as soon it was identified and finally corrected the problem for all students at 8pm on the 8th January. A number of students were directly in touch with the Learntech team during the afternoon / evening and access was restored for them during the day. We are working with the supplier to ensure that there is no repeat of this problem.
Kathryn Kendon has agreed that for students impacted by this problem with assignments due in 8th January and 9th January, revised deadlines of 10th January (for those with deadlines of 8th January) and 11th January (for those with deadlines of 9th January) will apply. The list of modules which were impacted by the problem have been identified and module leaders were contacted on Tuesday 9th January by the Student Records teams. The extensions will only apply to students impacted by the problem on the affected modules.
Welcome back and happy New Year from the LearnTech Team!
We are delighted to announce the new cycle of LearnTech lunchtimes. For those of you as yet unfamiliar with this training and as a reminder for everyone else, LT lunchtime sessions currently introduce some of our core NILE tools and some specific SaGE elements, including their potential applications and how these technologies can enhance your teaching and learning.
Please note, where more than one session per tool is being offered in the next cycle, the first (and where appropriate third) will be run in the Tpod at Park and the second offered virtually in a Collaborate virtual classroom. In addition, we will happily offer parallel sessions at Avenue Campus on a request basis; please contact Vicky Brown, Learning Technology Manager to arrange.
Please see below for the full schedule of offerings and booking links:
Kaltura/ MediaSpace (video)
Kaltura is the University’s single video solution; this is a chance for those who have already started to engage with this tool and those as yet to experience it. Areas covered include an introduction to MediaSpace; video capture using CaptureSpace; uploading video to MediaSpace; embedding video content in NILE; using quizzes in Kaltura.
Friday 19 January – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Monday 12 March – 12:30-13:30 – Collaborate Virtual Classroom (link will become live ahead of session)
Tuesday 8 May – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Please sign up here: http://bit.ly/2fWkTbG
Collaborate (Virtual Classroom)
This session will introduce those new to using online virtual classrooms (Northampton is licensed for Collaborate: Ultra Experience until 2020) as well as for those who are curious to learn about new functionalities now available in the tool. Topics may cover some of the following: setting up the tool in your NILE sites; inviting attendees; sharing files/ applications/ the virtual whiteboard; running a virtual classroom session; moderating sessions; recording sessions; break-out rooms.
Monday 12 February – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Thursday 12 April – 12:30-13:30 – Collaborate Virtual Classroom (link will become live ahead of session)
Thursday 7 June – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Please sign up here: http://bit.ly/2eG7mZR
Edublogs / MyPad (blogging tool)
Edublogs (MyPad) is the University’s personal and academic (WordPress) blogging tool and can be used in a number of ways to communicate and share learning resources. Topics covered may include: creation of individual / class student blogs; use of menus/ media; blog administration within modules; creation of class websites.
Wednesday 28 February – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Wednesday 25 April – 12:30-13:30 – Collaborate Virtual Classroom (link will become live ahead of session)
Tuesday 19 June – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Please sign up here: http://bit.ly/2f4BEUM
Assessments (Rubrics)
Have you heard about the use of rubrics in NILE and wondering what all the fuss is about? Want to find out how to grade your assessments electronically using rubrics? Curious to know how you can streamline your marking by using quantitative and/ or qualitative rubrics?
Come along to this LT lunchtime session to find out more about how to enhance and enrich feedback for your students using these tools in NILE.
Thursday 29 March – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Please sign up here: http://bit.ly/2pNL0H8
Assessments (Groups)
Groups are a powerful tool in NILE that can be used to facilitate and manage group assignments, and enable communication and collaboration for students.
If you are interested in seeing how to easily create groups, set an assignment (e.g. Group Presentation or online Debate), AND potentially reduce administration and marking time, whilst still maintaining quality of feedback, then please sign up ….
Tuesday 30 January – 12:30-13:30 – Park Campus, Library, Tpod
Wednesday 23 May – 12:30-13:30 – Collaborate Virtual Classroom (link will become live ahead of session)
Please sign up here: http://bit.ly/2pNRmXb
In addition the following training sessions are currently scheduled for Xerte – N.B. these are 2.5 hours in duration:
Xerte (online content creation tools)
Xerte is a University supported tool used to create interactive e-learning and online content.
In this training session you will be introduced to the software templates, page types, features and tools available to enable you to produce an interactive e-learning session or online content provision.
You will also learn about the importance of instructional design for your e-learning and online content projects, and benefit from some useful hints and tips, technical advice and items relevant to developing e-content generally.
Park Campus, Library, LLS IT Training Room
Wednesday 24 January – 10:00-12:30 (LLS IT Training Room)
Thursday 1 March – 13:30-16:00 (LLS IT Training Room)
Wednesday 25 April – 13:30-16:00 (LLS IT Training Room)
Please sign up here: http://bit.ly/2fYwKpY
Spaces are limited, so do not delay, book today! Unable to attend on these dates? More will be offered on a rolling basis so watch this space. In the meantime, please visit our NILE Guides and FAQs.
