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We have updated the service updates link on the NILE welcome page – if you have issues out of hours with NILE this should highlight any problems.
For entries containing the word ‘Link’, the check is a very basic one – does the URL respond with an ‘OK’ status? For all the others an attempt is made to read data from the provider’s service status and give a little more detail. As these vary and this application is new, errors are possible (likely!). There are links to the provider’s feed if this application fails.
If you have any more systems you’d like to be included in a link or better check, please let us know.
NILE was upgraded over the weekend of 16th & 17th August to version 9.1 April 2014. This introduced several new features, the highlights of which are below:
Student Preview
Student Preview
The new Student Preview feature provides Tutors with the capability to see the course exactly how a student would by easily transitioning into and out of a new preview feature.
A new Student Preview button appears in the top right-hand corner of the breadcrumb bar next to the Course Themes and Edit Mode buttons, shaped like an eye.
While in Student Preview mode tutors can interact with the course as if they were a student, including taking quizzes/tests, submitting assignments, posting to forums, posting to blogs, etc.
Upon returning back to the Tutor view any results created while in the preview mode can be retained to allow you to see results– or deleted straight away.
Read more about the Student Preview
Groups Management
Groups Management
Creating groups within NILE, whether small or large, and managing them is now easier. You can choose the students you want to add to a group as well as distinguish among them by viewing their picture and Profile Card. Once a group is created, adding and removing members is just as easy.
Read more about Groups management
Grade Centre Smart Views
Grade Centre Smart Views
When you create a group, you can now simply click a button to create a Smart View in the Grade Centre that corresponds to that group. A Smart View is a focused look at the Grade Centre that is saved for continued use. You can also create and access a group’s Smart View directly from the “All Groups” management page.
Read more about Grade Centre Smart Views
My Grades
My Grades
The My Grades area where students view their results and feedback has been updated with a new look.
- The presentation of results can be organised – by last activity or due date.
- The “All,” “Graded,” “Upcoming,” and “Submitted” filters allowing students to narrow down the number of rows they see
- The text size and row spacing have been reduced so more information is displayed on the page
- Feedback is included in-line, so students don’t need to click away to view it.
More information on all of the new features
Northampton was previously on Blackboard 9.1 service pack 13 and was upgraded to the April 2014 release. This version moved us two releases above our previous point. (SP14 and April 2014 releases). You can see all the new features which were added as part of the SP14 upgrade and the April 2014 upgrade.
All users of NILE should ensure that browsers are updated to keep within the supported levels.
We hope that you appreciate the new and improved functionality.
An old problem that we hadn’t seen for a long time resurfaced on a couple of course sites last week and – as it is the season for NILE site preparation – may come back to haunt lecturers.
When re-organising your menu on the left of the site, menu items (including dividers and subheadings) begin to refuse to stay where they have been moved to. The symptoms are sometimes not immediately obvious if only one menu item is changed, but as soon as the screen is refreshed the problem is clear.
It appears that the Blackboard system can end up with duplicate identifying numbers for menu items when items have been moved around and this can’t be corrected using the drag and drop editor.
The solution is right in front of our eyes, but rarely used. There is an ‘up/down arrow’ icon at the top of the menu when in edit mode – this is the accessible method of re-ordering items. Select the item you want to move and use the arrows to position it. If you alter the ‘bad’ items, this appears to fix the identifying number duplication so you may be able to revert to drag and drop once you’ve used this tool.
On the 4th August Turnitin updated their iPad app to version 1.3.0
The main change that could affect users at Northampton is the ability to force the version of the submission on the server to overwrite that on the iPad. It is unlikely that this will be needed often – perhaps when a submission has been marked using a web browser at the same time that it is being marked on an iPad, or a restored submission needs to be ‘pushed’ to an iPad. A ‘long hold’ on the submission in the iPad brings up a dialog box. Clearly, if you initiate this in error, please cancel to avoid losing any marking you have recently done on your iPad.
This update also mentions ‘grading forms’, a cut down rubric. We don’t recommend these as part of the SaGE process, but there is more information here.
The latest roundup of LearnTech news is now available
LearnTech are actively managing the space allocated to us by Blackboard for the NILE system to avoid any unnecessary subscription charges. As we have material on the system which dates back several years, we have archived sites that are no longer being actively used. The sites chosen to archived have creation dates prior to 1st April 2010.
There may be files that tutors and staff still wish to retain or sites that are still in use, so a list of courses concerned are linked to the bottom of this post. The file should open with Acrobat reader, which is installed on all PCs. You should should use ‘Ctrl-F’ and search for your course ID (e.g. 3DD1047)
We would like to emphasize that we are archiving, not deleting, so sites and files can be recovered at a later date if necessary. Any sites which were requested to be exempted from the process in 2013 will be unaffected – instructors on these sites will be asked to review them again in 2015 for possible inclusion in next year’s archiving process.
Instructor / Course list for sites scheduled for archiving:
Personally I love the CAIeRO (module redesign) process. It’s creative, innovative and definitely challenging at times, but most of all it’s fun. My favourite part of the day is storyboarding the module – aligning Learning Outcomes with (new) assessments and then looking at how learners are to engage with appropriate content in order to deepen their learning and apply their knowledge and understanding.
Having an ‘outsider’ to your module can be crucial to the level of creativity and innovation that results. As a former FE tutor, and AL for the Business School I have experienced first hand many of the difficulties of trying to deliver engaging content and being so focussed on ensuring that the core content is covered that I couldn’t see the wood for the trees. Being able to take a step back and view what you are doing from an outsiders perspective, often that of a fictional learner, can therefore bring a number of benefits.
As an example, I was involved in a recent CAIeRO with the School of Health, working on three modules to be delivered fully online. We reached the storyboard phase and the tutor and I were looking at what the module was covering and thinking about how to translate a face-to-face course into an online one. To begin with, the tutor was replicating his F2F module, whilst simultaneously regaling me with stories of student feedback and complaints. “Why am I studying statistics?” and “Why am I studying maths on a health course?!” were two common phrases. It wasn’t that there was anything fundamentally wrong with the module content. There were core concepts that needed to be covered. Creating an agreed glossary was one, and understanding the governmental policy in this particular area was another. And so on, until week 12 when the tutor explained that at this point the students have to apply all their knowledge acquired to date in order to respond to a disease outbreak.
As the ‘outsider’ my instant response to this was … “Now I’m interested. But it’s taken three months of doing this boring stuff to get there!” So my suggestion was to turn his module on its head and put the students into groups in week 1 and then give them the disease outbreak scenario. Their role during the remainder of the module would be the drafting of a suitable response to the outbreak. On the way they would have to get to grips with statistics, appropriate terminology and even governmental policy, but this time, they would have an interesting hook upon which to hang it.
But what are the benefits for students? Well, here are my top five (in no particular order):
- the course should still be constructively aligned;
- students have a guided pathway through core components of the module but are free to explore those components in an order of their choice;
- keeping the same case study for all groups means that each group has to make a specific choice in terms of the preventative strategy adopted – this will increase opportunities for challenge and justification from the remainder of the cohort;
- increased student engagement – the module introduces a real-life scenario and asks them to find a real solution; and
- it potentially enhances their employability skills – learning how to do this in an academic environment is good preparation for the sorts of careers these students typically pursue.
OK, so what’s the big deal you might ask? I mean, it’s great for those students, but there are thousands more on this campus. It’s an approach that I have used in other schools and in vastly different subject areas to good effect. Sharing good practice when it comes to module redesign is important and is something that we share as a team through regular team meetings or through this blog. I have also shared the story at a staff development session in NBS. In my new role as a Learning Designer, I am working more across Schools and, together with my colleagues am seeking to make these creative approaches more visible. As a student, I would want my modules to capture my interest and require me to actively engage with content, whilst preparing me for the real world. Hopefully, full and willing engaging with the CAIeRO process, putting aside your preconceptions and a mindset of ‘this is how I teach this module’ will see more creative ideas such as this become more widespread throughout our institution.
A common issue that has been reported in the last few weeks is that of students who can’t see feedback on their Turnitin assignment. This is commonly mis-diagnosed as a technical problem, when it simply relates to the Post date, which may have been set some time ago. If this date and time hasn’t passed, students will be unable to select the Grademark tab in the document viewer or see their numeric score.
Changing the Post date to the current date and time (or aligning it with an announcement) will fix the problem.
Following the SaGE survival guide will help markers avoid these technical niggles.
If you’ve ever needed to explain how to use something on a PC, a screen capture application is a great thing to use. Many University PCs have Snagit installed, but there are occasions when you don’t have access to it or you’d like a colleague or student to create one for you.
This is where screencast-o-matic comes in. Just visit http://www.screencast-o-matic.com/ and start recording. You will need Java installed, but this should be on most modern PCs or free to download and install from http://www.java.com/.
The resulting file can be uploaded to YouTube to share or downloaded as an MP4 file. The free version does include a watermark and only allows one file to be produced at a time, but this shouldn’t be a major drawback for the scenarios described above.
Here’s an example of the sort of thing you can produce …
Thanks to everyone who was able to make this month’s App Cafe. I know it’s not always easy to find the time, but we’re very pleased eight people were able to come along and share their experiences, interests and views on mobile learning. In this session we took SIRI as the starting point for our session and began with a hands-on look at how accurate SIRI is. We talked about Dragon Dictate as an alternative PC-based voice-to-speech solution and the discussion then moved on to research ethics, accessibility and other issues which rose naturally amongst the group.
The App Cafe happens at 1pm on the first Monday of each month and anyone is welcome to come along and share. We have experience of iPad technology but these sessions are conversational rather than training-focused so if you use an Android or other mobile device, please come along and share.
We publicise the theme of each session a couple of days before as we like to be spontaneous. If you can’t make a Monday or you have an interest in a specific application or a learning and teaching question in relation to mobile technology, then get in touch and we’ll try and support you.
