NILE Upgrade Summer 2012

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What’s happening?
As part of our regular programme of NILE maintenance and improvements, this summer there will be a short period when work will be completed.
When is it happening?
Between  10:30pm on Saturday 21st July and 10:30am Sunday 22nd July, the Blackboard software that underpins NILE will be upgraded to the latest service pack (SP9). NILE will be unavailable during this time.
Changes to NILE in v9.1 SP8
The Blackboard software that underpins NILE will be upgraded from version 9.1 service pack 5 to service pack 9.
The service pack will fix some minor problems in the current version, and add some functionality to existing features. There will be some improvements to the look and feel. The main changes are listed below:
Look & Feel
  • New Theme for 2012 – user feedback and on-going development of NILE user interface means that there is a new look and slightly modified layout which should be more efficient and intuitive.
Assessment and monitoring
  • Negative Marking – you can now give negative points for wrong answers, this stops guessing on multiple choice questions!
  • Automatic Re-grading – if you have an invalid question in a test you can drop, give full credit, change point value or change the correct answer and the score is recalculated and updated in the grade centre.
  • Timed Assessments Enhancement – you can now choose to make the test “auto submit” at the end of the allocated time or purely warn the student they are now over time. Also there is a prominent progress indicator bar and with only one minute remaining the line turns red to serve as a visual cue.

Grading and feedback (the Grade Centre)

  • Needs Grading – gives you better visibility and access to items that need grading in your module. You can also set minimum student activity prior to needing grading such as the minimum number of posts in a discussion board.
  • Interactive Rubrics – create grading rubrics and attach to assignments to help towards consistent grading. Choose to let the student see/not see the grading rubric prior to assignment submission via the grade centre.
Where can I find more information?
More details on the changes can be found on the full release notes  for Service Pack 8, Service Pack 7 and Service Pack 6. If you have any questions about any of the changes, please contact the Learning Technology team.
Don’t forget, you can also use our new feedback form, available on the Help tab in NILE, to tell us what you think of the changes!

Closer links between NILE and the Student Record System

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Since 2010, a group (QNIG) representing key parts of the University has been working to develop closer links between the student record system (QLS) and NILE.

There are 3 main phases of QLS NILE Integration Group (QNIG):

  1. Username, password and email address synchronisation
  2. Module synchronisation
  3. Grading synchronisation

Phase 1 was completed in July 2011 and now means that usernames, passwords and email addresses on NILE will be the same as used for all other central systems.

Phases 2 and 3 are linked in that we need to ensure that modules in NILE are named in the same way as they are in QLS. Once this is completed then we will be able to automatically enrol students onto modules. Phase 2 is focused on module coding and automatic enrolment of students and this will be completed for summer 2012. Phase 3 is linked to the SaGE project and will be working during 2012/2013 to begin the process of investigating grade transfer from NILE into the student record system.

Phase 2 represents a change for many staff in that NILE courses/modules will no longer be reused each year for a new cohort. Instead a new shell will be setup for new cohorts – meaning that the old cohort will still retain access to previous content. The shell will be based on either the  Module  or Course template depending on the site status in QLS.  The full process is shown on the image below:

[Click on the image below to see full screen]

QNIG process Map
There are benefits of this approach:

  • Allows for automatic enrolment of students onto the correct module and assessment areas
  • The student only sees their own module  site.
  • Allows for assessment variations (e.g. submission dates) between different groups/sessions
  • Keeps the assessment details for each session clearly separated
  • Tutors able to communicate with clearly defined cohorts
  • A new site will be created each year to allow for clear separation of each group and the retention of data.
  • Reduced number of assignment submission points links within a single area
  • Anticipated future ability to extract grades directly from the Grade Centre and transfer these to the student record system.

For further discussion on this process then please contact Rob.Howe@northampton.ac.uk

Learntech host Midlands Blackboard Usergroup

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On 16th May, the Learntech team coordinated and hosted the 2012 Midlands Blackboard Usergroup. 26 members of staff representing 11 different institutions within the Midlands region converged in the T-pod at Park campus to share experiences on VLE reviews, hosting, mobile developments, assessment for learning and find out about the latest innovations and developments which are planned for Blackboard which underpins NILE.

Learntech Conference – 30th May 2012

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What: The Learning Technology Conference 2012 celebrated and shared good practice to enhance teaching and learning. In addition to a range of presentations  awards were presented to staff who had been nominated by their students as providing a more ‘student friendly’ NILE area.

Links to the presentations may be found below.

When: 30th May from 11:00am to 2:30pm

Where: Grendon Lecture Theatre, Park Campus

Agenda:

11:00 – 11:20 Anne Eason – SAGE experiences (e-submission, marking and feedback)
11:20 – 11:40 Jacquie Ridge – Use of CAIeRO to reduce student failure rate
11:40 – 12:00 Kim Stuart / Leonie Siddons – PebblePad for portfolios
12:00 till 1:00 – Rate My NILE awards (presented by Tim Joaquim, President of the SU)
1:00 – 1:20 Anne Segalini – Enhancing the student experience using technology
1:20 – 1:40 Lisa Hanson – Interactivity in NILE for International students
1:40 – 2:00 Mike Twigger – PebblePad within modules
2:00 – 2:20 Roshni Khatri – iPad use within OT


Turnitin issues with Windows Internet Explorer

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If you are using Internet Explorer and encounter problems uploading your document or viewing your submissions, we recommend you ensure the following sites are added to the “Trusted Sites” setting:

https://*.submit.ac.uk

cdn.submit.ac.uk

cdn.edgecast.net

In Internet Explorer, to add sites to the “Trusted Sites” zone:

  1. From the Tools menu, select Internet Options.
  2. Click the Security tab, and then click the Trusted sites icon.

  1. Click Sites. In the text box beneath “Add this website to the zone:”, type the URL for the site you want to add, and then either press Enter or click Add.

Note: To add sites that begin with http rather than https, uncheck Require server verification (https:) for all sites in this zone; otherwise, you’ll only be able to add https sites.

  1. Repeat the previous step until you have added all the sites you wish to add.
  2. Click Close and then OK to close all dialog boxes.

Finally, Turnitin currently officially supports the following web browsers:

  • Firefox 3+, Internet Explorer 7.x & 8.x, Chrome 4+, or Safari 4+ for Windows machines
  • Firefox 3+, Chrome 4+, or Safari 4+ for Mac OS machines

If you are not using a supported web browser it is recommended that you either update your existing web browser to the supported version or download the appropriate web browser for your computer.

Contact the Learning Technology team if you need more help.

Learning Pathways – How to release material to students to provide flexibility.

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It’s a really neat trick to make learning material appear to students only when required, or when students have completed previous work or tasks. Just add your learning material to NILE as usual but select Adaptive Release options to choose how and when this material becomes available to your students. You can make content available at a particular time, to a select group of students, or even release different content to different students depending on their grades. You can also ask students to confirm they have reviewed a piece of content, in order to release the next piece.

This is a great way of structuring learning pathways for your students, and allowing yourself and the student to track progress as well.

The User Guide “Using Adaptive Release in NILE” provides details on this and a video tutorial here shows what can be done with the more advanced adaptive release functions “Adaptive Release Advanced”.

You can also talk to the Learning Technology team for further assistance.

Learning across contexts – mobile for fieldwork

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This case study highlights a pilot run by Janet Jackson, a Senior Lecturer in Environmental Sciences in the School of Science & Technology. The pilot introduced the use of mobile technology on two field trips, to Wicken Fen and Stonehenge.

The main aims of this pilot were to allow the students to document and reflect on their findings whilst in the context (in this case the field trips), and then to access and re-use that information outside of the context.

Students enjoyed using the devices, particularly for photography and video, which helped them to record a lot of data very easily. 80% of the students said that the app was ‘easy’ or ‘very easy’ to use.

Learning across contexts – mobile for fieldwork (case study, PDF 638KB)