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The new features in Blackboard’s August upgrade will be available from Friday 6th December, along with two new features which are available already. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
- NILE > SITS grades transfer process (available now)
- Turnitin Paper Lookup Tool (available now)
- AI Design Assistant: Rubric generation improvements
- New post indicator for Ultra discussions
- Important updates to the storage and management of Kaltura media (from 31st December)
- End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
NILE > SITS grades transfer process
The process for sending grades from NILE to SITS is now available. Full guidance on how the process works, along with a list of FAQs, is available at: Learning Technology Team – Transferring grades from NILE to SITS
Turnitin Paper Lookup Tool
The Turnitin Paper Lookup Tool is now available, which means that staff can easily find assessments submitted to Turnitin on NILE courses which are no longer available. The tool is accessed from the course content area of a NILE course, in the Details & Actions menu, under ‘Books and Tools: View course and institution tools’.
The paper lookup tool is the same in all NILE courses, so it doesn’t matter which NILE course you access it through. Guidance on how to use the Paper Lookup Tool is available at: Turnitin – The paper lookup tool for Feedback Studio
AI Design Assistant: Rubric generation Improvements
Blackboard have upgraded the AI tool powering the auto-generation of rubrics. Following the upgrade, Blackboard say that rubrics, “will now have more complex outputs. The AI Design Assistant will also work faster. Instructors can expect better rubrics, even for long, complicated assessments.”
More information about using the AI Design Assistant is available from: Learning Technology Team – AI Design Assistant
New post indicator for Ultra discussions
We added a “New” indicator that displays next to posts and replies that a user has not yet accessed.
More information about using discussions in Ultra courses is available from: Blackboard Help – Discussions
Important updates to the storage and management of Kaltura media (from 31st December)
As previously announced, in order to make more effective use of our available storage in Kaltura, the audio/video streaming system used in NILE, in October 2024 ITSG (IT Steering Group) approved changes to the storage and management of Kaltura media. Removal of media files from Kaltura will now take place as follows:
- Staff and Student Media: Media files with no plays to be permanently deleted after three years.
- Student Media: Media files with one or more plays to be permanently deleted eight years after upload date.
- Staff Media: Media files with no plays in the last eight years to be permanently deleted.
End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
As previously announced, in order to implement necessary security measures, from the 1st of January 2025 guest access to NILE will no longer be possible. This means that only logged in users will be able to access NILE. Guest access to Ultra courses has never been possible, however, some old Original courses, including welcome courses, may still be available via guest access and the information they contain may need to be relocated.
Additionally, please note that while most NILE courses are regularly archived and removed from NILE in accordance with the NILE Archiving and Retention Policy, some old Original courses and organisations remain on the system and will continue to be removed from NILE on a rolling ten year basis. Currently, all Original courses and organisations created before 01/01/2014 are no longer available on NILE, and courses created before 01/01/2015 will be no longer be available from 1st January 2025.
Staff who are concerned that they may be affected by either of these matters are encouraged to contact Robert Farmer, the Learning Technology Manager, to discuss their requirements. Where information needs to be available to people who do not have a NILE login, it will be necessary to use another platform to provide this. However, where using NILE is still the best option, we will be happy to provide a new Ultra course or organisation to replace the old Original one.
More information
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
Blackboard’s AI design assistant, launched last December, has quickly proven to be a helpful tool for developing content within NILE courses. Our early data shows that while most users create tests independently, the AI design assistant is especially popular for test and quiz creation. Senior Lecturer in Nursing, Julie Holloway, shares her positive experience using AI to support her pharmacology students in a prescribing program.
“We are using AI to help generate new exam questions, particularly in relation to pharmacology content,” Julie explains. Due to the parameters of professional regulation within independent prescribing, she’s unable to provide students with past exam papers for their revision. Instead, AI has allowed her to create supplemental revision questions directly linked to each pharmacology lecture, providing students with valuable practice material aligned with their coursework.
One notable feature in the AI design assistant enables users to select existing course materials for the AI to draw from when generating content. Julie has leveraged this by selecting specific pharmacology materials, allowing her to create questions that closely reflect the lectures and give students an efficient tool for self-assessment. “The process was easier than I originally thought,” she adds.
As well as helping with efficiency, Julie also noted the AI’s capacity to inspire new ways of phrasing questions. “Exam questions can become repetitive,” she says, and the AI’s suggestions help with this and enhance the student experience by supplementing their revision.
In thinking about the limitations of using AI to create test questions, Julie points out that the AI occasionally generates questions that aren’t entirely relevant. However, she highlights, “I think this will improve as we get more experienced with working with AI and search terms, etc.”
Would she recommend this approach to other educators? “Absolutely,” she says, encouraging colleagues to explore the tool themselves. “Just give it a try—it’s not as scary as you think!”
If you would like any support using any of the AI Design Assistant tools in NILE, then please contact your Learning Technologist. If you are unsure who this is, then please select this link: https://libguides.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/staff/nile-help/who-is-my-learning-technologist
For more information on the AI Design Assistant, then please select this link: https://libguides.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/staff/nile-guides/ai-design-assistant
The new features in Blackboard’s August upgrade will be available from Friday 8th November. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
- Improvement to print test option for Ultra tests
- Improved assignment file submission process for students submitting to Ultra assignments
- Important updates to the storage and management of Kaltura media (from 31st December)
- End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
Improvement to the print test option for Ultra tests
Prior to the November upgrade, the print test option in Ultra tests did not include questions coming from question pools. Following the upgrade, question pool questions will be included when printing tests. Also following the upgrade, when using print test a single PDF file will now be generated which includes both the test with answers (the answer key) in the first half of the PDF, and the test as it appears to students without answers in the second half of the PDF. As is currently the case, the print test option will only be available to staff.
Improved assignment file submission process for students submitting files to Ultra assignments
The November upgrade improves the file upload process for students submitting files to Ultra assignments, making students aware of corrupted files, files which exceed the maximum permitted file size limit, audio/video files which must be uploaded via Kaltura, and ensuring all files are correctly attached during multiple file uploads.
- Corrupted File Alerts: If a student attempts to submit a corrupted file a pop-up will notify them of the issue.
- File Size Limit & File Type Notification: A pop-up will display a message to students if their file exceeds the permitted size limit of 1GB or is an audio/video file that needs to be uploaded to NILE using Kaltura. In both of these instances, students will be directed to view the ‘Why can’t I upload my file to NILE?‘ FAQ.
- Managing Multiple File Uploads: To prevent issues when uploading multiple files, students will now be required to wait for the each file to complete the upload process before attaching additional files.
Important updates to the storage and management of Kaltura media (from 31st December)
In order to make more effective use of our available storage in Kaltura, the audio/video streaming system used in NILE, in October 2024 ITSG (IT Steering Group) approved changes to the storage and management of Kaltura media. Removal of media files from Kaltura will now take place as follows:
- Staff and Student Media: Media files with no plays to be permanently deleted after three years.
- Student Media: Media files with one or more plays to be permanently deleted eight years after upload date.
- Staff Media: Media files with no plays in the last eight years to be permanently deleted.
End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
As previously announced in our Blackboard Upgrade – July 2024 post, in order to implement necessary security measures, from the 1st of January 2025 guest access to NILE will no longer be possible. This means that only logged in users will be able to access NILE. Guest access to Ultra courses has never been possible, however, some old Original courses, including welcome courses, may still be available via guest access and the information they contain may need to be relocated.
Additionally, please note that while most NILE courses are regularly archived and removed from NILE in accordance with the NILE Archiving and Retention Policy, some old Original courses and organisations remain on the system and will continue to be removed from NILE on a rolling ten year basis. Currently, all Original courses and organisations created before 01/01/2014 are no longer available on NILE, and courses created before 01/01/2015 will be no longer be available from 1st January 2025.
Staff who are concerned that they may be affected by either of these matters are encouraged to contact Robert Farmer, the Learning Technology Manager, to discuss their requirements. Where information needs to be available to people who do not have a NILE login, it will be necessary to use another platform to provide this. However, where using NILE is still the best option, we will be happy to provide a new Ultra course or organisation to replace the old Original one.
More information
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
The new features in Blackboard’s October upgrade are available from Friday 4th October. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
- Students who have completed their studies no longer hidden in NILE courses
- Email notifications for followed discussions
- Auto-generate test questions in question banks
- End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
Students who have completed their studies no longer hidden in NILE courses
Students’ NILE accounts are automatically made unavailable in NILE approximately one month after their status in the SRS (Student Records System) is updated from ‘Enrolled’ to ‘Award’. This has had the effect of hiding these students in their NILE courses, which has made it difficult for staff to view the assignments, grades and feedback of students who have completed their studies. Following the October upgrade this will no longer happen, and instead of disappearing from the gradebook and from the class register, students whose NILE accounts have been made unavailable will remain in their NILE courses, with unavailable students’ accounts marked with a strikethrough. Due to the way that Turnitin functions, unavailable students and their submissions will not be visible in the Turnitin submission inbox, however, the grades of unavailable students’ Turnitin assignments will be visible in the gradebook. Unavailable students’ Blackboard assignments, tests, journals and discussions will be fully visible in NILE.
Please note that the above change to NILE courses only applies to students who have completed their studies and whose NILE accounts have been made unavailable. It will continue to be the case that students who have been withdrawn from a module or who have transferred off a module will not appear in those particular NILE courses.
Email notifications for followed discussions
Following on from the August 2024 release, in which a ‘Follow discussion‘ option was introduced to Ultra discussions, the October 2024 release will allow staff and students to optionally receive email notifications for followed discussions.
Staff and students who opt to follow discussions will continue to receive notifications in the activity stream when there are responses and replies to the discussions they are following. Additionally, staff and students will also be able to receive email notifications when there are responses and replies to followed discussions, and these will be configurable in the email notifications section of the activity stream’s notification settings. Emails for followed discussions will be default on, and the default frequency for email notifications is ‘Email me once a day’.
Please note that the emails received for followed discussions will not contain the actual content of the discussion response or reply, but will only state that a response or reply has been made to a followed discussion, and will include a link to the discussion.
More information about discussions in Ultra courses is available from: Blackboard Help – Discussions
Auto-generate test questions in question banks
Following October’s upgrade, staff will be able to use the AI Design Assistant to auto-generate test questions in question banks. The question banks tool is available from the ‘Details & Actions’ menu in the content area of Ultra courses. Using question banks makes it much easier to reuse test questions in different tests, or to create a large pool of test questions which can be reused in tests which pick a random sample of test questions.
More information about using AI Design Assistant is available from: Learning Technology Team – AI Design Assist
More information about using question banks in Blackboard tests is available from: Blackboard Help – Question Banks
End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
As previously announced in our Blackboard Upgrade – July 2024 post, in order to implement necessary security measures, from the 1st of January 2025 guest access to NILE will no longer be possible. This means that only logged in users will be able to access NILE. Guest access to Ultra courses has never been possible, however, some old Original courses, including welcome courses, may still be available via guest access and the information they contain may need to be relocated.
Additionally, please note that while most NILE courses are regularly archived and removed from NILE in accordance with the NILE Archiving and Retention Policy, some old Original courses and organisations remain on the system and will continue to be removed from NILE on a rolling ten year basis. Currently, all Original courses and organisations created before 01/01/2014 are no longer available on NILE, and courses created before 01/01/2015 will be no longer be available from 1st January 2025.
Staff who are concerned that they may be affected by either of these matters are encouraged to contact Robert Farmer, the Learning Technology Manager, to discuss their requirements. Where information needs to be available to people who do not have a NILE login, it will be necessary to use another platform to provide this. However, where using NILE is still the best option, we will be happy to provide a new Ultra course or organisation to replace the old Original one.
More information
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
In addition to the updates included in the Blackboard Upgrade on 7th September 20204, the latest feature to reach Blackboard Ultra courses is the new AI Conversation activity.
This activity allows students to interact with an AI service to explore their own thoughts and ideas on a topic.
In Anthology’s words:
It’s tough to have 1:1 conversations with every student, especially in large courses. Some instructors are asking students to use AI services for topic-related activities to help. But, with many services and limited instructor visibility, results can vary.
To better serve instructors who want to use AI with students, we’re launching a new activity called AI Conversation. This is a Socratic questioning exercise guided by AI. AI Conversation lets students explore their thoughts on a topic.
https://help.blackboard.com/node/48711
The activity can be added to a course from the Create Item menu. Scroll to the bottom of the list to find it.
Full details on how to use the feature can be found on the Blackboard Help support site and an overview of the feature has been added to Learntech’s main AI Design Assistant page, which also includes links to the University’s position on Artificial Intelligence and an explanation of the benefits and limitations of the AI Design Assistant features in general.
As always, please contact your Learning Technologist if you would like further support and advice using this new feature: Who is my learning technologist?
The new/improved features outlined below are available from Saturday 7th September 2024.
- Inline Knowledge Check questions within documents
- Course content page enhancements
- Gradebook overview improvements
- Enhanced Student Activity Log
- Wiris and math editor update
Inline Knowledge Check questions within documents
Building on last month’s new layout options within an Ultra document, instructors will now be able to add multiple choice and multiple answer questions directly to a document and include automated feedback for students.
Students receive immediate feedback on whether their answer is correct and can submit an unlimited number of attempts.
Instructors can keep an eye on student participation via detailed metrics, including:
- Number of students participating
- Total number of attempts
- Average number of attempts to reach the correct answer
- Maximum number of attempts to reach the correct answer
- Level of difficulty metric
- Percentage of students selecting each answer option
More information about Knowledge Checks in Blackboard Learn can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtuFUPaKLSw
Course content page enhancements
There have been design changes to elements, colours, and layout of the course contents page. Most notably, the details and actions menu can now be found on the right hand side when viewing with a large screen.
Gradebook overview improvements
A new indicator has been added that appears next to the gradebook heading in the course menu when there are new submissions available to grade. An overview page will now show a summary of those items which need grading or are yet to be posted.
Enhanced Student Activity Log
Student activity has been upgraded to report on various interactions in great detail. Instructors will be able to view student actions within the course over the past 140 days. Any information older than that won’t be stored. The log can take up to 20 minutes to update from the last time a student performs an action.
Wiris and math editor update
The Wiris engine and equation editor has been updated to improve performance, in particular the rendering of subscript and superscript formulas.
More information
Please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information or support using the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
We are delighted to announce the new V7 video player across all Kaltura content within NILE and on the MyMedia platform. This update introduces a variety of new features designed to enhance both teaching and learning experiences.
What’s New with the V7 Player on NILE?
The V7 player offers several improvements over the previous version, making it easier and more effective to use video content within your courses on NILE:
Interactive Searchable Transcript: One of the most significant new features is the interactive searchable transcript. This allows students to quickly search for specific keywords within the transcript and jump directly to that point in the video. This functionality makes it much easier for students to locate and review specific content, thereby enhancing their learning experience.
Downloadable Transcripts: In addition to being searchable, the transcripts are also downloadable. This feature supports our commitment to being an accessible university, as it enables students to keep a copy of the transcript for offline review or study. This is particularly beneficial for students who may need to access content in different ways, supporting diverse learning needs.
Improved User Experience
The new V7 video player introduces a range of enhancements, including the exciting Pop-Out Player feature. This allows users to detach the video into a resizable, floating window, perfect for multitasking. Whether you’re taking notes or browsing other NILE content, the pop-out player ensures you remain engaged with the video without interruption.
Streamlined Interface
The player’s sleek, modern design makes navigation intuitive. Key functions like playback speed, volume control, and full-screen mode are easily accessible, enhancing the overall user experience.
Faster Load Times and Improved Playback: The V7 player is optimised for faster load times and smoother playback, ensuring that your video content plays seamlessly across all devices, whether students are accessing it from a desktop, tablet, or smartphone.
Enhanced Accessibility: With built-in support for closed captions, subtitles, and transcripts, the V7 player is designed to be fully accessible. It complies with web accessibility standards, making your video content more inclusive for all students, including those with visual or hearing impairments.
What This Means for You
Simply continue to use NILE as you normally would, and you’ll see the new V7 player in action. We’ll update our guides but I’d encourage you to jump in and explore the new capabilities, particularly the interactive and downloadable transcript, which can significantly improve the way students interact with your video content.
We believe these enhancements will be a valuable addition to your teaching toolkit, making video content more accessible, engaging, and effective for your students. If you need any support, don’t hesitate to contact your Learning Technologist and we’ll be happy to help.
With the exception of the enhanced Ultra document design option, which will be added on the 12th of August, the new features in Blackboard’s August upgrade will be available from Friday 9th August. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
- Enhanced Ultra document design and Word/PDF/PowerPoint to Ultra document conversion option
- Improvements to AI Design Assistant image generation
- Advanced options for release conditions
- Improvements to Blackboard assignments
- Anonymous responses in Blackboard forms
- New option to follow discussions
Enhanced Ultra document design and Word/PDF/PowerPoint to Ultra document conversion option
The August upgrade includes two significant improvements to Ultra documents. The first improvement is the ability to create advanced multi-column layouts. By using multiple content blocks and making use of columns, staff can create documents with different layouts. When students view pages with multi-column layouts on a mobile device, the pages will respond by re-flowing the content into a single column so that the content remains viewable.
The second improvement to Ultra documents is a new option to convert Word, PDF, and PowerPoint files to Ultra documents. Documents can still be uploaded and kept in their original formats, and Word, PDF, and PowerPoint documents can still be displayed inline in the browser, but, where possible, converting them to Ultra documents is preferable as it allows them to be more easily viewed on mobile devices.
More information about creating Ultra documents and converting Word, PDF, and PowerPoint files to Ultra documents is available from: Blackboard Help – Create Documents
Improvements to AI Design Assistant image generation
After the August upgrade, the AI image generation process will use DALL-E 3 rather than DALL-E 2. This change will allow staff to generate higher quality, higher resolution images in the following places:
- Learning Module images
- Document images
- Announcement images
- Assessment question images
- Journal prompts images
More information about using the AI Design Assistant’s image generator is available from: Learning Technology Team – AI image generator & Unsplash image library
Advanced options for release conditions
August’s upgrade will allow staff to create more complex release conditions, based on date, time, and grade range performance criteria. Additionally, the new release conditions options will allow staff to use multiple rules, and to create different sets of rules for specific individual learners, groups, or for all members.
More information about using release conditions is available from: Blackboard Help – Content Release Conditions
Improvements to Blackboard assignments
Prior to the August upgrade, when setting up a Blackboard assignment there were a number of options available that were relevant for Blackboard tests, but not for assignments. After the August upgrade, when setting up a new Blackboard assignment, staff will notice the following improvements:
- A new instructions box where staff can use the content editor to write assignment instructions.
- There are no longer options to add questions to an assignment, as these are only relevant for Blackboard tests.
- The assignment settings panel now includes only options relevant to assignments.
- Blank attempts are no longer created when students view assignment instructions. The system only creates an attempt when students add content to the file drop zone / content editor. However, group and timed assessments will continue to create attempts when students view the instructions.
Additionally, the student experience of using Blackboard assignments has been improved, and it is now much more straightforward for students to upload their files by dragging and dropping a file into the file drop zone.
More information about setting up a Blackboard assignment is available from: Learning Technology Team – Ultra Workflow 2: Blackboard assignment
Anonymous responses in Blackboard forms
Following the August upgrade, staff will be able to set Blackboard forms to receive anonymous responses. Blackboard forms function almost identically to Blackboard tests, the main difference being that forms can be ungraded/unmarked, whereas tests cannot be, therefore forms only have question types that are appropriate for ungraded responses, but they do include a Likert question type which is not available in Blackboard tests. With the introduction of anonymous responses in forms, this tool can now function effectively as an anonymous survey tool within each NILE course. Staff who used the surveys tools in Original courses, will find that forms now replicates in Ultra all the functionality of surveys in Original.
When select anonymous submissions, these settings are enabled by default:
- Due date
- Prohibit late submissions
- Prohibit new attempts after due date
- Complete/incomplete is selected as the grading schema for non-graded forms
- If the anonymous form is graded, the submission earns all the points assigned; you can’t edit or override the points earned.
Additional important details to note:
- Anonymous forms cannot be administered to groups.
- Class conversations are not supported when anonymous submissions is selected.
- To ensure anonymity, student activity, exceptions, exemptions and accommodations are not supported.
- To ensure anonymity, student progress/statistics are not captured.
- Modifications to form questions and settings are not permitted if the form has submissions and the due date has passed.
More information about Blackboard forms is available from: Blackboard Help – Forms
New option to follow discussions
August’s upgrade will introduce the option for staff and students to follow discussions, which has been a much requested feature. However, please note that this initial release is somewhat limited as notifications for followed discussions will appear in the activity stream, but will not be sent as emails or push notifications to mobile devices for Blackboard app users.
Staff and students can follow or unfollow particular discussions via the selector in the discussion forum, and new responses and replies to followed discussions will be shown in the activity stream.
More information about setting up and using discussions is available from: Blackboard Help – Discussions
More information
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
The new features in Blackboard’s July upgrade are available now. This month’s upgrade includes the following new/improved features to Ultra courses:
- New NILE courses for the 24/25 academic year now available
- New option to generate a Turnitin similarity report when using Blackboard assignments
- Improvements to the grading interface for Blackboard assignments and tests
- Improvements to printing tests and assessments
- Improvements to announcements
- Enrolling students onto NILE courses
- Uploading video and audio files to NILE
- Increased adverts on YouTube videos (from 1st August)
- End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
New NILE courses for the 24/25 academic year now available
Creation of new NILE courses for the 24/25 academic year has been completed, and staff are now able to enrol on and begin setting up their new NILE courses.
If content needs to be copied into a new NILE course from an old one, please ensure that the correct process is followed as this will reduce the likelihood of problems occurring later on in the new course, especially around non-functioning assignment submission points. More information about the course copy process is available from: Learning Technology Team – How do I copy content into a NILE Ultra course?
Full guidance about enrolling on and setting up new NILE courses is available from: Learning Technology Team – Getting your NILE course set up and ready for teaching
Following the move to the SITS student records system, NILE Course IDs are now in four parts, not three. e.g., PHI1001-SUN-2425-S1. The first part of the course ID is the module code; in this case, PHI1001. The second part of the course ID is the session code, in this case SUN. SUN (Standard University of Northampton) is a common session code and denotes that the course is delivered on campus here at the University of Northampton. The third part of the course ID is the academic year; in this case 2425, denoting the academic year 2024/2025. The final part of the course ID refers to the semester in which the course is taught; in this case S1, semester one. More information about the new NILE course IDs is available from: Learning Technology Team – How do I decode my NILE course ID?
Please note that, following new guidance issued to UK HEIs by the Office for Students, the NILE Design Standards have been updated this year, with the addition of the following items to section A: ‘Availability of course content in NILE courses’, and; ‘Availability of student assessment, grades and feedback in NILE’.
New option to generate a Turnitin similarity report when using Blackboard assignments
A popular request from staff has been the ability to use Blackboard’s assignment submission tool, but to also generate Turnitin similarity reports for work submitted. Prior the July upgrade this was not possible, and staff had to choose between generating a Turnitin submission report, or using Blackboard’s more flexible and feature rich assignment tool. However, following the July upgrade, and along with the switch to the new and improved flexible grading interface for Blackboard assignments and tests (see below), a new Turnitin integration has also been enabled in NILE allowing Turnitin similarity reports to be generated when using a Blackboard assignment.
More information about using Turnitin with Blackboard assignments is available from: Blackboard Help – Turnitin
Improvements to the grading interface for Blackboard assignments and tests
The gradebook in Ultra courses has been upgraded to Blackboard’s new flexible grading interface. This will not affect staff assessing Turnitin assignments, but staff marking Blackboard assignments and tests will notice a marked improvement in the grading interface, which is more intuitive and which allows for quicker and easier access to all Blackboard’s grading tools.
More information about grading assignments using the new interface is available from: Blackboard Help – Grade Assignments With Flexible Grading
More information about grading tests using the new interface is available from: Blackboard Help – Grade Tests With Flexible Grading
Improvements to printing tests and assessments
Following on from last month’s upgrade, which introduced the option for staff to print Ultra tests and assignments, this month’s upgrade adds the option to select whether to include both the questions and correct answers (where specified), or just the questions.
Improvements to announcements
Prior to the July upgrade, staff were not able to select both the ‘Schedule announcement’ and the ‘Send an email copy to recipients’ options when creating an announcement. Following the upgrade, it will be possible for staff to both schedule an announcement, and to send a copy via email at the time the announcement is scheduled. Previously, students were notified by email of scheduled announcements in a digest email sent the following morning, but staff now have the option for the email notification of the announcement to be sent as soon as the scheduled announcement is live.
Enrolling students onto NILE courses
Following the introduction of the SITS student records system, all enrolments onto and removals of students from module-level and programme-level NILE courses will be handled by a new SITS/NILE integration, which replaces the previous QL/NILE integration. Because of the need to ensure that the NILE student enrolment record and the SITS student enrolment record remain synchronised at all times, there is no longer any option for staff to manually enrol students onto NILE courses, or to remove students, change their role, or change their availability. Where a student is not enrolled on a NILE course but should be, this can no longer be fixed by manually enrolling the student; instead, the reason for non-enrolment must be identified and remedied in SITS, following which the student will be enrolled on the NILE course.
As a result of these changes, staff will no longer have access to view the ‘Member information’ panel in NILE, meaning that students’ UON email addresses are not viewable to staff in NILE. However, staff can still send emails to students via the announcements and messages tool. Where staff need to know a particular student’s email address, this information is available in the new Student Record View (SRV) tool, which is the SITS replacement for OASIS. For training on SRV please see: Staff Development: SRS -SRV Training
Staff still retain the ability to enrol themselves and other instructors onto their NILE courses, and to enrol their external examiners and other members of UON staff who are supporting their students.
Uploading video and audio files to NILE
Prior to the July upgrade there have been multiple methods of uploading a video or audio file to NILE, and it has not been clear as to the best method to use. Following the upgrade, staff and students will now be advised to use Kaltura, the University’s dedicated media streaming system, when uploading audio and video files to NILE. In order to assist with this process, if a video or audio file is being uploaded to NILE via a different method, staff and students will see a helpful pop-up screen prompting them to use Kaltura instead, and providing links to support materials which explain how to do this.
There are several advantages of uploading media files to NILE using Kaltura. Of particular importance, and unlike other upload methods which are subject to a maximum file size limit of 1024MB (1GB), there are no file size limits for uploads to NILE via Kaltura. This is especially useful for video files which can and often do exceed the 1024MB limit. Additionally, video files uploaded via Kaltura are transcoded to multiple streaming formats, allowing for the best viewing experience across different devices and different Internet connection speeds. This allows the viewing of video files in full HD quality on devices with large screens and good connection speeds, while also allowing videos to be viewed on devices with slower connection speeds without frequent stops to the playback while loading the video. And to aid accessibility, all Kaltura media is also auto-transcribed/captioned, and where auto-transcriptions are manually checked and edited for accuracy, they meet the required standards for accessibility.
More information for staff about Kaltura is available from: Learning Technology Guides – Kaltura
More information about video accessibility and transcription/captioning is available from: Learning Technology Guides – Captioning Collaborate lectures, Kaltura recordings, and other video and audio content
Increased adverts on YouTube videos (from 1st August)
YouTube videos embedded in NILE are currently subject to the same advertising policies as videos viewed directly on YouTube. This includes pre-roll, mid-roll, and post-roll adverts. Google, who own YouTube, have announced that starting August 1st 2024, the number of adverts shown in embedded videos will increase, meaning more interruptions during video playback. As an alternative to YouTube, staff may like to consider making use of Box of Broadcasts (BoB) to source media content.
More information about BoB is available from: Learning Technology Team – Box of Broadcasts (BoB)
End of life for guest access to NILE, including welcome courses and organisations, and removal of old Original courses and organisations (from 31st December)
In order to implement necessary security measures, from the 1st of January 2025 guest access to NILE will no longer be possible. This means that only logged in users will be able to access NILE. Guest access to Ultra courses has never been possible, however, some old Original courses, including welcome courses, may still be available via guest access and the information they contain may need to be relocated.
Additionally, please note that while most NILE courses are regularly archived and removed from NILE in accordance with the NILE Archiving and Retention Policy, some old Original courses and organisations remain on the system and will continue to be removed from NILE on a rolling ten year basis. Currently, all Original courses and organisations created before 01/01/2014 are no longer available on NILE, and courses created before 01/01/2015 will be no longer be available from 1st January 2025.
Staff who are concerned that they may be affected by either of these matters are encouraged to contact Robert Farmer, the Learning Technology Manager, to discuss their requirements. Where information needs to be available to people who do not have a NILE login, it will be necessary to use another platform to provide this. However, where using NILE is still the best option, we will be happy to provide a new Ultra course or organisation to replace the old Original one.
More information
As ever, please get in touch with your learning technologist if you would like any more information about the new features available in this month’s upgrade: Who is my learning technologist?
The Learning Technology Team would like to say a very big thank you and many congratulations to all the members of academic staff who are due to receive a NILE Ultra Course Award at the University’s Learning and Teaching Conference on Thursday 19th June.
The 2024 winners are:
- Kiran Kaur for BUS2900: Research, Trends and Professional Directions
- Abdul Hye Miah for CJS2007: Crime and Criminal Investigation
- Cleo Cameron for CJS3012: Cyber Crime
- David Meechan & Samantha Weekes for EDU2033: Education and Technology
- Erica Morris & Winnie Pui for EDUM128: Research and Enterprise for Enhanced Academic Practice
- Tanya Richardson & Candiece Spencer for EYS1118: Personal, Academic, and Professional Development 1
- Peter Goy, Candiece Spencer & Robin Sturman-Coombs for EYS2117: Safeguarding and Child Protection
- Carey Allen for PSY1011: Positive Psychology
- Alexia Achtypi & Brenna Farrow for SENM026: Understanding the Autism Spectrum
- Gus Lusack for SLS2041: Cellular Pathology & SLS1039: Biomedical Laboratory Practice
The Ultra Course Awards recognise staff who have created excellent Ultra courses for their students, and each course submitted for an award is reviewed by a panel of experts to ensure that it meets the award criteria, which are that the course:
- Follows the NILE Design Standards for Ultra Courses (https://libguides.northampton.ac.uk/learntech/staff/nile-design/nile-design-standards);
- Is clearly laid out and well-organised at the top level via the use of content containers (learning modules or folders), and that content items within top-level content containers are clearly named and easily identifiable for students, using sub-folders where necessary to organise content within the top-level content containers;
- Contains a range of content and activities for students to take part in.
In addition to reviewing the nominated courses, this year the panel also looked at students’ NILE engagement statistics to see whether courses that met the award criteria were used by students more than other courses. Comparing students’ engagement in NILE courses that received an Ultra Course Award in 2023 or 2024 against the average of all NILE courses, we found that students’ interactions with content in award-winning courses were typically just over twice the average, and that students were spending around 80% more time in the award-winning courses than the average. Clearly, there are likely to be many reasons for students spending more time and being more active in award winning courses than average, but it is, we hope, heartening for Ultra Course Award winners to know that the time spent designing and maintaining their NILE courses may have had a positive effect in this regard.
Nominations for the 2025 Ultra Courses Awards will be open from 1st October to 31st December 2024, and the winners will be announced at the 2025 UON Learning and Teaching Conference.
Information about the 2023 Ultra Course Awards can be found at: NILE Ultra Course Award Winners 2023
