Brightspace

‘Your teaching team’ widget – New improvement for Brightspace unit homepages

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The Your teaching team widget is a new addition for curricular unit homepages which displays contact information for the unit’s teaching team at a glance. The widget uses information from the Brightspace profile page which means you only need to update your details in one place (rather than in each unit that you teach). By default… Read more » about ‘Your teaching team’ widget – New improvement for Brightspace unit homepages

New curricular units on Brightspace for 2023/24

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The new curricular units for 2023/24 will be available on Brightspace to staff from Thursday 6th July. This will be accompanied by guidance and support on unit preparation for the next academic year. New unit content layout with ‘Lessons’ For the coming academic year we are moving to the Lessons (v1) content layout for all… Read more » about New curricular units on Brightspace for 2023/24

TEL Good Practice Guides – Intelligent Agents

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We’ve been talking to colleagues at BU who are using digital tools in their teaching and have put together some updated guidance to share their good practice. In this blog, we’re focusing on Intelligent Agents. Our Good Practice guide to using Intelligent Agents includes a list of things to consider before setting up Intelligent Agents… Read more » about TEL Good Practice Guides – Intelligent Agents

LinkedIn Learning with Brightspace

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Did you know BU has a licence for LinkedIn Learning? In 2022, BU purchased a campus wide licence for LinkedIn Learning allowing all staff and students to access the suite of 13,000+ courses. And due to its integration with Brightspace, you can embed courses and videos directly into the content area of your unit. If… Read more » about LinkedIn Learning with Brightspace

Discussions Tool – drop-in session in FG04

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Discussions Tool provides an area for student collaboration. It allows learners to post, read, and reply to messages on different topics, share thoughts about course materials, ask questions, share files, or work with your peers on assignments. Use the Discussions Tool in your unit to: Encourage users to share thoughts on course material with their… Read more » about Discussions Tool – drop-in session in FG04

Support for Academics Setting up Brightspace Units

You may be a new academic at BU trying to work out how to make the most of BU’s virtual learning environment called Brightspace, or you may be an experienced academic looking to add new functionality to your existing Brightspace units. In either case, remember that FLIEflix is available on Brightspace to signpost you to… Read more » about Support for Academics Setting up Brightspace Units

Badges and awards – why?

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Did you know that you can create and award badges in Brightspace?  There’s a badge for it, too. Some research shows that students like them, and that they can improve student engagement and motivation (Roy and Clarke 2019). Badges can work well in formative assessment, for participation and to some extent for achievement or institutional… Read more » about Badges and awards – why?

Brightspace Lessons Tool – pilot review

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Overview Lessons is an alternative way for staff and students to experience the Content tool in Brightspace. It provides a simplified approach to organising and viewing content, including colour-coded navigation in the left-hand column where each section can be expanded independently. This helps students move between different content areas without losing their place. The Lessons… Read more » about Brightspace Lessons Tool – pilot review

LT team leader Tracey Webb joins the HSS ‘Debbie and John Tech chat’ session

If you are interested in: Virtual Classroom premium; student interaction, breakout rooms, attendance monitors, emoji feedback and snap polls === Today we swapped John for Tracey Webb, the Learning Technologist team leader in our ‘Virtual Classroom Tech chat’ session.  I started by asking Tracey to tell us a little bit about what the LTs  have… Read more » about LT team leader Tracey Webb joins the HSS ‘Debbie and John Tech chat’ session

LT Drop in clinics over the Easter break

Thank you for all the positive feedback we have been receiving in response to the LT online drop in clinics around the use of Virtual Classrooms and Panopto. As we move into the Easter break, we look forward to continuing to support colleagues with the shift to online teaching. Further to our ususal day-to-day support,… Read more » about LT Drop in clinics over the Easter break