Training & Workshop Opportunities

ALT Annual Conference
Save the date! The ALT Annual ConferenceLink opens in a new window is taking place at The University of Warwick this year from 5th - 7th September 2023

• Rollover
  The rollover tool is now open! There is no longer any need to notify the central Academic Technology team when you have made your rollover decisions. There is no deadline for making rollover decisions, but module leaders will be added from SITS by 1 August.

See the 'Academic year rollover' section of our Academic Technology Super User GuideLink opens in a new window for more information.

• Blackboard Ally - Accessibility
  Blackboard Ally is integrated with Moodle and automatically scans files for accessibility. Since the start of the academic year it has been used by more than 8,000 students to download over 64,000 files in alternative formats (tagged PDF, HTML, ePub, Audio, Braille etc.). Clicking on the Blackboard Ally report will provide feedback to tutors and editors about how to improve the accessibility score. More than 90 Moodle courses have used the Ally report to improve accessibility so far this yearThere is no deadline for making rollover decisions, but module leaders will be added from SITS by 1 August.

See our Blackboard Ally for InstructorsLink opens in a new window guide for more information.

Echo360 Q2 2023 Release Notes

• New Look Participant Section Pages
  Functionally, nothing has changed, but students will now see updated colours, fonts and icons within section pages.
• Spherical (360˚) Video upload support now available
  This feature has passed beta testing and is now Generally Available and can be enabled at the Institution-level.
• User Caption and Transcript Permissions
  Non-administrators can be given permission to send their content for captioning without adjusting their Echo360 role.
• Apply Copyright to Media
  Administrators can now set an Institution-wide Copyright Policy which can be applied to Echo360 content.
• Recycle Bin for Everyone
  Administrators can now enable recycle bin for all users, which will allow users to recover their archived content.
• Administrator Bulk Actions for Captures
  Bulk actions, including transcript/captions, reprocessing and owner assignment, are now available to administrators.

See the quarterly releaseLink opens in a new window for more information, as well as other updates such as Webex integration, in-app notifications and smaller improvements & fixes.

If you have a use-case for any of the newly released functions not enabled at Warwick or would like to discuss them further, please contact Paul Trimmer.

• New 'AI quiz' feature
  Vevox recently released an AI feature for creating up to 5 multiple choice quiz questions based on prompts you provide. This makes building your quiz quicker and easier, and can be particularly useful for introducing a new topic or testing students' prior knowledge of a subject. If you have never used Vevox before, this could be a way to get started. See the full AI quiz article for more information.
• PowerPoint add-in feature
  Vevox’s PowerPoint add-in is now available for Mac & PC. This allows integration of Vevox polls with PowerPoint, providing more seamless presentations. We are investigating application of this feature for Warwick users, so please look out for more news. Read more about the Vevox PowerPoint add-inLink opens in a new window.
  We have received confirmation from Vevox that the existing Office 365 add-in will continue to be supported into 2024.

Future of ePortfolios
We have over 1000 active users of the Mahara portfolio and we know that it continues to support activity in Teacher Training, Engineering, Life Sciences, Languages and much more. With an increasing interest in authentic assessment that captures the learning journey and process rather than just the end product we are reviewing current practice and future needs related to Mahara and the use of other ePortfolios. As part of the evaluation process, the central team attended the PebblePad MiniBash conference in Birmingham recently. This covered themes such as authentic assessment & feedback, flexible learning design, and belonging & wellbeing. It was an informative day and we intend to feed our findings into the conversations around ePortfolios.

If you want to discuss future plans or share your experience and use of ePortfolios please get in touch with Jim Judges (j.judges@warwick.ac.uk).

Padlet account renewal
Padlet users will be pleased to know we are renewing our account for another year, so Warwick users can continue benefitting from this collaborative tool.

JISC Discovery Tool

The JISC Digital Capabilities Discovery Tool is an online activity for staff and students that is designed to help the individual reflect on their digital capabilities. It produces a personalised profile that identifies current strengths and areas for development and provides links to further support, training and resources based on your profile. Once logged in you should follow > Discovery Tool for staff/student > Question sets & reports > Start with Overall Digital Capabilities. See the bottom of this training page for information and an alternative link.