CELT Newsletter September 2022
Welcome to the CELT newsletter for September 2022. In this issue we provide updates on matters relating to learning and teaching delivery for the new academic year. This includes:
Delivery and Learning Session Recording
Delivery and Learning Session Recording
As you will know we have returned to full campus face to face teaching for this academic year, with the expectation that students will be on campus to attend these events in person. This means we will not be livestreaming events, but instead will be recording them for publication to Brightspace.
Policy
Our revised learning session recording policy outlines expectation in relation to this. The exception to this is where students have an approved reasonable adjustment which asks that sessions are live streamed.
Platform
During the summer we have begun work to implement a new lesson capture platform, called Panopto. This will be rolled out across the University from mid-October 2022. Until this point, we will continue to use the Bongo virtual classroom tool. We have published revised instructions on the use of Bongo https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/celt/brightspace/session-recording
Once the Panopto platform is ready, we will schedule training sessions and publish new guidance on the use of this platform for you.
Reasonable adjustments for students where the impact of a disability may affect in-person and on-campus attendance of teaching
Reasonable adjustments for students where the impact of a disability may affect in-person and on-campus attendance of teaching
This guidance offers information on decisions and considerations around the application of reasonable adjustments where students with disabilities may have difficulty accessing teaching which is delivered on campus.
This guidance does not include reasonable adjustments where seminars are delivered on campus.
It should also be noted that most University of Suffolk programmes are validated to be delivered in-person and on-campus and therefore students may be in receipt of student finance funding for a programme delivered in-person. Only a very limited number of courses are validated to be delivered online / distance learning. Therefore, the application of reasonable adjustments should not have the intention of converting an in-person programme to an online programme.
With assistance from a Disability Adviser, the student is encouraged to first consider their ability to attend in-person, identify supportive strategies and funding (e.g. Disabled Students’ Allowances DSAs) to facilitate attendance.
The university recognises some disabilities and/or medical conditions can affect a person’s ability to travel to and/or attend teaching delivered on campus. Where there are multiple disabilities or learning difficulties present, the reasonable adjustments below can be considered and shaped according to student need and reasonable practicability.
Illustrative example of needs for which reasonable adjustments may apply:
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Disability or long-term health condition which may periodically affect ability to attend in person. This may be due to physical, mobility difficulties or conditions which may deteriorate or relapse.
And
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Other, multiple disabilities, Specific Learning Disability (SpLD) or long-term health condition which impacts on ability to process information such that recordings received after the live delivery only would not be suitable.
Reasonable adjustments for consideration:
Access to class recordings
Recordings are already generally made and uploaded to the Brightspace area once the class has finished. The course team will set out where recordings are not facilitated as part of the programme. Access to recordings enables students to revisit content multiple times, to bookmark sections of interest, to use their own assistive software with recordings and with the introduction of Panopto to produce transcriptions of recordings.
Remote access to livestreamed lectures
If, due to the nature of the disability, livestreaming of lectures is required a Disability Adviser will liaise with the Course team and student to agree the arrangements. Livestreaming enables students to engage in the live – real time delivery of learning and teaching without delay to accessing content. Whilst the experience will be different, livestreaming may bring the overall experience of learning closer to their peers. Livestreaming may also potentially offer opportunity to participate in the session assisting with assimilation of learning.
Manual notetaker / manual notetaking
Manual notetaker / manual notetaking refers to the provision of a notetaker who will make handwritten or typed notes from the lecture content. Notetaking is not a verbatim record of the class content. Where notetaking is provided synchronously, the notes will be provided directly to the student soon after the session. Where notetaking is provided asynchronously, notes will be provided to the student within 48 hours of the recording being made available.
It is well recognised that technological solutions such as the availability of recordings, provision of audio-recording and availability of transcripts are suitable alternatives to manual notetaking and therefore should be explored in the first instance.
Attendance and Engagement
Attendance and Engagement
Our attendance policy evolved during the pandemic to recognise the increased use of online activities and resources to deliver learning, teaching and support for our students.
Policy
Our attendance policy evolved during the pandemic to recognise the increased use of online activities and resources to deliver learning, teaching, and support for our students. Our block and blend pedagogy includes the design and use of a range of blended activities, and our revised approach to attendance and engagement reflects this.
Recording Attendance 
Over the summer we have begun work to implement a new attendance registration platform, Checkin+ which will enable students and apprentices to self-register using a generated 4 digit code. The roll out for this begins in September for our apprenticeships, with Level 4 following in October and the remainder of programmes in November.
A preview of guidance on the use of Checkin+ can be found in the Learning Innovation Hub.
To ensure that we continue to comply with OFSTED expectations, the use of Brightspace registers will need to continue until Checkin+ is rolled out.
Monitoring Attendance
The data created through Checkin+ will be made available to you in dashboards at the same time as the platform is rolled out. We will schedule training sessions and publish new guidance on the use of this platform for you.
Engagement
Our revised policy also recognises the increased use of Brightspace for delivery. Data on engagement is already captured, and we are now working on building dashboards which will enable you to view this alongside the attendance for each of your students. This full data set can be sued as part of Personal Academic Coaching and will help us to identify students who may be struggling or at risk of withdrawal.
Brightspace
Brightspace
Module Templates
The Learning Design Team has rolled out module templates for Ipswich and some partner institutions. There are several reasons why templates have been installed on most new Brightspace Modules across the University. The templates align to the Brightspace Baseline Standard meaning there is less work for academics to do in terms of initial structure and setup. Pages are set to allow simple editing of standardised content. Pre-loaded content for professional support services such as Library and Learning Services, Student Life and Careers and Employability are ready for when students access. This content includes dynamic embedded content for support workshop which auto-update as more workshops are made available.
The Learning Design Team are currently developing ready to push out a new Dissertation module template, if any course teams would like to be involved in this work please do make contact with Dr Mary Cornelius, Senior Learning Designer learningservices@uos.ac.uk or by dropping into the Learning Innovation Hub, Library Building.
Module Template information: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/celt/brightspace/content/templates
Assignment Submission View Filtering
Previously, in ‘Assignments’, the search filter defaulted to ‘Users with submissions’ for individual assignments and ‘Submitted groups’ for group assignments. Now, lecturers will instead default to ‘Show everyone’ for individual assignments and ‘Show all groups’ for group assignments. These modified filters are the new default search option. After applying one of these default filters, instructors can apply additional filters to improve search optimisation.
More information: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/celt/brightspace/assessment/filter-submissions
Learners with Reasonable Adjustments
As part of our commitment in supporting learners with reasonable adjustments, and to help our academic staff in supporting those learners, we will be introducing an addition to the 'Class List' view for academics in their modules. This information will start flowing into modules from mid November. The information will include codes that identify particular impairments, health conditions or learning differences. A list of the codes and what they relate to can be found at the above link.
Further information: https://libguides.uos.ac.uk/celt/brightspace/ra-flag
Personal Academic Coach
Personal Academic Coach
Last academic year we conducted an initial evaluation of the impact of Personal Academic Coaching as part of our Access and Participation work. This included feedback from staff and students.
Tracking
As a result of this work we have updated the tracking forms used, and this can be found in revised guidance. This new form enables students to add more information post session to improve the value of the information for ongoing reflection and activity.
The PAC workflow means that the form the coach completes in the session gets emailed to them and the coachee(s) in the session. This email and the email sent to those that did not attend, includes a follow-up form. If this follow-up is completed, the data also gets emailed to the the coachee completing it and the coach that ran the session.
As a reminder, the form and PAC process is fully compliant with GDPR, and the data collected is securely saved within the University’s Office 365 instance. Other than the email sent to the coach and coachee(s), the data is only accessible to Learning Design and Learner Data colleagues in CELT.
Training
We are scheduling more training for staff who are new to the Personal Academic Coach role or would like a refresher. Dates for this – and booking forms can be found below:
SOFiA and Course Feedback
SOFiA and Course Feedback
Following an evaluation of the SOFiA platform by the Student Experience and Engagement team, and the Students’ Union, a new platform has been designed and built for use across the University. This new platform enables direct response to feedback, where it has not been submitted anonymously, by simply replying to the email. The reporting within the system also enables us to identify patterns and themes in feedback all of which can be used to improve our student experience.
SOFiA will also be able to be used in campaigns throughout the year, with the use of specific tags, submissions will be able to be grouped by keyword to see themes in the data.
Launch
The new platform will be launched mid-September. Information on the new SOFiA has been published, and once live we will schedule training sessions for you.
Module and Course Feedback
All module feedback will now be submitted using SOFiA, rather than via electronic or paper based surveys. A new Module Feedback button will be available in SOFiA so learners can identify the submission as formal feedback for the module team.
Training and Support
The Learning Design Team and colleagues will be offering support and guidance on how to give effective responses to learner feedback, dates are available here.
Student Hub
Student Hub
Feedback from students has indicated that they would a one-stop-shop for all online information relating to their student experience and academic journey with the University. They also stated that they would prefer this to be a part of Brightspace.
Launch
The hub will be published on Brightspace this month, and all staff will have access to it. Initial guidance is published for you.
CELT Activities
CELT Activities
We have a number of activities identified for this year which will help us to continue our work to enhance the academic experience for our students. These include:
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A pilot, for selected courses, for embedding and enhancing student engagement with employability, enterprise and entrepreneurship. This will include:
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Self-auditing using Career Pulse at start and end of year for L4 students (helping us to define and understand educational gain – TEF)
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Mapping of module outcomes to graduate skills and attributes with the support of Amy’s team for pilot courses
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Level 4 EEE week hosted by professional services teams, at the end of January
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Level 5 interdisciplinary project week.
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Learning and teaching observation for our apprenticeship programmes.
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Ongoing work to define our inclusive approaches for our liberated curriculum.
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A review of our approaches to assessment.
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Activities to support course redesign for block and blend.
We have also set dates for our half day Forum (December 14th) and our full day conference June 7th and dates for Fellowship writing retreats and panels are also published.