This article is part of a series explaining changes introduced as part of this year’s Blackboard rollover.
We are automatically adding a series of new channels to all 2019/20 Blackboard module site home pages. These channels provide both students and staff with a consistent set of important information about that module directly from data held in the student record system, SITS, as well as providing useful information and resources to help your students and highlight student voice opportunities. This can save you time in manually providing this information to students and helps to ensure that your module site is meeting key requirements set out in the University’s Threshold Standards for Supporting Learning with Technology and the QAA’s UK Quality Code for Higher Education. In the relevant channels, guidance will be provided informing how staff can report any incorrect information they find. It is important to note that these channels cannot be hidden with the exception of the Module Reading List channel.
The following channels will be available once rollover is complete:
Module Reading List. Provides a link to the RLO Reading List for the module. This is the only channel that can be hidden from your home page if you are unable to use a RLO Reading List.
Student Reps. Provides a link for students to find their Course Rep should they need to contact them for any reason in relation to the module, course, department or faculty.
Staff Reports. Provides convenient links to search Learning Contracts, the Capping Report and Module Evaluation (EvaMetrics) results. This channel is not shown to students.
Module Evaluations. Provides links to any incomplete module evaluations. This channel is only shown to students. Staff can access Module Evaluation results from the Staff Reports channel.
The following channels will be made available before the start of the academic year:
The Module Information channel will show the Module Leader name and email address. It will also display External Examiner details – their name, role and institution. This ensures that we meet the QAA External Examining requirement to include information about external examiners in module information provided to students. An explanation will say why we are providing external examiner information and there will also be a link to further information about what external examining is. (Note, we also hope to add more of the curriculum catalogue information to the Module Information channel when it is available).
The Assessment Schedule channel will automatically display the summative assessment information for the module – task (or subtask) name, weight, deadline and expected feedback return date (as indicated in SITS). For consistency it will reflect the layout and style students see in the Assessment Statement. The channel will also provide a link to My Student Record for students to access their Course Assessment Statement.
