#SpotlightOnDigital: Don’t Feed the GDPR Cookie Monster!

Since the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) came into effect in late May 2018, the web has become a more frustrating place. A vast majority of websites, both large and small, block access to their content until you consent to their data gathering and processing policies, including cookies to track you across the site and,…

logos of the most popular search engines - Google, Bing, Yahoo, DuckDuckGo

#SpotlightOnDigital: Search the Web like a Pro

The web is a great source of information, but the problem is that there is often just too much of it. If you’re like most people, you won’t look much past the first couple of pages of search results so it’s important that you get the most relevant results on those early pages. The simplest…

#SpotlightOnDigital: Managing P4$$w0rd5

Trying to create strong and, more importantly, memorable passwords for all the different services that you use can be a real problem. Every site seems to require a different password length and combination of character types, which you often aren’t told about until after entering a non-compliant password. Combine this with being forced to change…

Flipped Classroom: An Approach to Teaching and Learning

‘Flipped Classroom‘ is a term that refers to the restructuring of teaching in order to maximise the benefit of contact time between students and tutors. In a ‘flipped classroom’ the’ homework’ and ‘lecture’ elements of a traditional teaching approach are reversed, with the students engaging with the required information as pre-work so that the contact time can focus on…

Blackboard – YouTube Mashup workaround

A recent change to their service by YouTube has resulted in Blackboard’s ‘Mash-up’ functionality breaking. Blackboard are working on fixing the issue, but the solution is likely to take some time. In the meantime, Blackboard have provided the following set of steps for anyone wishing to add YouTube videos to their module sites: Open YouTube in your…

TEL-ve Days of Christmas on team blog

Yesterday, the TEL team met Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Professor Liz Barnes, to talk about our work, philosophy and direction. To lead up to the meeting, we created an advent calendar for Liz with links to resources that give background information about the team and our work in a variety of ways and using a range of…

Free specialist software available for SHU staff and students

In addition to heavily discounted copies of the latest versions of Windows and Microsoft Office (including Mac Office) for staff, free copies of Microsoft’s software development tools are now available for both staff and students. The tools are provided as part of the DreamSpark programme and you can register for an account in the online store to…

Self-directed Learning: An Approach to Teaching and Learning

Self-directed Learning (SDL) is an approach where students select and investigate topics of their own choosing, often using methods, information sources and/or tools that they have also selected for themselves. The intention behind the approach is that students will be more engaged and motivated when they are able to focus on those topics where they have a personal…

What is an eBook?

This is part of a regular series of articles exploring some of the terms used in e-learning (view other articles in the series). We’ll do our best to break down the jargon and explain what things are from a basic perspective. In essence, an eBook is a ‘book’ which, rather than being printed on paper,…