Technology Jargon Buster Launched

As part of our Digital Essentials online course to support SHU staff in developing their digital capability, we’ve developed a ‘Jargon Buster’/glossary resource that helps explain some common, and not-so-common, technology terms that you might hear. The resource is designed to work on both mobile devices and desktop/laptop computers and you can browse through the list or search…

New in Blackboard: Visual improvements for Grade Centre (and more tools optimised for mobile devices)

This article is part of a series explaining the enhancements that will be introduced as part of the Blackboard upgrade scheduled for 18-20 January 2019. Blackboard have introduced visual improvements for Grade Centre, as well as continuing to develop tools that they are visually ‘responsive’ and better optimised for use on mobile devices. Visual improvements…

iPad loan service now available

The University recently announced changes to its Equipment Policy to facilitate mobile and flexible working, and support the move to online management of assessment in the University. In addition to the roll out of laptops (as required), it was agreed that a central loan service would be developed to provide academic staff with temporary access…

Create ebooks in Google Docs

Google has just added a new feature to Google Docs that should make it much easier to create ebooks for use on tablets, phones, Kindle-style devices, PCs and laptops. Google has added the option to export documents in the ePub format, which is the international standard for ebooks and so is supported by most software and…

BlackBerry Storm Smartphone by liewcf

Responseware voting system

During his keynote presentation at this year’s Learning and Teaching Conference, Simon Lancaster used Responseware system to allow the audience to vote in polls with their smartphones and tablets. For any SHU staff member who is interested in doing the same in their lectures, SHU has licences available for all staff to have access to…

Resource-centred Discussion: An Approach to Teaching and Learning

Resource-centred Discussion (RCD) refers to a discussion in which the topic is an artefact or set of artefacts. The artefacts will vary between disciplines, but could include works of art, poems, case studies, business reports, manufactured goods, photographs, etc. The purpose of the approach is to use objects and artefacts to stimulate the students’ thinking and…