Turnitin unavailable for maintenance on 5 November

We have been informed that Turnitin will not be available for any purpose on 5 November, 1-6pm due to server maintenance and upgrades. This means students will not be able to submit their work and staff will not be able to access reports during that time period. We apologise for any inconvenience this may cause…

New version of PebblePad launched at SHU

A new, more streamlined version of PebblePad has been launched at SHU from today. The new version has a much clearer interface and can be used as easily on tablet and smartphones as on a PC. Any assets and resources that you have created in the old version have been automatically updated to use the…

What’s new in Blackboard? Summer 2016

Following the Blackboard upgrade (scheduled from 6pm on Friday 5th to midday on Sunday 7th August 2016), there will be some changes to functionality and in the way in which help and support is provided and presented in shuspace and Blackboard. Help and support The Bb support ‘tab’ has moved to the right-hand side of…

Change in Blackboard upgrade date

Due to a lengthier upgrade process than usual this year, IS&T need further time to do testing on the Blackboard upgrade. As a result we have had to move the upgrade from its usual date in early July to be the weekend of 5-7 August. The upgrade will start at the end of the day…

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…

What is Google Slides?

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. Google Slides is a presentation tool that forms part of the Google Drive suite…

Preparing your 2014/15 PebblePad Workspaces

If you have been using PebblePad Workspaces (i.e. ATLAS) through Blackboard for assessment it is important to note that they are not copied into new Blackboard sites at the start of the year, therefore you will need to add new links in your sites. After you have added the link to your Blackboard site in…

Archiving Blackboard organisation sites

Each year in September we archive Blackboard organisation sites from the previous year (2013/14 in this case). This is to clean up the view for staff and students and ensure the correct Blackboard sites are used in the coming year. This year, Blackboard organisation sites will be archived on Tuesday 16 September 2014. This does…

Preparing your 2014/15 Blackboard sites

Ensure that your Blackboard sites for 2014/15 are ready to use and available to students by the start of teaching. The TEL Help site contains a checklist we have created and contacts to support you with preparing your Blackboard sites before making them available to students. The checklist covers: updating staff enrolments and their contact details…