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…

#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,…

Assessment Journey Programme: update on progress

An article has been recently posted on the Assessment Journey Programme blog that reflects on the Programme’s progress as it now enters its final year. The article outlines the Programme’s progress around informing, preparing and supporting both staff and students, governess and process, and technical developments that support the move to online management of assessment and new reporting…

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…

Lecture Recording at SHU: Current Position

As part of a working group investigating how the upcoming changes to Disabled Student Allowance will affect the university and our students, an overview document has been produced to outline the current methods of recording lectures (and other types of teaching session) available to staff at SHU. While the document was produced for the working group,…

A woman wearing a computer headset

Screencasts as an Essay Alternative

A guest post by Roberta E Taylor on the Assessment Journey Programme (AJP) blog has just been published and describes her experience of replacing a 4000 word essay-based assessment with a short screencast. Roberta describes the background to the assessment, the approach taken to introduce students to screencasting concepts and techniques and the creative skills that…

Jisc Summer of Student Innovation competition

Jisc’s Summer of Student Innovation programme awards money and mentoring opportunities to students with either an idea about how technology could improve study or general student life, or a completed product that they would like to pilot within an educational setting. The participants work in small teams to implement their proposed project and, in addition to…

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…