Digital Capability, Skills and Support
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Digital Capability, Skills and Support aims to provide you with a range of guidance, information and resources relating to teaching, learning and assessment.
In the first instance, please use our dedicated search list ‘looking for something in particular’. This provides you with links to the source of content. Wherever there are multiple sources, these will appear on this page. As part of the development of Academic Essentials, we are working with our stakeholders to bring together all multiple sources of content into one place. The content here has been curated by a range of stakeholders from across both academic and professional services teams and is managed by the Academic Development & Diversity (AD&D) Team. We very much welcome contributions to this resource, suggestions on how we can improve and any other feedback. |
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Tools and Resources
An A-Z library of tools and resources that support digital capability, skills and development. Select one of the following titles:
Assistive Technology
Assistive Technology – supporting you and your students.
Blackboard
Blackboard is intended to support teaching, learning and assessment for Sheffield Hallam University staff and students. Staff may use Blackboard for:
- supporting the teaching and learning of Sheffield Hallam students.
- supporting academic administration processes.
- management of academic content.
- supporting research activities.
From the 16th July 2022, there will be new ways of navigating Blackboard (website) including the look and feel for the Blackboard home page (the page you see once you’ve logged in). Blackboard will be unavailable in the morning, starting 9am, though it should be considered at risk during the afternoon. As always the team will strive to minimise any downtime. There will be no changes inside Blackboard sites themselves – the contents of your sites and the way you build them will stay the same.
All guidance can be found on the Digital Learning Team: Help with Technology Enhanced Learning website which covers the following themes:
Getting used to Blackboard
TEL Help guidance: e-learning starter pack * blackboard at SHU * understanding the interface * adding content * setting up student groups * seeing the student view
Accessibility
Blackboard Ally: improving the accessibility of content – presentation by Stuart Hepplestone in the Digital Learning Team, this session focussed on using Blackboard Ally to check and improve your content in Blackboard.
Assessing Online
TEL Help guidance: online submission * physical submission * blackboard tests * achievements
Communicating and Collaborating
TEL Help guidance:
messages to students * collaborative * Blogs * wikis * discussion boards * google apps * padlet * surveying you students
Additional resources:
- Getting help with Google Apps.
- Google Apps – how to access
- Collaborative working: a range of tools to support – video
- Padlet – requesting a Padlet account
- New gallery view in Blackboard Collaborate lets moderators see up to 25 participants video streams on screen at a time, with options to switch between pages whilst keeping the current speakers visible on all pages as a thumbnail in the bottom right corner of the main content area.
- Here are some support resources available for students when using Blackboard.
- Using Kanban Boards: Social Media for Learning: collaborative interactive project management tools: a visual way to identify and progress tasks
- December 2020: using the reporting tools available in Blackboard to check student engagement.
- December 2020: how developing resources within Blackboard and Google Forms to create a ‘Workbook’ approach can help with engagement.
- Irwin, B., Benning, C. & McNally, L. (April 2016). Reviewing Blackboard sites to raise minimum engagement across the institution. Presented at Blackboard Teaching and Learning Conference 2016, Groningen, Netherlands.
- How Google Docs were utilised for collaborative work and presentations in a synchronous and asynchronous environment. Created by Dr Tom Bassindale, Principal Lecturer, Biosciences and Chemistry, HWLS.
Getting help
TEL Help guidance: Digital Learning Support contacts * support resources for students
Getting used to PebblePad (Pebble+ and ATLAS)
TEL Help guidance: Pebble + * ATLAS
Managing your Blackboard site
TEL Help guidance:
start of semester * new or copying existing files * enrolling staff / enrolling students * managing site settings * getting ready for new year * attendance
Additional resources:
- 2021/22 academic year: the process of rollover has been completed. Further information can be found on Blackboard site creation for 2021/22 complete guidance – Digital Learning Team.
- 2021/22 academic year: staff enrolments have been carried across to the new sites. You will need to use the Staff Enrolment Tool in the Control Panel to add any new staff or unenroll staff who no longer need access. Course and Module Leaders are automatically enrolled on Blackboard sites based on data in SITS. If the incorrect Course or Module Leader is shown in the Blackboard site, you can update them using the self-service option in SITS online. If the External Examiner is incorrect, please email externalexaminers@shu.ac.uk.
- 2021/22 academic year: for the automatic set-up of module sites, no action is needed from academic staff. Where a 2021/22 module is indicated as ‘running’ in SITS (i.e. marked active and has a named module leader) and had a Blackboard site in 2020/21, the contents of that Blackboard site will be copied into the new site. Copied sites will include the content from the 2020/21 site but not the announcements, discussions, assignments, or Grade Centre columns. Where a 2021/22 module is indicated as running in SITS but did not have a Blackboard site in 2020/21, a new Blackboard site will be created from a standard template.
- 2021/22 academic year: from 2020/21 will typically be copied forward into a 2021/22 version of the site. However, you can check/change the settings of your organisation site by going to your Blackboard Sites channel, and selecting the ‘Manage Settings’ link from the dropdown menu next to the site name. Set it to ‘Copy’ or ‘No Copy’ as required.
Media
TEL Help guidance:
media server * screencasting * panopto
Additional resources:
- Panopto – using this platform in Blackboard – video
- Panopto guides
- Panopto – how to download and use this digital tool
- Panopto – the basic features of this digital tool
- Panopto – the advanced features of this digital tool
- Panopto – uploading and sharing course welcome videos
Online feedback and marks
TEL Help guidance:
setting/managing grade centre * feedback rubrics * turinitin originality reports * marking blackboard tests * marking work online / marking work offline
Additional resources:
- Blackboard Annotate: marking online – recording presented by Stuart Hepplestone in the Digital Learning Team, this session focussed on exploring the new tools for marking in Blackboard. You can see a range of resources regarding this and more on the Blackboard Annotate guidance page.
- How to set up and run online exams in Blackboard
- Introducing online exams to your students – video
Threshold Standards (TS)
TEL Help guidance:
introduction * taught module sites * navigation and information * communication * assessment and feedback * beyond TS ** TEL practice development
Also visit Assessment Essentials website for assessment and feedback guidance.
Careers Centre 360
Career Centre 360 provides students with interactive online career development tools and resources to help them work towards achieving their career goals.
Case Studies
Visit AD&D: inclusive academic practice – case studies for a wide range of digital related case studies and a collection of journal articles, book chapters and conference presentations from colleagues at Hallam.
Closed Captioning / Subtitles / Transcriptions
- Automatic Captions on Live and Recorded Sessions – guidance from the Digital Learning Team.
- Zoom functionality – closed captioning – see Zoom section below.
Cyber Awareness
To protect the University and help staff defend themselves against online fraud, the University has invested in a Cyber Aware online course to highlight the risks in online activity and how we can deal with these.
Digital Accessibility
- Digital Accessibility – Digital Skills Hub guidance
- Digital Accessibility – Digital Learning Team overview
- Digital Accessibility – mandatory staff module
- Digital accessibility health check: points to consider
SCULPT Model
Digital Accessibility: design principles for content creation – SCULPT – presented by Nick Russell and Kieran White in the Web Accessibility Project, the session focussed on key accessibility considerations when creating or updating content and how to apply them.
Creating Accessible Digital Content – presented by Nick Russell and Kieran White in the Web Accessibility Project, this one hour session explored the SCULPT model – a six step guide to success.
In Conversation
Digital Accessibility – a short podcast in which colleagues discuss how digital accessibility techniques can be adopted to produce more inclusive teaching materials. Also visit Inclusive Practice section below – creating accessible content / materials.
Resources
- Are your websites accessible?
- Web Accessibility in Mind Conference:
- a selection of webinars (YouTube) from WebAIM.
- a selection of training documents to create accessible documents, such as word, PowerPoint and Acrobat.
- courses: free enrolment to their training cohorts, open from November 2023 – February 2023.
- PopeTech: bring to you their November Accessibility Focus: colour contrast – articles and videos.
- Designing for web accessibility website – introduces some basic considerations to help you get started making your user interface design and visual design more accessible to people with disabilities.
- Read more on the Global Accessibility Awareness’ Day website.
- Accessibility Insights – The “Headings” and “Tab stop” checkers are really handy to make sure your sight has correct headers and it can be navigated via keyboard.
- Wave – checks lots of issues and gives you a little report.
- Web Accessibility in Mind Conference:
Digital Champions
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, this initiative launched in August 2020 with the aim of building a network of Digital Champions across the university. Any member of staff can call upon their local Champion for help with the Apps that they support. This page explains what Champions do and how to get hold of your local champion. If being a Champion appeals to you can find out more about that too.
Excel
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, begin your Excel journey or explore more advanced functionality.
Inclusive Pedagogy and Practice
AD&D: inclusive pedagogy & practice – provides a range of guidance, information and resources that assist with implementing inclusive pedagogy and practices in your teaching and learning.
In Conversation
AD&D: In Conversation brings to you a series of short video podcasts showcasing our academic colleagues’ experiences of delivering teaching and learning during the pandemic. Each podcast is structured around a specific theme where colleagues can explore the challenges of delivery in the digital void, provide practical solutions and share best practice.
IT Services
- University Rules and regulations: IT – covers all IT regulations, policy and guidance on using IT equipment at Hallam.
- IT Services – Assyst management tool – self-service
- Multi-Factor Authentication – information and step-by-step guidance
Equipment
- AV help in classrooms – on campus classroom guidance
- Display screen equipment (DSE) – having the right equipment for your needs – staff guidance.
- IT and AV services – student guidance.
LinkedIn Learning
Activate your LinkedIn Learning account and discover courses and pathways to develop you and your students’ academic and employability skills.
Become a LinkedIn Learning Curator – an ideal opportunity for those with a focus on learning, teaching or leading the development of others. You can upload your own content, create a new learning path, share content and see insights. Here is a short demo video of the curator role on LinkedIn Learning (6 minutes watch) to showcase the features.
Media
The Library Learning and Teaching Support Team host a range of video, images and audio resources to support your teaching and learning.
Microsoft Lists
Brought to your by the Digital Skills Hub, this is the starting point on your journey to get to grips with Microsoft Lists.
MS Teams
- What is Microsoft Teams all about? – presented by Mary Hill in the Digital Skills Team, this session provided an introduction to MS Teams and putting in context here at SHU. The team have also provided sessions on;
- Putting Microsoft Teams to good use showing and explaining in more detail the benefits Teams has to offer;
- Microsoft Teams: Course Cohort Community Teams aimed at Course Leaders, Academic Advisors and Administrators who are Owners and Members of student Teams. This session aims to provide you with further information about the course Teams that have been set up for students. We will cover: The purpose of the course cohort Teams The Student Voice channel MS Teams functionality with a focus on being a Team Owner.
- MS Teams – what is it and how you use it
- MS Teams – learning resources, courses and videos
- MS Teams – not just another tool – Presented by Richard McCarter, Jason Ruffell and Iain Thompson Digital Learning Team, SETL at the December 2020 Course Leader Fest ‘Engaging and Thriving’.
- October 2021 – Transcriptions now available in Microsoft Teams.
July 2021 – Microsoft hosted their Customer Touchpoint Training Sessions which were open to all Microsoft customers. Here are their resource documents relating to MS Teams:
- Running large events – resource document
- Accessibility – resource document
- Hybrid meeting and apps – resource document
- What’s New in Teams: May – June 2021 – resource document.
Lectures
- Digital Learning Team: Guides – Lecture Capture / Pre-recorded lectures (website)
- Teaching Delivery: Lectures – code of practice – rights and responsibilities – November 2021 (PDF).
- Digital Learning Team: Lectures – which lecture recording options are available – July 2020 (PDF).
- Approaches you can take to create pre-recorded lecture material – December 2020 (video) – how being authentic enhances the relationship you have with your students, moving away from the idea that screencasts have to be totally polished.
Office 365
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, explore the Office 365 functionality.
OneDrive
An introduction to MS OneDrive for Business, a cloud storage solution that is recommended as an alternative to your F Drive.
OneNote
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, explore OneNote, this free-form information gathering application form the basics to more advanced functionality.
Outlook
Use Outlook to send, receive and organise email, share you calendar, schedule meetings, manage your contacts, create tasks and share files. You can also source additional information on the use of emails via:
- DTS: Changes to email distribution lists guidance for adding/removing members from mailing lists.
- Information Governance – data breaches in which personal data has been sent to a large number of staff by email and relates to distribution lists and individual accounts.
PDFs
Guidance on making your PDF documents accessible.
Action needed if you use Adobe Creative Cloud applications
There are two important changes being made to Adobe Creative Cloud Applications on University managed devices on Friday 24 March. We need you to let us know if you use any Adobe software so you can continue using it and don’t lose any data stored on your SHU Adobe Creative Cloud Account. Find out what action you need to take on the intranet.
Planner
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, get more work done with Planner. Create Kanban boards using content-rich tasks with features including files, checklists, and labels. Collaborate in Planner and Microsoft Teams and check visual status charts—all in the Microsoft cloud.
PowerPoint
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub:
- Begin your PowerPoint journey or explore more advanced functionality.
- Top tip: turn your PowerPoint presentations into a video.
Also visit AD&D: Digital Resilience in terms of guidance in making your PowerPoint documents accessible and inclusive for all.
Printing, copying and scanning
For staff and student guidance visit the My Hallam printing, copying and scanning page.
Remote Working
- Remote Working – using IT equipment from home
- Remote Working – guidance for Managers
- Remote Working – using the virtual desktop
- Remote Working – the virtual private network (VPN)
Screencasts
- Screencasting: pre-recording lectures
- Screencast o matic – guidance
- Screencasts – introductory video
SharePoint
SharePoint is an application used to build intranet sites. It is used to create many of the College and Directorate sites that are accessed via the Staff Intranet home page. There is also a home page for accessing these high level sites. Take a look at the Digital Skills Hub’s online tutorials on how to use SharePoint.
Social Media
The aim of this Social Media for Learning website is to help you explore the different ways you can interact online using social media and the tools to help you do this. December 2020 – First edition of the Journal of Social Media for Learning – conference special edition #SocMedHE19.
Storing and sharing files
Storing and sharing files is brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub. Explore guidance on using, sharing, collaborating on, publishing, archiving, protecting files etc.
Sway
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, create and share interactive reports, presentations, personal stories, and more. Sway is an easy-to-use digital storytelling app for creating interactive presentations.
Timetabling
Look at the Course and Module Delivery overview page for details of the timetabling systems and guidance.
Tools for Tasks
Use Tools for Tasks to help work out which apps are the right ones to use for a specific purpose. Apart from categorisation you can check out other properties of each app to see if it meets your needs.
Trello
Do you use Trello? We are aware a number of colleagues across the University may use Trello. Trello is one of many apps which are useful for planning, tracking and organising. Tasks by Planner and To Do is an app already available in MS Teams and is a good alternative to the free version of Trello. We want to understand Trello usage cross the University to scope the need for the Trello App for Teams.
- If you use Trello, please answer this question so we can capture usage.
- If you know a colleague who uses Trello. Please forward them this question so we can capture usage.
TurnitIn / Originality Checking
Visit Assessment Essentials resource website for full details
Visit the Social Media for Learning blog site brough to your by Sue Beckingham, which features:
- Twitter feed getting a little congested? Muting tweets may be the solution to resolve this!
- Twitter – how to make images accessible on Twitter and why it’s important
Video Conferencing
- December 2020: Digital Learning Team: running a virtual conference and the mechanisms they put in place to make it a success – Deanna Taylor.
- Videoconferencing Alternatives: How Low-Bandwidth Teaching Will Save Us All – Daniel Stanford: “When we try to replicate classroom experiences in an online environment, it’s easy to think of video conferencing as our go-to tool for all sorts of learning objectives—and for good reason. Most of us have participated in a video conference at work or had a video chat with friends or family at some point. We like the idea of being able to see and hear our students while interacting with them in real time just like we do when teaching face to face. But there are two key factors that make this approach problematic………..”
- When the VLE becomes your campus -Some thoughts on engaging learners online, edited by Annehole: Association for learning technology (ALT). This blog post offers some suggestions on ‘temporarily’ switching from campus-based teaching to online delivery and how you can help students to engage online. The blog is based on a review of the scholarly literature on online engagement by Redmond, Heffernan, Abawi, Brown and Henderson (2018).
Webinars
- Webinars – best practice
- Webinars – ensuring your practices are inclusive and accessible
- Webinars: Webcams off or on? – Centre for Innovation in Education explores the question.
- Webinars and Meetings – Inclusive and Engaging Practice – Presented by Neil Mayne in the Academic Development and Diversity Team, the session focused on practical Zoom and Collaborate essentials by managing group activities, using protocols and modelling online interaction. If you have any queries about this session, contact the Academic Development & Diversity Team.
Whiteboard
Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, guidance on using Whiteboard, an infinite, collaborative canvas.
Word
- Brought to you by the Digital Skills Hub, begin your Word journey or explore more advanced functionality.
- Microsoft: making your word documents accessible to people with disabilities.
- AD&D: digital resilience – making your word documents accessible.
WordPress (WP)
Hallam use the WordPress platform for many of it’s resources. Most WP sites are hosted on the blogs@SHU server. Take a look at making your WordPress sites accessible.
Zoom
- Guidance to using Zoom – guides
- Zoom – an introductory video
- Zoom – guidance
- Zoom – best practice
- Zoom fatigue: a taste of the autistic experience
- Zoom – how to download participant attendance reports
- Zoom – managing Zoom closed captioning and live transcription services
- A guide to Zoombombing
- Zoom – allowing authenticated users
Last updated: 20th March 2023 NB |