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Updating your Moodle course for 22/23
By pauline.harding, on 4 October 2022
With new students starting this week, please check your Moodle courses are up to date.
Do not amend your 21/22 Moodle courses.
Please carefully check which course you are viewing before you make any changes, to avoid
permanent deletion of student data and grades.
The academic year 22/23 should be visible at the end of the course full name (with 22-23 visible within the short name).
If you have any concerns, please email us at digi-ed@cul.ac.uk with the course title (and a URL link to the course) prior to making changes.
Portico Enrolments
If you wish to enable automatic student enrolment based on Portico module selections, please check the correct Portico mappings are present and have been activated within the course Portico Enrolment block.
The following is an example of a Term 1 (T1) module delivery:
View of the Portico Enrolment Block once a mapping has been added and activated:
You can find further information on checking and updating the new Moodle course on the UCL wiki page:
Online Learning Workshops
By Oliver M J Vas, on 30 September 2022
The Digital Education team will offer a series of staff development sessions focusing on designing and teaching online courses. These sessions will be delivered remotely via Microsoft Teams and are available to all UCL staff and any postgraduate students with teaching responsibilities.
Designing live online classes
One of the main advantages of synchronous online learning is that it allows immediacy in teaching and learning. However, synchronous learning can be challenging for students who may lack access to fast internet connectivity, are situated in different time zones, or experience accessibility barriers. Hence, facilitating interaction in an online classroom must be intentionally planned and holistically arranged with asynchronous learning.
This 90-minute session provides practical guidance on how to design accessible live online classes, including the creation of learning activities to engage students throughout the session (from icebreakers to exit tickets), deciding which interaction channels to use, and effective mechanisms for moderation and time management.
To enrol via MyLearning, please visit the Designing live online classes booking page and select one of the following date:
- 25th October 2022 – 2:00-3:30pm
Designing video lectures
Video is a frequent medium for content in online courses. It can be used to complement and, occasionally, replace teaching methods that might take place in an on-campus context, but while video can offer a range of benefits it’s important to use it appropriately.
This 60-minute session looks at how we can use the basic principles of learning design to align content and activities to learning outcomes. We will consider the strengths of video, how to ‘chunk’ content clearly, the kinds of generative and active learning tasks you might intersperse between such chunks, and some basic principles of accessibility and usability. Session participants will be given a chunking template to work with and discuss potential activities with their peers.
To enrol via MyLearning, please visit the Designing video lectures booking page and select the following date:
- 13th December 2022 – 10:00-11:00am
Designing asynchronous learning activities
Asynchronous learning is a major part of distance education as it offers plenty of flexibility, allowing students to learn at their own pace regardless of time zone, location, or schedule. However, asynchronous learning activities must be carefully designed to ensure students stay motivated and engaged.
This 90-minute session provides practical guidance on designing and sequencing asynchronous teaching and learning activities, focusing on the different tools and types of interaction, as well as on communication and accessibility considerations. We will explore the guiding principles to structure asynchronous learning both in a self-paced and tutor facilitated course. Finally, you will get the opportunity to put it into practice by drafting an asynchronous unit in a storyboard format.
To enrol via MyLearning, please visit the Designing asynchronous learning activities booking page and select one of the following dates:
- 11th October 2022 – 2:00-3:30pm
Please ensure you are using Desktop@UCL or the UCL VPN when booking.
If you encounter any problems when attempting to enrol, please contact isd-digiskills@ucl.ac.uk
Other training resources
- Communicating in Moodle to Support Learners – Moodle course
- Practical Online Teaching Tips – Recordings of previous sessions on UCL Media Central
Further support
If you have any issues in relation to accessibility, please contact us on: digi-ed@ucl.ac.uk.
Develop your digital skills this term – new dates released for Autumn 2022
By Louise Pollock, on 26 September 2022
What’s on offerISD Digital Skills Development Team has released new dates for Term 1. Most of our sessions will be offered remotely using Microsoft Teams. See our latest schedule below. We are offering a wide range of courses covering Stata, Unix, Microsoft apps (including Teams, OneNote, and Sway), and much more. Highlights include the following brand new additions:
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How to book
- For staff on payroll and those who have previously booked on MyLearning:
Book via MyLearning - Everyone else:
Book via UCL Learning pages (students and non-payroll staff who haven’t previously booked on MyLearning)
As a reminder, please note that most of our events are interactive training sessions and are not recorded. Therefore, we ask that you please ensure you are able to attend before booking and cancel your place if you are no longer able to attend. If you have any accessibility requirements, please let us know by emailing the ISD Digital Skills Development mailbox in advance: isd-digiskills@ucl.ac.uk
Please ensure you are using Desktop@UCL or the UCL VPN when booking.
Prizes to be won!
We have new monthly term-time prizes to be won by staff and students who attend and evaluate our courses. All you have to do to be in the running to win £20 ‘Love to Shop’ Gift Voucher is complete one of our training sessions, and submit our course evaluation form. The evaluation form should take no more than 1 minute to complete. Good luck!
Find out more
For more information on how to book and join a session on the day, please visit our Practical Course Information page.
Drop-ins
We are also hosting our usual weekly drop-in sessions remotely for those who would like individual support on a specific issue. The dates and times of the sessions, along with the joining link, are available in our ISD Digital Skills Development Moodle course.
More digital skills development opportunities…
Learn online with a vast range of high-quality video-based courses from LinkedIn Learning. These cover technical skills but also business, personal and creative skills as well. Visit the UCL LinkedIn Learning page to find out more.
DigiLearn Online is a library of online videos which covers UCL IT essentials. Topics include remote connectivity, data storage essentials, Microsoft Office 365 applications, and much more. Visit the DigiLearn Online webpage to access the video guides.
Latest schedule
Transcripts and closed captions in Lecturecast (ASR)
By Silvia Giannitrapani, on 20 September 2022
From 20th September 2022, media transcripts will be automatically applied to the closed captions track if they meet the 90% confidence score threshold.
We have activated automatic transcription and closed captions by default in Lecturecast as an additional supporting tool to provide fully accessible videos for our students as part of UCL’s digital strategy.
Aside from being an aid to viewers with auditory impairment, transcripts and captions can be extremely useful as a study tool. Students often search large amounts of text using keywords to pinpoint passages of interest; Lecturecast transcripts, which are searchable and synchronised with the recording, allow similar searches of video presentations.
Lecturecast has built-in ASR (automatic speech recognition) to produce recording transcripts. Transcripts are automatically created for any media uploaded to Lecturecast and are available to viewers once a recording’s audio file has been processed.
Closed Captions use the same ASR file as the transcript but are not available if they do not meet the 90% confidence score threshold or until the ASR file has been ‘applied’ to a recording (until then the CC button in the player will be inactive).
Closed captions will NOT be automatically applied to:
- New recordings with a confidence score lower than 90%
- New Zoom videos automatically transferred to Lecturecast
- Older recordings made prior to the 20th September 2022.
Closed captions can still be manually applied using the ‘apply to CC’ button in the transcript editor after review/corrections are made.
See below an example of what a transcribed lecture with closed captions would look like:
Lecturecast player with both transcripts and closed captions showing
Further information and detailed instructions are available on the ‘Transcripts and closed captions in Lecturecast (ASR)’ mini guide.
Please contact lecturecast@ucl.ac.uk with any questions.
Login to Moodle is Changing
By Jason R Norton, on 5 September 2022
On Monday the 12th of September, how you login to Moodle is changing. This change is part of wider ISD ongoing improvements to login, authentication and security across all UCL’s platforms.
Currently you login to Moodle via the top right of the screen, where you input you UCL userid and password
This is being changed to offer you two buttons one for UCL Login and one for Guest Login access
UCL Login Button
When you click on the new UCL Login button you will be taken to the login screen shown below that you will have encountered on other UCL systems. Once you enter your credentials and password it will log you into Moodle as normal.
The important difference to take note of here is that you are now required to input your user name as userid@ucl.ac.uk and not just userid.
Guest Login Button
When you click on guest login you will be presented with the following screen
The first option UCL Login – Will take you to the new login window as show above
The second option “Log in as guest” – Will automatically log you into Moodle as the site Guest user as detailed in this link to the Moodle mini guide.
The third option “Test account log in” – Is for the use of staff test accounts as detailed in this link to the Moodle mini guide.
ePortfolio Survey (closes 22nd September)
By Janina Dewitz, on 2 September 2022
I’ve been tasked with finding out where UCL is at in terms of ePortfolios.
Whether you are already using ePortfolios yourself or with students or you would like to try them out or you think they are more hassle than they’re worth, Digital Education are curious not only which camp you fall into, but also why.
Participate in a very quick survey (https://forms.office.com/r/hgqwSGmgG8)
The survey is set to close 22nd September.