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Late Summer Assessments
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 29 June 2020
Students involved in the Late Summer Assessments (24 August – 11 September 2020) may need to consult their reading list for revision.
‘Exams Start… Now’ by Ryan McGilchrist
The reading list rollover on 13th July means that the 2019-20 reading lists will archive. From 14h July the lists available to view will be the new lists for academic year 2020-21; these are available to update immediately for the new session.
If you are aware of students who may need access to the 2019-20 version of the lists:
- students can take a copy of the list by using the ‘View & Export’ button – before 5pm on 13th July
- or save the URL of the list, which will continue to work even after the list is archived
- or if a list has already archived, let us know that it needs to be revived, and we can do this.
The Exam papers archive remains available all year round, and the papers can also be searched for via Explore, the library catalogue. Students will need to log in with their UCL ID when accessing these from off campus.
Friday thoughts: Film
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 19 June 2020
“Cinema” by Robbee2010 is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0
Teaching with film, radio or broadcast TV is something we are often asked about. The complex copyright implications of working with audio-visual material is an evergreen subject, as is how to find material to show in the classroom or provide for students to watch at home. One easy solution is to find viewing materials on BoB (Box of Broadcasts), a service which ties in with UCL’s ERA licence, and works well with ReadingLists@UCL (UCL ID and login needed).
Some related reading and watching, then, for the weekend:
- Dr Julie Lobalzo Wright (University of Warwick) has curated a BoB playlist entitled ‘Stars, Stardom and Representation’. Watch an introduction to the playlist (1 minutes 22 seconds), or view the playlist itself (login needed). Other playlists are available to browse or search in BoB’s Teaching Resources. If you see a gap in the subjects why not co-produce your own playlist with BoB? UCL has a lot of expertise in niche areas that could be inviting. Contact Learning on Screen to contribute a playlist.
- Of course anyone can create a playlist on BoB: from academics compiling a list of documentaries for a reading list, to teaching staff creating clips from comedy to show in the classroom, to students gathering resources to watch later. If you choose to mark your playlist ‘public’ then it will be searchable to other BoB users: similarly, you are able to search all available playlists created by other subscribing BoB members.
- For a weekend read, dip into Learning on Screen’s most recent Viewfinder magazine on the theme of Decolonising (Issue 114).
- A post over on the UCL Copyright blog covered an update to accessing BoB from overseas during the Covid-19 emergency, when some students may have returned home. Read the post Covid-19 update: Box of Broadcasts for more information.
Finally, looking to the future: to help make it easier to teach with AV materials in future, Learning on Screen is working with the brilliant UK Copyright Literacy and academic staff to develop a ‘Code of Fair Practice’ for the use of audiovisual works. Workshops are being run to find how Film academics currently work with AV material and to develop fair guidelines for our sector. We will update here when the results are published!
Support for reading lists during COVID-19
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 31 March 2020
The TLS team are working remotely while UCL Libraries are closed due to Coronavirus (Covid-19).
We are setting up reading lists as usual, sending editing access and helping you link to Moodle and add resources. Whilst we cannot currently offer 1:1 training, we are able to meet you virtually on MS Teams where we can voice-call and share your screen. This is particularly helpful if you have having difficulty with something sepcific like linking to Moodle!
The TLS team has extra capacity for adding new reading lists from scratch, so if you now find online readings more necessary than ever as you teach remotely, send us your reading list and we will create it for you and give you editing access. We work with your Subject Liaison Librarian who will help purchase new e-resources where possible.
To help you get started see our two guided videos getting started with reading lists for teaching staff. They demonstrate how to set up a reading list, add resources and link to Moodle.
Our ‘Getting started’ webpages may also be helpful, and contain online quick guides as well as contact details.
The software behind ReadingLists@UCL is developed by a company called Talis, who have their own brief guides. Here are some of the more adavanced features some people have asked about (note, the branding looks different as it is for their imaginary ‘Broadminster University’):
Importing a RIS file
Citation styles
View analytics
Please email us to let us know any other way we can help.
Chrome 80 browser update
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 5 February 2020
Google Chrome version 80 is being rolled out. After 17th February using Chrome 80 may cause an error logging to some services, including ReadingLists@UCL.
If you use Chrome 80 and find you are unable to log in, workarounds include:
- Use a different browser.
- Use Desktop@UCL: UCL has not yet updated its Chrome browser so it will work fine.
- Change the SameSite settings in your Chrome 80 browser. Details of how to do this are in yesterday’s ISD update post.
Talis, the software owner behind ReadingLists@UCL, is also working to solve this from their end. For the most up to date information on this please check the ISD homepage notices.
Which browser should I use?
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 1 November 2019
The current and last versions of Internet Explorer (IE), Firefox, Chrome, Safari and Microsoft Edge are officially supported for using with with ReadingLists@UCL; previous versions are supported to best efforts. The reading lists team recommend using Firefox as we find it to be most compatible for editing lists. You can find which version of your browser you are using by using the ‘Help’ or ‘About’ in your browser Menu Bar; you can find which are the most recent versions on websites like Browse Happy or through the browser’s official website.
To add readings into your reading list you will need to add a ‘Bookmarking button’ into your browser. You only need to do this once, it is quick to do and we offer to help with a quick orientation. Here are some screencasts for adding the bookmarking button in Firefox and adding the bookmarking button in Safari (34 seconds long, with no text description: please contact us for assistance with an alternative format). Each browser is set up differently, so occasionally you will need to first reveal the ‘Bookmarks toolbar’ on your browser.
Microsoft Edge has limitations on its support for JavaScript bookmarklets, so if you use this browser you may have had problems using the usual bookmarking button. To resolve this a new browser extension is available: this article on bookmarking extensions from the software developer, Talis, gives information on how to download and use the extension (N.B. the ‘known issue’ they mention has already been resolved). The extension is also available for Chrome and Firefox.
There is also planned functionality to be added into the new list editing view, currently being developed. The new list editing view is in beta testing and will be rolled out to UCL in summer 2020, there will be a follow up blog post about this!
New Moodle integration
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 13 September 2019
Click to enlarge image!
We are pleased to announce that a new integration between Moodle and ReadingLists@UCL is now available.
The ‘Library Resources’ block is still an excellent, stable way to link from Moodle to an online reading list, and something we recommend whether you use the new integration or not. (How do I add the Library Resources block into Moodle?). It works year on year with no need for any updating and gives students a consistent experience across modules.
However some teaching staff prefer the flexibility to also be able to embed readings directly into the the body of Moodle, and have used the activity ‘Reading list items’. An updated version of this integration has been developed by the ReadingLists@UCL software owner (Talis) which embeds readings in Moodle in the same way, whilst having better accuracy at maintaining the links after the annual rollover. The ISD team have worked hard this summer to implement this integration.
The update works in a very similar way: you can embed a whole list into Moodle, or a section from a list (as in the image here). For academics this can be a useful way to highlight key readings for a particular seminar, which students can view inside Moodle while still having the option to link out to view the full list.
There are helpful Moodle Guide instructions on integrating ReadingLists@UCL, and also a ReadingLists@UCL guide to Moodle integration.
If you previously used the ‘Reading list items’ activity you remember that each year after the Moodle snapshot / ReadingLists@UCL rollover, it was necessary to re-do these links (and if you used this in 2018-19 you will as usual find the links no longer work). This older version will be removed from Moodle on 20th September.
For help do get in touch with the reading lists team by email or telephone, come to one of our Wednesday afternoon drop-in sessions, or we are very happy to visit you at your desk for a quick set up!
New look for ReadingLists@UCL
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 29 July 2019
Image of new reading list view. Click to enlarge.
The new list view for ReadingLists@UCL will be rolled out to UCL on 30th July 2019.
The new list view has been developed to improve performance, including on mobile devices. More importantly, it meets web accessibility standards making it inclusive for all UCL users. Updating the look will ensure that online reading lists are fully compliant with the 2018 UK Accessibility regulations. Talis (the company which powers the ReadingLists@UCL software) has a Web Accessibility Statement which gives further details, inlcluding information on compatibility with screen readers and additional help on using accessibility tools with ReadingLists@UCL.
Some list editors have been using the new list veiw in Beta for the past few months: the ‘classic’ view will now be replaced. There is a walkthrough video of the new look for student users – and anyone else curious to take a look.
Notices were sent to subject librarians, the Departmental Administrator’s forum, and Digital Education, to cascade to reading lists users. If you have any questions about the new look please don’t hesitate to get in touch with the ReadingLists@UCL team.
Looking ahead…
The next developments will be a new Moodle integration in summer 2019, in conjunction with the Moodle team. An update to the list editing view has been developed but won’t be rolled out to UCL until summer 2020: list editors who like the look of this are welcome to start using the Beta editing view from August 2019, just get in touch to arrange this.
Rollover complete!
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 19 July 2019
The rollover is complete! All your 2018-19 lists have been archived and a copy created for 2019-20, which you can edit straight away.
- If modules are not running this year, please let us know so we can archive the list. This hides it from view to avoid confusion and also saves it for future re-use.
- To set up new lists please get in touch or see our Getting Started advice.
Over the summer you can prepare your reading lists for the new academic year: you just need to review, edit and publish!
Do my digitised readings also roll forward?
When your new list is created, the digitised readings (digitised under the CLA licence and added to your list by TLS) also copy forward. There is a separate, behind-the-scenes process in June where the readings are re-checked automatically for the coming year. The only exceptions are a few readings which are not digitised under the CLA licence, but instead had direct copyright permission granted: the links to these readings will temporarily break until the permission is re-requested for the coming year. This is a task that TLS does annually and they will be in touch if your readings are affected.
And finally don’t forget a new user interface is being introduced on 30th July. See the Summer Update blog post for more, or view the walkthrough video to see how it will look.
Late Summer Assessments
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 27 June 2019
‘Exams Start… Now’ by Ryan McGilchrist
Students involved in the Late Summer Assessments (19th August – 6th September 2019) may need to consult their reading list for revision.
The reading list rollover around 16th July means that the 2018-19 reading lists will archive. From 17th July the lists available to view will be the new lists for academic year 2019-2020; these are available to update immediately for the new session.
If you are aware of students who may need access to the 2018-19 lists:
- students can now take a copy of the list by using the ‘Export’ button
- or save the URL of the list, which will continue to work even after the list is archived
- Or if a list has already archived, let us know that it needs to be revived, and we can do this.
The Exam papers archive remains all year round, and the papers can also be searched for via Explore, the library catalogue.
ReadingLists@UCL rollover
By Hazel M Ingrey, on 27 June 2019
Summer reading
Each summer the reading lists have a new copy made for the new academic year, much like the Moodle snapshot. This year the rollover is scheduled for the evening of Tuesday 16th July 2019. From about 5pm that day:
- Reading lists for 2018-19 will have an exact copy made for 2019-20, which will publish immediately
- The old version (2018-19) will archive, which means it will disappear from public view but can be found and re-used in future years if needed
- Students will have continuous access to their reading lists: there is no down time for viewing lists
- Editing rights remain constant, so list editors are able to edit the new lists as soon as they appear
- Lists already set up as 2019-2020 will be unaffected by the rollover
Please note:
- Unpublished changes will not copy forward into the new list: please publish your lists before 16th July if you wish your updates to be carried forward.
- We suggest you stop editing reading lists before 5pm on 16th July, and continue editing when you can see it has the 2019-20 date stamp – certainly from the next morning Wednesday 17th July, if not sooner.
- A note on students undertaking Late Summer Assessments, and accessing their 2018-19 list.
- To have old courses archived, new lists set up, or current module names amended, please email us your requests!
Do you need a refresher on how to edit and manage your lists? Drop in to our office in Senate House on Wednesday afternoons, 2.30 – 4.30pm for a quick session. You could walk away with a new list set up and ready to go, get guidance on how to link to non-standard resources, or find out how to embed reading lists in Moodle.
The ReadingLists@UCL webpages also have guides, FAQs and contact details.
