We hope you all had a great summer. With the new academic term fast approaching, we’d like to invite you to our next Distance Learning Forum. The DLF was created as a network of those involved in our (now mainly online) distance learning courses. It provides a space to discuss challenges and solutions, and advocates…
Tip of the Week: (Digital) Easter Eggs
What is an Easter Egg? As well as the sweet / decorated types of easter egg, you can also find “easter eggs” hidden in websites and software. The first one dates back to 1979 (Happy 40th Birthday!) – and was found in an Atari game – Adventure 2600. Today, they are in a variety of…
Tip of the Week: Using + to make an email alias
What’s an email alias? An email alias is simply an alternative email address. While you may be able to set up a totally different alias via your email provider, it’s also possible to use a + to create multiple different email addresses. What happens? With Gmail all of these messages would arrive in the inbox…
Of Stories, Social Media and a bit of Lego
As many of you have seen from the Dev diaries, CTIL are very busy undertaking the work required for this major project. However, I was able to take some time out last week to attend 2 sessions run by OPD. Tuesday’s session was looking at the University approach to Social Media. Like many, I use…
Introducing blogging … on paper
As we start to roll the Learning Spaces pilot further out we’ve been thinking about how to get students to consider both the practical “how to” of blogging, and also the often more difficult to express, “why to”, what benefits does blogging really bring for students. I’ve just had 2 sessions with some students from…
Summer Drop-ins: Getting your Blackboard module ready for 18/19
CTIL is running twice-weekly drop-in sessions throughout the summer for staff seeking support with getting their Blackboard modules ready for the new academic year. Twice-weekly every Tuesday & Thursday 10am – 2pm Peep-O-Day Lane (1st floor of main library) No need to book, just come along at the right time to the right place…
Understanding Non-Standard Modules and Enrollment Rules
A big part of implementing our new module creation process is sorting through the tangle of legacy processes and requirements that have built up over the years in Blackboard so we can have a more efficient, ordered platform. In this post I’m going to talk about non-standard modules, enrolment rules and how we’re handling them…
Important: New Module Creation Process
This summer, CTIL will implement a new process for creating modules in Blackboard (My Dundee) as a first step in a series of planned improvements to how we manage our digital education services. The old manual method will make way for an automated one that works on the basic principle of ‘If it’s in SITS,…