News & Events

Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit sessions

30/01/2023

01/02 Learning Environments & your personality preferences (in person)

08/02 Know who you are (in person)

13/02  Creating Accessible Learning Materials (online)

15/02  Teaching for Introverts (in person)

Times / booking 

 

25/1/2023 17:00: Services on AU network now restored

25/01/2023

Following the global issues affecting Microsoft 365, IT services have been restored: https://twitter.com/MSFT365Status. We apologise for any inconvenience caused and thank you for your patience.

Work smarter: Study Skills for students. Enrol now!

19/01/2023

See the full programme for the Undergraduate Writing, Communication and Information Skills course and enrol online: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/student-learning-support/undergrad/

Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit sessions

18/01/2023

18/01 Active Learning & Student Engagement (online)

20/01 GTA: Developing your Teaching Practice (online)

24/01 Academy Forum 5: Strategies for Feedback Engagement (in person)

01/02 Learning Environments & your personality preferences (in person)

08/02 Know who you are (in person)

Times/ booking 

Reporting issues with IS systems and services

18/01/2023

Information Services always inform users of planned works to our systems and services, but did you know we’ll also let you know straightaway when we discover something’s not working?

We post the latest news of systems and services that aren’t working as they should on our IS News page here and also on our Twitter feed @aberuni_is

Subscribe to our feeds to be the first to know what’s going on and when to expect a resolution.

If you’re experiencing an issue with an IS system or service that we haven’t posted about, please let us know so we can investigate.

Call for Proposals: Mini Conference

17/01/2023

On Tuesday 28 March LTEU will be hosting our next mini conference in person.

If you would like to submit a proposal to this year’s Mini-Conference, Virtual Reality, please fill in this online form before Friday 17 February.

You can register to attend the Mini-Conference by clicking on this link.

Update on the issue affecting opening programs on computers including University computers

16/01/2023

Microsoft have provided a fix for this problem and we have sent out an update to PAU computers which will restore some shortcuts. However some may need to be restored manually. You can restore your shortcuts with these instructions:

https://faqs.aber.ac.uk/en/9322

If you have any questions, please don't hesitate to contact us

Work smarter: Study Skills for Postgraduates. Enrol now!

13/01/2023

The Postgraduate Study Practices Programme offers classes delivered live on Teams to improve writing, communication and information skills. See the full programme and enrol online.

Departmental Software Requirements for Academic Year 2023/24

12/01/2023

Information Services is updating the software on public service computers in all the centrally timetabled and open access computer rooms across campus again this summer 2023.

If you need specific software to be installed on the public workstations for your students please let us know by emailing your requirements to psv-software@aber.ac.uk. For your software requirements to be included we will need:

  1. Details of the software required to be emailed to psv-software@aber.ac.uk by 1st April 2023.
  2. Proof of licensing to allow for the installation of the software on 1000+ PCs
  3. The software to be Windows 11 64bitcompatible

IS requires feedback from all academic departments on their software requirements by 1st April 2023. It’s unlikely that we’ll be able to include requests received after this date for the start of term in September. Please submit all software requests via the following link: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/forms/software-request-form/

Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit Online sessions 17-20 Jan 2023

11/01/2023

Times/ booking 

17/01 Aligned Teaching Part 1 – Learning Design

17/01 Aligned Teaching Part 2 – Learning Outcomes

18/01 Aligned Teaching Part 3  - Learning Activities

18/01 Aligned Teaching Part 4 – Assessment

18/01 Active Learning & Student Engagement

20/01 GTA: Developing your Teaching Practice

 

Exemplary Course Award 2022-23

09/01/2023

Applications for the Exemplary Course Award are now open. The Exemplary Course Award is designed to recognise exemplary practice in Blackboard modules.

The closing date for applications is 30 January 2023. To submit an application, download the application form and consult the guidance available on our webpages.

Save the Date: Annual Learning and Teaching Conference

09/01/2023

The Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit is excited to announce the date for the 11th Annual Learning and Teaching Conference. The conference will be taking place between Tuesday 4 July and Thursday 6 July 2023.

We will be updating our Learning and Teaching Conference Webpages and also our blog to keep you up-to-date with how things are progressing.

Open Access Newsletter for January 2023

04/01/2023

Find out more about Aberystwyth’s Open Access staff publications, including the AU thesis of the month together with the top 5 downloaded articles and theses in December 2022

https://wordpress.aber.ac.uk/openaccess/2023/01/04/oa-repository-newsletter-january-2023/

Digital Capabilities Training: January 2023

15/12/2022

Are you interested in learning what resources are available to help you assess and develop your digital capabilities? Or, perhaps you’re interested in learning more about how you can support your students to develop their own digital capabilities?

We will be delivering staff training sessions throughout January. Please see our blog post for further information and dates and times: https://wordpress.aber.ac.uk/digital-capabilities/2022/12/15/digital-capabilities-training-january-2023/

To protect your IT account and personal data, never share your password with anyone

15/12/2022

This is a reminder that you should never share your passwords with anyone, whether in person, over the phone, or online.

Sharing your password or giving someone access to your account is a breach of University regulations and you are also exposing yourself and the University to significant risk.

Among the risks you could face are:

  • being unable to study or use online services due to account lock out
  • Substantial financial loss, potentially upwards of tens of thousands of pounds
  • Law enforcement involvement
  • Identity theft and fraud
  • Suspected of collusion or plagiarism resulting in an Unacceptable Academic Practice investigation.

Please remember your password and keep it secure.

Your account will be locked if we suspect that your details have become compromised or if it is being used by another person. This will mean that you will not have access to many services for a period, including email, Blackboard, and eduroam, while an investigation takes place.

If you have any concerns or suspect that someone else may be using your account, please contact the Information Services Enquiry Desk as soon as possible: https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/help/contactus/

New Software Request Form available on staff work devices

14/12/2022

The New Software Request Form will appear in the Start menu on staff work devices over the coming weeks. Also available via the FAQs, this enables you to more easily request software for work purposes.

Cyber Essentials project: change of revalidation deadline

30/11/2022

Information Services (IS) emailed Aberystwyth University staff on 5 July 2022 about a project to implement new national Cyber Security standards across the University; a prerequisite to achieving Cyber Essentials (CE) re-validation by December 2022. The technical controls required to achieve the Cyber Essentials certification have increased, in line with the increased cyber security threats worldwide and to reflect the changing landscape of IT work environments (i.e. hybrid and remote working).

We have now negotiated an extension to the CE re-validation deadline following ongoing discussions with AU academic and professional services colleagues on the scope and impact of the changes required.  The deadline for the completion of this project is now 2024.

This extended deadline provides more time to continue detailed discussions with specialist staff across the University to determine IT requirements for research and teaching and supporting activities. We are further informed by ongoing discussions with funding bodies and other HEIs across Wales and the UK.  These discussions enable us to develop pragmatic solutions to the complex issues that have been raised on how to enable research / teaching activities aligned to a robust strategy for implementing the controls required for CE re-validation. In the meantime, we will continue to implement more standard information security changes to ensure ongoing safety to the way staff work to comply with information security protocols.

Please keep an eye on communications from Information Services and IS News (https://www.aber.ac.uk/en/is/news/) to keep up to date with developments. Further information on the project along with answers to the frequently asked questions are on the Cyber Essentials webpage.

If you have any questions about this project, or planned changes, please contact cyber-essentials@aber.ac.uk