Latest posts from the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit blog

    What’s new in Blackboard February 2026

    In the February update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements: Use automations to remind students to check their feedback Automations are a relatively new feature in Blackboard. The latest feature allows you to automatically send a reminder message to students who have unread feedback after an instructor-defined number of days. […]

    Call for Proposals: Mini Conference: Neurodiversity Network Conference

    We are pleased to announce our next Mini Conference taking place on Tuesday 14 April 2026. In collaboration with the Department of Psychology, Student Accessibility and Wellbeing, and the Digital Education Team (Student Journey), we are looking for 15-minute presentations on the following topics: Please fill out this form to submit your proposal. Please indicate […]

    What’s new in Blackboard January 2026

    Happy New Year! In the January update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements: Minor Update to the Blackboard Interface There is no downtime associated with this update, and Blackboard will continue to function normally during this period. These changes include: In addition to this, to maximise screen space, Blackboard will […]

    Turnitin Scheduled Maintenance 07.02.2026

    Turnitin will be unavailable between 16:00 and 22:00 on Saturday 7 February 2026 for scheduled maintenance. During this time, you will be unable to submit or grade any assessments. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

    Measuring Course Engagement with Blackboard Tools

    Now that semester 1 teaching has finished and we are moving towards the assessment period, we wanted to write a blogpost to highlight the analytical reports that are available in Blackboard. These reports can be used to monitor Blackboard usage and engagement and help you to re-enforce messages to students. Progress Summary By default, the […]

    Generative AI Mini Conference: Materials Available

    Happy New Year! Just before the Christmas vacation period, we hosted our final event of the year: a mini conference on Generative AI. The materials from this Mini Conference are now available on our webpages. Thank you very much to our presenters from the Departments of Computer Science, Geography and Earth Sciences, and the School […]

    Season’s Greetings and a Happy New Year from the Digital Education Team

    We’ve had some fantastic experiences and milestones this year. Back in March, we announced our 2025 Exemplary Course Award and highly commended recipients. In April, we hosted a Mini Conference on Employability and the Inclusive Curriculum in collaboration with colleagues in Careers and Employability. In July, we had our 13th Annual Education and Student Experience […]

    What’s new in Blackboard December 2025

    In the December update, we want to draw your attention to the following Blackboard enhancements: Specify participation requirements for Discussions Instructors now have greater flexibility when managing student participation in  graded Discussions. With this update, instructors can specify required student responses for a Discussion topic. Instructors   Instructors can now make clear participation requirements to […]

    Blackboard Interface Update, January 2026

    On Thursday 8 January, there will be a minor update to the Blackboard interface. There is no downtime associated with this update, and Blackboard will continue to function normally during this period. These changes include: In addition to this, to maximise screen space, Blackboard will remove the nested folder view. If you have any issues, […]

    Mini Conference: Generative AI, Thursday 18 December: Programme Announcement

    We are delighted to confirm our programme for our final event of the year on Thursday 18 December. Our Mini Conference on Generative AI is taking place between 09:30 and 15:30. We are running this as a hybrid event. For those wanting to join in person, it will take place in the Visualisation Centre building, […]