Latest posts from the Learning and Teaching Enhancement Unit blog
Panopto Scheduled Maintenance 21.03.2026
Panopto will be unavailable between 22:00, Saturday 21 March 2026 and 01:00 Sunday 22 March 2026 for scheduled maintenance. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.
Peer Assessment Tools available in our virtual learning environment
We recently ran our E-learning Enhanced: Using Turnitin for Peer Assessment training session and wanted to highlight the different tools that are available for Peer Assessment across our Digital Education Platform. Peer Assessment activities have several benefits to students: For Liu & Carless (2006), “peer assessment and peer feedback … enables students to take an […]
Blackboard User Group: Exemplary Course Award Presentation
We had the pleasure of recently presenting at the Blackboard User Group on the Exemplary Course Award that we run here at Aberystwyth University. Blackboard run their own Exemplary Course Programme which we use as the basis for our award. The session title, Celebrating Excellence, Shaping Practice: Aberystwyth University’s Exemplary Course Award Programme, charted the […]
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 […]