E-Learning Newsletter – May 2022 | Technology Enhanced Learning Team

QMplus Summer Activities – Archiving, Rollover and the Theme Update

It’s not too long until the summer, when we’ll be embarking on a number of activities on QMplus. In particular:

Archiving – Creating the 2021/22 QMplus archive, a snapshot of QMplus as it was this academic year
Rollover – The process of preparing module areas for new cohorts of students in the next academic year
The Theme Update – Changing the look and feel of QMplus by applying a new theme

Dates that you need to be aware of are as follows:

On Tuesday 12th July, we will take a snapshot of QMplus. This will become the 2021/22 archive. There will be no downtime required during the day for this process. There will be a short outage during our standard maintenance window of 9-11pm.
The 2021/22 archive will become available from Tuesday 19th July, along with the module rollover block.
On Tuesday 16th August we will apply the new theme to QMplus. We expect this to happen during our standard maintenance window of 9-11pm.

Things to note:

Rollover processes are largely handled locally in Schools/Departments/Institutes. If you have questions about them, please get in touch with your local QMplus contact in the first instance. If you have no local support, please get in touch with the TEL team through the ServiceDesk
The new theme will be applied to all modules on QMplus on August 16th. We are currently undertaking a number of activities around the theme update including faculty question and answer sessions and we will soon be running theme awareness sessions. See the article on Our summer training programme for more details. You can also visit the QMplus theme update page on the TELT website for further information.

Blackboard Collaborate Decommissioning Update

Blackboard Collaborate

It was announced in the April newsletter that Blackboard Collaborate will be decommissioned from the 1st of July 2022. In the run-up to this date, TELT will be busy copying across the many thousands of recordings from the Blackboard Collaborate server to QMplus Media (Kaltura).

Important things to note:

Blackboard Collaborate recordings made after 13th June will not be transferred to QMplus Media
The recordings will be available through the Course Media Gallery for a module on QMplus

Please read the Blackboard Collaborate Decommissioning update article for further information including where to find the Course Media gallery for a module on QMplus.

Danielle joins the TEL Team

On 25th April we welcomed Danielle Mangal to the Technology Enhanced Learning Team as our new Learning Technology Officer. Danielle will be working closely with Raqib, Annette, Ryan & Alysa as part of the Training and Support strand. Danielle began working in the higher education online learning industry 9 years ago as part of the Distance Learning Unit at the University of Technology, Jamaica. She has since continued in various support roles with the main goal of providing a smooth digital learning experience.

New(ish) Zoom Features

Zoom has recently been updated to improve whiteboard and polling functionality. The whiteboard feature is a useful collaboration tool when teaching, training or discussing projects. Functionality includes:

Use of advanced shapes and connectors, adding, dragging and dropping images, sticky notes, messages, as well as other features
Use on some touch devices
The ability to create whiteboards in advance of your online meetings, so removing some of the hassle of setting them up during the live event

Polling features include the ability to:

Create single or multiple-choice polls prior to your scheduled meeting
Save them in a library for use during another event
Launch the poll(s) during your meeting to gather responses from your participants
Download a report of polling during or after the meeting
- Reports include participant’s answers and submission times
Conduct polls anonymously, if you do not wish to collect participant information with the poll results

You may be interested to read the following articles to learn more about the Whiteboard and Polls features.

We’d be interested to hear your thoughts about these and other tools available in Zoom. Please contact us at elearning@qmul.ac.uk to let us know what value such collaboration features bring to your teaching and learning or your meetings.

Blackboard Ally

Blackboard Ally accessibility tool will be rolling out on QMplus from the middle of May, all staff with at least teacher access will see the Ally dial symbols next to some resources and will be able to access the course level Ally reports. The TEL team has been working with all Learning Technologists and Digital Advisors across the University and they will be able to assist you in using Ally to improve the accessibility of resources on QMplus. A new series of guides have been developed and these are accessible on the TELT guides page.

Mile End Recording Booth

We are currently upgrading the Mile End recording booth. This is to replace the old technology and to make the booth much easier to use. The new equipment will be installed over the next few weeks and will be followed by a testing phase. We are planning to have the booth operational again by the end of June so it can be back in use for July onwards.

Let’s meet…

The Technology Enhanced Learning team’s Will recently spoke with Prof Thomas Prellberg from SSM to find our more about his work with e-learning in the School of Mathematical Sciences and how he has supported teaching and learning throughout the pandemic and beyond.

Upcoming Staff Training – Summer Programme

For further details, additional workshops, and to book on to sessions please use the QMUL course booking system and search for the course code ‘TELT’.

Zoom and MS Teams sessions
Getting Started with Zoom	24/05/2022	10:00 – 11:00	Online – Zoom and in Dept W
Zoom in Teaching	24/05/2022	11:15 – 12:30	Online – Zoom and in Dept W
Getting started with MS Teams meetings	25/05/2022	10:00 – 11:00	Online – MSTeams
MS Teams in Teaching (adding interaction)	25/05/2022	11:15 – 12:30	Online – MSTeams
A comparison of Zoom and MS Teams in teaching	07/06/2022	14:00 – 15:00	Online – MSTeams
Getting Started With Zoom	15/06/2022	10:00 – 11:00	Online – Zoom and in Dept W
Zoom in Teaching	15/06/2022	11:15 – 12:30	Online – Zoom and in Dept W
Getting started with MS Teams meetings	21/06/2022	10:00 – 11:00	Online – MSTeams
MS Teams in Teaching (adding interaction)	21/06/2022	11:15 – 12:30	Online – MSTeams
Getting Started With Zoom	28/06/2022	10:00 – 11:00	Online – Zoom
Zoom in Teaching	28/06/2022	11:15 – 12:30	Online – Zoom
QMplus New theme awareness sessions
QMplus new theme webinar	23/06/2022	10:00 – 11:00	Online – MSTeams
QMplus new theme webinar	30/06/2022	14:00 – 15:00	Online – MSTeams
QMplus new theme webinar	6/7/2022	14:00 – 15:00	Online – MSTeams
QMplus new theme webinar	14/07/2022	14:00 – 15:00	Online – MSTeams
QMplus new theme webinar	19/07/2022	12:00 – 13:00	Online – MSTeams
QMplus new theme webinar	27/07/2022	10:00 – 11:00	Online – MSTeams

Drop-in Sessions and Book a Learning Technologist

Have a quick query about any of our technologies? Why not drop in online to speak to someone from the TEL team…

Drop-in sessions are still available online (in Zoom) every Tuesday and Thursday, from 1-2pm. There’s no need to tell us you’re coming; just drop-in via the Zoom link located on our Online Support area on QMplus.

Please watch our short 1 minute video on how to log into Zoom via QMplus.

Should your enquiry require more discussion, please access the Book A Learning Technologist QMplus page to book a session of up to an hour to discuss your e-learning ideas and issues with one of our Learning Technologists.

We have a number of self-directed training areas online, for staff to proceed through at their own pace:

What are you asking the Helpdesk?

The top queries in May were related to… Turnitin Accounts and Accessing your landing page.

Read more in our common support questions article.