Welcome to the sixth Teaching & Learning newsletter for the College of Science.

There is now an Educational Technologies Resource Hub on the College of Science website. This houses Brightspace how-to guides, video guides and a Resources section, which links to pertinent articles and information across university websites and beyond.

Brightspace New Content Experience Workshop

The New Content Experience (NCE) is now available on Brightspace and Module Coordinators can choose to enable it for the 24/25 academic year, ahead of a full rollout next year. It offers a better user experience for both students and instructors, including the display of assessment information when used in the My Learning section.

You can read more about the NCE here.

A 30-minute online workshop will run ahead of the spring trimester providing an overview of the changes and how your content will fit into this new structure.

Click on a date below to add the event to your Google calendar.

(opens in a new window)Wednesday 4th December at 12:00

(opens in a new window)Tuesday 14th January at 12:00

(opens in a new window)Thursday 16th January at 14:00.

VLE Standards Policy

The unit headings from the VLE Standards Policy are now added to all new Brightspace modules. These unit names are editable, and this does not impact importing/copying of content from other modules. (opens in a new window)This page provides guidance on how to incorporate these VLE Standards units with your module content. If you would like assistance with this process, please contact aoife.reilly1@ucd.ie.

Digital Teaching Workshop Series Recordings

This online workshop series ran in the autumn trimester, and is now available to watch on the Educational Technologies Resource Hub.

Grade Transfer to InfoHub Grade Entry Workshop

Whether you’re preparing grades for the grade entry deadline, or setting up your modules for the upcoming semester, it is useful to set up quizzes and assignments on Brightspace for direct transfer to InfoHub Grade Entry.

This 30-minute online workshop will run on the following dates; select the one you wish to attend to add it to your Google calendar.

(opens in a new window)Tuesday 7th January at 14:30

(opens in a new window)Wednesday 8th January at 11:00.

TEL All Webinars

The TEL All webinars are delivered by Educational Technologists and offer practical and hands-on advice. This year's topics included ‘The EdTech toolkit - How to select the right tool for the learning needs,’ ‘Engaging students with the Zoom Whiteboard,’ ‘Useful Brightspace features for large classes’ and ‘peerScholar in Brightspace – an overview.’

You can find the recordings of these webinars at this link.

One-to-One Brightspace Support Meetings

If you do not have previous experience with Brightspace (or if you would like to learn more about its capabilities), one-to-one consultations with the Educational Technologist, Aoife Reilly, are available to help you develop your teaching materials for the online space. They can look specifically at any modules you are or are due to teach on, and how Brightspace can be leveraged to assist you in your teaching.

This can include a general introduction to Brightspace and the other educational technologies available, or you can bring any specific queries or issues you might have.

If you are interested in this, please contact aoife.reilly1@ucd.ie to set up a meeting.

If you would like to add or suggest any content for future newsletters, please contact aoife.reilly1@ucd.ie

Welcome to the fifth Teaching & Learning newsletter for the College of Science.

There is now an Educational Technologies section on the College of Science website. This houses Brightspace how-to guides, video guides and a Resources section, which links out to pertinent articles and information across university websites and beyond.

Digital Teaching Workshop Series

An online workshop series will run over the Autumn trimester based around digital teaching. It is aimed at those who wish to become more familiar with Brightspace, or with integrating digital technology into their teaching, both online and in the lecture theatre.

There are five workshops in the series, and they will run weekly from 1-2PM on Wednesdays. The dates and workshop names are listed below:

1. Wednesday 4^th Sept: Introduction to Brightspace (already completed)
2. Wednesday 11^th Sept: Creating Accessible Content
3. Wednesday 18^th Sept: Assessment on Brightspace
4. Wednesday 25^th Sept: Using Video Content – YuJa
5. Wednesday 2^nd Oct: Including Interactivity in your Lecture

You can attend some or all of the series; (opens in a new window)please indicate which workshops you would like to attend at this link. Links to attend each workshop will be shared in advance.

VLE Standards Policy

Are you familiar with the VLE Standards Policy? The recommended scaffolding is now being applied to all new Brightspace modules: new modules will be pre-populated with the recommended unit headings. These unit names are editable, and this does not impact importing/copying of content from other modules. (opens in a new window)This page provides guidance on how to incorporate these VLE Standards units with your module content. If you would like assistance with this process, please contact (opens in a new window)aoife.reilly1@ucd.ie. 

Brightspace New Content Experience

The New Content Experience (NCE) is now available on Brightspace and Module Coordinators can choose to enable it for the 24/25 academic year. It offers a better user experience for both students and instructors, including the display of assessment information when used in the My Learning section. The (opens in a new window)IT Knowledge Base has a number of articles on using the NCE, and you can also (opens in a new window)book 1:1 online support appointments with a member of IT services. In addition, you can contact (opens in a new window)aoife.reilly1@ucd.ie if you have any queries.

Update/create your module content on Brightspace

As the new trimester approaches, and you review your module content, or are creating new content and lecture notes, there are a lot of factors to consider. This document provides tips and links to additional resources that might assist with this process.

TEL All Webinars

The TEL All webinars are delivered by Educational Technologists and offer practical and hands-on advice. The final webinar for this year will be on October 22^nd, called ‘peerScholar in Brightspace – an overview.’

You can book this webinar at this link.

You can also view the recordings of the other webinars already run this year here.

One-to-One Brightspace Support Meetings

If you do not have previous experience of Brightspace (or if you would like to learn more about its capabilities), one-to-one consultations with the Educational Technologist, Aoife Reilly, are available to help you develop your teaching materials for the online space. They can look specifically at any modules you are or are due to teach on, and how Brightspace can be leveraged to assist you in your teaching. 
This can include a general introduction to Brightspace and the other educational technologies available, or you can also bring any specific queries or issues you might have.

If you are interested in this, please contact (opens in a new window)aoife.reilly1@ucd.ie to set up a meeting.

If you would like to add or suggest any content for future newsletters, please contact aoife.reilly1@ucd.ie