Introducing the team – TEL Support

Although the learning technologies team has existed at Aston for quite some time, it has always been a small team of 2-3 people with a narrow focus. Early last year the team moved back to CLIPP and since then a concerted effort has been made to put down roots and grow the team, so we can fully support the development of learning technologies across the whole institution.

We are very pleased to announce that we now have six learning technologists to staff the new look Technology-Enhanced Learning Team. I thought we might take this opportunity to introduce the team and tell you a little about what we can do for you.

What we do

We will provide a specialist service focused on enhancing teaching practices and enriching student learning. The team comprise a group of expert Learning Technologists who work in partnership with Schools and Central Services to offer advice and support in the effective use of technologies in teaching, learning and assessment.

We offer a variety of services including professional development workshops, online resources explaining how learning technologies can be used to achieve particular teaching and learning goals, and collaborative approaches working with staff and students to develop digital capabilities.

We support the effective use of a range of learning technologies:

Blackboard Learn – the University’s virtual learning environment;
Blackboard Collaborate – the University’s online collaboration tool;
Turnitin – online marking and feedback and text checking;
Panopto (Aston Replay) – lecture and event capture;

Requesting help & support

Each academic school has a named Learning Technologist from the Technology-Enhanced Learning Team, who is responsible for learning technology related support. To request support, we ask that you contact the central team. In most instances, the named person for your school will respond, however contacting the team instead of the individual means that we can provide you with a more reliable service.

Email: telsupport@aston.ac.uk
Telephone: 0121 204 4885
Twitter: @astonTEL

When making a technical support request please always include as much information as possible, such as:

any related module code.
the system you are having problems with.
dates and times of any problems.
screenshots where appropriate. When making screenshots if you can include as much of the screen as possible (including the URL for web-based systems), it will often help us diagnose the problem.

Before contacting the TEL Helpdesk, please check the TEL Support Hub. This gives answers to many queries received by the TEL Helpdesk. Also, check the @AstonTEL Twitter page to see if there is a known problem with the service.