Graduate Teaching Assistants have can have varied roles depending upon which school and subject area you will be teaching in. Below is some guidance to some of the centrally supported Learning Technologies that you are likely to be required to use.
An Introduction to Aston’s Digital Environment
Your first step should be to take a look at the Introduction to Aston’s Digital Learning Support Environment guide. This will give you an overview of some of the IT systems that make up Aston’s digital environment. It should help you visualise how the different systems fit together and explain some acronyms that your colleagues are likely to use.
Introduction to Blackboard
Blackboard is Aston’s Virtual Learning Environment.
Log into Blackboard at vle.aston.ac.uk using your Aston username and password.
On the Welcome page, under the My Courses title, you can see a list of modules available to you. If you are missing modules from this list, please contact the relevant module leader.
It is suggested that you customise the view of the My courses panel to make it easier to browse.
Once you have confirmed that you have access to the required modules you should follow the The Blackboard Environment & Content guide. This will give you an overview of the module interface and show you the basics of building your content. If you are familiar with Blackboard already you can skip this step.
Lecture Capture
Your module leader should advise you regarding any requirement to record your teaching sessions. If you do record sessions (and indeed when you create any resource) you should be mindful of the content that you are using. Please see the following copyright guidance.
If you do decide to record your live lectures, Aston Replay is the name of our lecture capture service; The software behind this is called Panopto. At Aston, Panopto and Aston Replay can be considered as the same thing.
In order to record a lecture, the Blackboard module should have been provisioned by the module leader. If this has not been done you can find out about how to do that by taking a look at Provisioning your Blackboard Module. Once that step is complete you can make a Recording in a Pool Teaching Room that will automatically be uploaded to the module, where your students can access it.
For more information on all of the ways that you can create using Aston Replay and guidance on many of the other features available, please take a look at the Aston Replay Help Guide.
Assessment
You maybe required to mark assessments. Please consult your module leader for more information. However, there is some basic guidance below which maybe useful to you.
Assessment Regulations, Policies and Guidelines can be found in the A-Z of Academic Regulations, Policy & Procedures.
The majority of assessments at Aston are submitted via either Turnitin or Blackboard Assignments. The exact assessment type will dictate which tool has been used. Below are links to how to access submissions and use the grading and feedback tools for Turnitin and Blackboard Assignments.
Turnitin
Blackboard
For a more information and guidance on electronic grading and feedback please take a look at the Assessment Guide.
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