General advice to maintain continuity of teaching and learning

The following guidance is provided to help minimise disruption to teaching and learning if working off-campus.

All of Aston’s Technology Enhanced Learning systems; Blackboard, Blackboard Collaborate, Turnitin and Panopto/Aston Replay are available off-campus from any internet connection and do NOT require any special access requirements.

If you are unable to teach on campus and need to deliver online the University advice is to:

• Consider the student learning experience and aim to adopt the best possible approach for the circumstances.
• Work with systems with which you are comfortable and familiar and that your students are familiar.
• Remember that the key aim is to ensure that students are supported and have the opportunity to meet learning outcomes.
• Simple approaches are often the most effective.

For lectures, the University advice is to:

• Republish existing Panopto recordings from the previous year where available. Please refer to the University’s Policy on reusing existing Panopto recordings
  • Copy a session to another folder
• Increase use of the announcements tool to provide information to your students.
  • Making announcements in Blackboard
• Record materials in lieu of classroom-based lectures. You are encouraged to record small bite-sized chunks that will not only be easier for your students to consume but also easier for you to create. We would suggest that you use Panopto for this purpose.
  • Recording on your own computer
  • 4 tips on creating good content
  • Uploading content you have made using other tools to Panopto
• Consider use of third-party materials such as linked YouTube videos, but also the availability of the materials in countries with censored internet access.

For interactive sessions, the University advice is to Use Blackboard Collaborate to support virtual classrooms.

Collaborate has a number of features:

• Voice chat
• Webcam
• Share PowerPoint and PDFs
• Share applications (view only)
• Polling
• Breakout rooms for group work

Help and support guides for Collaborate Ultra

• Help and Support Overview
• Guidance for Moderators and Presenters
• Check your computer works with Ultra
• The Tool Overview
• New A guide to using Collaborate Ultra to teach, with lots of practical advice.
• New A guide for students using Collaborate Ultra – with just eight simple slides.
• Increase use of discussion boards as a way of promoting continued 2-way communication with your students and peer-to-peer interaction.
  • Using discussion boards in Blackboard

Requesting TEL Support

There will be no telephone support available but follow-up support will be coordinated on a case-by-case basis.

When making a 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.

It is possible that the team’s capacity may also be reduced and there may be increased waiting times. Academic staff are encouraged to consider the expertise within their programme teams and to seek the support of colleagues wherever possible.