Category Archives: Events

FHM Digital Education Day 2025: Programme Confirmed!

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The full programme for the Faculty of Health and Medicine’s (FHM) Digital Education Day has now been confirmed (see below for details). This in-person event will take place on 3rd September and brings together academic and professional services colleagues to share their teaching practices, innovations, ideas and projects.

9:45-10:00 Welcome

Professor Bob Lauder

10:00 The use of marking matrixes on the MBChB programme

Dr. Olaug Grude, LMS

10:30 BLS Student Engagement Project

Dr. Andrew Lewis, BLS

11:00 Break (refreshments provided)

11:30 Introducing the new Moodle template

Stephen Owens, ISS

12:00 Using MS Whiteboard and Moodle Board to enable student discussion and collaboration

Dr. Guillermo Perez Algorta, DHR

12:30 Lunch Break

13:15 Peer-power: designing reflective assessment in Moodle

Dr. Faye Tucker, LMS

13:45 Designing wide: effective digital accessibility

Ellen Wildman, ISS

14:15 The use of the Data Immersion Suite on the MBChB programme

Professor Cliff Shelton, LMS

14:45 Close

Professor Sarah Brearley

The event will be held in Management School, Lecture Theatre 19 WP B002.

To book your space follow this link: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/calendar/fhm/digital-education-day1 

For more information on the event, feel free to get in touch. Staff from other Faculties are most welcome to attend.

Enhancing Digital Accessibility: Upcoming Training

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The Digital Accessibility Team are offering a series of engaging training sessions to kick off the 2025/26 academic year designed to boost digital accessibility skills across the University. Whether you’re a staff member or student, these workshops and webinars provide practical guidance on creating inclusive digital content.

The hands-on Accessible Presentations and PDF Accessibility workshops offer in-depth training for those who regularly present or share these documents, covering everything from colour contrast and reading order to tagging and alt text. These sessions are ideal for anyone looking to make their materials more accessible. Noting the PDF workshop requires prior request to access the Adobe Creative Cloud.

For those short on time, our micro Lunch and Learn sessions deliver bite-sized training on key accessibility topics. From the Top 5 Tips for Digital Accessibility to Effective Alt Text and Accessible Tables, these sessions tackle common issues and provide plenty of examples.

You can also discover a range of Assistive Tools and Technology available to staff, including built-in features, Apps Anywhere options, and free plugins.

If you can’t attend live, explore the Creating Accessible Resources online course. See each sessions’ meeting information for all the details. Let’s work together to make digital spaces more inclusive for everyone!

FHM Digital Education Day 2025

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Learning Technologists in the Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) are launching the first ever FHM Digital Education Day which will be held on 3rd September 2025. This in-person event will bring together academic and professional services staff from across the Faculty and from ISS. It is an opportunity for colleagues to come together to share practice. Our wide variety of speakers will be sharing their solutions, ideas, experiences and expertise with all things linking to digital learning and assessment.

The current programme includes the following sessions:

  1. Prof. Bob Lauder: Welcome to the day
  2. Dr Olaug Grude: The use of marking matrixes on the MBChB programme
  3. Dr Andy Lewis: BLS Student Engagement Project
  4. Stephen Owens: Introducing the new Moodle template
  5. Dr Guillermo Perez Algorta : Using MS Whiteboard and Moodle Board to enable student discussion and collaboration
  6. Ellen Wildman: Designing Wide: Effective Digital Accessibility
  7. Prof. Cliff Shelton : The use of the Data Immersion Suite on the MBChB programme

Refreshments will be provided in the morning break. The event will be held in Management School, Lecture Theatre 19 WP B002.

Full programme to be confirmed. To book your space follow this link: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/calendar/fhm/digital-education-day1 

For more information on the event, feel free to get in touch. Staff from other Faculties are most welcome to attend.

Upcoming Training Sessions: May 2025

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I will be offering the following lunch-time training sessions to staff in the Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) but staff from across the University are very welcome to join:

Tuesday 20th May, 12-12:30pm: Preparing your Moodle space for a new cohort

This short lunchtime session will look at the key things that staff should include in their Moodle spaces. It will also showcase the one section per page layout and other features of Moodle that can improve the student experience and staff monitoring of engagement. The information shared in this session is based on student feedback on Moodle as well as staff feedback.

This session is most relevant to academic staff and professional service staff involved in creating resources for Moodle spaces and managing Moodle spaces.

Book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4376280

Thursday 22nd May, 12-12:30pm: Video production using Panopto

This short lunchtime session will look at how to access video recordings as well as how to record, edit and caption your videos.

This session is most relevant to academic staff who teach and professional service staff who need to create training materials. 

Book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4376282

All sessions will be recorded and a copy of the recording will be sent to attendees.

Lent Term 2025: Training Offering

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We will be offering the following lunch-time training sessions to staff in the Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) but staff from across the University are very welcome to join:

Wednesday 5th March (12-12:30): Making Resources Digitally Accessible in Microsoft Word and PowerPoint

In this session, we will look at how to use the accessibility checks in Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint. We will look at some of the common problems with document accessibility and also look at how to use ALLY in Moodle to view and improve the accessibility score of documents. Due to the length of the session, this will be a demonstration session rather than a workshop. Follow-up appointment details will be shared in the session to book a 1:1 support meeting to put what you have learned into practice if required.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4347623 

Wednesday 12th March (12-12:30): Quizzes in Moodle

An introduction on how to set up a quiz in Moodle either for formative or summative assessment. We will look at a some example question types and also show an example of an online exam. Due to the length of the session, this will be a demonstration session rather than a workshop.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4347630

Wednesday 19th March (12-12:30): Assessment Feedback in Moodle

This session will showcase three different ways to mark and provide feedback on assessments in Moodle. The session will cover how to set up 3 different types of feedback in Moodle: feedback criteria, rubrics and marking guides. Due to the length of the session, this will be a demonstration session rather than a workshop. Follow-up appointments are available should you wish to discuss a particular assessment.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4347643

Wednesday 26th March (12-12:30): Video Production in eStream

We will look at how to record a video (including screen capture) and then how to automatically caption the video using eStream, sometimes referred to as ‘Planet eStream’.

This session is useful if you wish to record welcome videos, lectures or show students how to record videos of their own for assignment submissions. Due to the length of the session, this will be a demonstration session rather than a workshop.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4347647

Wednesday 2nd April (12-12:30): Groups, Groupings and Group Choice in Moodle

We will look at how to set up a group and groupings of students in Moodle as well as how to set up an activity where students can make a choice about which group they want to be in. This is useful for setting up Learning Sets, group work tasks and more! Due to the length of the session, this will be a demonstration session rather than a workshop.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4347650

Meetings will take place online and attendees will receive a recording.

We hope to see you all there!

Training Offering – Winter 2024

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We are currently offering the following lunch-time training sessions to staff in the Faculty of Health and Medicine (FHM) but staff from across the University are very welcome to join:

Monday 25th November (12-12:30): Moodle H5P Activities: A Showcase

H5P activities are interactive and often gamified content on Moodle such as interactive videos, flashcards, image hotspots, Cornell notes, crosswords and more! In this session you can preview a selection of the activities and learn how to set one up in Moodle. Including H5P content in your Moodle spaces will help engage your students and many of the activities are great for revision.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4293160

Thursday 5th December (12-12:30): A new Moodle layout: images, summaries and more!

Learn how to create a more engaging looking Moodle space by using the “one section per page” layout and adding images and summaries to each of the sections. You will also learn about student feedback on Moodle layouts and templates and what students like to see in a Moodle space.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4293167

Monday 9th December (12-12:30): Making documents accessible

In this short session, we will look at how to use the accessibility features in Microsoft Word and Microsoft PowerPoint. We will also look at how to make .pdf documents accessible using Adobe Acrobat Pro. Due to the length of the session, this will be a demonstration session rather than a workshop. Follow-up appointment details will be shared in the session to book a 1:1 support meeting to put what you have learned into practice if required.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4293168

Monday 16th December (12-12:30): Resource Lists in Moodle

In this short session you will look at how resource lists in Moodle work and how to edit/manage them. You will also learn about how to add shorter weekly or topic based reading/resource lists to your Moodle spaces.

Use this link to book your place: https://lancaster-uk.libcal.com/event/4293173

Meetings will take place online and attendees will receive a recording. We hope to see you all there!

Upcoming Training: Exams Moodle

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Here at Lancaster, we use Moodle as our virtual learning environment (VLE) and have several customised instances of Moodle where we can host different types of material. One of those is ‘Exams Moodle’ and…it does “exactly what it says on the tin”… hosts exams.

Soon, exam season will be upon us and the exam timetable has gone live today!

For those of you looking at setting up exams for the upcoming season we have some hybrid training available to help you get started.

The training covers:

  1. How exams spaces are created
  2. How staff and students are enrolled
  3. How ILSP adjustments are added
  4. How exam access is restricted to appropriate times and individuals
  5. How grading and feedback works

The sessions are suitable for professional services staff members and anyone else responsible for configuring online exams at Lancaster.

There are two sessions available (both exactly the same!) and you can sign up via the Libcal links below:

  1. Tuesday 5th March, Management School LT10, 2-3pm (hybrid)
  2. Thursday 14th March, Engineering Building Entrance, 10-11am (hybrid)

We hope to see you there but if you have any questions in the meantime, please get in touch with one of the Digital Learning Team. There’s also written guidance available on Embrace Digital – Guidance for setting up open book exams in Moodle.

Digital Training Courses Available!

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The Digital Learning Team have a whole host of training courses available this term. These are mainly aimed at academic and professional services staff to help you make the most of our suite of digital learning tools and services. 

Below you can find the dates and sign up links to the training sessions we are offering in January.

Tuesday 16th January 2024

[Hybrid] Moodle Part 1 – Introduction for Staff – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

A 30-minute introductory session looking at Moodle, which is Lancaster University’s Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). This session covers what Moodle is, what it does, and how staff can access and interact with it. This session is a hybrid one and staff are welcome to join online or in-person in Library Training Room 1

Friday 19th January 2024

[Hybrid] Moodle Part 2 – Features for Course Administrators – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

This 60-minute session looks at the management of Moodle spaces and will detail Moodle’s links with LUSI, the student records system, as well as how to manage materials and participants (staff and students). This session is a hybrid one and staff are welcome to join online or in-person in Library Training Room 1

Monday 22nd January 2024

[In Person] Panopto Part 1 – Introduction to Lecture Capture – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

Panopto is our Lecture Capture system and is primarily used to record in-person lectures in rooms on campus, but can also be used for recording lecture materials from your home or office. Lancaster operates an “opt-in” lecture capture system – nobody is recorded by default but you have the opportunity to opt-in to recordings should you wish to. Nowadays, the majority of modules are recorded and published to Moodle to aid students in their learning, revision and access to learning.

This session will give an overview of the Panopto system, and explain how it’s set up in rooms on campus and how you can be recorded automatically, make basic edits to your recordings and publish them to students.

This is an in-person session and will take place in LUMS Lecture Theatre 19

Wednesday 31st January 2024

[In Person] Moodle Part 3 – Moodle Feature Showcase – Events – Lancaster University (libcal.com)

This 60 minute session will cover some of the activities and features in Moodle that lecturers can use to increase student engagement and the learning experience as a whole. Activities that we will cover include Moodle Board, Collaboration Map, Student Quiz and more!

This is an in-person session and will take place in Library Training Room 1

 

More training sessions will be taking place during the Lent term. You can find a whole list of the events we are running via Libcal.

AI tools: A Christmassy Showcase

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The 12 Days of AI is  a self-directed online course run by the University of the Arts London. Participants can learn about a new AI tool each day. I’ve signed up via Eventbrite and places are still available if you want to join  up. It is free!

Each day, participants receive an email that directs them to a ‘daily task’. You are then introduced to an AI tool and given a quick run down on how it works. You can then follow the instructions to familiarise yourself with the tool. There are other resources shared on the website too including articles, demos and more!

So far this course has introduced the following tools:

  1. Hour One – a tool to create videos. An example of this tool is showcased on the ‘What is 12 Days of AI?’ webpage.
  2. Chat GPT – the one we have probably all heard of! Participants are given some tasks to prompt this tool to generate information and there is some guidance on ‘Prompt Engineering’.
  3. Claude.Ai – a tool that can summarise text. You can create an account and test out this tool on an article or some text that you have permission to upload.

I’ll be working my way through these tools and hopefully some of you will be able to join in too!

DLT Sharing Practice Event #4

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Come and join the Digital Learning Team and colleagues for our 4th Sharing Practice Event!

The theme for this event is “Collaboration”. We will hear from colleagues on how to facilitate effective groupwork and collaboration amongst students.

The event will be held on Wednesday 13th December 2023 from 2-5pm in Management School LT16 (The Robinson Lecture Theatre). You can drop in and out of the event and attend the sessions you are interested in. Refreshments and cake will be provided!

The current outline of the event is as follows:

2:00 – 2:10 – Intro from the Digital Learning team, Liz Walkden

2:10 – 2:40 – Using learning sets with students and the role of digital learning, Sandra Varey.

2:45 – 3:15 – Collaboration at a distance: asynchronous and synchronous approaches to working with research students at a distance, Steve Wright

3:15 – 3:30 – Break + Refreshments.

3:30 – 4:00 – Accessibility considerations for collaborative and group work, Alison Sharman

4:05 – 4:35 – Using peer evaluation to assess group dynamics on the MBA course, Phil Devine & Stephen Owens

4:40 – 5:00 – Collaboration suite tour, Stephen Owens

You can read more about what each session is about and sign up here.

We look forward to seeing you all!