The rise of the “Weekly” Resource List

Moodle, Moodle Moments, , ,

Every module space in Moodle has an associated resource list (sometimes called a reading list). Lancaster University uses the Leganto system which is a platform that holds all of the University Library’s resources in its database including books, e-books, journal articles, websites databases and more! It is important that teaching staff use the Leganto resource list system rather than for example, a list of resources on a .pdf because then the library can track what students are expected to read. This informs the material the Library purchases and the subscriptions they need to maintain. Leganto also takes care of issues around copyright so you won’t be in breach of any regulations.

At the start of every module, you might notice that the resource list appears at the top but is “hidden from students” by default. This is to give teaching staff a chance to check and update the list before they make it visible to students for their upcoming studies.

To be able to edit or add to the resource list, you need to be added to the module in LUSI (the student registry system) in an appropriate role such as administrative staff or teaching staff otherwise the add button and the ability to manage sections won’t be visible to you.

Options in Leganto to add, manage sections, filter or search.
Editing options at the top of a reading list in Leganto.

Resource lists can become very large especially with modules that span several weeks or in some cases, the whole academic year. As a result, it is worth knowing about how to use the embedded resource list activity in Moodle which allows you to make weekly or topic based resource lists based off the larger module one.

Why have “weekly”/“bitesize” reading lists?

We all know that students aren’t going to read all of the recommended resources and of course, we don’t expect them too. Resources may be added to the list to expand students’ horizons if they take an interest in a particular sub-topic but aren’t essential to completing the module with a positive outcome. However, when resource lists get very large they become unwieldy for both staff and students. It can be difficult for students to determine what is “essential” reading and what is most relevant to them at that point in their studies even if the material is organised into sections.

Adding a weekly reading list or an equivalent for a series of lectures or activities is helpful and encourages students to get stuck into their reading. It more easily highlights the essential resources for that week or topic. If there is a particular set text for a module, you can also select specific chapters to accompany the content delivered to students that week.

We know, from the survey I so frequently mention, the Moodle Student User Experience Survey from November 2023, that students like weekly reading lists and want to see more of them! 14 of the students who responded to the survey specifically mentioned in that they wanted to see better organised reading lists to help them navigate to the relevant material. One student said:

“It is helpful to see content in chronological order grouped by week and including slides, worksheets, recordings and resources together. Apart from that it I don’t find long lists of information helpful, especially when it seems to be unorganised. Suggested readings should also be clear and systematic.”

As a result, we should, where possible, try to utilise smaller resource lists to support students in their learning.

How do I set up weekly reading lists?

Firstly, you must have a resource list associated with the module, usually found at the top of the module space in Moodle. If resources are added to this list, you can then pull them through into a weekly/bitesize reading list. Therefore, it is important to make sure you have set up a complete module resource list in Leganto first.

Once this has been done, turn on edit mode in Moodle.

Click “add an activity or resource” to add the weekly reading list where you need it to be. You can always move them after creating them if required.

The activity to choose is the “Resource List (Embedded item)”.

Resource list (embedded item) activity option in Moodle.
The resource list (embedded item) activity option in Moodle.

Once selected, many of the activity settings are the same as other activities in Moodle. However, this activity has a section called “Select citations from [name of module resource list]”. This list reflects your Resource list and you can tick the boxes for the resources you wish to add to the smaller list for your topic or week.

You also get the option to change how this type of resource list will be shown in Moodle to students under the “appearance” section of the settings menu. You get three options:

  1. On a separate page
  2. Inline on the course page (initially collapsed)
  3. Inline on the course page (automatically expanded)

My recommended setting for the appearance of the resource list is “on a separate page”. That way, it does not clog up the main page and you can more easily track engagement with the list in Moodle through the activity logs if this setting is selected.

Once finished, click “save and return to course” or “save and display”.

For more information on resource lists you can visit the LibGuide for staff. You can also contact your Faculty librarians for support in managing resources for your module.

A new year, a new look!

Moodle, Uncategorized, , ,

Over the past couple of months, in preparation for the new academic year, I have been supporting staff across the Lancaster Medical School (LMS) and the Division of Health and Research (DHR), to redesign their Moodle pages. The aim has been to create more attractive spaces, that are easier to navigate and more engaging for learners.

Last year, while still working in ISS, I led the Moodle User Experience (UX) Project. We did a student survey as part of the project and we got 273 responses. 82% of respondents were undergraduates and 18% were postgraduate taught students. 139 students said that a good Moodle space was a well-organised one and in many of the free-text responses they mentioned the need for images and colour to make the spaces more visually appealing. Overall, students like Moodle but just find the way content is uploaded difficult to navigate. When asked if Moodle was easy or difficult to use, 83% of students found Moodle easy to use or had a neutral impression of it as “neither easy nor difficult”.  As part of the UX project, we also surveyed staff. Like the students, staff also want to see more attractive Moodle spaces with more colour and images. So enter…the ‘one section per page’ layout.

I have written about this layout before but, over the past few weeks, I have moved several LMS and DHR Moodle spaces to this new layout and want to share with you all the ‘new look’.

Some of the spaces that have undergone this transformation (or are currently undergoing it) include:

  • MBChB Hub
  • Year 4 Primary Care
  • Medicine Year 4
  • Medicine Year 5
  • 407: Mental Health: Theory, Research and Practice
  • DHR Autumn Academy
  • MBCHB101: Problem Based Learning Year 1
A snapshot of the MBChB Hub Space
The newly reorganised MBChB Hub space.
A snapshot of the Year 4 Primary Care Moodle space.
A snapshot of the newly reorganised Year 4 Primary Care Moodle space.

How do you set this up?

Before changing settings and choosing images, consider the organisation of material on your Moodle page. Try to have a clear welcome section at the top with introductory materials such as a handbook, learning objectives etc. This section should not be over-filled though and consideration needs to go into whether some of the material should be on the Moodle space, in a Moodle hub space or even in the Lancaster Student Portal instead. Then group materials into larger sections with sub-headings created using the ‘text and media area’ activity. Folders in Moodle, although a good way to group materials, can mean that students can’t quickly find what they are looking for so avoid using too many of them.

To get the ‘one section per page’ layout, you need to have the following settings under the ‘course format’ section of your Moodle page settings:

  1. Course format: topics
  2. Course layout: one section per page

Once you have chosen the above options, click ‘save and display’.

To add the summaries:

  1. Click the three dots menu next to the topic/section you wish to add a summary too.
  2. Type in your summary. For example, the summary could be some information on what students can find in the section or a ‘to-do’ list for the week.

To add images, choose high quality, landscape images for the best results. These could relate to the topic or subject material or just be high quality photos from around the Lancaster campus.

  1. Click the image icon.
  2. Choose a picture from your file explorer. You can add in information about the ‘Author’ and the licence.
  3. Click ‘upload file’.
  4. Untick ‘auto-size’ and the best size that I have found is 262wx143h (in pixels).
  5. The default option for the image alignment is ‘top’, I would recommend leaving this.
  6. Click ‘save image’.
  7. Once done, click on the image again and change to ‘left alignment’.
  8. Then click ‘save changes’.

A full-video explaining how to set up the above, can be found here:

How else can you improve a Moodle space?

Looking beyond the start of term, there are more things that we can do to improve Moodle spaces and the resources stored in Moodle.

Moodle isn’t OneDrive or Dropbox. It shouldn’t just be a list of Word documents, PowerPoints and PDFs! For a more engaging online learning experience, consider creating high quality videos for students to watch that include some interaction where possible. You can ask a Learning Technologist to support you in filming the material if it is something like a ‘Welcome video’ and the University also has Digital Media Engineers who are on hand to create very high-quality videos. Using the H5P activity (HTML5 package activity) in Moodle, it is possible to create an interactive video with quizzes, text boxes and other interactions popping up for students to engage with. H5P can also be used to create over 50 different content types. More information on H5P activities can be found in another post. These activities can support students to engage with your Moodle space more and can support effective revision/review.

It is a legal requirement that the resources posted on Moodle are digitally accessible. This is something that should always be on our minds when we create resources. For more information on how to improve the digital accessibility of your Moodle course, you can read this article on my ‘10 top tips’. One of these tips includes using Blackboard ALLY, the accessibility tool that is integrated into our Lancaster Moodle spaces, to check how accessible your resources are and use the guidance it gives to improve this if necessary. The score gauge provided by ALLY should always be green in colour.

For support with learning design and Moodle, feel free to get in touch with me. More training sessions on how to create H5P activities, digital accessibility and more will be forthcoming in the next couple of months – keep an eye on your emails!

Group Work: Tips, Tricks & Technology

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Group work…often dreaded by teachers and sometimes by students too! When I first started teaching in 2017, I was reluctant to use group work activities. They were tricky and time-consuming to set up and I quite often didn’t get the outcomes I was looking for. I had very little experience with educational technology as it didn’t form part of my PGCE at a time when Microsoft Teams had only just been launched and the Covid-19 pandemic hadn’t happened yet.

Since that time though, I’ve picked up some tips and tricks that have helped me to facilitate successful group projects both inside and outside the classroom. Now working in higher education, post-pandemic and in a world where technology enhanced learning is much more centre stage, I’m more comfortable with facilitating successful collaborations. Group work isn’t something I dread anymore! As a result, I thought I would share some tips and tricks as well as suggestions of activities/tools that are available at Lancaster University that could be utilised when asking students to work together.

Create Connections

Connecting with strangers is hard! Students are forced into a learning environment together and often expected to collaborate and discuss things with each other when they have only just met. This situation is a daunting one for many, even for staff! We have all been asked to “turn to the person next to you” to complete some activity…I don’t know about you, but sometimes this makes me wish I hadn’t attended the session and it can get awkward fast. Creating a comfortable and connected learning community is important to help facilitate successful group work. The community building often needs to happen in advance of the activity or project too so that students have time to form connections and get comfortable in the moment.

One tip is to encourage a digital “water cooler”; a place where students can chat freely. Many staff already encourage students to create their own groups, for example via WhatsApp. However, as staff we can also create spaces, for example a forum in Moodle that you don’t access and leave for students to communicate with each other or a Microsoft Teams space for students. There are many tools and ways to create a communication space for students, I’ve only mentioned a few but it will certainly help create those connections that will support students when they are asked to work together. OneHE has a page full of ideas for “warm up activities” to help students engage in low-stakes conversations which will help facilitate the start of those connections that will eventually support collaborative work.

Roles and Responsibilities

Getting everyone to participate in group work is a difficult task for every educator or facilitator. One recommended, tried and tested method is to establish roles and responsibilities within the group. The roles themselves can be varied and may be specific to the project or task that you set your students. For example, you might have a team leader, a note-taker, an external stakeholder manager, a proof-reader, a meeting chair…the possibilities are endless! AdvanceHE has some excellent guidance with top tips and resources on how to set up groupwork. They too suggest giving students roles and asking them to reflect on the diversity of skills in the group to ensure effective collaboration.

As an institution who uses Moodle, we have the ‘Board’ activity available to use. This activity can be set up in group mode so that each group can collaborate. One use case for group activity is to set it up as project management board with columns such as “to-do”, “in progress”, “done” and “blocked”. That way students can manage their workload together and keep track of their progress. Below is an example of a Moodle ‘Board’ activity set up in this way:

An example of a Moodle "board" activity.
An example of a ‘Board’ activity in Moodle

A similar thing can be created using Microsoft Planner within a Microsoft Teams space. For training and support in creating either of these resources, get in touch.

Continue reading Group Work: Tips, Tricks & Technology →

What’s changed with Moodle’s text editor? An introduction to Tiny MCE

Moodle,

Written by Ellen Wildman, Digital Learning Facilitator (ISS)

The text editor we use to create and add content (not just text!) into Moodle has undergone a change. The new editor is called TinyMCE and is now the default editor in Moodle. Additionally, we’ve added in some useful new plugins (or additional tools) to the editor to enhance your experience when using it.  

This is what the new editor, or TinyMCE, looks like: 

View of the TinyMCE text editor in Moodle with some sample text typed out and a sample picture.

Why the change? 

  • TinyMCE has been designed with accessibility in mind, to help ensure we keep our online material available to the largest number of learners as we can. 
  • The old editor, Atto, is shortly due to be retired by Moodle so we’re getting a head start on the future change. 

How will it affect me? 

  • The layout and menu options now more closely match the editing options that you’re probably familiar with – such as in applications like Microsoft Word – with options such as Edit, View and Insert running across the top of the editor. 
  • There are some additional features added to this new editor: 

Components for Learning (C4L)

Components for Learning (C4L) icon in Moodle

This option allows you to quickly drop in useful blocks into the content, such as reminder banners for assessment or quotations. This can be a great way to add visual interest to our pages and highlight key information for the learners. 

This is an example of what an inserted ‘component’ can look like on a page: 

Example of some text in the "hint" style supported by Components for Learning

You can also make the ‘component’ wider on the page using the double headed arrow icon when you are choosing which style to add.

Sketch

Sketch (pencil) icon in Moodle

As the name might tell you, this is a tool that can allow either yourself, or your students in a quiz environment for example, to draw annotations in an online sketchbook. This can be useful for content that might be hard to produce via a keyboard. 

This is an example of what an inserted ‘sketch’ can look like on a page:

An example sketch of a triangle and some mathematical equations

Through the View option in the editor, there are some useful new features, including: 

Show block: this will add a grey block around the text and display what style you are using. This is not displayed when you save, but rather acts as a useful guide when ‘clumping’ the content you’re creating. 

This is an example of the dotted grey line you will see when you have the view option enabled: 

An example of what a 'block' looks like when revealed in the Moodle text editor. A red box has been drawn around the 'Heading' block to highlight the example.

Who can I ask for help? 

If you need help with using the new editor, or anything else Moodle-related, contact the IT Help Centre or post a message in the Digital Education Network (DEN) on Microsoft Teams.

Written by Ellen Wildman, Digital Learning Facilitator (ISS)

Moodle 4.3 – What’s changed?

Moodle, ,

As many of you will already know, we updated Moodle to version 4.3 on Tuesday 23rd July 2024. We used to be on version 4.1. so there has been a variety of changes that have occurred with this new update.

Now we have all had a bit of time to get used to it, I thought I would run through just five of the changes that will make our lives as staff easier!

  1. You can now add activities anywhere in a section.

Before, we needed to go to the bottom of a section or topic and click the “add an activity or resource” button. Once the activity had been created, we then moved it where we wanted it to go. No more! Hover between two cards and the plus icon as shown below will appear. You can use this to add an activity or resources anywhere you want to.

A plus sign now appears between two activity cards. The plus sign is in a red circle in between the cards.
The new ‘add an activity or resource’ button
  1. Bulk actions are now available

In edit mode, there is now a “Bulk actions” button at the top on the right as shown below. This enables you to select as many activities as required and move, edit, duplicate or delete at once.

A screenshot of the top of a Moodle page with the bulk actions button highlighted with a red ring around it.
The ‘bulk actions’ option at the top of a Moodle page
  1. The text editor in Moodle has changed to TinyMCE

A future post will go into the details of the changes around this text editor but for now, click the three dots to get more options as shown below. Some of the key changes include being able to open the editor in full screen mode and add components for learning (C4L), which are text boxes of a variety of colours and styles.

TinyMCE text editor in Moodle. The three dots option is highlighted in blue.
The TinyMCE text editor in Moodle.
  1. You can duplicate more easily

It is now possible to duplicate a whole course section and not just the individual activities within it. You can also bulk duplicate activities as mentioned above. This makes it much easier to keep to a similar look and feel for each topic/section.

The three dots menu on a section has been selected to show a menu with various options including 'duplicate'.
Duplicating a section from the three dots menu
  1. Quizzes & the Question Bank

There have been quite a few changes to the quiz activity and to the question bank. Staff are now given more flexibility to customise the columns shown to them in the question bank and filtering/searching for questions is easier. The quiz editing page is wider to improve usability and students can now hide the timer in a timed quiz.

Our developers in ISS, have also reintroduced the ‘back to top’ button which I know many of us are very grateful for! They have also created the brand new ‘My Feedback Plugin’ which you can find more information on in another post.

A full list of the changes and developments in Moodle version 4.2. and 4.3 are available from the links below:

Moodle 4.2 changes

Moodle 4.3 changes

Moodle My Feedback – New to Moodle for 24/25

Moodle, , ,

Written by Phil Tubman – eLearning Development Officer, Digital Learning Team (ISS)

Each year in the Digital Learning Team, we try to improve the Moodle experience for students and staff. During this academic year we have held focus groups with students and listened to their concerns, which overwhelmingly speak of their difficulties finding thingson the Moodle course page: 

“Chaotic sometimes, not always grouped together similar documents. Hard to find.” 

“Every Moodle page has a different structure, making it difficult to learn how to navigate.” 

Feedback given through Moodle is arguably the most important aspect of teaching and learning, so we have developed a new feature which collects all the students’ feedback (single course or all courses) onto one page, accessible from the Moodle course page – we are unsurprisingly calling this feature, “My Feedback”. 

A module space in Moodle with the 'Feedback' tab on the secondary navigation menu highlighted with a pink box.
Figure 1: My Feedback link as viewed by a student on Moodle

When a student clicks this link, they are taken to their My Feedback page which displays all their feedback from that course on one page, which has the following features: 

  • All feedback, grades in Moodle, submission dates and due dates on one page 
  • An area to make self-reflective notes (these are only visible to the student themselves) 
  • A button to download all their combined feedback files for the course (the annotated file, feedback comments, feedback criteria, rubric) 
  • note this does not include files that have been uploaded for feedback 
A Moodle space with the self-reflective notes feature and export assignment feedback files feature highlighted with a pink box.
Figure 2 My Feedback page with download all, and self-reflective notes feature

To view all the feedback from all the courses, the student just clicks on their profile link at the top right of Moodle, and choose ‘Feedback’ from there: 

Profile drop-down menu with 'Feedback' option highlighted with a pink box.
Figure 3 Use the profile button to access all feedback across Moodle

Now all their feedback across Moodle is listed on one page: 

My Feedback page showing all modules across all years.
Figure 4 My Feedback page for all Moodle courses

We feel that this feature will be greatly beneficial to students during their academic tutor meetings, 1-1’s, or meetings with Learning Developers. 

If you have teaching staff, course convenor, or administrative staff role on a Moodle course, you can also view as student’s My Feedback page (minus their self-reflective notes, of course), by choosing ‘My Feedback’ (under the ‘more’ option on the course front page), and selecting the student you wish to view: 

The staff page for My Feedback with a drop-down menu in the centre.
Figure 5 Select a student to view their ‘My Feedback’ page as staff

For a preview of My Feedback, you can watch the video below:

Please comment below if you have any suggestions or thought about this new feature or pass your comments on to Phil via email.

Getting frustrated recording videos?

Sharing Practice, , , ,

Written by Liz Walkden – Learning Technologist in the Faculty of Health and Medicine

Over the past month, I have received some cries for help when it comes to successfully recording videos and adding subtitles to them.

We know that the use of video is a really significant part of teaching and they have really positive benefits for both students and staff. Videos are engaging, accessible, reusable, cost-effective, great revision aids, and more!!!

However, they can be difficult and time-consuming to make if you don’t use the right tool for the job!

So here is a brief introduction to three tools available to you here at Lancaster that allow you to record videos. Hopefully this will help you choose the right one for you:

Microsoft Teams

Teams is for teams. It is a collaboration tool where you can record a meeting of multiple people who share screens and discuss a topic. You might be using Teams if you need to record a meeting for posterity or you used it to record a “live lecture” for distance learners. You would then upload this video to eStream as Teams meetings stored in OneDrive will expire after 60 days. You are able to create the subtitles in eStream using Microsoft Azure if needed. From there, you can upload the video to Moodle using an activity such as the ‘Page’ or ‘Text and Media’ activity.

However, Teams isn’t useful when it comes to recording an individual person who might be presenting content solo to create an asynchronous resource for students. The faff of uploading a video created in Teams, then uploading it to eStream and then uploading it to Moodle is quite something! This is made more time-consuming when you are trying to upload the transcript or captions along with it. Just record a video like this directly into eStream (or you could use Panopto – see below). Save yourself some time!

You can find further information on the Recording Microsoft Teams meetings page.

eStream

You can use eStream for both recording and storing videos. Students and staff can use it and it integrates well with Moodle which is why it is recommended for students who need to record and upload a video as part of their assignments.

If you are recording a one-off video, such as a ‘Welcome to the Course’ style introduction, eStream is the best tool for the job. You can record using eStream, add subtitles automatically through Microsoft Azure (available in eStream), and then upload to Moodle. You can embed the video on a course page or add it using a Moodle activity such as the ‘Page’ or ‘Text and Media Area’ (look for the little green ‘e’ icon in the text editor in the activity settings).

More information and training on how to use eStream can be found in the portal.

Panopto

Panopto is our lecture capture system which is used within lecture theatres however, the software can also be downloaded onto your laptop for use for recording lectures, introductions and other educational videos. This can be done via AppsAnywhere. Panopto has the added bonus of being able to add quizzes and YouTube videos to your recordings. It can also record more than one screen/input at once if needed. Again, this is a great option if you are recording a video on your own without a ‘Team’ but need to share it via Moodle for your students using the Panopto activity. You can also generate captions automatically in Panopto.

More information and training on how to use Panopto can be found in the portal.

As always, feel free to get in touch with myself (Liz Walkden) or the ISS Digital Learning Team via the help centre with any questions about video production.

Upcoming Training: Exams Moodle

Events, ,

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.

Making your lecture videos interactive with Panopto

Pedagogy, , ,

From the Digital Learning Team’s recent surveys and focus groups, we know that students really appreciate when lectures are recorded.

Lecture recordings are useful to support revision and to support students when reviewing difficult concepts. At Lancaster, there are a number of Panopto features that are used consistently such as captioning. It is also common for lecturers to review the viewing statistics which can help identify which parts of a lecture students are watching the most.

However, many people are unaware of the ability to add formative quizzes and also short video clips to recordings. This post, will walk you through how to do this to support student engagement and revision.

Adding a quiz

There are four types of question that can be added to a Panopto video:

  1. True/False
  2. Multiple Choice
  3. Multiple Select
  4. Fill in the Blank

To add a quiz to your chosen video, click the edit button (see below) on the banner across the top of the screen.

Edit button on Panopto

Choose the part on the video editing timeline that you would like to add a quiz to. The red verticle line is where the quiz will be added.

Video editing timeline with vertical red coloured bar.

Then you can either click the quizzes option on the left-hand menu as shown below:

Menu with the 'Quizzes' option highlighted in green.

OR

You can click the plus button above the video editing timeline which gives you a pop -up list of options as shown below:

Pop-up menu with the "add a quiz" option highlighted.

This will then give you the option to add a quiz at the point that you have chosen in the video and the quiz editing screen will appear (see below). You can add as many questions as you like and change the type of question from the drop-down menu on the right-hand side.

Quiz editing screen in Panopto

It is possible to have multiple short quizzes in one video and the video will pause to allow the students to complete the quiz. The screenshot below shows the quiz screen that students would see and the number of questions in the quiz appears in the right hand corner. Students get to review answers at the end of the quiz and can see their total score.

The interactive quiz that appears for students as they play through a Panopto video.

You can also view the quiz results of your students from the settings menu. This will give you an insight into which topics your group feel confident with and which topics they might need support with.

A great way to help your students review complex material!

Adding a YouTube video clip

This can be done by selecting plus button and then the option from the drop-down menu below the ‘Add a quiz’ option.

Pop up menu with "Add a Youtube video" highlighted

This editing screen will then appear:

YouTube video editing screen on Panopto

From here you can add the link (URL) to the YouTube video you would like to include, adjust the time when you want the video to start playing and you can also decide whether you want the whole clip to play or just part of it using the “start” and “end” options.

If you keep “Show YouTube controls” ticked by default, this will allow users to view the subtitles for the video if required due to preference or accessibility needs.

For more information on Panopto,  you can visit the ASK page.

If you need further support on making Panopto videos interactive, get in touch with a member of the Digital Learning Team.

 

 

Getting started with Gen AI

Pedagogy, , ,

Written by Andy Holgate, Library Digital Skills Developer

Generative AI really is a disruptive technology, and it’s already altering the way we produce content across society: entertainment, education, marketing, and even software engineering.
There are good and bad uses, especially in education, but it is a technology that we can embrace and use well, and more than anything else I want to stress WE DON’T HAVE TO BE SCARED OF GEN AI!

There is so much misinformation out there on the subject (and yes, ironically, most of it has probably been created by Generative AI). I don’t know about you but for me it was difficult knowing where to start. I had so many questions, I’d heard so many things, and I had no clue where to go for answers.

Well ok that’s not entirely true, unless you were living under a rock, you will have been aware that back in 2023 the University issued guidelines on the subject: Principles for the Educational Application of Generative AI in which the University states “Lancaster University promotes a culture of Generative AI (Gen AI) awareness, criticality and expertise. We encourage effective and responsible use of Gen AI technologies in learning and teaching, fostering student and staff digital and academic literacies.” This was further expanded on with guidance on various types of AI, how it could be used, the pitfalls of using it etc. That further guidance is available here: Using AI in your learning and assessment and it’s a really good starting point.

So, let me explain a little more about how I found myself stood at the foot of a sheer rock face called Gen AI. I work in professional services, the library to be exact, and part of my role is to help colleagues with increasing their digital skills. Back in 2023 I was presented with the phrase “We need to run a training session on Gen AI for the library staff. Introducing it, how it could used etc…” I’m not going to lie, I looked at my manager and behind my smile I was thinking “Where do I start?”.

So, I ran some internet searches, read a few blogs and articles and started to get an idea of what it was all about. Turns out it wasn’t as alien as I thought, I’d been using forms of it for years in google translate, MS office products, library databases, that app on my phone that let me edit photos in lots of weird and wonderful ways. Seeing that familiarity suddenly made it less scary.

The tool for me that really brought my knowledge up to speed was LinkedIn Learning. The University had bought a subscription in 2023 giving all students and staff access to over 22,000 training videos and courses. Now cards on the table, I have to admit that part of my role is the promotion of the platform at the University, so maybe I am slightly biased BUT hey I’m not on commission! I looked at LinkedIn Learning and discovered that there was a lot of material available on the subject. I started watching videos to learn more. I was pressed for time and working to a deadline so I deliberately chose videos rather than full courses, meaning I could watch a three minute video from an expert explaining just what Chat GPT was. I watched quite a few on various subjects such as Google Bard, Canva, ethics of AI, brainstorming with Gen AI, searching with Gen AI and a whole lot more. I had massively increased my awareness in a short amount of time, and all the while using a professional, reliable source. Now, you have the opportunity to do the same.

Working with others across the University, we have created a LinkedIn Learning pathway called A beginner’s guide to generative ai.
This is split into sections and the first few are comprised of the short videos I mentioned above, you don’t have to watch them all, you can dip in and out as you please. At the start there is a general introduction which formed part of the training session I ran for library staff – it’s the basics in very plain English, written how I would want to be taught. Next, you get the videos which really will introduce you to most aspects of Gen AI and where it stands as of now in early 2024.
Now don’t be put off when you see the pathway says it contains 22 hours of learning, the first 24 videos ( the short introduction ones ) come in at under 90 minutes total. The final section of the pathway is courses, so if you want to climb further up that AI rock face you can do, but understandably not everyone needs to.

I hope that all makes sense, and if you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. So go have a look at the pathway, quell any fears you may have and embrace the technology (no harm in questioning it either). I’m old enough to remember the dawn of the modern internet (not the original military one) and people feared it, today it’s woven into every fabric of modern life. Gen AI is the next thread in that rich tapestry.

If you have any questions or comments about this blog post or the LinkedIn Learning pathway, please get in touch with me.

Disclaimer: the opinions expressed in this blog are my own and do not necessarily reflect those of the university.