Tag Archives: accessibility

DLT Sharing Practice Event #4

Events, ,

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!

Lecture Capture: Why do we have it and how is it changing?

Pedagogy, ,

The Panopto system has recently come onto the Digital Learning Team’s remit. We will be helping you manually schedule recordings (if needed!) and ensuring that scheduled recordings are taking place when and where they should. In addition, a new retention policy has come into effect this week regarding content on Panopto so I thought it was a good time for a Panopto blog update!

What is it and why do we have it?

If you are new to Lancaster University, you may not have used Panopto before or perhaps are familiar with a similar lecture capture system like Echo 360. Through the Panopto system, it is possible to record lectures and other teaching content for students to play back. It can record the lecturer and the resources like a PowerPoint or something shown on a visualiser.

Lecture capture is really useful for students as it helps them review material that they are not confident with, revise for exams and also helps them not feel left behind if they miss a lecture. Panopto is available in all lecture rooms in the following buildings: Biology, Bowland Main, Bowland North, Charles Carter, County Main, County South, Faraday, Furness, Fylde, George Fox, LICA and the Management School.  It is important to note that your permission needs to be given for automatic recordings to take place, recordings aren’t turned on by default. To opt-in, get in touch with your department coordinator. Lecture recordings are turned on via LUSI for regularly timetabled sessions. For one off sessions, lecture capture can be requested by completing the relevant form. Staff are required to check that captions are provided on all recordings and to make sure that the captions are accurate to ensure that resources are accessible to everyone. Once this has been done, the recordings can be shared with students, for example via Moodle. It is also possible to add quizzes into Panopto recordings to check student understanding and make the resources more engaging for revision purposes.

During the pandemic, the number of recorded lecturers increased dramatically (as expected!). This number has remained high with 60,881 Panopto videos added to Moodle via the Panopto activity in the last academic year. Students find lecture capture a particularly valuable learning tool as highlighted in JISC’s ‘Student Digital Experience Insights survey 2022/23’ from September 2023. The survey found that students thought lecture recording was “one of the most positive aspects of learning using digital technology”. The survey also showed just how widely used lecture capture is in higher education to the point where it is considered the norm. As a result, we hope this resource will continue to be widely used by staff to support students here at Lancaster.

How is Panopto changing?

A new Panopto retention policy came into effect this week. The retention policy has come into effect to ensure that there is room for more footage to be recorded in the coming years (things were getting full!). This means that 27587 videos, which equates to around 30054 hours of footage, were placed in the Panopto archive. Don’t panic! This does not mean that they have been deleted!

The videos that have been archived were identified as resources that are over 4 years old and have not been viewed in the past twelve months. These videos have been moved to a separate storage system, the ‘archive’ in Panopto. You can still search for these videos on Panopto and request to view them. They will then be extracted from the archive which will take around 20 minutes. If these videos are then regularly viewed, they will not return to the archive, but if there are no further views in 30 days, they will return to the archive. If you have recordings on Panopto that have been archived the ‘archived’ button will appear (see image below). If there are no videos in the archive made by you this button will not be shown. Students and staff can also request archived footage that has been embedded or added as an activity in Moodle as the link on the Moodle page will take you to Panopto to make this request for archived footage. If needed, Panopto has provided some instructions on how to restore content from the archive folder.

Archive icon on Panopto

For more information on Panopto and how to use it, look at the Panopto information available on ASK. There are also terms and conditions that come along with recording in Panopto that you should be aware of.

What do students want? An insight from the ALT Conference 2023

Pedagogy, , ,

From 5th September to 7th September, Tim Ellis and I (Liz Walkden) attended the Association of Learning Technologists (ALT) Conference. ‘Student Voices: Shaping the Post-Pandemic Campus’ was day two’s keynote session. The purpose of the session was to emphasise the importance of the student voice and to encourage collaboration between policy makers, educators, and learners. It gave us first-hand insights into the experiences of learners following the pandemic. The students studied at three different universities so their opinions and views may not reflect the views of all students or those studying at Lancaster. We heard from a second-year student, a third-year student and a recent graduate. They gave candid accounts into the difficulties that students faced during their time at university. I wanted to share with you three takeaways that I had from listening to the panel’s experiences which readers may find ‘food for thought’.

One of the things that most stood out was the students’ discussions around ‘digital shock’. The panel acknowledged that the technological understanding and knowledge required at university is much more advanced than what was required of them only a couple of months before when they were finishing their A-levels. One member of the panel wanted lecturers to know that most of their previous learning had been done on pen and paper and that they only received their first laptop when they went to University.  To this student, typing was hard and so they used a notebook instead of a laptop in lectures. The student felt this was isolating because everyone else was using an electronic device. The student also then said that engaging with the learning materials and the assignments was also very difficult and that there was an assumption that students would be able to use technology easily.

In addition to the lack of ‘know-how’ when it came to the technology required, students also felt isolated by the access that they had to technology. The student who had recently graduated was frustrated by the fact that she wasn’t told about the possibility of borrowing a laptop earlier and she had been struggling to work on a slow and unreliable device. Another student was frustrated that the Chromebook they had been able to afford to buy did not actually have the right processing power for the technology that they were required to use on their course. One student said, “you feel silly when you don’t have the right technology”. We want students to be digitally literate and able to use technology in their future career with confidence but how do we encourage this and help students to navigate this digital world? The students had some suggestions:

  1. Make the technological requirements of a course clear very early on. Students will be buying new devices before they join the University and should be forewarned if the software they need to use has certain device specifications or needs a certain level of technical ‘know-how’. This would help prepare students and prevent a sense of digital isolation.
  2. Signpost where students can get help. Students struggled to find the information on central websites or portals and often felt lost. The panel suggested that lecturers put up a slide at the start of a lecture while waiting for everyone to sit down which could highlight help, important opportunities, or give answers to frequently asked questions.
  3. Don’t assume that all young people are confident in their use of technology.

The second thing that students were keen for us to understand was how difficult and intimidating they find it to ask questions and get support not only from their lecturers but also from each other. They felt there was an expectation that they would be able to contact other students, work together and speak to the lecturers easily. Some students did manage to set up WhatsApp and/or Snapchat groups. However, they knew that not all the students in their cohort were in these groups and that they didn’t know all their fellow students. A variety of suggestions were made that could help students to collaborate and feel supported at university:

Continue reading What do students want? An insight from the ALT Conference 2023 →

10 ‘Top Tips’ On Improving Accessibility

Pedagogy, ,

Yesterday, the Inclusive Learning Network at Lancaster University met via Teams, led by Dr Ann-Marie Houghton, Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). The Inclusive Learning network is an open network that meets regularly to hear from colleagues across the University. The network includes representatives from a range of areas including Learning Developers, the Global Experience Team, Careers, Counselling and wellbeing, LGBTQIA+ Allies, the Disability Service and many more! It provides an opportunity to share good practice to improve the experience for staff and students at Lancaster. It has a broad remit and the group is passionate about making the University a place that is open and inclusive. Stephen Owens and I (Liz Walkden) were delighted to be invited to speak alongside other speakers including Amanda Pharaoh, who spoke about the Student Money Advice Service, and Heath Boffey, who shared updates on Digital Accessibility.

Stephen and I spoke about the work of the DLT team and particularly about the Moodle upgrade and how the changes had improved accessibility. At the end of the session, Dr Ann-Marie Houghton asked Stephen and I what are top tips were that could help staff improve the accessibility of their courses for students. So, I thought I would write this blog post to spread the word a bit more and share out 10 ‘Top Tips’ for improving accessibility.

  1. Use accessibility checkers

Microsoft programs, Adobe and many others have accessibility checkers. Next time you open a Word document, check the bottom of the screen and you will see an accessibility rating alongside the word count, language and page number. You can get to the checker on a Word document by clicking the ‘Review’ tab at the top and you will find the ‘Check Accessibility’ option on the banner.

The banner and tabs at the top of Microsoft Word. With the 'Review' tab open and 'check accessibility' highlighted with a red square around it.

 

 

Mamuna Hussain recommends opening the Accessibility Checker before you begin typing and that way you can review accessibility as you go along. This will save you time as you won’t have to address all the issues at the end.

  1. Explain acronyms, jargon and key words

I am often guilty of assuming people understand the acronyms I use, VLE, VR, AR…the list goes on! For the first few hours I started working at the University, I was convinced LUSI (‘Lucy’) was a person who knew loads but only seemed to share the information at night? I was very confused about our Lancaster University Student Records System (LUSI)! To make sure everyone can fully understand the information we convey we should aim to use simple, easy to understand language where appropriate and explain what we mean. For example, I can still use the acronyms VLE, VR and AR but it is good practice to say at the start that they stand for Virtual Learning Environment, Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.

  1. Use ALLY to monitor and improve the accessibility of your resources.

Blackboard ALLY is an accessibility tool that integrates with Moodle. It provides you with guidance on how to improve the accessibility of your resources as well as giving your resources a rating using a coloured dial.

Writing which reads 'Week 2 - Lecture Slides' with an ALLY score provided on a green dial next to the writing.

If your resources on Moodle have a low rating, you can click on the dial and this will review your document. Issues that need to be addressed will be outlined with a thick red bar and guidance on what the issues are is also provided.

A PowerPoint slide with an image that is outlined in red by the Blackboard Ally tool. The Ally score and guidance is on the right hand side of the image.

  1. Add alternative (ALT) text to the images.

This is one of the easiest and quickest ways to improve accessibility (and your ALLY score) on Moodle. When you include an image in a document, write a brief description of the information the picture conveys. For example, the image above has the ALT text “a PowerPoint slide with an image that is outlined in red by the Blackboard Ally tool. The Ally score and guidance is on the right hand side of the image.” If the image is purely for decoration and does not convey anything meaningful you can mark these images as ‘decorative’, and they will be ignored by software such as screen readers. Accessibility checkers will prompt you to include ALT text where appropriate.

  1. Choose appropriate colours

Poor colour contrast between text and background colours can make resources difficult to read for everyone! Have you ever tried to read white text on a light blue background or yellow text on a white background? Readers should find the information you present easy to see. If you are unsure of what colours are best to choose when it comes to having the right colour contrast, Lancaster University AppsAnywhere gives staff access to the Colour Contrast Analyser (CCA) which is easy to use and shows you whether your colour contrast meets the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines and even shows you whether it meets the AA or AAA criteria (resources should meet AA standard).

Continue reading 10 ‘Top Tips’ On Improving Accessibility →

Making your Moodle space more interactive with H5P

Moodle, , ,

At our last DLT event in July, we showcased several plug-ins and activities for Moodle. One of which was the H5P activity. So, for those who missed the session, and want to look at revamping their Moodle spaces for the new academic year, this one is for you!

What is H5P content?

H5P is an abbreviation for HTML5 Package. It is free open-source content that enables educators to create engaging content that can be integrated into Virtual Learning Environments such as Moodle. There are over 50 types of activities to choose from! This includes flashcards, Cornell Notes, interactive videos and books, diagram hotspots, charts and, when we are feeling Christmassy, advent calendars. On the H5P.org website you can find some examples of H5P activities such as an interactive video on smoothie making to show you what is possible. The DLT team have also set up a Moodle H5P demo site which Lancaster University staff can view. Students can access H5P activities easily and quickly through Moodle and you can keep an eye on engagement through activity completion and the reports.

How does it improve engagement?

These activities can also be used as part of a strategy to improve the online experience for distance learners. The H5P plug-in is part of the ‘gamification’ set that is available in Moodle.  It aims to enhance engagement and motivation by creating similar experiences to those when playing online games. For example, H5P activities such as the memory game, virtual tours, interactive timelines and even crosswords and quizzes make learning more enjoyable for students.

By using H5P activities, course content can be broken down into manageable pieces and learners can complete the activities at their own pace. This is important to ensure that learners don’t feel overwhelmed and feel a sense of achievement as they work their way through their course content.

These types of activities are also particularly good in higher education as retrieval practice (the practice of remembering) and feeds into teaching learners how to learn and what works for them. They can also be used in the lead up to exams to help students with their revision. For more information on retrieval practice, Tom Sherrington’s ‘Kitchen Pedagogy 2:2’ video is a great introduction and you can find lots of information on his website.

How do I start creating some material?

H5P activities are created and stored in the content bank area of Moodle. It acts as a repository and allows individual H5P activities to be reused multiple times. You don’t need to reinvent the wheel and can use resources that you already have. For example, you could use a YouTube video and make this interactive or use some presentations that you already have and turn these into an interactive book.

Continue reading Making your Moodle space more interactive with H5P →

How accessible is your Lancaster University WordPress site?

Pedagogy,

What is WordPress and how can it be used for digital teaching and learning?

WordPress (WP) is a popular open-source website builder and Lancaster University hosts 772 active WP sites. One of the advantages of WP is you don’t need any experience using computer programming languages; a great website can be set up quickly and easily. WordPress can be used as a teaching resource where students can collaborate, using their knowledge to present research in an interesting way. Dr Lisa Bradley from Queen’s University Belfast recently presented in the June 2023 EmpowerEd Webinar Series on ‘Breaking Down Barriers to student research using Social Media’. Lisa showcased a group activity where students used Twitter to present their research. Students were then assessed on the content of their posts, the quality of their research, their interactivity with other users, their overall design and their communication. Using an online platform is an excellent way to help students gain skills that are transferable to future graduate careers and can be highlighted by students on a C.V. demonstrating their skills in online editing and communication. WordPress can be used in a very similar way, and it is also used here at Lancaster University by staff to promote departments and research.

However, no matter what platform is used and what it is used for, we need to ensure that any content can be accessed by all and follows accessibility guidance.

The Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) Accessibility Regulations 2018 legislation applies to any website or app which is used by a public sector body in the UK. This includes all websites and web services associated with Lancaster University.

The legislations is based on the Web Content Accessibility Guidance (WCAG). The guidance translates to making sure that we consider content and user interactions when we design a product. For example, we should consider colour contrast, content layout, how the website would be navigated with a keyboard and how it responds to the use of speech recognition software. By following the guidance, we are more likely to create logically laid out sites that layout information clearly. It improves the user experience for everyone!

How do you go about checking accessibility compliance?

This Digital Digest blog is very new, and I had no experience in using WordPress let alone ensuring that the content on there followed accessibility guidance. Myself and the DLT team worked together to explore the issues and overcome them with the help of Heath Boffey (thanks Heath!) from the Accessibility Team and using the information that we have available on both the University and Government websites (more details on this later!). Continue reading How accessible is your Lancaster University WordPress site? →

Accessibility Statement

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Accessibility statement for ‘Digital Digest’ (WordPress)

This accessibility statement applies to the ‘Digital Digest Blog’ hosted by WordPress (https://wp.lancs.ac.uk/lu-digitaldigest/).

This website is run by Lancaster University. We want as many people as possible to be able to use this website. For example, that means you should be able to:

  • zoom in up to 400% without the text spilling off the screen
  • navigate most of the website using just a keyboard
  • navigate most of the website using speech recognition software
  • listen to most of the website using a screen reader

We also try to make the content as simple as possible to understand.

AbilityNet has advice on making your device easier to use if you have a disability.

How accessible this website is

We know some parts of this website are not fully accessible:

  • You cannot skip to the main content straightaway when using a keyboard to navigate the website.
  • When zooming in the social media icons can obscure some text.
  • The social media icons do not have a description or alternative text.
  • There is one colour contrast concern with content provided by WordPress which is outside of our control.

Feedback and contact information

If you need information on this website in a different format like accessible PDF, large print, easy read, audio recording or Braille:

  • If you are an external user you can email Stephen Owens at s.owens@lancaster.ac.uk
  • If you are a student or a member of staff at Lancaster University you can contact us via the IT Help Centre.

We will consider your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

WordPress also have an accessibility team which aims to improve accessibility across WordPress sites. You can find more information via the WordPress accessibility handbook.

Reporting accessibility problems with this website

  • We’re always looking to improve the accessibility of this website. If you find any problems that aren’t listed on this page or think we’re not meeting the requirements of the accessibility regulations, please email Stephen Owens at s.owens@lancaster.ac.uk or if you are a student or a member of staff at Lancaster University you can contact us via the IT Help Centre.

Enforcement procedure

The Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) is responsible for enforcing the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018 (the ‘accessibility regulations’). If you’re not happy with how we respond to your complaint, contact the Equality Advisory and Support Service (EASS)

Technical information about this website’s accessibility

Lancaster University is committed to making informaiton accessible, in accordance with the Public Sector Bodies (Websites and Mobile Applications) (No. 2) Accessibility Regulations 2018.

Compliance status

Non-accessible content

The content listed below is non-accessible for the following reasons.

Non-compliance with the accessibility regulations

WordPress is an open-source software, which means that some aspects of its accessibility are outside of our immediate control.

Text and Content

Navigation

When navigating through the website via a keyboard, the bypass block ‘Skip to Content’ option does not appear straight away. The user is required to tab through the title and third-party social media plug-in first.

This does not meet the WCAG success criterion 2.4.1 Bypass Blocks.

Headings

On the three pages within the blog that group categories together: ‘Category: Moodle Moments’, ‘Category: Pedagogy’ and ‘Category: Upcoming Events’, the theme from WordPress has not provided page titles.

HTML headings are therefore used inconsistently as part of the theme which is offered by WordPress.

This doesn’t meet WCAG success criterion 2.4.6 Headings and Labels.

Content that’s not within the scope of the accessibility regulations

Third-party content

A third-party plug-in has been added which provides the ability to share posts and pages on social media. The three icons on the right-hand side are ‘sticky’ by default and sometimes obscure text. The three links to Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn are in tab format and do not have a label or alternative text.

The owners of this blog have no control over the development of this plugin but have decided to include it to offer optional interaction.

This does not meet WCAG success criterion 2.4.4 Link Purpose (In Context) and 2.5.3 Label in Name.

The light grey text which offers the option to ‘Get a glimpse of the newsletter’ when a user sets up a subscription does not have suitable colour contrast. The subscription service is provided free of charge by WordPress and is outside of our control.

This does not meet WCAG success criterion 1.4.3 Contrast.

What we’re doing to improve accessibility

  • All of our content on this WordPress website is reviewed to check that it complies with accessibility guidance where possible.
  • We aim to review the offers provided by WordPress and third-party plug-ins to see if accessibility can be improved in future updates.
  • We intend to make sure that every person who contributes to the main content of this website has completed accessibility training from Lancaster University.

Preparation of this accessibility statement

This statement was prepared on 13th July 2023. It was last reviewed on 13th July 2023.

This website was last tested on 13th July 2023. The test was carried out by Lancaster University.

We used this approach to test our WordPress blog:

  • We used the automated tools Siteimprove and Microsoft Accessibility Insights to assess the accessibility of the blog.
  • We conducted manual tests following guidance from Microsoft Accessibility Insights.