{"id":859,"date":"2026-10-08T11:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/?p=859"},"modified":"2026-10-08T11:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-08T11:12:11","slug":"putting-names-to-face-improving-communication-and-connection-through-the-teaching-team-activity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2026\/10\/08\/putting-names-to-face-improving-communication-and-connection-through-the-teaching-team-activity\/","title":{"rendered":"Putting Names to Face: Improving Communication and Connection through the Teaching Team Activity"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">As part of the new Lancaster Moodle template, you will have seen the new \u201cTeaching Team\u201d activity, which usually sits within the \u201cModule Information\u201d section. This activity provides students with the names, faces, roles and contact details of the staff they will come into contact with on their modules and within their department.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_860\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-860\" style=\"width: 131px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wpa-warning wpa-suspicious-alt  wp-image-860\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Activity-Icon.png?resize=131%2C148\" alt=\"Moodle icon for the Teaching Team Activity when adding it as an &quot;activity or resource&quot;.\" width=\"131\" height=\"148\" data-warning=\"Suspicious alt text\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-860\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Teaching Team activity icon in Moodle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">University can feel like an impersonal and intimidating place at first, especially when students are on large programmes. Therefore, the teaching team activity is just one of the small ways that we can combat students feeling overwhelmed and isolated as we put names to faces and make ourselves easier to reach out to. Hopefully, this supports students by encouraging them to seek help early from named contacts and, in turn, this will help strengthen their sense of belonging and confidence in engaging with our community.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">On a practical note, it can also help to improve communication efficiency as the teaching team makes it clear to students who the key contacts are, what their roles are and encourages them to send enquiries to the most relevant person.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Adding Contacts<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Within the settings of the activity, you can add\/edit contacts by selecting the tick box to add a contact to your teaching team activity.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_861\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-861\" style=\"width: 346px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" wp-image-861\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Contact-Example-300x45.png?resize=346%2C52\" alt=\"Example of a contact in Moodle who can be added to the teaching team activity contact cards.\" width=\"346\" height=\"52\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Contact-Example.png?resize=300%2C45&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Contact-Example.png?resize=768%2C116&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Contact-Example.png?w=796&amp;ssl=1 796w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 346px) 100vw, 346px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-861\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of a contact who can be selected to be added to the teaching team activity cards<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">When adding\/removing contacts, there are three types:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Team Members<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Additional Team Members<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">General Contacts<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">The list of &#8220;Team Members&#8221; and &#8220;Additional Team Members&#8221; are pulled through from the enrolled participants list on a module and often the roles of these individuals are pulled through as well from LUSI (e.g. course convenor). You can add as many &#8220;team members&#8221; and &#8220;additional team members&#8221; to the teaching team activity cards as you need.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">The \u201cGeneral Contacts\u201d list, is where you can add contacts such as Professional Services Teams that have shared mailboxes. At the moment, you can add two general contacts per Moodle space, this might increase in the future.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_862\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-862\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-862 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/General-Contacts.png?resize=300%2C148\" alt=\"General Contacts section in the Teaching Team activity with blank boxes to add details for the contact such as name, location and email address.\" width=\"300\" height=\"148\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/General-Contacts.png?resize=300%2C148&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/General-Contacts.png?resize=768%2C379&amp;ssl=1 768w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/General-Contacts.png?w=829&amp;ssl=1 829w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-862\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Area in the settings of the activity to add the details of a &#8220;General Contact&#8221;.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\"><strong>Note:<\/strong> the Teaching Team activity paginates and only allows four contacts to show at once. Use the &#8220;key contacts&#8221; option to show those contacts on the first four cards whom students are most likely to contact.<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Customising Contact Cards<\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Within the settings of the Teaching Team activity itself, you can customise the following details for each staff member:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Office Hours<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Email Address<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Job Title<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">You can also select whether a staff member is a \u201ckey contact\u201d which is useful if there is a large teaching team for a module\/programme.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">More customisations are also available though. These can be accessed via your Moodle profile. Click on the dropdown menu option next to your profile image at the top of the Moodle page and click on &#8220;Profile&#8221;.<\/span><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_863\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-863\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-863 size-medium\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Profile-Edit-1.png?resize=300%2C293\" alt=\"Moodle profile dropdown menu with the &quot;profile&quot; option circled in blue.\" width=\"300\" height=\"293\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Profile-Edit-1.png?resize=300%2C293&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Profile-Edit-1.png?w=418&amp;ssl=1 418w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-863\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The drop down menu next to a profile picture in Moodle<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Then click the &#8220;Edit Profile&#8221; option.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-864 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Edit-Profile-2.png?resize=300%2C71\" alt=\"The Edit profile option on a Moodle users profile page.\" width=\"300\" height=\"71\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Edit-Profile-2.png?resize=300%2C71&amp;ssl=1 300w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2026\/10\/Edit-Profile-2.png?w=399&amp;ssl=1 399w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">From here you can add the profile picture that pulls through for you to the teaching team activity. You can also add the following in the \u201cTeaching Fields\u201d section which will pull through to all the teaching team activities you are added to within Moodle:<\/span><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Office Hours<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Office Location<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Office Location Mazemap URL<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Appointment Booking URL (for Booking with Me or Libcal links)<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Pronouns<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Academic Title<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Job Title<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">Once you have added as many or as few of these details as you like, remember to click \u201csave profile\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: helvetica, arial, sans-serif\">If you wish to access further support with features of the new Moodle template, visit the <a href=\"https:\/\/portal.lancaster.ac.uk\/ask\/moodle-template\/\">Moodle template ASK page<\/a>. You can also reach out to one of your Faculty Learning Technologists.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>As part of the new Lancaster Moodle template, you will have seen the new \u201cTeaching Team\u201d activity, which usually sits within the \u201cModule Information\u201d section. This activity provides students with the names, faces, roles and contact details of the staff they will come into contact with on their modules and within their department. University can &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2026\/10\/08\/putting-names-to-face-improving-communication-and-connection-through-the-teaching-team-activity\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Putting Names to Face: Improving Communication and Connection through the Teaching Team Activity<\/span> <span class=\"meta-nav\">&rarr;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1661,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[7],"tags":[14,5],"class_list":["post-859","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-moodle","tag-improved-ux","tag-moodle"],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":591,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2024\/09\/10\/group-work-tips-tricks-technology\/","url_meta":{"origin":859,"position":0},"title":"Group Work: Tips, Tricks &amp; Technology","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"September 10, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Group work...often dreaded by teachers and sometimes by students too! 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Lancaster University uses the Leganto system which is a platform that holds all of the University Library\u2019s resources in its database including books, e-books, journal articles, websites databases and more! It is important that teaching\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Moodle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Moodle","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/moodle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"Options in Leganto to add, manage sections, filter or search.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/10\/Resource-List-Add-button-300x35.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/10\/Resource-List-Add-button-300x35.png?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2024\/10\/Resource-List-Add-button-300x35.png?resize=525%2C300 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":130,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/06\/26\/user-experience-what-do-students-like-to-see-in-a-moodle-space\/","url_meta":{"origin":859,"position":2},"title":"User Experience: What do students like to see in a Moodle space?","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"June 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"The Digital Teaching and Learning Team are currently in the process of engaging students and staff in a range of discovery activities to find out about their experience of using Moodle. Over the past couple of weeks, I\u2019ve been conducting focus groups with students to find out more about their\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Moodle&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Moodle","link":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/category\/moodle\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"The inside of the University library showing an indoor tree and students studying.","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/files\/2023\/06\/SL_LancsUni_Jun22_SLV_2116_HR-300x225.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":291,"url":"https:\/\/wp.lancs.ac.uk\/lu-digitaldigest\/2023\/08\/11\/making-your-moodle-space-more-interactive-with-h5p\/","url_meta":{"origin":859,"position":3},"title":"Making your Moodle space more interactive with H5P","author":"Elizabeth Walkden","date":"August 11, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"At our last DLT event in July, we showcased several plug-ins and activities for Moodle. One of which was the H5P activity. 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