Our current projects are listed below, along with selected past projects. If you are running, or thinking about running, a digital education project we'd love to hear about it. We can help with a range of things (resources permitting), such as:
The earlier you involve us the more help we can offer, so please contact us.
See our key statistics for our latest activities.
You can also view a list of our recently completed projects.
| Project | Details | Scale | Expected completion |
|---|---|---|---|
| Augmented reporting | A project for summer 2020 and the academic year 2020/21 to extend our ability to assess activity within the digital environment and so better support students. Augmented reporting will offer a series of reports which will generate actionable data for key roles. | University-wide | Summer 2020 |
| Bb Annotate - new Blackboard inline marking tool | Replacement of Box View with Bb Annotate, an improved inline marking tool for providing feedback annotations. | University-wide | August 2020 |
| Blackboard course review | Blackboard course reviews are being promoted. These are an opportunity both to check courses meet basic standards and to further improve the experience of both students and staff. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Blackboard packages for summer exams | Following a review of feedback from schools on the January assessment period, the DEO is working with the Exams Office to implement a standard package for exams in which students are required to submit files in Blackboard, to provide greater consistency and clarity for students. | University wide | July 2021 |
| Blackboard upgrade | Between 5 pm on Wednesday 5th August and midday on Thursday 6th August. The upgrade brings a range of performance and feature improvements, as well as important bug fixes. The core Blackboard functionality and interface will remain the same. | University-wide | August 2020 |
| Bristol Futures Open Courses | Taken by hundreds of Bristol students completing the Bristol PLUS award as well as members of the public around the world, the open courses are available on the FutureLearn platform. We worked with academics across the University to develop them and now manage and support the running of the courses. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Closed Captions Service (RePlay) | We are working with Mediasite (suppliers of RePlay) to integrate a service which will enable all recordings within RePlay to be closed-captioned through Automated Speech Recognition. As part of this project we will also be making available the inbuilt caption editor for all staff. | University-wide | September 2020 |
| Core standards | To develop a set of expectations and recommendations for the use of the digital environment for schools who are not adopting the new Blackboard templates. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Core toolset | Alongside work to extend the functionality of the digital environment, this short project will develop guidance on the recommended tools staff should use for key activities. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Digital Design course | We have been working in partnership with Professor Tansy Jessop, PVC Education, the BILT and CREATE teams and digital champions to develop and deliver the Digital Design Course. This ran in May, June and July and is available as a self-study course in August. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Digital Experience Insights Survey | We ran three surveys to assess the quality of our digital provision and identify areas for improvement. | University-wide | December 2020 |
| Digitally Ready | A student introduction to the Bristol virtual learning experience to equip them with the tools and competencies needed to confidently start their online studies at Bristol. | University-wide | Autumn 2020 |
| Dynamic Lab Manuals | We are working with the School of Chemistry to develop and update their Dynamic Lab Manuals | School based | December 2020 |
| Electronic management of assessment (EMA) | We will offer dedicated support to schools to review current approaches to coursework submission and marking, and support implementation of standardised workflows for electronic management of assessment (EMA). This project will be phased over three years from 2017-18. | University-wide | July 2020 |
| Online assessment platform requirements (including remote proctoring and invigilation) | A short requirements-gathering exercise to assess what faculty requirements for remote, high stakes assessment. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Pilot of Blackboard test templates for exams | The DEO is working with the Faculty of Engineering and the Exams Office to create a series of Blackboard test templates for summer exams. These will standardise the test settings, enabling consistency and parity of student experience, and provide personalised views of assessment timings. | Faculty of Engineering | July 2021 |
| Rich Media in Education | Using the Re/Play desktop recorder to examine how using rich media can change teaching and learning in face to face and other sessions. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Student Digital Champions | 12 student digital champions from across all faculties in the university are reaching out to students, channeling the student voice straight to the DEO. Their focus is on student engagement, motivation and feelings of community when learning online. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Student Lifecycle Support Programme changes 2019 | The Student Lifecycle Support (SLS) Programme is implementing changes that will impact the use of Blackboard. | University-wide | September 2020 |
| Student orientation | We are creating a Student Orientation course for the start of the 20/21 academic year. This course will be an engaging opportunity for students to get to know Blackboard, and equip themselves with the tools and competencies needed to confidently start their online studies at Bristol. | University-wide | September 2020 |
| TQEC Programme development | We will be working with programme teams to embed digital approaches in programmes due to be taught at TQEC. | School based | Ongoing |
| Using Microsoft Teams in Education | We are talking with staff to find out how Microsoft Teams (introduced in April 2020) can complement our current set of online learning tools. | University-wide | Ongoing |
Blackboard templates for summer exams
