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 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Blackboard course rollover 2021 | After August 1, new Blackboard courses will be created for the 2021-22 taught units. These will be a copy of the previous year’s course, where that exists, including any template. Assessments and Grade Centres will be cleared ready for the coming year’s assessments. The content will need refreshing and resetting for the new academic year. Staff should make sure to remove any of the exam “packages” that were added for the summer assessment period. | University- wide | August 2021 |
| Blackboard developments summer 2021 | Blackboard, supported by IT Services and the Digital Education Office, will be completing essential service maintenance and development to Blackboard between 9 pm on Friday 30 July and 9 am on Tuesday 3 August. Blackboard will therefore be unavailable at this time. We apologise for any inconvenience this will cause. This essential work will upgrade the core Blackboard software and move it to a new, more robust system that will automatically scale to meet future demands and eliminate the need for any future scheduled downtime. |
University-wide | August 2021 |
| 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 |
| 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 | Ongoing |
| Digital Experience Insights Survey | We ran three surveys to assess the quality of our digital provision and identify areas for improvement. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Digitally Ready | A student introduction to the Bristol virtual learning environment, to equip new students with the digital tools and competencies needed to confidently start their studies at Bristol. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Digitally Ready: Reflect and Reboot | Developing digital skills and confidence with returning students: learning more about key tools, discussing online etiquette, finding help and support. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Digitally Ready for Admin Staff | A blended online course to equip administrative staff with guidance and specific context for administering assessments and other key processes online. The first part of the course focusing on assessments ran in Feb and March and is available as a self-study course for new administrators on request. The second part on Digital Education Systems Overview as well as Engagement is expected to be delivered by Summer 2021 and will ran as a course in September 21. | University-wide | Ongoing |
| Dynamic Lab Manuals | We are working with the School of Chemistry to develop and update their Dynamic Lab Manuals | School based | Ongoing |
| H5P | We are implementing the H5P authoring tool into Blackboard, including creating staff guidance and support. | University-wide | Autumn 2021 |
| Mentimeter | We will be adding Mentimeter to our Student Response System toolset, alongside TurningPoint. Mentimeter will have SSO access and will be supported by the DEO. You can create a free account prior to a licence being applied to try it out, but the email you use for the account must match your UoB email. | University-wide | Summer 2021 |
| Microsoft Teams for teaching | The Digital Education Office is working with IT Services to scope and implement a simple way for Microsoft Teams to be used in programmes and units | University-wide | Summer 2021 |
| 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 |
| Re/Play summer upgrade | We are working with Mediasite this summer (starting in June) to upgrade to the latest version of the software. As part of this we need to make a number of changes to the service: update the in-room recorder app to a new version which will allow for live streaming from equipped rooms, replace the Desktop Recorder with their new Mosaic application and update the catalogs in Blackboard to a new layout. | University-wide | September 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 | 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 |
| Summer updates and improvements 2021 | There have been major updates and improvements to many of our services over the summer, including new features in Re/Play, Blackboard and Xerte and new tools (Mentimeter, H5P and Teams for Teaching). | University-wide | September 2021 |
| 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 |
