The Digital Education Office is leading work to document learning and teaching activities which are not easy to do, or do well, with our current digital tools. If you have a suggestion for a new tool please let us know by adding it to the software request form. On the DEO website, the form is housed in a web page which highlights tools which are in the process of being purchased. We will also update this page with tools which have received a high number of requests (in case you want to keep abreast of what might be available or upvote something).

If you have already submitted a request to the DEO, BILT or IT Services we will add it into the requirements gathering for you.

This is part of a co-ordinated effort by IT Services and the DEO to collate requirements for software and hardware that will be needed to support teaching next year. There is also a separate form to request access to specialist teaching software – all forms are available from the blended learning Sharepoint site.

Collaborate use in the University has been incredibly successful since the lockdown created the need to teach online. In April Collaborate has facilitated 2.88 million cumulative minutes of online learning and been used by just under 9.5 thousand users.

Staff created 5728 individual sessions. 2468 recordings were made, with over 1253 hours length in total. A total of 8488 individual recordings were viewed.

Blackboard have made some changes to the Collaborate tool to maintain quality and make scheduling large sessions for 250 to 500 users easier for instructors. A new ‘Large scale session (250+)’ option is available in Session Settings. Previously larger sessions would require liaison with the Digital Education Office and would be created on a separate server. To improve performance, they have disabled some functionality for students in large scale sessions, such as sharing audio/video, drawing on whiteboard and Breakout Groups. Chat functionality is also off by default but can be turned back on during a session.

We are pleased to announce that Xerte has successfully been upgraded and is fully available to staff and students.

Xerte Upgrade Monday 27^th April

Following recent advice from the Xerte Development Team, IT Services will be upgrading Xerte to version 3.8.5 between 8am and 4pm on Monday 27^th April.

This upgrade contains important and essential security updates. We apologise for the late notice and timing; however, the upgrade is essential to ensure Xerte remains a safe and secure tool for staff and students.

In addition to the security improvements, this upgrade will bring us up to the most recent version and brings the following benefits:

• New page types including ‘Text Correction’.
• Sub-templates and Learning Designs.
• Improved tracking of Project Plays.
• Improved and accessible Hotspots.
• Better integration with Mediasite (Re/Play) video content in Media Lessons.
• Improved Display Modes.
• Improved accessibility.
• Improved Audio Player

We will blog again when Xerte is available for staff and students.

The issue causing the Turnitin service disruption earlier today has been resolved. This lasted from 10.41 to 11.49, and may have led to you being unable to view Similarity Reports. Please accept our apologies for any disruption caused.

Please note that Blackboard Ally will be unavailable Sunday 12th January between 11am and 1pm. During this time Instructor Feedback and Alternative Formats will be unavailable.

The Blackboard upgrade has been completed ahead of schedule, and Blackboard is available again now. The Digital Education Office has tested all key functionality, and is continuing with further in-depth testing.

If you come across anything that isn’t behaving as you expect it to, please email digital-education@bristol.ac.uk.

Further details of the upgrade, and other DEO developments, can be found on our website.