April 2020

Ally is a tool which can help promote accessibility and supports both staff and students when using Blackboard.

Ally for Students

Students will now be able to access alternative formats for any documents that’s been uploaded to Blackboard by clicking on the icon. A quick start guide can be accessed here:

https://help.blackboard.com/Ally/Ally_for_LMS/Student/Quick_Start

Ally for Staff

Tutors will be able to see coloured indicators next to the content they’ve uploaded reflecting the level of accessibility for that item.

Ally does not affect the workflow for adding new content to modules and you don’t need to do anything differently when using Blackboard – this is just and extra tool to help manage how accessibility your content is.

The accessibility indicators are only visible to tutors in the module so students won’t see them and are not a reflection of quality, only indicators of accessibility.

More information and training will be provided over the next few months but it you’d like to try this out for yourself the functionality is now there and a quick start guide is available here:

https://help.blackboard.com/Ally/Ally_for_LMS/Instructor/Quick_Start

Many people are now well up and running with using Collaborate for online teaching so here are a few additional tips and ideas for moving forward with your online teaching:

Before your session

You can schedule a session in Collaborate and send the link out in advance to your participants – remember you can’t enter the session or upload files until the start time so allow early entry in the settings to give yourself time to prepare.

Send students the guest link to the session – this will effectively give them a short-cut to the session and make it easier to access. Tutors should access the session via the Blackboard module to ensure you have moderator permissions.

You can also send the guest link to external people such as guest lecturers – once the session has started you can then “promote” them to enable them to present.

Send a reminder an hour or so before the session is due to start with the guest link embedded again.

During the session

Remember to use the record function so your session is available for those who couldn’t attend.

If you find the connection is poor turn off your webcam to save bandwidth. It’s also a good idea to ask students to turn off their cameras and microphones while you’re presenting to save bandwidth and prevent background noise. If students are having trouble hearing you they can dial in using a phone.

If for any reason your session drops out – don’t panic! Make sure you close your browser down completely, then go back into the session again – if you don’t close the browser you may still be logged on in another window.

Breakout rooms are great for group work – here’s the Blackboard help on using breakout groups:

https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Moderator/Moderate_Sessions/Breakout_groups

Unfortunately the TEL Unit don’t have capacity to investigate individual student issues however our ‘Getting Started’ video can be found here:

https://vimeo.com/359000224

General help for students is provided by Blackboard here: 

https://help.blackboard.com/Collaborate/Ultra/Participant

After the session

Recordings won’t be available immediately after the session as they can take a while to process, however you can access your recordings from the burger menu on the top left hand side of the virtual classroom page.

You can also access a register to see who attended the session and how long they were signed in for. From your sessions page change the filter to all previous sessions:

Click on the button at the end of the session you want to access and choose “View reports”

For more general guidance on remote working IT have produced this useful guide:

https://www2.worc.ac.uk/it/documents/Homeworking_Tips.pdf