What's new and what's changed in MyBeckett?

All  are empowered by Anthology Ally with Microsoft Immersive Reader.  Find out more about Microsoft Immersive Reader (link opens in Microsoft Digital Learning Tools website)

• Everyone can find this digital learning tool via the Blackboard Ally icon within your content areas.

• Alternative Formats supports all of your students to access your content in a format that suit their learning style, adaptive equipment and accessibility requirements.

• With alternative formats, all students can meet the same learning objectives using resources that are built to target the needs of the individual student. For example, Blackboard Ally creates audio and electronic braille alternatives for students with visual impairments.

Alternative formats benefit everyone. For example, maybe you have a lot of course material to read and get eye strain, or maybe you’re an auditory learner. Listen to an audio format of the learning materials instead.

Microsoft Immersive Reader is another enhancement tool that helps students improve their reading, comprehension, and grammar skills. Click on the A icon on your content.

All Staff Community Self-enrol

All staff have been enrolled onto the new All Staff Community found under 'Communities' in MyBeckett main menu.

If you or another staff member are unable to see it this area you will find it via the Community Catalogue (top right of the page):

a. Click 'Community Catalogue'

b. Now select LBU Staff from the dropdown menu under Browse Categories and click 'Go'

c. It will be listed, now just click on the action link and choose 'Enrol' and the next screen OK

d. Click onto the Communities menu link and the tile will be now visible. Click on the Star icon to pin it to the top of this page (if you have many Course Groups if you are Course Administrator for example). 

e. What is in All Staff Community?

In the menu on the left you will find:

Welcome - contains contact information for Digital Learning Service

Enrolment Tools

• Self Enrol on Module
• Course Community Self  Enrol (Course Groups)
• MyBeckett Modules for Self Paced Training (for staff wanting to learn how to use the tools in MyBeckett)
• Create a Sandbox for Training purposes

Request Forms

• Cross - list request form
• Non-Credit Module request form
• Campus Announcement request

Tools and Resources

Academic Calendar and Staff Timetables (folder)

Files (folder):

• Office 365 (Outlook/OneDrive etc.)
• Google Drive
• Webfiles
• Zendto

Inplace

Results Online

IT Support

Guides and Training

• How to enrol onto Self-Directed training modules instructions.

• Links to Teaching and Learning Resources Guides

• MyBeckett and Digital Learning Guides

Learning Resources

Contains links to learning resources that you can place into your modules for your students to access.

• Subject Resources
• Learning Object Repositories
• Student Experience information of MyBeckett after the upgrade

Discussion

• Join the Digital Enhancement Network (DEN) 

Pebblepad Access

Contains the launch button so you can access Pebblepad 

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra end of life notice.

The University intends to stop using the Collaborate Ultra service from 31 May 2024. Staff members who have used Collaborate in the 2022/23 academic year will be contacted with more information in September 2023

As this meeting tool will no longer be available from 31st May 2024, please consider using the alternative recommended meeting tool to avoid disruption to student experience. We currently are recommending using Microsoft Teams either the MyBeckett integration or the Microsoft Teams app.

Watch our video guide to learn how to customise your modules and communities lists

New ways to upload content from your University OneDrive for staff and students when sending communications

1. Attach files to content areas

Adding content has been simplified, there are several improvements for accessibility, updated tool icons and other new features. View the Content Editor guide to find out more.

Attach items to Content via your Staff OneDrive for Business account as an alternative to 'Browser My Computer' which is a quicker process if you are already using Microsoft 365 to create resources.

Also consider using the Qwickly Course Tool via the Tools link in the main menu of MyBeckett, to add content to several modules or course groups, you will need to copy the link from your OneDrive into the text box of the message.

2. Blackboard Assignment Submissions

There is a new Browse Cloud Storage button that enables students to attach files from their student OneDrive.

Please note: that students will access this via the OneDrive for Business option.

Drag and Drop

Drag and Drop file upload functionality; dotted line now indicates areas of MyBeckett where new drag and drop file upload functionality is available. This is a faster way of attaching files than browsing your computer for them one at a time. (Note, if you are dragging and dropping multiple files, please ensure each file has a different name).

In module menus the Panopto 'All Lecture Recordings' link has been removed for new modules 2023/24, this is due to the upgrade to Panopto Video Tool. 

Please follow this guide to add the tool link to your module.

If you wish to upload or record recorded content to share with your colleagues, the link to the Panopto Replay login is now in All Staff Community under Links to Tools and Resources and Videos in MyBeckett sections.

Video sharing using Panopto is the optimum platform for all your teaching and learning.

Our guide to sharing videos with students has been updated and it even easier to embed video and create a quiz using Panopto. Providing a streamlined, more inclusive online student experience and are generally easier for staff to manage too.  

The Digital Learning Team are still working to reduce the number of video files added to MyBeckett from recent years. You may receive an email with instructions if any video files are uploaded directly, the system will identified these as part of this ongoing maintenance work.

Ongoing work will reduce the number of raw video files e.g. mp4, wav, avi, mpg in MyBeckett. This supports compliance with the University data retention schedule (and therefore the GDPR / Data Protection Act) and prevents escalation of storage costs for the University. 

It's recommended that videos that need to be retained are stored in suitable platforms, to support a streamlined, more inclusive online student experience and save colleagues time. 

Please contact IT Services for any technical issues with Panopto.

Turnitin Direct Assignments end of life 13 June 2023, staff and students will not be able to use the old Turnitin Direct Assignment dropboxes due to end of life.

Please complete this Archive Request form so we can retrieve the submissions and get in touch with the Digital Learning Service for any questions.

Workaround to send an announcement also to email to multiple modules/course groups, we are investigating reports of students not receiving email of announcements via the Qwickly Course Tools.

You may wish to use the previous version of this tool (which used to be under the tools tab in MyBeckett prior to the upgrade) called the Module/Course Group Manager & Communicator tools, go to the All Staff Community and choose Qwickly (via module menu).

To improve communication with your students you may want to encourage them to do the following:

• Students can download the Blackboard Learn App which will alert them of announcements via Activity Stream - push notification.

• Please note that students can personalise notifications which may alter when and how they are alerted with all activity which may stop prompts including push notifications to the Blackboard Learn App, so please encourage them to leave them active.

Please refer them to Student IT Advice team for further support.

The ability to leave Audio Feedback for Blackboard assignments has a known issue identified in February 2023.  The recordings are not accessible with the play button no longer linking to some submissions, the audio recordings are not playable for both staff and students.

There is a fix that can be applied but this requires time for the Digital Learning Service to process, please get in touch with the the details of your module, assignment title and students names.

When copying module content and you forget to deselect 'Assignments'  if you previously had used Turnitin assignments set up, an exact copy with the previous years dates will be visible.

It is recommended to delete the copied Turnitin link and create a new one to avoid any issues later.

Turnitin special attention needed:

Turnitin has been upgraded but unfortunately on creating an assignment you will need to hide the column in Grade Centre and after the Feedback Release Date you will need to reveal grades to be visible to students.

Please check this updated guide on making sure that the Grade Centre column is hidden from students to prevent the early release of grades.

Students uploading Microsoft files into Turnitin may not process and the paper will not provide a Similarity Report, Digital Receipt or accessed to view.

Microsoft files generated using Windows, including .doc, .docx, .xls, .xlsx, .pptx, .ppt, .ppsx, and .pps files, can occasionally fail to process when uploaded to Turnitin. Files created using other operating systems are unaffected.

Workaround: Convert file to a PDF before attempting to upload it to Turnitin. This ensures it is in a format that can process gracefully and without any problems.