News of software upgrades or updates, along with any associated maintenance and downtime are shared here – and summarised on the planned maintenance and downtime page to help you keep track. Service issues that may prevent you from using a particular Digital Education System or functionality are also shared on this page, and on our Twitter account @DESystemsUoL, (you’ll find the latest tweets at the bottom of this page).
The official Twitter account for IT at the University of Leeds, @ITServicesUoL is also recommended for service status updates, along with their service status web page.
Clicking on a category (shown to the left of the post date) allows you to filter this list to a specific category to help you find related articles easily.
Padlet has a fresh new look! Padlet has updated its Homepage (dashboard). Though it may look different most of the functionality remains unchanged. Users with a Padlet account will now be able to create folders to save their Padlet’s to, making it easier to find what you are looking for if you’ve got lots of…
PebblePad will have a short period of downtime between 07:00am and 07:30am on Thursday, 21st October (the downtime is likely to be around 10 minutes). Who is affected? All staff and student users of PebblePad will not be able to access the system during this time. Why is this downtime happening? PebblePad is being updated…
Some users have reported 404 or resource not found errors when opening files in Minerva. Please read the post for further information and suggested workarounds.
There will be essential maintenance taking place on the Lecture Capture and Media Management System. During this period the Mediasite Service should be considered ‘at risk’ but users should still be able to playback recordings.
The next phase of the Minerva upgrade project, focusing on improvements to teaching areas, has now begun. Find out more about the changes that are happening and the support available ahead of the 2022/23 academic year.
Dr Tad Gwiazdowski writes about using TopHat, combined with Blackboard and MyMediasite, emphasised active learning and constant student engagement. During the semester, students watched over 200 days of videos and submitted over 100,000 answers to questions.
Due to Christmas and New Year closures, please submit your requests to the Concierge Service no later than the 10th of December 2021 to ensure that content is returned to you within the standard 14 day turnaround time.
If you intend to use Collaborate Ultra for your 2021/22 teaching please remember to add a link it to in your Minerva module/org, as it will not automatically roll over.
The Digital Education Systems website has now officially launched. It provides task-oriented help and guidance for staff and students on the use of digital learning and teaching systems and virtual classrooms.
Instructors are now able create direct links to assignments. The benefit of linking to an assignment directly is that a column within the Grade Centre is created automatically, and the due date appears in the activity stream for students.
This site contains a growing number of self-help guides, FAQ’s and links to related content for users of the Academic Personal Tutorial (APT) workbook which is hosted in PebblePad.
Top Hat courses do not rollover automatically, if you used Top Hat in 2020/21 you may find it helpful to take a look at staff article: I used Top Hat last year, do I have to create a new Top Hat course this year?
The Digital Education Systems Update newsletter for September 2021 introduces new tools that have been implemented and summarises recent changes to tools and systems.
Minerva will be unavailable from 5.00 pm on Friday 6 August until Wednesday 11 August while the upgrade takes place. During this time you won’t have access to content.
Padlet are changing the way that posts are added to a Padlet. The change is being rolled out and all users should see the new post composer by the 15th of August.
Minerva is being upgraded to the latest version of Blackboard at the beginning of August. Minerva will be unavailable from 5.00 pm on Friday 6 August until Wednesday 11 August while the upgrade takes place.
Mediasite Desktop Recorder will be retired on Friday 27 August and replaced by Mediasite Mosaic. This new application provides access to multiple recording options, and can also be used to bulk upload videos created in other applications to Mediasite. Colleagues are encouraged to start using Mosaic before Mediasite Desktop Recorder is retired – full instructions…
Mediasite will be upgraded on Saturday 28 August, between 12am and 4am. During this period the Mediasite Service should be considered at risk but users should still be able to playback recordings. Content uploads are not advised as they may take longer than usual to process. You may also need to reload the Media area…
Minerva will be upgraded to the latest version of Blackboard over the summer period, we have scheduled sessions for staff where key changes will be demonstrated.
Minerva will be unavailable from 5.00pm on Friday 6 August until Wednesday 11 August while upgrade takes place. Access to other University systems, such as Outlook, OneDrive and Student/Faculty Services, will be unaffected.
OD&PL are offering two workshops on Creating and Sharing Content. Colleagues who have not yet migrated to Mediasite Mosaic may find these short workshops helpful.
The Digital Education Service have produced a video showcase exploring how University of Leeds staff have used Top Hat in their teaching. (Duration 4:41 minutes).
The University of Leeds has procured two new Digital Education systems to support students and staff; an ePortfolio system (PebblePad) and a Learning Analytics system (StREAM@Leeds). These systems will contribute directly to a completely refreshed approach to Academic Personal Tutoring at Leeds and help us to address attainment gaps, student retention and student success. Initial…
Leeds has chosen Solutionpath as its institutional provider for Learning Analytics. The platform will radically transform the Academic Personal Tutoring experience for both students and staff, providing more contextualised and nuanced student support. The five-year partnership, starting in early 2021, will support the delivery of our vision to enhance Academic Personal Tutoring as part of Leeds…
