Setting up your site

An effective module site is important to ensure that the student learning journey runs as smoothly as possible. We have outlined some tips below that will help you make the most of your Module Site.

Navigation & signposting: consistency online

Our VLE’s have a pre-built template which is added to every module site. This pre-built template is designed to help students and staff with navigation and guide them through the module. It has links to all of the potential tools and services that students can use and the module content area has been designed with a blended learning approach in mind.

Consistency online helps students study more effectively. We should be ensuring that module sites, within a programme, present a consistent and transparent layout for students.

To help support the development of module sites, please see information below relating to communication and labelling. If you are using Blackboard you can also find sample activities and summaries to show good examples of the information given below.

You could try .. reviewing your module site with a ‘fresh pair of eyes’. How will your students access your learning materials? Is it obvious what to do next and where to go? Are there plenty of signposts to guide them to the right areas? Is there a clear narrative flow connecting the learning activities?

A cartoon image of a hand coming out of a mobile phone. Shows icons for announcements, email and communication online

Clear labelling & communication: clarity and coherence

To help students and staff find content, as well as understand the order and expectations of learning activities, a common and easy approach is to use a week by week organisational module structure.

When adding learning activities to the VLE’s, clear instructions can enable students to work independently and prepare students for their online sessions. This can be achieved by adding the following information into your learning activities:

An introduction to each activity.
- What is the activity about?
- Length of activity?
- How does this link back to the main outcomes for the week
Information about the task they need to complete
- What should students do for the activity?
- Link to any relevant information
- What do they do with the information once the task is completed?
- Support materials: Links to support materials help link students to specific resources which will help them I.e. guides on effective note-taking, how to use software etc..

“The rapid move to remote learning has amplified the need for pedagogical learner centred approaches and a fresh look at learning design.”

JISC - Learner digital experience insights survey 2020

If you would like to find examples of these elements, and how they can be embedded from a Blackboard perspective. You can find a link on your module site called ‘Enable BB Recipes’ which shows examples of the type of information you can include.

Recording Live Teaching Sessions with Microsoft Teams

Below we have some advice, in the form of infographics, regarding how to record with live teaching sessions and some elements you may want to consider when using the software. To see more information please click the image below.

Related Resources & Activities

Recording with MS Teams PDF | Accessible Version