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SoSS/SEED 'Focus on Digital Learning' Week
29th April - 3rd May will be our first Digital Focus Week (in conjunction with SEED). It's a packed week of workshops, training, presentations and support focussed on digital learning.
We have themes covering learning design, assessment, Canvas, AI, podcasting, MS Teams, 3D scanning and extended reality.
Moving to Canvas
As a university, we are all saying goodbye to Blackboard and welcoming Canvas as our new Central Learning Environment for the academic year of 2025.
We have some guidance which has been created to help you: Canvas - what you can do to prepare. For future reference, it's the first item on the Humanities Teaching Academy website.
On 19th March, The Flexible Learning Programme panel welcomed over 170 colleagues to an open meeting to share updates on the next steps on the University’s journey in moving to Canvas. The panel were joined by Rich Wall from supplier, Instructure, who provided a demonstration of some of the key features available in Canvas and help colleagues understand more about integrations with platforms currently used in Blackboard Learn.
For those who could not attend, here is the recording of the open meeting: https://video.manchester.ac.uk/faculties/3316568fad2097eca0d3d4da75223a2d/900de233-efa6-4132-9c8b-32c1b9f0ea97?login
Canvas guides are available on Instructure's website
ITL Conference
After the success of last year's conference, ITL returns with an expanded programme of presentations, papers, and activities across two days.
The Conference will take place on 26th 27th June 2024 in University Place and will include a welcoming drinks reception on the evening of Wednesday, 26th June in the prestigious Whitworth Hall.
The 2024 conference will be a hybrid event. Attendees will have the flexibility to participate in plenaries and parallel sessions either in-person or live via Zoom.
The call for papers for the ITL Conference is open and the deadline is 5pm on Monday, 22nd April.
Grants available to support your teaching
- Humanities Education Discovery Grants (deadline: 15th April)
- Humanities Teaching Gathering (deadline: 30th May)
- Humanities Conference & Travel Fund (Teaching and Scholarship)
You can find full information on these funding opportunities on the Grants page of the Humanities Teaching Academy website.
Alt Text for online images
Alt Text is essential for users with visual impairments to receive the same value from online images as a sighted users.
Students with visual impairments are at a disadvantage compared to sighted students when information is provided solely via image formats. To make teaching content fair and equitable, all students should have access to the same information, despite any barriers they may face.
Guidance on how to implement Alt Text
Change to our online support drop-in Zoom room hours
Please note that our online drop-in is moving to reduced hours: You can get eLearning help between 10am-12pm and 2-4pm, Monday to Friday. Support is provided by the wider Humanities eLearning Team.
You can also find the many different ways in which to contact us - regarding issues and requests big or small - on our Get Help page on StaffNet.
Humanities eLearning staff training and development
- Introduction to Padlet - Learn how to use Padlet effectively in your teaching.
- Introduction to Blackboard - Explore the basics of navigating courses and communities within Blackboard.
- Introduction to Feedback Studio - Discover how to access and grade Turnitin assignments via Feedback Studio.
- Introduction to Learning Design - Learn how to begin developing or re-working a course based on tried and tested methods.
- Accessibility in Online Teaching - Discover how to enhance the accessibility of your digital course content.
- Using Camtasia in Your Teaching - Learn how to use Camtasia to create professional screencasts and videos.
Please give us your feedback
We would greatly appreciate your feedback and opinions on the following:
You can have your say on the on the transition from Blackboard to Canvas (which we will all be using from Sept 2025), by providing some feedback to the Flexible Learning Programme (FLP) via this link.
Humanities eLearning are keen to hear from people regarding how/why they contact eLearning, and how/why they direct their students to do the same – you can tell us via this form.
Finally, what would you like to see in our Humanities eLearning training schedule? It will only take 5-10 minutes of your time to fill out this form and we'd greatly appreciate your feedback so we can tailor our service to you in the future.