I've recently started using Xerte to create interactive online tutorials. I've been looking for a way to create more engaging self-study resources for a while, so I'm genuinely excited about this tool. Xerte also has great built-in accessibility features - users can control the visual presentation, and the tutorials and tasks can all be completed using keyboard navigation.

It's been a bit of a steep learning curve as there are so many page options and different interactive tasks that can be included. It's been very fun exploring them all though. I've also had to move from thinking about blended activities to fully online, independent tasks, which has needed a bit of a shift in thinking.

I'm really happy with the tutorials I've created so far. They are so much more engaging than text-based resources, and it's been easy to include interactive tasks and quizzes. Initial feedback from students and other staff has also been positive.

See Core Area 2a and Specialist Option for more discussion of Xerte resources.

Evidence

• SO_How to write in scientific style_(Xerte)

Panopto

I've recently been experimenting with Panopto to create short screencasts as self-study academic skills resources. It's been simple to use so far, but I'm still using it in a very basic way - all I do is record my screen and then trim the start and end of the video. In the future I'd like to add title screens to make it look more professional, and also use the quiz tool to add questions within the video. I also haven't been able to add subtitles to the videos yet, so that's a priority. Instead, I have made sure to provide text-based alternatives, such as annotated slides.

See Specialist Option for more discussion of Panopto resources.

Evidence:

• SO_Building strong arguments_(Panopto)

Video editing software & hosting on Youtube

I've recently created short promotional videos for two WLSC modules by editing student interview recordings (provided by the module tutors). I used the browser-based editor Clipchamp to do this. It was a simple tool to use, and I'm pleased at how professional the final video looked. It did take rather a long time, but hopefully I will get faster as I gain more experience. I hosted the final videos on Youtube, which allows us to easily embed them in the WLSC webpage and promote on Twitter. After setting up the account, it was very simple to upload the videos and attach a subtitle document.

Evidence:

• 1b_Transcultural Communication video
• 1b_Speaking and Interaction video

Experimenting with these video tools has been interesting, and I think has a lot of potential to help create engaging and effective self-study materials.

I have created self-study skills modules for the UoY's new fully online masters programmes, which use the Canvas VLE, rather than Blackboard.

I’ve found Canvas to be quite straightforward to use, especially as I only need to create learning material and don’t need to set up assessments. In particular, the built-in accessibility checker has been quite useful, especially as we don't currently have that function in Blackboard. However, Canvas is quite basic in terms of interactivity and the types of resources that can be built - there's no equivalent of Blackboard Learning Units, for example. This means that the resources I created are quite text-heavy, with some embedded interactive tasks and content from the UoY Skills Guides.

When I revisit these resources, I plan to include more engaging and interactive content by embedding Xerte tutorials and Panopto screencasts: see Specialist Option for more discussion of this.

Evidence:

• SO_Evaluating source information (Arrows show active learning tasks. Note the embedded content from the Skills Guides)
• SO_Time management

The Conversation

The Conversation has news and comment articles on a range of subjects, written by academics in an accessible, journalistic style. Many of my international students initially struggle with accessing journal papers, so articles from The Conversation have been a useful tool to scaffold their academic reading development. As the articles are 'sort of academic', they're also useful examples to evaluate when teaching information literacy skills, as students can consider when it's suitable to use articles like this in their studies.

Evidence:

• 1b_Evaluation task using The Conversation

Mentimeter is a polling tool to add interactivity to lectures and presentations. It’s really simple to use, both as a tutor and student.

I've found that it's not really that useful in small classes, as it's much more natural to have a discussion. However, I've used Mentimeter with success in larger workshops, particularly to elicit questions from students or conduct needs analysis.

Evidence:

• 1b_Mentimenter questions and responses
• 2b_Pilot project needs analysis (Mentimeter)

I am responsible for maintaining the student-facing Study Skills webpages. This initially meant significantly updating the existing pages, as no-one had been responsible for them for a while.

The CMS used to maintain the UoY website is Terminal Four. It's been fairly straightforward to use, as the online training materials gave a good grounding of the basics, and the WYSIWG content editor is simple. However, training didn't cover a lot of the formatting and design aspects that are needed to create pages that look good, so to figure this out, I used a lot of trial and error, and also looked at how this was achieved on existing pages.

The original pages that I updated tended to contain all of the content within on big page element. I've changed this to more granular content, which has made content easier to locate and update.

Evidence:

• 1b_UoY Website CMS

In September 2019 I revived the WLSC Twitter account (@UOYWriting) to promote WLSC workshops, 1:1 writing support and other activities, to share academic skills resources, and engage with students and UoY departments.

I plan Tweets in a Sheets-based calendar, and use the Hootsuite platform to bulk schedule each week's Tweets. During the week I use Hootsuite to monitor activity and interact with students and other UoY departments.

Twitter analytics show that usually a few users interact with the tweets and links provided, but only in small numbers. This is a little disappointing, as I've found managing the Twitter account to be very time-consuming. Going forward, I'm working with other Twitter users in my department to develop a strategy to collaborate and support the growth of our accounts so that we can reach more students.

Evidence:

• 1b_Twitter planning calendar
• 1b_Hootsuite scheduling

E-vision

E-Vision is the interface for the UoY student record system. At the IPC I was responsible for entering assessment grades and also details of student supervisions.

Evidence:

• 1b_Evision mark entry page