On Tuesday 18th November 2025, the University of Reading will join institutions worldwide for Blackboard’s annual Fix Your Content Day. This day-long competition is part of our ongoing commitment to inclusive teaching and learning. A ‘fix’ is when the accessibility score of a file (or piece of content) on Blackboard is improved using Blackboard’s in-built…Continue Reading Blackboard’s ‘Fix your Content Day’, 18th Nov 2025: A global competition to improve accessibility
Introducing the institutional Padlet license, launch event and hands-on workshop
We are pleased to announce that the University has secured an institutional Padlet license, this is now available. What is Padlet? Padlet is a visually engaging and customisable online pinboard for collecting student responses. It allows for interactive, creative student collaboration, supporting text comments and rich media sharing within scheduled, self-scheduled and independent study. For…Continue Reading Introducing the institutional Padlet license, launch event and hands-on workshop
Spring Term’s TEL Practitioner Forum: Blackboard Learn Ultra
Friday 24 March saw the Spring Term meeting of the TEL Practitioner Forum – our community of practice comprised of colleagues from across the university with an interest in, or a responsibility for, TEL. Theme: Blackboard Learn Ultra The natural theme for this term’s meeting was our planned transition from Blackboard Learn to the improved…Continue Reading Spring Term’s TEL Practitioner Forum: Blackboard Learn Ultra
TEL Practitioner Forum: Focus on Blackboard Ally’s reporting features
Monday lunchtime saw the termly meeting of our TEL Practitioner Forum – the first time we’ve met on campus since before the Covid pandemic (and so lovely to finally see members in person!) The forum is our community of practice and is comprised of colleagues from across the university with an interest in or a…Continue Reading TEL Practitioner Forum: Focus on Blackboard Ally’s reporting features
How can we stop contract cheating? Reflections from the Turnitin Summit
Turnitin is one of the university’s core T&L technologies, enabling students to improve their academic writing and staff to mark assignments and provide feedback online. I took time recently to attend the annual Turnitin Summit which was themed around academic misconduct, the rise in contract cheating (whereby students contract someone to complete an assignment for…Continue Reading How can we stop contract cheating? Reflections from the Turnitin Summit
YuJa Learning Capture – Reflections from our Champions
What have our champions learned after taking part in the Learning Capture project? At our showcase, Dr Shixuan Wang and Dr Yueting Cui reflected on their experiences with the YuJa Learning Capture software and shared their top tips. Read on for a flavour! If you would like to see the presentations, you can watch the…Continue Reading YuJa Learning Capture – Reflections from our Champions
Reflections on the T&L Festival 2022: Designing Learning
I’ve recently joined the Technology Enhanced Learning team, having spent 4 years working as an Academic Liaison Team Manager in the University Library. This is a really exciting and busy time to join the CQSD team, and the T&L Festival seemed perfectly timed to help consider TEL Support in relation to the next year’s planning…Continue Reading Reflections on the T&L Festival 2022: Designing Learning
Digital Accessibility: Global Accessibility Awareness Day
Thursday 19th May saw the 11th Global Accessibility Awareness Day (GAAD) designed to “get everyone talking, thinking and learning about digital access and inclusion, and the more than one billion people with disabilities/impairments.” (GAAD, 2022) Recognizing that that we have a diverse range of students with different learning needs, styles and preferences, and…Continue Reading Digital Accessibility: Global Accessibility Awareness Day
T&L Showcase: Using Module Roadmaps & Weekly Plans
Tuesday 8 December 2020 saw another of CQSD’s T&L showcases, designed to help colleagues share practice, ideas, strategies and experiences. The theme for this showcase was using module roadmaps and weekly plans to help students. With the shift to blended and online learning, these documents were designed as a resource for staff to use to…Continue Reading T&L Showcase: Using Module Roadmaps & Weekly Plans
TEL Showcase – Flipped Learning
Many thanks to our speakers: Dr Sakhtivel Vaiyapuri (SCFP), Mrs Daniela Standen (ISLI), Dr Evangelos Delivopoulos (SBS) and Professor Jane Setter (SLL) for sharing their experience and insights at the recent TEL Showcase about Flipped Learning (16 September 2020). Flipped learning is a pedagogical approach in which the conventional notion of classroom-based learning is inverted:…Continue Reading TEL Showcase – Flipped Learning