Students said, we did

Notes, slides, reading lists and other materials should be available further in advance and recordings 24 hours after lectures. 

Published the Digitally Supported Inclusive Teaching Toolkit which recommends standard access to learning resources at least 24 hours in advance. 

Worked with the Disability Advisory Service in developing the Disability Inclusion Statement (and SSP – student support plans). SSP A suggests practices and standard reasonable adjustments, including access to lecture recordings until relevant assessments have been completed. 

More training on digital technologies and increased awareness of resources before the programme starts. 

Updated student guidance course on Canvas. 

Supported the IT Learning Centre in developing the student digital skills health check. 

Worked with course teams to improve resources to support student inductions, particularly the Canvas student induction slides.  

Inconsistent Canvas use between lecturers and across programmes. 

Continued work with departments to implement locally customised Canvas course templates to promote a consistent approach.  

Information/links not up to date on Canvas. 

Employed four new Digital Education Assistants as part of the Canvas Inclusive Teaching Enhancements 2 (ITE2) Project to provide hands-on support for departments in updating their Canvas pages. 

Canvas can be difficult to navigate/difficult to find what we need. 

Employed four new Digital Education Assistants as part of the Canvas Inclusive Teaching Enhancements 2 (ITE2) Project to support departments to develop and design more consistent Canvas content and activities. 

Launched a Page Enhancements tool to better structure home pages (and other pages) within a Canvas course.

Lack of support and guidance on Canvas. 

Updated the student guidance course on Canvas. 

Updated Canvas induction slides for departments to share with students during orientation week. 

Worked closely with digital skills and academic skills student interns in the Centre for Teaching and Learning over summer 2023 to ensure Canvas support work feeds into wider initiatives involving the student voice.

Continued to post regular announcements on Canvas sharing hints and tips for students.

Technical issues/not mobile friendly. 

Instructure (service provider for Canvas) continued to regularly release Canvas updates to resolve technical issues. 

Students can access a variety of help resources on the Help menu in Canvas (SSO required), for individual queries.

Low audio/video quality.

Launched a new audio-visual support service to help departments and colleges.

Commenced a process of review and updates of our guidance documentation to ensure that users have up-to-date information on how to get the most out of the Panopto toolset.  

Begun undertaking a full audit of Panopto-enabled teaching spaces across the University to provide opportunities for improvements to existing audio-visual systems.  

Delivered recommendations for an IT Infrastructure Service Review as part of Digital Transformation.  

Inaccurate captions. 

Held one-to-one sessions with senior Panopto staff to discuss Oxford’s needs, report user feedback and request improvements.  

Lack of access to recordings. 

Worked with the Disability Advisory Service in developing the Disability Inclusion Statement (SSP A) which suggests inclusive practices and standard reasonable adjustments, including access to lecture recordings until relevant assessments have been completed. 

Many technical issues.                 

Microsoft are continually improving Teams, including improving reliability when using it on older hardware. Ensure you are always using the most up-to-date version of the software and download the app instead of relying on the browser version. 

Teams 2.0 is now available, and has been designed specifically to address various issues. It is up to 2X faster, whether you are launching the app, joining meetings, or switching chats or channels. It also uses up to 50% less memory and disk space utilisation, and has lower CPU usage. 

Not widely used.  

Reinforced the need to publish lists in advance, as part of regular communications to ORLO list owners. 

Continued the ‘e-first policy’ where possible, for reading list material. 

Promoted and provided support for ORLO to help departments embed ORLO as a sustainable tool for teaching.

Flagged up ORLO lists during Bodleian central inductions. 

Issues with structure and usability. 

In 2024, we are transitioning to Leganto to deliver ORLO. As part of its implementation, we will review list-owner training on the structure, and the integration of reading lists with Canvas pages.

Leganto will help with the monitoring of broken links by attaching broken link reports to SSO usernames, so that ORLO co-ordinators can follow up with list owners. 

Technical issues 

Raised the issue of technical problems when using Chrome with Talis (current service provider for ORLO). 

Include multiple browser and mobile testing as part of the forthcoming Leganto implementation. 

Platform integration across all digital education platforms (eg one unified access process).

Begun working with Digital Transformation on the Student Hub project to consolidate access to a number of student services through a single online site and/or app.