StudyNet is introducing improvements to navigation, search functionality, modules, assignments, and student support based on usage data and feedback to make content easier for students to find and for staff to manage; new features include a redesigned portal, course monitoring dashboard, personal timetables, and Adobe Connect virtual classrooms; additional changes aim to streamline processes and encourage best practices for organizing teaching materials.

1. StudyNet Developments for 2013/14
Greg Bowie & David Harding

2. Today’s session
Please ensure you know where the fire exits are
Session is scheduled for 3 hours
Session will be led by Greg Bowie and David Harding
Depending upon how we are doing for time, we might break for coffee half
way through the session.
There will be an opportunity to ask questions at the end, but please feel free
to ask for clarification at any time.
We will email the slides out to you after the session ends.

3. 3
How are changes decided?
StudyNet Development
Group
(Representatives from all
Schools, and LTI)
External factors
(UH organisational changes,
changes to other systems)
StudyNet feedback, internal
suggestions
StudyNet Changes

4. New interface
David Harding

5. Previous navigation
• Perceived issues with the old design
– Menus confusing to new students
– Common web-sites, such as Facebook, do not have lots of menu options
• Old design methods of navigation
- Information is owned by and structured into ‘Services’
- Students search for answers not services.
- Most questions related to IH, Student Centre, ASU

6. Top Searches – January 2013 to June 2013
eduroam - 3663
timetable - 3580
vpn - 2381
voyager - 2294
asu - 1948
student allocator - 1929
study room - 1539
athens - 1500
turnitin - 1419
harvard referencing - 1291
book a room - 1180
referencing - 1148
study abroad - 1010
exam timetable - 981
mintel - 932
book room - 931
level 4 timetable - 901
student record - 792
Eduroam - 763
web of knowledge - 685
council tax - 620
book study room - 615
study rooms - 604
ASU - 594
book a study room - 578
room booking - 547
timetable link - 520
referencing guideline - 514
exam results - 499
5lfs0037 - 478
studyroom - 461
student handbook - 448
westlaw - 432
5lfs0030 - 431
map - 430
bob - 426
degree classification - 426
group study room - 423
Key:
Bold - Level 2 link
Red - Available every page
Blue - Should be highlighted on module page
* - IH managed
• What can we gather from this information?
– Highlights that many StudyNet users default to using search even when a top level link exists on every page.
– Module content is not always easy to locate – can we encourage some consistency across modules?
– Lots of level 1 links doesn’t always mean level 2 content is easy/obvious to locate.
– Is there something we can do to make the most commonly searched items easier to find?

7. Navigation - What were students not searching for
• News
• Social
• Services (ASU are the exception)
• StudyNet support (although previously a top-level link)
• Based on this evidence, a decision was made to remove 'Social', and 'News' menus and
merge all support areas under a new top-level page.
– News link is prominent on the Portal Homepage

8. Improved navigation
Personal links
Course activity
‘Learning Resource’ page
Student Support
Information Hertfordshire (Help)
StudyNet Support
Called it ‘Help and Support’ in case there’s
documentation that says click on ‘Help’ or
‘Student Support’.
Search StudyNet
Before:
After:

9. Portal - Staff

10. Portal - Student
Un-categorised news
Icon reflects ‘category’
Other systems
(Staff continue to see
module links + ‘Staff’ and
‘Research’ link)
Single UHSU link
Events - currently. Future upcoming assignments
and possibly feed from timetabling system
Space for ‘adverts’
Link to careers

11. Portal - News
• Restructured news page displaying most popular news
• No need to repost! If your message is being read, students will continue to click through.
‘Are you aged 25-35......’ was posted 7 days ago (read nearly 700 times)

12. Portal
• Restructured portal functionality. Some sections merged.
• Removing some under utilised functionality (by December 2013)
• Calendar, Personal Notes and References
• Available in the settings area for now
• Prominent search box

13. Search - Do people use ‘Search’ to navigate?
Page Footer
VPN - 2381
Voyager - 2294
Athens - 1500
Available from tab on homepage
Booking a room - 6800
Timetable - 5001
Student record - 792
Exam results - 499
Available on modules?
Referencing - 2953
Mintel - 932
Web of knowledge - 685
Student handbook - 448
Westlaw - 432
Facebook and Google Plus have limited navigation – focus on search

14. Search - Target Results
Page Footer
VPN - 2381
Voyager - 2294
Athens - 1500
Available from tab on homepage
Booking a room - 6800
Timetable - 5001
Student record - 792
Exam results - 499
Available on modules?
Referencing - 2953
Mintel - 932
Web of knowledge - 685
Student handbook - 448
Westlaw - 432
Google is tweaked to always return
prioritised results for most of the
keywords

15. Search – How has it changed?
• For students, we can now focus their search to look at module web-sites and general web-
sites that relate to their course – thus removing lots of useless results.
• For all users we are currently working on type-ahead links, which will provide a list of best
results (and cater for some spelling mistakes).
• The search is prominent at the top of every StudyNet page
• We can distinguish between pages intended for staff and students, ensuring irrelevant
results are not displayed

16. Modules
Greg Bowie

17. Assignments – Choosing/Uploading Marking Criteria
COMING VERY SOON
• Existing Feedback Schemes being phased out – so hold-off setting up your assignments if you can
• Marking Criteria Library
– Collection of Word Documents uploaded centrally by schools
• OR upload your own criteria document when creating assignment

18. Assignments – Mark Release
• If students not submitting on-line you have options to
– Enter marks directly
– Upload a spreadsheet
– Upload EVS results (sadly only with old TurningPoint version, discussing options with supplier)
• Previously these options all resulted in immediate release of marks
• Now you have the option to add the marks without releasing

19. Assignments – Mark Release
• Release marks when you are ready
• Module leader to have edit rights on first marker results so results can be released if the
first marker is unavailable.

20. Assignments – View feedback before marks
• Option when setting assignment “Hold Marks back until Students have viewed Feedback”

21. Assignments – View feedback before marks
• Students say they don’t get enough feedback
• Staff say that students don’t read the feedback!
• With option set, students are initially presented with feedback and no mark
• At the bottom of the feedback is a link to view the mark
• After this the mark is displayed with the feedback

22. Assignments – Listings
• Some modules have a lot of assignments,
difficult to manage when the listing of a
single assignment could take up the whole
screen
• More use made of icons (hover over text)
• Filters (Released, Future hand in, Awaiting
Marking etc)
• Order in ascending or descending date
order
• “Classic” View available for those who
prefered old style listing (Module
Homepage -> Website Configuration ->
Website Functionality)

23. Assignments – Listings

24. Disability and Class Lists
• Option to have students with disabilities listed at top of class list
• Makes it easier to get a list of requirements, say for an in-class test

25. Assignments – Other
• Weightings of assignment within overall module structure
– Export overall marks
• Moving assignment system to new servers:
– improved virus checker
– changes to file structures to increase download speed
– Support much large ZIP’d assignment downloads

26. External Examiners: Sample assignment submissions
• You may wish to choose submissions (students) to include in a sample for your examiner
• Per assignment allocate students to examiners
• Does not stop examiners seeing other submissions if they dig deeper
• How?
• StudyNet needs to know about the Examiner – register them on your module website as Staff (any category, StudyNet knows …)
• Access allocation screen by going to the marking area for the assignment
• Access allocation screen by going to the marking area for the assignment – External Examiner button

27. Targeting assignment submissions at External Examiners
• Allocation very similar to Marker
allocation
• Preview samples by clicking on “View
Report”
• Option to Include this assignment in
Examiners sample collection or not
• Examiner sees a “Your assignments”
and an “All” tab
– Not limited to the sample submissions
you have allocated

28. Assignments – Downloader
• Windows utility to allow all submission to be downloaded locally
• Standalone application. Icon will be added to desktop
• Stores files in ‘My documents’
• Can be downloaded from StudyNet Support area in the sidebar
Please do Exercise B

29. Students can't find things on StudyNet
• The majority of content on StudyNet is generated for teaching purposes
• Not designed to be searched for
– Inconsistent use across a course
– Often poor titles or file names. e.g. ‘Lecture notes’
– No descriptions or tags
– Inconsistent folder structure - Sometimes a mixture of week, topic and person folders
– Confusion over where teaching materials should go
• Teaching materials in ‘module information’
• Placed on umbrella ‘programme sites’ so can’t find them on modules
– Information not always ‘timely’

30. What we’re going to do
• Introducing new (optional) ‘creation template’
– Structured content
– Encourage good practice by recommending information to add
– Reduce link depth by encouraging a single level of ‘topics’ (folders)
• Content can be added to topic
– New function to add a discussion topic
• Auto naming of some content - for example ‘4COM0053 - Module Guide’ to improve search
results
• Auto tagging to relate items such as assignments to topics so that they can appear in-
context.
• Render teaching resources as single page for students so they don’t have to click in and out
of folder

31. Example wizard
• Welcome message
• How do you intend to use the module
– configures module’s options
– choose banner and ‘module icon’ (to help students identify material in activity stream)
• Choose the types of learning resources categories
• Add a module guide - we’ll control it’s name to make it more identifiable
• Main Module Structure
– Add Topic (or week)
• Add resources directly under topic.

32. Student Support
Greg Bowie

33. Student Support
• Tablet and laptop trackpad use have changed page
interaction. Scrolling in websites is becoming popular.
• Merging all support areas into one long page
• Top-half of the page is focused on solutions to problems
rather than by which service manages the pages.
• But all services will be presented at the top-level on this
page.

34. Student Support

35. Student Support

36. Adobe Connect
Greg Bowie

37. Adobe Connect Integration
• Allows web conferencing, screen sharing, chat, recording etc
• An alternative replacing ‘Elluminate’
• Three areas
– Virtual Classroom/Online session
– Online Seminar
– Private Meetings

38. Adobe Connect Integration
• Virtual Classroom/Online session
– Available within modules
– Intended for interactive teaching sessions
– Ability to record any or all of the session
• Recordings can optionally be made available to students or restricted to staff
– Accommodates up to 120 students
• NB Sessions with over 40 students can be difficult to manage and are less likely to be interactive.
– Bookable in half-hour increments

39. Adobe Connect Integration
• Booking a virtual classroom

40. Adobe Connect Integration
• Virtual Classroom session link in module teaching resources

41. Adobe Connect Integration
• How it appears before the scheduled time:

42. Adobe Connect Integration
• How it appears during the scheduled time:
Button launches Adobe Connect
and logs tutor in automatically

43. Adobe Connect
• Online seminar
– Available within modules
– Intended for large groups (~200)
• May be more suited to open days (for example)
– Ability to record any or all of the session
– Bookable as one of three slots within the day (morning, afternoon, evening)

44. Adobe Connect
• Private Meetings
– Available within ‘Groups and meetings’
– Intended for groups of up to 12
– Ability to record any or all of the session
– Bookable in half hourly
increments
– Can invite external
invitees
Please now try exercise C

45. Other New Features
David Harding

46. Improved Profile Photo Upload
• My StudyNet -> Settings -> Profile Image
• Supports uploading an image or Gravatar
profile image, if you use this elsewhere on the
web
• Crop tool resizes, crops and compresses
profile image
– Creates an image that is small in file size so will
keep page load times down where there are
lots of avatars on the page – i.e. activity
streams
– Easy to use click and drag crop tool, with
preview panel to show how your final profile
will display.
– Crops to correct dimensions for use on
StudyNet

47. ‘Achievements’ (name still to be confirmed)
• Get ‘badges’ for completing tasks within StudyNet
• Monitors ‘soft skills’. Examples might be:
– Update your profile with a photo and information
– Search for and access a journal
– Access a referencing guideline
– Borrow a book
– Access your student record
– View the induction video
• Initially concentrate on induction related ‘achievements’
• Acts as an alternative help system. e.g. ‘You’ve not
borrowed a book. Do you want to see how?’

48. ‘Achievements’ (name still to be confirmed)
• Page to display which badges have been awarded.
• Information on how to get badge
• Plans to later expand to courses and modules and allow staff to create their own course
related achievements.
• Plans to later display this achievements data Student Dashboard.

49. QuestionMark Perception
• Third party assessment management system
• StudyNet integration under development
Authoring: no change
• Scheduling tool under development - StudyNet
manages schedules
• Ensures smooth load on servers, improving
performance
• Auto-enrols students into groups
QuestionMark Perception (QMP)

50. 50
QuestionMark Perception (QMP)

51. Personalised Timetables
• Displaying personalised timetables within StudyNet.
• For launch providing a basic implementation
– Pulls in the timetable as rendered by the Timetabling system
• Working on possibility of offering improved display later
– Proper Week-by-week and Monthly Calendar views
– Colour coding of items in Timetable to make it clear which module an item relates to

52. StudyNet Course Monitoring
and the Student Dashboard
David Harding

53. What is it?
• A facility to aid both staff and students
• Pulls together engagement and performance information
• Help teachers identify where individual groups of students require
further support or guidance

54. Course Level Monitoring

55. Course Level Monitoring
• Overview of all students on a course instance
• Displays StudyNet usage and assignment performance statuses
• Overall status weighted in favour of assignment performance
• Customisable threshold for calculating StudyNet usage status
• Filters for displaying strong students or those who require further
support
• Links through to the Student Dashboard

56. Student Dashboard

57. Student Dashboard

58. The Student Dashboard
• Separate Staff and Student versions in development
• Staff version aims to help teachers identify where individual groups of students
require further support or guidance
• Student version aims to encourage and enable students to identify and act
upon their learning needs including seeking academic support and guidance
where necessary

59. The Student Dashboard
• Shows student StudyNet usage and assignment performance compared to
average for all of their modules
• Displays StudyNet usage and assignment performance statuses on a per-
module basis
• Overall status weighted in favour of assignment performance
• If accessing via Course Level Monitoring, the custom usage threshold is
passed into the dashboard and used for calculating usage status
• Student performance graphs for skill areas if used on Assignment System
Marking Scheme
• Option to select which academic year to display
• Shows student’s last StudyNet login date and time

60. What data is used?
• Currently, the following data is used in the Student Dashboard and Course
Monitoring:
• Student hits on Module sites within StudyNet
• Data from the student’s StudyNet profile, such as course information and last
login date/time.
• Data from StudyNet assignments created using the new assignment system.
• Only released marks are included
• Works for both online assignments marked through StudyNet or the
Offline Marking Client, and offline assignments where marks have been
uploaded using the marking sheet.
• In discussions and working with other teams about including other useful data
that will assist both staff and students.

61. Other Monitoring Facilities Within Modules
• All of the old StudyNet monitoring facilities are still available within module
sites
• The Dashboard and Course Monitoring are designed to complement these, not
repeat or replace them
• Additional Assignment Monitoring facilities are also available in modules
• Features Student Assignment performance league table
• A range of charts including how grades relate to module usage and hand-in
times

62. Module Assignment Monitoring

63. Module Assignment Monitoring

64. Questions
UH will soon be reviewing how we communicate, teach and assess students
online.
Q: How will students’ expectations change over the next five years?
Q: How will they want to communicate with us (and other students), and what
type of technology will they use?