Delivering Curriculum Online CDN has just launched a new Resource Bank of guides for Online/Blended Delivery. They have worked closely with the sector to create a core set of useful guides in the following five areas to support delivery for the upcoming academic year: Designing for Online/Blended Delivery Preparing Materials Education for All Managing the Online Space Formative Assessment and Feedback For each area, they have chosen two primary resources that covers relevant and practical information in a very concise format (10-15 minutes). If you want to dive deeper, there are two longer reads (around 1 hour). Finally, they have chosen a single longer resource – either an online course or significant read to explore an area in more detail. Check out the Online/Blended Delivery Resource Bank here Take a moment and listen to Kenji Lamb, Digital and Innovation Lead, provide a two-minute introduction to the online/blended delivery section of the resource bank:

We’re thrilled to share some innovative news that’s set to make teaching and learning even more dynamic at West College Scotland. You can now tap into a shared library of open educational resources powered by the H5P OER Hub — a growing collection of high-quality, interactive content created by educators from around the world. Whether you’re looking for engaging quizzes, interactive videos, or activities to inspire your students, this shared library is packed with ready-to-use materials that can save you time and spark fresh ideas in your teaching practice. Best of all, this is easily accessible and available at no extra cost. What’s in It for You? • Explore a vibrant catalogue of interactive teaching and learning content from the global education community. • Save time on prep by integrating ready-made activities straight into your courses. • Innovate your teaching with interactive resources that enhance student engagement. How to Access the Shared Resources Getting started is quick and straightforward: Find content inside the editor: Whenever you create or edit H5P content you’ll see a “Get Shared Content” option. Browse and select Select that option to browse the shared library, search for resources relevant to your subject, and insert them directly into your course. This new shared library is an exciting leap forward in making high-quality teaching materials more accessible and collaborative for our educators. Jump in, explore, and let it inspire your next great lesson!

Digital learning supports blended delivery, flexible study routes, and inclusive practice. The updates to Articulate 360 introduces several practical improvements, with Rise 360 offering particularly useful enhancements that align well with everyday FE teaching needs. Below are the key updates, with a particular focus on enhancements within Rise 360 Manage Blocks — Faster Updates and Smarter Reuse Updating online learning materials can be time-consuming, especially when courses need adapted for different cohorts or delivery modes. The new Manage Blocks  feature allows you to select, move, duplicate, or reorganise multiple content blocks in one action, rather than editing content block by block. This makes it easier to keep materials up to date while maintaining consistency across courses. Try this in Rise: Open a lesson, select Manage Blocks, highlight several blocks, and drag them into a new order or copy them into another lesson. AI-Generated Captions — Currently Unavailable, but One to Watch You may notice that Rise 360 now includes AI-generated captioning tools designed to automatically create captions for video content. At present, these AI features are not yet available to use. Once accessible, this functionality has strong potential to: Reduce the time required to caption videos Support accessibility expectations more efficiently Improve consistency across digital learning materials For now, captions will continue to be created using existing methods. However, this update signals a positive direction for future accessibility support. AI Image Generation — Currently Unavailable, but Promising Rise 360 also includes enhanced AI image generation tools , allowing authors to create subject-specific visuals directly within the platform. At present, we’re not able to use these AI image generation features  within our institutional setup. In the future, this could support FE staff by: Creating contextualised visuals for vocational subjects Reducing reliance on generic stock imagery Quickly tailoring visuals to learner cohorts and subject areas Although unavailable at the moment, this feature highlights how AI could support more relevant and engaging learning design.  AI in Articulate 360 — Not Available Yet, but Worth Watching Articulate is increasingly embedding AI across its tools. At present, AI functionality is not yet available. As these features become available, they could: Speed up content creation and updating Support accessibility and inclusive design Help adapt materials for different learner needs For now, this is best viewed as a future opportunity rather than a current capability. In Summary The latest Rise 360 updates focus on saving time, improving flexibility, and strengthening accessibility  — These enhancements offer realistic, practical ways to improve digital learning design without increasing lecturer workload. As we continue to develop digital learning across West College Scotland, it’s worth keeping in mind that accessibility is essential for some, but useful for all .

Moodle Assessment Curriculum staff are responsible for setting up, grading and giving feedback on assignments and quizzes on Moodle. On each course, you need to have a course contact , lecturer or group-lecturer role to do this. The course contact should enrol you as lecturer or group-lecturer. To find the name of the course contact simply navigate to the course in Moodle. The name of the course contact is detailed under the title of the course and on the enrolment options page. Marking of assignments can be carried out by non-editing lecturer but for the most part you will need to have Teacher (Editor) access Handy Hints If you are new to Moodle our PDF guides use screen shots of our WCS Moodle. They are very clear and step-by-step. Our guides have logical titles like Adding a Quiz and Questions and Create Assignment . There is a link to all our Moodle guides at the bottom of this page. The video guides below have been created using a generic Moodle course but the tools and functionality is the same as our WCS Moodle. Turnitin similarity tool You can now enable Turnitin similarity checker within a Moodle Assignment. Turning this on will enable you to check the similarity of students work, grade and leave feedback using Turnitin within your students’ assessments. View our Turnitin guides for more information on how to use Turnitin. Formative and summative assessment should be in alignment with learning outcomes. Formative and summative assessment should be in alignment with learning outcomes. Feedback is key to student development. Assessment should be part of curriculum design and directly relate to the learning outcomes Curriculum teams should look at assessment at course level, where task workload, assessment diversity and equality along with course learning outcomes can be managed holistically. Assessment should be valid Ensure that assessment tasks align with the assessment criteria and measure student attainment of the intended learning objectives. Assessment should be inclusive and equitable Assessment tasks and processes should not disadvantage any group or individual students, while academic standards are maintained. Quiz A quiz can be used to assess learners formatively or summatively if you have specific answers to your questions. Moodle main page Click to access everything Moodle. Assignment guide How to use the built in Moodle assignment tool. Click to access specifically the assignment tool guide. Quiz guide How to use the built in quiz tool in Moodle. Click to access specifically the quiz tool guide. All Moodle guides Access all of our WCS guides to help you use Moodle effectively.

Some tools you can use to enhance the learning experience of your learners Tools for Creation Resources Digital Resources Our Library Team have gathered together a vast range of digital resources available to the college. BLC Resources The BLC - Blended Learning Consortium, has a bank of ready to use content covering many subjects Vocational Resource Bank Wide range of free vocational resources. Clickview Click View is a huge library of teaching resources - mapped to the National Curriculum & used by 302412 educators Khan Academy Khan Academy offers practice exercises, instructional videos, and a personalized learning dashboard that empower learners to study at their own pace in and outside of the classroom girl jumping for joy We have gathered together a list of websites where you can get free/creative commons images for use in your educational projects. Create your own H5P H5P is an easy program in Moodle that makes it easy to create, share and reuse interactive HTML5 content Rise 360 Create beautiful, inherently responsive e-learning with Rise 360. It's responsive authoring the way it should be. (Staff only access.) Sway Sway is a lightweight, cloud-only, story-telling application that is easier to use than PowerPoint and provides more narrative devices than simply slide after slide of bullet points PowerPoint You can record your computer screen and related audio, and then embed it in your PowerPoint slide—or you can save it as a separate file Lumen5 Lumen5 is a video creation platform that turns blog posts into social videos Wakelet A free platform to curate and organize content. Tools to Help Screencastify Screencastify is an ultra simple screen recorder that will supercharge the way you communicate at work. Record, edit and share HD videos in seconds ZoomIt A great tool to work with MS Teams (or any other web conf tool) when presenting - It allows you to zoom into parts of your screen eg: your browser etc. and to annotate on anything.

Some Hints and Tips of making your content accessible. Accessibility Universities, colleges, councils and other public sector organisations have a requirement to meet new digital accessibility regulations - the first deadline for which was on Monday 23 September 2019. Fix your Content Help improving your online content, making it more accessible, interactive and promoting engagement. Accessibility Guides Guides and resources to assist you make accessible content. Ally Accessibility Toolkit BB Ally has now been enabled on WCS Moodle. Click to find out more. Accessibility Checklist A checklist you can use to make sure your documents meet accessibility legislation. Windows Accessibility Windows ease of access, Narrator, magnifier, high contrast. SCULPT for Accessibility When thinking about accessibility, start with SCULPT. Structure, Colour and contrast, Use of images, Links, Plain English and Table structure. Visit the SCULPT website. Immersive Reader Video from Microsoft all about their free immersive reader. ReachDeck Link to ReachDeck (previously known as browse aloud) video guide Screen Readers Information from RNIB on Technology. Video Guide Video Guide from Microsoft on their very useful Accessibility Checker. Ability Net Fact-sheet from AbilityNet on creating accessible documents. Accessible Hyperlinks NC State University have produced an excellent resource on how to easily create accessible hyperlinks. Visit the NC State University website to have a look. Read AbilityNets blog: Is your public sector website prepared for new regulations? News, Information and Webinar Recordings on the implementation of the Accessibility Legislation News, Information and Webinar Recordings on the implementation of the Accessibility Legislation