Search Results

Frequently Asked Questions Helpful Information - This section will be amended on a regular basis as necessary. Moodle Help Office 365 Help Ally for Moodle Moodle Moodle Access Moodle (Staff) Moodle (Student) Enhancement Turnitin How does Ally support inclusive education? What drives our use of Ally? Who should I contact with requests for advice and assistance with Ally? Staff should contact the Learning technology Team ( learningtech@wcs.ac.uk ) to request advice and assistance with Ally. Students should contact their tutor in the first instance. When can I use Ally? Now. Ally was made available to staff and students on January 26th 2023. Have a look at the dedicated Ally page on COLT to find out more about the service. What content types are checked by Ally? Ally checks, reports and advises on the following content types when uploaded to Moodle: PDF Microsoft Word PowerPoint Open Office Images. Ally does not check: Content hosted externally MS Stream content MS Teams Work submitted by students. What are the most commonly reported and serious accessibility issues? Moodle-wide content accessibility reports flag up the following issues as widespread and either severe or major: Documents with contrast issues Images without alternative-text Documents with no headings PDF documents that have been scanned as images rather than text Videos without closed captions. Within Moodle Ally explains why and how to fix these issues, however the Learning Technology team have created self-directed courses on Evolve that staff can undertake to gain a better understanding of accessibility and design of online and blended courses. Accessibility of Online Learning Designing Digitally WCS Learning Standards Are there any videos to support staff & students in their use of Ally? Yes . A YouTube playlist of short videos has been curated for Ally. We have also created a dedicated Ally page on COLT the Centre of Learning technology website. Full playlist (5 videos) Students Alternative formats (45 secs) BeeLine reader (32 secs) Teachers Overview for teachers (1 min 28 secs) About alternative formats (56 secs) File accessibility (1 min 6 secs) Can the playback speed of MP3 audio files be controlled? Yes . Most players allow you to adjust playback speed. For example, Windows Media player, VIC, Audacity, and iTunes/Music. Which devices and apps can I use to view ePub files? The ePub alternative creates a digital publishing file that can be viewed on mobile devices. ePub files are reflowable. Reflowable means that the content displayed automatically adapts to the device it is viewed on. Here are a few suggested apps for ePubs: Apple: EasyReader , iBooks, Voice Dream, NaturalReader , and Thorium Reader Android: EasyReader , Lithium and Voice Aloud Reader Windows: Calibre, Icecream Ebook Reader , NaturalReader , and Thorium Reader Linux: Thorium Reader . How can I learn how to write effective alt-text for images? The Poet tool is a great resource to learn when and how to describe effective alt-text for images. There is also a useful decision chart to learn when to use alt-text. Are there any limitations? Here are those we already know about: The range and quality of the alternative formats can depend on the original file; and not all files can be transformed Ally does not recognise or report on every example of inaccessible content. For example, it may flag up the false positive of an image with an alternative description - but will not report on the quality of the description (see section above on how to write effective alt-text) Audio files (MP3 format) can be created only for documents with fewer than 100 000 characters. There are no credible research articles that confirm the claims made regarding the efficacy of the Beeline reader format LaTeX PDFs score very lowly in the accessibility report because these are not tagged in such a way that screen readers can assist with them. Additionally, the HTML alternative format may struggle to accurately reproduce some content, e.g., mathematical formulae.

Turnitin Turnitin provides tutors with the tools to engage students in the writing process, provide personalized feedback, and assess student progress over time. Turnitin is used by more than 30 million students at 15,000 institutions in 150 countries. Use feedback studio to prevent plagiarism and provide meaningful feedback. Provide feedback to encourage original writing using drag-and-drop, voice, and text comments. Turnitin Video Guides Turnitin Video Guides Play Video Share Whole Channel This Video Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tumblr Copy Link Link Copied Search videos Search video... Now Playing Creating and managing Turnitin on Moodle for staff 06:40 Play Video Now Playing How to check for plagiarism using Turnitin through Moodle student view YouTube 03:25 Play Video Now Playing Submitting a Turnitin® Assignment in Moodle 03:23 Play Video Help Site Click to access the Turnitin support site. Create Assignment Click for guidance on how to create an assignment for your students using the Turnitin Moodle plugin. Delete Submission Need to delete a students submission from Turnitin on Moodle? Click here for guidance. Similarity Report Click for guidance on how to interpret the similarity report. Turnitin How do I access Turnitin for my assignments? Your tutor will set up a Turnitin assignment within your course or subject on Moodle. Simply log in to Moodle and navigate to your course to find the Turnitin assignment. How can I set up Turnitin assignments for my students? Find detailed instructions on setting up Turnitin assignments on the COLT Turnitin page . Additional information can be accessed through the Turnitin document , explaining the integration into Moodle instead of Teams. Why is Turnitin integrated into Moodle and not Teams? Our Turnitin integration is designed to streamline the assignment submission and originality detection process. Refer to our Turnitin document for insights into the reasons behind its integration within Moodle.

Discord This is a communication tool which specialises in text, image, video and audio communication between users in a chat. It combines the features of a chat lobby, a message board and a VoIP chatting. Why use Discord rather than another platform? Discord is particularly popular with gamers and young people so may be more engaging for them. Here’s a useful link on how to set it up as a classroom. Explore and enjoy! If you have difficulties with this, please click on the link below to contact the Digital Strategy Group General - WCS Digital Strategy Group

CoLT is dedicated to ensuring our website is accessible to all users, adhering to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0, Level AA). We strive to make our content user-friendly for everyone, including those with disabilities. While we aim for full compliance, some areas may still need improvement due to the dynamic nature of our site. We welcome feedback to help us enhance accessibility. Contact the Learning Technology Team at West College Scotland at learningtech@wcs.ac.uk. Accessibility Policy Committed to your Needs CoLT is committed to providing a website that is accessible to the widest possible audience, regardless of circumstance and ability. We aim to adhere as closely as possible to the Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0, Level AA), published by the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C). These guidelines explain how to make Web content more accessible for people with disabilities. Conformance with these guidelines will help make the web more user friendly to everyone. Whilst CoLT strive to adhere to the guidelines and standards for accessibility, it is not always possible to do so in all areas of the website and we are currently working to achieve this. Be aware that due to the dynamic nature of the website, minor issues may occasionally occur as it is updated regularly. We are continually seeking out solutions that will bring all areas of the site up to the same level of overall web accessibility. If you have any comments and or suggestions relating to improving the accessibility of our site, please don't hesitate to contact the Learning Technology Team at West College Scotland at learningtech@wcs.ac.uk (email link is also below). Your feedback will help us make improvements. Email the Team Privacy Policy Privacy Policy What information do we collect? The information we collect from you when registering, or as part of an online service is exclusively for the use of West College Scotland. This may include your email address and perhaps your first and last names. Under the Data Protection Act you have the right to request a copy of all personal information we hold for you. Site Statistics We do gather non-personal data regarding site visitors to our website. This is provided to use statistical information on visits to pages, type of browsers being used to view the site, paths taken through the site and other general information. Under no circumstances can this be linked to a particular person. Cookies A "cookie" is a small text file, which helps the server to identify your computer but not the individual. The cookies help us to make your visitor session more personal, and enriching experience. If you wish not to have this facility you are able to disable cookies using that option in your particular browsers settings. Here is an overview of the cookies used by West College Scotland CoLT: Cookie Name - Purpose - Duration - Cookie Type XSRF-TOKEN - Used for security reasons - Session - Essential hs - Used for security reasons - Session - Essential svSession - Used in connection with user login - 2 years - Essential SSR-caching - Used to indicate the system from which the site was rendered -1 minute - Essential _wixCIDX - Used for system monitoring/debugging - 3 months - Essential _wix_browser_sess - Used for system monitoring/debugging - session - Essential consent-policy - Used for cookie banner parameters - 12 months - Essential smSession - Used to identify logged in site members - Session - Essential TS* - Used for security and anti-fraud reasons - Session - Essential bSession - Used for system effectiveness measurement - 30 minutes - Essential fedops.logger.sessionId - Used for stability/effectiveness measurement - 12 months - Essential Google Analytics (_utma, _utmb, _utmc, _utmz) - These cookies are used to collect information about how visitors use our site. We use the information to compile reports and to help us improve the site. The cookies collect information in an anonymous form, including the number of visitors to the site, where visitors have come to the site from and the pages they visited. Disclosure of Information In addition to these safeguards, your personal data is protected in the UK by the Data Protection Act 1998. This provides amongst other things that the data we hold about you should be processed lawfully and fairly. It should be accurate, relevant and not excessive. The information should be kept up to date, where necessary, and not retained for longer than is necessary. It should be kept securely to prevent unauthorised access by other people. Removing subscription to mailing lists If at any time our site contains subscription mailing lists there will always be the option to remove you from the aforementioned list. Normally this, "unsubscribe" option will appear at the bottom of the most recently sent email newsletter. If you don’t want us to process your data anymore, please contact us at learningtech@wcs.ac.uk or send us mail to: West College Scotland, Learning Technology Department, Renfrew Road, Paisley, PA3 4DR. Security West College Scotland is bound by the Data Protection Act 1998 and will comply with its requirements. Any details you give will remain completely confidential. Having gained access to the client’s area, we would strongly recommend that you do not divulge your username or password to anyone. Please always remember to log out of your account and close your browser window when you have finished using them. This ensures that others cannot access your personal data especially when using a shared, or public access computer terminal. Changes to Privacy Policy West College Scotland reserves the right to modify and update the terms and conditions of this website. In continually striving to improve our service for our clients we need to be able to enhance the site in ways deemed appropriate.

Digital Resources for WCS Staff and Students Digital Resources from the Library We provide access to digital resources to enhance learning and teaching. This includes access to eBooks, journals, newspapers, educational Videos, freeview television and more. Links to these materials can be embedded within Moodle. All resources can be accessed remotely, either with an OpenAthens account, your College Office 365 account or a platform-specific login provided by the Library Team. To find out more about accessing resources, speak to a member of the Library Team at your campus or contact us at library@wcs.ac.uk To access the resources below simply click on the resource title. Check out our @WCSLibraries Wakelet for textbooks, digital resources, DVD's, Journals and more! Reference, Images and Videos Ebooks Newspapers and Journals Anatomy.TV provides interactive 3D models of the human body to aid learning of anatomy and physiology. This is a valuable resource for students studying beauty, nursing and sport. Anatomy.TV OpenAthens Anatomy.TV Link: Title: Description: Access via: Britannica Academic provides access to up-to-date, fact-checked articles on a wide variety of subjects, acting as a gateway to further research. Additional reference tools include the Merriam-Webster dictionary, a world atlas, selected primary sources, newsfeeds, videos and images. ImageQuest provides access to millions of rights-cleared images for educational use. Britannica Academic and ImageQuest OpenAthens Britannica Academic and ImageQuest Link: Title Description: Access via: ClickView provides access to a wealth of curriculum-mapped educational videos, including resources from the Blended Learning Consortium, and programming from freeview TV channels. Videos can be saved to the College’s video libraries and embedded within Moodle to support flipped learning within the classroom. ClickView College network login ClickView Link: Title Description: Access via: Drama Online delivers access to a core collection of drama texts from the works of Aeschylus to modern day playwrights such as Jez Butterworth and Mike Bartlett. In addition to the Core Collection (1700 texts) we also subscribe to Nick Hern Books Modern Plays (570 texts). Drama Online OpenAthens Drama Online Link: Title Description: Access via: MediaPlus is a JISC service for higher and further education delivering access to more than 100,000 videos, images and sound recordings. Includes content from Channel4 News, Films of Scotland, the Wellcome Library and TeachersTV. MediaPlus for Further Education OpenAthens MediaPlus Link: Title Description: Access via: Ebooks Reference, Images and Videos Newspapers and Journals Title: Access to book and journal content from Cambridge University Press including Cambridge Companions, Elementals, Histories and the Shakespeare Survey. Cambridge Core OpenAthens Cambridge Core Description: Access via: Link: Title EBSCO ebooks for FE is a collection of 3000+ titles mapped to the FE curriculum. All titles are digital-rights-management free so there is no restriction on usage at any time. The titles available can be read online or downloaded to other devices for a specified loan period. Links to each title can be embedded within Moodle. EBSCO ebooks for FE OpenAthens EBSCO ebooks for FE Description: Access via: Link: Title JISC ebooks for FE is a free collection of titles mapped to the FE curriculum. All titles are digital-rights-management free so there is no restriction on usage at any time. The titles available can be read online or downloaded to other devices for a specified loan period. Links to each title can be embedded within Moodle. JISC ebooks for FE College network login JISC ebooks for FE Description: Access via: Link: Title VLE Books hosts ebook copies of titles purchased by the Library that are not available via our other subscribed collections. The titles available can be read online or downloaded to other devices for a specified loan period depending on the license model of the ebook. Permalinks to each title can be embedded within Moodle. VLE Books OpenAthens VLE Books Description: Access via: Link: Digital Resources: List Newspapers and Journals Reference, Images and Videos Ebooks Title: CINAHL with Full Text is a powerful research database, indexing over 5,500 nursing and allied health journals and providing access to more than 600 full-text journals. CINAHL OpenAthens CINAHL Description: Access via: Link: Title Give your students the edge with Review Magazines from Hodder Education. Choose from print or eMagazines for A-level and GCSE students. Hodder Education Magazines Staff and Students log in with your Office 365 account Hodder Education Magazines Description: Access via: Link: Title Full-text access to multi-disciplinary journals covering Health Sciences, Life and Biomedical Sciences, Materials Sciences and Engineering and Social Sciences and Humanities. SAGE Journals OpenAthens SAGE Journals Description: Access via: Link: Digital Resources: List

Information on Microsoft Excel Excel Turn data into insights Enhanced by intelligence, Excel learns your patterns, organizing your data to save you time. Create spreadsheets with ease from templates or on your own, and perform calculations with modern formulas. Get a better picture of your data New charts and graphs help you present your data in compelling ways, with formatting, sparklines, and tables to better understand your data. Easily create forecasts with just a click to predict trends. Work better together Share your workbook with others and always work on the latest version for real-time collaboration to help get work done faster. With Office 365, work within an Excel file from mobile, desktop, and web.2 Excel Guides Quickstart Introduction to Excel Cells Formatting Charts All Guides Excel All Categories Play Video Play Video 00:48 Analyze your data quickly in Excel Excel's Quick Analysis button lets you instantly create different types of charts, including line and column charts, or add miniature graphs called sparklines. Learn more at the Excel Help Center: https://support.office.com/excel Play Video Play Video 01:07 Conditional formatting in Microsoft Excel Conditional formatting in Excel provides visual cues to help you quickly make sense of your data. For example, it’ll clearly show highs and lows, or other data trends based on criteria you provide. Learn more at the Excel Help Center: https://support.office.com/excel Play Video Play Video 01:11 Apply styles in Excel Apply Excel Styles to make your cells stand out. Learn more at the Excel Help Center: https://support.office.com/excel Play Video Play Video 01:40 Creating Microsoft Excel formulas and functions Find out how to create Microsoft Excel formulas and functions, which are short cuts for formulas, and discover how Excel can help you do more in less time. Learn more at the Office 365 Training Center: https://msft.it/6008T9ou6

Information on some of our communication tools Microsoft Teams All about MS Teams Myday Staff Intranet page all about myday Office 365 All about office 365 and the tools it offers Moodle Information on our VLE (virtual learning environment) Moodle Communication and Collaboration

Skype for Business UPDATE: Microsoft Teams is now the standard communication tool at WCS. Our WCS standard communication tool which enables calls, online meetings, instant messaging, document sharing, voice over, voicemail, file transfers, video conferencing, web conferencing and email. Up to 250 people can join a meeting/class at any one time, although only 6 faces can be seen on the screen at one time. Why use Skype rather than any other platform? Skype is essentially a telecommunications application, all calls are made from your college account and appear to originate from inside the organisation, ideal for calling colleagues or students. Screen share facility allows remote members of meeting to work on same document at the same time. Explore the numerous capabilities of Skype to aid you in your day to day work here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7_c4zVJ739M enjoy! If you have difficulties with this, please click on the link here to contact General - WCS Digital Strategy Group

Some tools to help you with your Learning Technologies Tools Office 365 Loggin On, OneDrive, Outlook, PowerPoint, OneNote, Word, Excel, Sway, Teams Accessibility Checklist, Screen Readers, Video Guides, Windows Guides, Creating Documents. College Zone Distance Learning, Enhancement, Staff Development, Moodle, Staff Intranet Communication Collaboration, Skype, Zoom, MS Teams, MyWest (MyDay), Office 365, Moodle, Discord, WebEx Tools for Assessment Turnitin, Kahoot, Moodle Assessment Tools for Creation Digital resources, BLC, ClickView, H5P, Sway, Khan Academy, Lumen 5, ScreenCastify, PowerPoint Staff Development The Staff Room, Learning and Development Team site, CPD Review.

Meet the learning technology team at West College Scotland Explore Our Guides and Support We cover a range of information and resources to help you with digital learning and building your digital skills. You’ll find guidance on: Office 365 Microsoft Teams Accessibility information Moodle guides WCS-specific resources in the College Zone If you’re looking to create your own content, we also provide tools for: Interactive elements Assessments For extra support, check out: Our FAQ section The search function Still stuck? Drop us a message at learningtech@wcs.ac.uk and we will point you in the right direction. Meet the Team Emma Hanna Learning Technology Team Leader emma.hanna@wcs.ac.uk Lindsay Took Learning Technologist lindsay.took@wcs.ac.uk Paul Leavy Learning Technologist paul.leavy@wcs.ac.uk How Can We Help The Learning Technology Team is here to help the college make effective use of information and communication technology in learning and teaching. We offer advice and assistance in the design, development, adaptation, and use of electronic learning systems, resources, and strategies such as Moodle, Turnitin, BLC resources and more. Our staff can also provide practical development skills to create interactive learning resources tailored to the needs of different curricular areas. Our support services include: Just-in-time email support, with availability for calls on Microsoft Teams One-to-one or small group training sessions on Microsoft Teams or face-to-face Curriculum team workshops delivered as needed on Microsoft Teams or face-to-face Accessibility Policy Contact the Team