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Zoom Looking for a way to meet each other remotely or bring a full class together? Try out Zoom! Zoom is a video communications tool, with an easy, reliable cloud platform for video and audio conferencing. You should make sure any meetings held are set to private not public and, as always, don’t click on any links unless you’re 100% certain who you got the link from and where it goes. It shouldn’t be used for file transfer, data transfer or chat facilities as these forms of data are not covered by GDPR and the chat function goes public for anyone to see. Security… is paramount. There’s been some negative press which the CEO of Zoom has indicated have mainly been rectified now. Do ensure when the meeting is created it’s not in ‘open’ or ‘public’ format as you risk security and being trolled. Also, there are many images of Zoom on twitter where the public ID was visible so it’s always good to be mindful of that too. Why use Zoom rather than any other platform? Zoom is ideal for classrooms or meetings up to 100 people at any one time. Although stable and produces great quality video calls, the free version has a 40 minute limit. You can however set up other 40 minute sessions straight afterwards. You can easily present a PowerPoint, or any application on your computer while talking. https://zoom.us/about You can choose to record sessions, collaborate on projects, and share or annotate on one another's screens, all with one easy-to-use platform. Zoom offers quality video, audio, and a wireless screen-sharing performance across Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS, Android, Blackberry, Zoom Rooms, and H. Many of you may already be using Zoom. If not, come and join the community! Jisc have issued this YouTube guide (skip the ads at the start) If students don’t have IT kit or broadband, don’t worry as you can join the meeting/class from a simple phone connection: Usually invitations are distributed by email invitation but the bare details (meeting ID number and numeric password) can go out on SMS The invited party dials a London number (+44 (0) 20 3695 0088) The voice prompt requests the meeting ID number followed by # They add a further # if they are not the meeting organiser – there’s guidance from the voice prompts They then join the meeting on the phone enjoy! If you have difficulties with this, please click on the link below to contact the Digital Strategy group. General - WCS Digital Strategy Group

Kahoot! Kahoot! makes it easy to create, share and play fun learning games or trivia quizzes in minutes. There are so many creative ways to use Kahoot! in classrooms, corporate training sessions and other scenarios. Introducing new topics, revising content, encouraging teamwork – you name it! When you play Kahoot! in a group setting, questions appear on a shared screen and players answer on their devices. When you Kahoot! in your own time, e.g., after class, you can do it in single-player mode in our app, or compete in a challenge. Watch the tutorials below for a recap! How to host a live game of kahoot Kahoot_signup Sign up for this easy game based learning tool. Kahoot How does Kahoot! Work? Click to find out. Kahoot! Summit FREE virtual PD event hosted by Kahoot! Science Direct article The effect of using Kahoot! for learning – A literature review

Outlook email from Microsoft using Office 365 Outlook Email, calendar, contacts all in one place Work efficiently with email, calendar, contacts, tasks, and more—together in one place. Office integration lets you share attachments right from OneDrive, access contacts, and view LinkedIn profiles. Stay organized and plan ahead Book conference rooms and track RSVPs for meetings right from your calendar. Make plans and coordinate schedules by sharing calendars and seeing when your coworkers are available. Security you can trust Get peace of mind with enterprise-grade security trusted by many of the world’s largest organizations. Outlook works around the clock to protect your confidential information without getting in your way. Outlook Guides Quickstart Set up and customize Create and send email Manage email Organize your inbox Contacts and tasks Calendar All guides Outlook All Categories Play Video Play Video 03:40 Outlook for Windows user experience update - Designed for simplicity Video tour of the user experience updates to Outlook for Windows. Introducing the Coming Soon feature that let's you try the new experience when it's convenient for you and provide feedback. Links: Learn more: http://msft.social/1sy1vV Microsoft Outlook: http://msft.social/GUEcSU Play Video Play Video 01:17 How to import Gmail calendars into Outlook Import your other calendars into Outlook so you can view your schedules in one place including internet calendars from Yahoo or Google. Learn more at the Office 365 Training Center: http://office.com/training Play Video Play Video 01:53 Organize your Inbox with rules in Outlook Create rules based on senders or recipients of messages, use rule templates, and delete a rule to help organize your email. Learn more at the Office 365 Training Center: http://office.com/training Play Video Play Video 01:57 Set an email flag, reminder, or color in Outlook Adding a category to an email message works as a visual reminder for handling the email message later. Learn how to add a category, a flag, set a reminder, and assign a color category to an email message. Learn more at the Office 365 Training Center: http://office.com/training Play Video Play Video 01:45 Create and use contact groups in Outlook If you often email a group of people, create a contact group in Outlook so you only need to email that contact group instead of individual emails. Learn more at the Office 365 Training Center: http://office.com/training

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 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. 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. I/my students need to finish off some work from last year but I cant find it on Moodle? We have created a Moodle 21/22 for staff and students that need to complete work from last year. This is a different URL (address) than the usuall moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk, as this will be used for session 22/23. If you are a staff member you can find the link to Moodle 21/22 on the staff intranet, if you are a student please contact your tutor who will be able to give you the address. Can students access Moodle from Home? Yes – Students can link directly to Moodle via: https://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk. On the login page, there is an area to enter the username and password exactly as they would from inside college. This is their WCS Office 365 email address(as supplied by the college) and password (same as Office 365 password). How can I access a course that does not show under My Courses? Your course contact will be able to add you. The course contact is listed under the title of the course in Moodle. Once the title is clicked you will see the enrolement options, the title of the course and the name of the course contact. How do I find my Course? All the courses you are attached to should be shown under My Courses on the top navigation bar once logged in. You can also navigate to courses using the navigation in the centre of the Moodle screen e.g. the Clydebank HNC Business course will be under the Hospitality, Business, Tourism and Languages section. Then follow the path - Hospitality, Business, Tourism and Languages ► Business ► Business ► Business Clydebank to find the course HNC Business Clydebank. How do I unenrol from a course I no longer need access to? There is a document in the Moodle Guides section called Remove me from Courses which will direct you through this process. How do my students get access to my course? Students are automatically attached to courses/units when they are enrolled on Unite. If the Unite course and class code was not given when the course/unit was setup, or if a new class needs access to an existing course/unit please contact webmaster@wcs.ac.uk and the class will be added to the course. How do I enrol a lecturer, does it need to be the Course Contact? If you have a lecturer role or a course contact role in the course on Moodle then you can enrol other members of staff. There is a document in the Moodle Guides section called Adding and Removing Users which will direct you through this process. My students do not appear in my Moodle course Students do not appear in any course until they first log on to Moodle when they are automatically attached to any courses they have been enrolled in. If you have a new class that is not attached, contact webmaster@wcs.ac.uk to get the class added to the course/subject. One of my students cannot access the course but the rest of the class can not. Please check with your QIA that the student is enrolled on the correct course and class in Unite. What is the Moodle ID? The Moodle ID is the number at the end of the URL in the address bar at the top of the page. It is also detailed in the Course Information block at the top right hand side of your screen. To open the block drawer click on the small arrow at the right hand side of your screen. My Students cannot see their Moodle courses in MyDay Students need to log into Moodle before their courses will appear on MyDay. As a staff member can I access Moodle from Home? Yes - as a member of staff there are 2 ways you can log in: On the staff intranet there is a link to the Learning Technologies site where you will find a link to Moodle: You can also link directly to Moodle via: https://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk. Login via Office 365 on or off campus. How can I log in to Moodle - I am a member of Staff? As a member of staff there are 2 ways you can log in: On the staff intranet there is a link to the Learning Technologies site where you will find a Moodle login button. You can also link directly to Moodle via: http://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk. On the login page, you will see an area where you can login with your WCS 365 account. My student has forgotten their Moodle password. This is the same password used to access Microsoft Teams/Office 365. To reset a password ask your student to click on forgot password on the login page of Moodle. Turnitin is showing a blank screen - Help? If you are still using Internet Explorer as your default browser, You may find that TurnitIn feedback studio is no longer working. The screen where you would have had the text of the assignment shows a blank page. This is due to it no longer being compatable with this browser. You have two options to rectify this: Option 1 (Reccomended) Simply use a newer browser like Chrome Chrome Logo Option 2 Revert to Turnitin Classic by clicking on Turnitin Classic at the bottom of your screen. My student doesn’t know their Moodle username and password? The students’ username is the their full WCS Office 365 mail address as supplied by the college. Their password is the same as their Office 365 password. They will not appear in your list of participants on Moodle until they have logged in. How do I add a new course or unit onto Moodle? The course request form found on the staff intranet in the Learning Technology request area. How do I add/amend/use Turnitin on Moodle? Please follow the Turnitin guides in the assessment section of the moodle guides page. My students are not showing in the participants list on Moodle. Student Access To Moodle Students should only be added manually to any course in Moodle as a last resort. We use cohort enrolments on Moodle which, when implemented correctly by all staff, ensures that all students enrolled on Unite have access to the correct course and units within Moodle. If your students do not show in your class or unit participants list, please first work through the following steps: Step 1: Check that the correct class (named cohort on Moodle) is attached to the course/unit in Moodle. If you are unsure how to do this please refer to the Moodle video guide: How to check what classes are attached to your course or unit on WCS Moodle. Step 2: If your class code is not attached please contact webmaster@wcs.ac.uk (in the first instance) or learningtech@wcs.ac.uk with the full class code and the Moodle ID(s) required. Step 3: If your class is attached but the student still does not show: Please check that the student has logged directly into Moodle via https://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk/(not MyWest/MyDay). Students do not appear on Moodle until they have logged on directly. Check with the student that they are using the correct office 365 account - you can find the student numbers on star portal. Check on star portal that the student is enrolled on the expected class code. Infill/Change of class code Please inform webmaster if you need an infill code to be attached. This can happen if it was not used in the previous academic year – class codes must include the last 5 characters i.e. PHNCIT-I211C. Similarly if your code has changed (apart from the year) this may also need updating on Moodle. If any changes are made on unite, it will update the student account on Moodle overnight. We do appreciate that there are exceptions, and for a small number of students they may need manually attached on a unit. For example: 1 student from another class that needs access to a unit but is not necessarily on an infill class code. For this reason we have amended lecturer permissions on Moodle to allow you to enrol with the student role. You may notice that we have added a warning message to the enrolment window highlighting the need to understand which role you enrol a user with. Please read and understand this warning before enrolling users onto courses. Note: the message will also show to users that are not enrolled if they try to access the course. Please note the enhancement procedure has not changed – please visit the enhancement area on the staff intranet for information. If there is anything that you are unsure about or wish to discuss please do not hesitate to contact the learning technology team by email learningtech@wcs.ac.uk. I am a tutor and can't find my course? As a tutor you may have been added to Moodle at category level so your course will not appear under 'My Courses'. Use the home page on Moodle to navigate to your section and course and click on the course title to access it. Remember this may be campus specific. Im trying to upload videos on Moodle but they are too big. To ensure we do not overload the Moodle servers we are advising that any videos are uploaded to YouTube as private or unlisted. A quick google search will show you how to do this if you are unsure. Then you can embed the YouTube video in your course - please see the guide showing you how to embed videos. How do I use the BLC resources. Please visit the BLC page on CoLT. How do I add a forum on Moodle? As a lecturer you can add forums into Moodle please use the guides for reference. How do I upload pre-recorded lessons from Stream into Moodle? Please use our step-by-step guide called:Using MS Teams Recordings for information on where your recordings are stored and how to upload them into Moodle. More instructional guides on all things Moodle are found under Moodle Guides. I know nothing about webinars - can you help? Please read the article posted on CoLT called A guide to working and teaching online. Help my students have ran out of quiz attempts and I want to give them more. Please follow the Moodle guide - Quiz attempts - Individual students. I am a student I can't log in to Moodle? Login by clicking on the Office 365 button (as show above), with your WCS Office 365 email address and password, (as provided by the college). When you change your Office 365 password, then you will also use this updated one for Moodle. If you have forgotten your password please click on forgot my password on the Moodle Login Page. Note: When students first log into Office 365 your password is your date of birth: DDMMYYYY - once you change your password in Office 365 it will also change in Moodle. I have forgotten my Moodle password? If you have forgotten your password, first ensure you are using the same password as your Office 365 account. If you have checked and are using the correct WCS office 365 email and password click on forgot password on the login page of Moodle. What is my Moodle Username and Password? Your Moodle username is your full WCS Office 365 email address (as supplied by the college). Your password is the same password you use to access Office 365 or Teams. Click on the Office 365 button on moodle to log in. You cannot change your password on Moodle; if you want to change your general password then you change it via Office 365. What is the enhancement process? Follow the Enhancement Guide The user guide, list of available units and request form is found in the eLearning Units link on the left hand side of the Learning Technologies Team site on the staff intranet. You will need to login with your college network account to access this content. 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. How does Ally support inclusive education? For College: Moodle-wide, granular reporting on accessibility of courses. Ally provides an accessibility overview report which shows how digital course content in Moodle is performing by month, term, or academic year. This can inform annual review, equality and diversity audits and compliance with the College Strategic Priorities. Reports include the following information: Overall Moodle accessibility score Departmental accessibility score Course accessibility score Total number of courses and content created All accessibility issues found - sorted by severity Which alternative formats are being used in Moodle - how often and in which courses Engagement with course accessibility reports - and action arising from these How does Ally support inclusive education? - For Teaching Staff: Feedback & advice on accessibility of materials Ally provides guidance to teachers on how to improve the accessibility of their Moodle course content. Find out more about file accessibility in this short video. Traffic light indicators of accessibility for each file in a Moodle course Each file is awarded an 'Accessibility score' Red: Low 0 - 33% File not accessible and needs immediate attention. Amber: Medium 34 - 66% File is somewhat accessible and could use improvement. Light Green: High 67-99% File is accessible but could be improved. Dark Green: Perfect 100% File is accessible. No improvement needed. Detailed feedback and support Clicking on the accessibility icon for a file helps identify and correct accessibility issues. Ally will: Display all the file's accessibility issues Describe of the most important accessibility issue Explain how the issue affects inclusive learning Offer step-by-step assistance on how to fix the issue Allow for editing of existing files and uploading of replacement files Course-wide accessibility reports Ally provides an overall course score and ways to quickly address course files at scale How does Ally support inclusive education? - For Students: Alternative Formats Ally creates on-demand alternative formats from your original course files, and makes them available for download so that students can engage with course content in a way that works best for them. Find out more about alternative formats in this short video. The alternative formats provided by Ally, and their benefits to students. What drives our use of Ally? - Legislation As an institution we are bound by numerous legal frameworks including the accessibility requirements for public bodies, the Equality Act (2010), and EU directives. The Equality Act In relation to disabled people, the Equality Act (2010) institutes a duty for public and private sector organisations (including Further Education Providers) to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in order to make sure that disabled people are not being disadvantaged. This includes making changes to the organisation’s provisions or practices, its physical features, or providing auxiliary aids, if a disabled person would be disadvantaged without these adaptations or provisions. It also includes an anticipatory duty on organisations, meaning that some of these changes or provisions should be made in advance of a disabled person needing them, rather than as a reaction to someone having been disadvantaged. EU Directive on Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications 2018 Requires all EU member states to make sure their websites and mobile apps meet common accessibility standards. The directive was transposed into the laws of each EU member state on 23 September 2018 and will continue within UK law. What drives our use of Ally? College Strategy Ally can help West College Scotland meet various strategic aims, including the following: Developing our agile and adaptive workforce to support the college "Collective Ambition" Raising awareness of accessibility and build towards a sustainable change in behaviour regarding inclusivity and accessibility across the College Responding to the current and future student demographic - improved support for disabled students, flexible, increased flexibility of learning materials, e.g. for commuting students. What drives our use of Ally? - Accessible & inclusive learning content The social model of disability suggests that the society or environment is disabling the individual rather than their impairment or difference - or situation. Accessibility is about designing out any unnecessary barriers that make it harder to engage and take part in everyday activities. Being inclusive is about giving equal access and opportunities to everyone wherever possible. In education this involves reducing and overcoming the barriers that might occur in digital content, teaching & learning activities, and assessments. For example: Students with a visual impairment can benefit from converting textual content to audio files or braille Students with a specific learning difficulty can benefit from the range of alternative formats that can integrate with Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) funded assistive technology software. Providing accessible learning content can benefit all learners. Examples include: Providing Closed Captions for recorded lectures not only benefits those with aural impairments, but can assist all students - both home and international - with their comprehension of lecture content Supporting text-to-audio conversion on demand while benefitting those with visual impairments can also support students with dyslexia, and commuting students who may wish to listen to content on their way to College. Disability can be described in three timeframes: permanent, temporary and situational. Examples of permanent disability include loss of vision or a limb, whereas temporary disability covers conditions such as a broken limb, or recovery from an eye operation. Situational disabilities are where Ally can make a difference for all our students. Examples of this include: Trying to comprehend a lengthy PDF text in a noisy home or transit environment: an audio version may be a more suitable alternative format Preparing for an exam while caring for a relative: an HTML versions of texts are designed to work with smart-phones, which are easier to access and use than laptops or large text books.

Free Image Websites Creative Commons We have gathered together websites that have free creative commons licenses. This means that you can use them free of charge in your Learning Content. Even when they are royalty free it is best practice to still credit the image when appropriate, e.g. when you are using them in your Moodle course. Below are links to some of our favorite resources we like to use, for a full and comprehensive list of Free creative commons resources visit: "The Monster List" of Free photo sites" Photo credit: Pixabay UnSplash Pixabay Pexels morguefile Free Images RGB Stock hautestock Raw Pixel Free Pik The Noun Project Adobe Free Stock Microsoft Iwaria Monster list of all free Image sites Nappy Wocintechat ukblacktech affecttheverb Help us help everyone Please contact the learning tech team if you find good sources First Name Last Name Email Send Thanks for submitting!

Discover essential copyright guidance for students at West College Scotland. Learn how to respect and protect intellectual property in all your academic work. Copyright Positive Guidelines for Students The college adheres to government guidelines regarding copyright and the use of physical and online materials. UK copyright law protects various types of works, including your own. Students must comply with copyright legislation and the licences held by the College. The College has established guidelines to help avoid copyright infringement. In the college you are allowed to: Print your own materials or your lecture materials. Share with your lecturer, or other students, online material, by sharing the URL. Print or scan 5% of a book, or a chapter, or an article from a newspaper or magazine. Use our digital resources (OpenAthens ), we have a wide range of eBooks and other online resources available. If you need help with our digital resources, you can contact the library team on Library@wcs.ac.uk If you need more than the permitted 5% of a book or publication, you can ask the Copyright College Ambassador (copyright@wcs.ac.uk ) to help you to seek permission from the book copyright owner. Students retain the Intellectual Property Rights in any work they produce whilst at college. Posters and awareness prompts are available at each printer location across the College to help you understand how much you can print and how copyright works. In the event of non-compliance with this policy students may be held accountable for any copyright law violations. If you need any help to understand how much you are allowed to print or if you are looking for more information regarding copyright, you are always welcome at the library or can contact the Copyright Ambassador at copyright@wcs.ac.uk . Download and save your own copy of the copyright guide. Copyright Guide.pdf

Frequently Asked Questions Helpful Information - This section will be amended on a regular basis as necessary. Moodle Help Office 365 Help 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. I/my students need to finish off some work from last year but I cant find it on Moodle? We have created a Moodle 21/22 for staff and students that need to complete work from last year. This is a different URL (address) than the usuall moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk, as this will be used for session 22/23. If you are a staff member you can find the link to Moodle 21/22 on the staff intranet, if you are a student please contact your tutor who will be able to give you the address. Can students access Moodle from Home? Yes – Students can link directly to Moodle via: https://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk. On the login page, there is an area to enter the username and password exactly as they would from inside college. This is their WCS Office 365 email address(as supplied by the college) and password (same as Office 365 password). How can I access a course that does not show under My Courses? Your course contact will be able to add you. The course contact is listed under the title of the course in Moodle. Once the title is clicked you will see the enrolement options, the title of the course and the name of the course contact. How do I find my Course? All the courses you are attached to should be shown under My Courses on the top navigation bar once logged in. You can also navigate to courses using the navigation in the centre of the Moodle screen e.g. the Clydebank HNC Business course will be under the Hospitality, Business, Tourism and Languages section. Then follow the path - Hospitality, Business, Tourism and Languages ► Business ► Business ► Business Clydebank to find the course HNC Business Clydebank. How do I unenrol from a course I no longer need access to? There is a document in the Moodle Guides section called Remove me from Courses which will direct you through this process. How do my students get access to my course? Students are automatically attached to courses/units when they are enrolled on Unite. If the Unite course and class code was not given when the course/unit was setup, or if a new class needs access to an existing course/unit please contact webmaster@wcs.ac.uk and the class will be added to the course. How do I enrol a lecturer, does it need to be the Course Contact? If you have a lecturer role or a course contact role in the course on Moodle then you can enrol other members of staff. There is a document in the Moodle Guides section called Adding and Removing Users which will direct you through this process. My students do not appear in my Moodle course Students do not appear in any course until they first log on to Moodle when they are automatically attached to any courses they have been enrolled in. If you have a new class that is not attached, contact webmaster@wcs.ac.uk to get the class added to the course/subject. One of my students cannot access the course but the rest of the class can not. Please check with your QIA that the student is enrolled on the correct course and class in Unite. What is the Moodle ID? The Moodle ID is the number at the end of the URL in the address bar at the top of the page. It is also detailed in the Course Information block at the top right hand side of your screen. To open the block drawer click on the small arrow at the right hand side of your screen. My Students cannot see their Moodle courses in MyDay Students need to log into Moodle before their courses will appear on MyDay. As a staff member can I access Moodle from Home? Yes - as a member of staff there are 2 ways you can log in: On the staff intranet there is a link to the Learning Technologies site where you will find a link to Moodle: You can also link directly to Moodle via: https://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk. Login via Office 365 on or off campus. How can I log in to Moodle - I am a member of Staff? As a member of staff there are 2 ways you can log in: On the staff intranet there is a link to the Learning Technologies site where you will find a Moodle login button. You can also link directly to Moodle via: http://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk. On the login page, you will see an area where you can login with your WCS 365 account. My student has forgotten their Moodle password. This is the same password used to access Microsoft Teams/Office 365. To reset a password ask your student to click on forgot password on the login page of Moodle. Turnitin is showing a blank screen - Help? If you are still using Internet Explorer as your default browser, You may find that TurnitIn feedback studio is no longer working. The screen where you would have had the text of the assignment shows a blank page. This is due to it no longer being compatable with this browser. You have two options to rectify this: Option 1 (Reccomended) Simply use a newer browser like Chrome Chrome Logo Option 2 Revert to Turnitin Classic by clicking on Turnitin Classic at the bottom of your screen. My student doesn’t know their Moodle username and password? The students’ username is the their full WCS Office 365 mail address as supplied by the college. Their password is the same as their Office 365 password. They will not appear in your list of participants on Moodle until they have logged in. How do I add a new course or unit onto Moodle? The course request form found on the staff intranet in the Learning Technology request area. How do I add/amend/use Turnitin on Moodle? Please follow the Turnitin guides in the assessment section of the moodle guides page. My students are not showing in the participants list on Moodle. Student Access To Moodle Students should only be added manually to any course in Moodle as a last resort. We use cohort enrolments on Moodle which, when implemented correctly by all staff, ensures that all students enrolled on Unite have access to the correct course and units within Moodle. If your students do not show in your class or unit participants list, please first work through the following steps: Step 1: Check that the correct class (named cohort on Moodle) is attached to the course/unit in Moodle. If you are unsure how to do this please refer to the Moodle video guide: How to check what classes are attached to your course or unit on WCS Moodle. Step 2: If your class code is not attached please contact webmaster@wcs.ac.uk (in the first instance) or learningtech@wcs.ac.uk with the full class code and the Moodle ID(s) required. Step 3: If your class is attached but the student still does not show: Please check that the student has logged directly into Moodle via https://moodle.westcollegescotland.ac.uk/(not MyWest/MyDay). Students do not appear on Moodle until they have logged on directly. Check with the student that they are using the correct office 365 account - you can find the student numbers on star portal. Check on star portal that the student is enrolled on the expected class code. Infill/Change of class code Please inform webmaster if you need an infill code to be attached. This can happen if it was not used in the previous academic year – class codes must include the last 5 characters i.e. PHNCIT-I211C. Similarly if your code has changed (apart from the year) this may also need updating on Moodle. If any changes are made on unite, it will update the student account on Moodle overnight. We do appreciate that there are exceptions, and for a small number of students they may need manually attached on a unit. For example: 1 student from another class that needs access to a unit but is not necessarily on an infill class code. For this reason we have amended lecturer permissions on Moodle to allow you to enrol with the student role. You may notice that we have added a warning message to the enrolment window highlighting the need to understand which role you enrol a user with. Please read and understand this warning before enrolling users onto courses. Note: the message will also show to users that are not enrolled if they try to access the course. Please note the enhancement procedure has not changed – please visit the enhancement area on the staff intranet for information. If there is anything that you are unsure about or wish to discuss please do not hesitate to contact the learning technology team by email learningtech@wcs.ac.uk. I am a tutor and can't find my course? As a tutor you may have been added to Moodle at category level so your course will not appear under 'My Courses'. Use the home page on Moodle to navigate to your section and course and click on the course title to access it. Remember this may be campus specific. Im trying to upload videos on Moodle but they are too big. To ensure we do not overload the Moodle servers we are advising that any videos are uploaded to YouTube as private or unlisted. A quick google search will show you how to do this if you are unsure. Then you can embed the YouTube video in your course - please see the guide showing you how to embed videos. How do I use the BLC resources. Please visit the BLC page on CoLT. How do I add a forum on Moodle? As a lecturer you can add forums into Moodle please use the guides for reference. How do I upload pre-recorded lessons from Stream into Moodle? Please use our step-by-step guide called:Using MS Teams Recordings for information on where your recordings are stored and how to upload them into Moodle. More instructional guides on all things Moodle are found under Moodle Guides. I know nothing about webinars - can you help? Please read the article posted on CoLT called A guide to working and teaching online. Help my students have ran out of quiz attempts and I want to give them more. Please follow the Moodle guide - Quiz attempts - Individual students. I am a student I can't log in to Moodle? Login by clicking on the Office 365 button (as show above), with your WCS Office 365 email address and password, (as provided by the college). When you change your Office 365 password, then you will also use this updated one for Moodle. If you have forgotten your password please click on forgot my password on the Moodle Login Page. Note: When students first log into Office 365 your password is your date of birth: DDMMYYYY - once you change your password in Office 365 it will also change in Moodle. I have forgotten my Moodle password? If you have forgotten your password, first ensure you are using the same password as your Office 365 account. If you have checked and are using the correct WCS office 365 email and password click on forgot password on the login page of Moodle. What is my Moodle Username and Password? Your Moodle username is your full WCS Office 365 email address (as supplied by the college). Your password is the same password you use to access Office 365 or Teams. Click on the Office 365 button on moodle to log in. You cannot change your password on Moodle; if you want to change your general password then you change it via Office 365. What is the enhancement process? Follow the Enhancement Guide The user guide, list of available units and request form is found in the eLearning Units link on the left hand side of the Learning Technologies Team site on the staff intranet. You will need to login with your college network account to access this content. 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. How does Ally support inclusive education? For College: Moodle-wide, granular reporting on accessibility of courses. Ally provides an accessibility overview report which shows how digital course content in Moodle is performing by month, term, or academic year. This can inform annual review, equality and diversity audits and compliance with the College Strategic Priorities. Reports include the following information: Overall Moodle accessibility score Departmental accessibility score Course accessibility score Total number of courses and content created All accessibility issues found - sorted by severity Which alternative formats are being used in Moodle - how often and in which courses Engagement with course accessibility reports - and action arising from these How does Ally support inclusive education? - For Teaching Staff: Feedback & advice on accessibility of materials Ally provides guidance to teachers on how to improve the accessibility of their Moodle course content. Find out more about file accessibility in this short video. Traffic light indicators of accessibility for each file in a Moodle course Each file is awarded an 'Accessibility score' Red: Low 0 - 33% File not accessible and needs immediate attention. Amber: Medium 34 - 66% File is somewhat accessible and could use improvement. Light Green: High 67-99% File is accessible but could be improved. Dark Green: Perfect 100% File is accessible. No improvement needed. Detailed feedback and support Clicking on the accessibility icon for a file helps identify and correct accessibility issues. Ally will: Display all the file's accessibility issues Describe of the most important accessibility issue Explain how the issue affects inclusive learning Offer step-by-step assistance on how to fix the issue Allow for editing of existing files and uploading of replacement files Course-wide accessibility reports Ally provides an overall course score and ways to quickly address course files at scale How does Ally support inclusive education? - For Students: Alternative Formats Ally creates on-demand alternative formats from your original course files, and makes them available for download so that students can engage with course content in a way that works best for them. Find out more about alternative formats in this short video. The alternative formats provided by Ally, and their benefits to students. What drives our use of Ally? - Legislation As an institution we are bound by numerous legal frameworks including the accessibility requirements for public bodies, the Equality Act (2010), and EU directives. The Equality Act In relation to disabled people, the Equality Act (2010) institutes a duty for public and private sector organisations (including Further Education Providers) to make ‘reasonable adjustments’ in order to make sure that disabled people are not being disadvantaged. This includes making changes to the organisation’s provisions or practices, its physical features, or providing auxiliary aids, if a disabled person would be disadvantaged without these adaptations or provisions. It also includes an anticipatory duty on organisations, meaning that some of these changes or provisions should be made in advance of a disabled person needing them, rather than as a reaction to someone having been disadvantaged. EU Directive on Accessibility of Websites and Mobile Applications 2018 Requires all EU member states to make sure their websites and mobile apps meet common accessibility standards. The directive was transposed into the laws of each EU member state on 23 September 2018 and will continue within UK law. What drives our use of Ally? College Strategy Ally can help West College Scotland meet various strategic aims, including the following: Developing our agile and adaptive workforce to support the college "Collective Ambition" Raising awareness of accessibility and build towards a sustainable change in behaviour regarding inclusivity and accessibility across the College Responding to the current and future student demographic - improved support for disabled students, flexible, increased flexibility of learning materials, e.g. for commuting students. What drives our use of Ally? - Accessible & inclusive learning content The social model of disability suggests that the society or environment is disabling the individual rather than their impairment or difference - or situation. Accessibility is about designing out any unnecessary barriers that make it harder to engage and take part in everyday activities. Being inclusive is about giving equal access and opportunities to everyone wherever possible. In education this involves reducing and overcoming the barriers that might occur in digital content, teaching & learning activities, and assessments. For example: Students with a visual impairment can benefit from converting textual content to audio files or braille Students with a specific learning difficulty can benefit from the range of alternative formats that can integrate with Disabled Students’ Allowance (DSA) funded assistive technology software. Providing accessible learning content can benefit all learners. Examples include: Providing Closed Captions for recorded lectures not only benefits those with aural impairments, but can assist all students - both home and international - with their comprehension of lecture content Supporting text-to-audio conversion on demand while benefitting those with visual impairments can also support students with dyslexia, and commuting students who may wish to listen to content on their way to College. Disability can be described in three timeframes: permanent, temporary and situational. Examples of permanent disability include loss of vision or a limb, whereas temporary disability covers conditions such as a broken limb, or recovery from an eye operation. Situational disabilities are where Ally can make a difference for all our students. Examples of this include: Trying to comprehend a lengthy PDF text in a noisy home or transit environment: an audio version may be a more suitable alternative format Preparing for an exam while caring for a relative: an HTML versions of texts are designed to work with smart-phones, which are easier to access and use than laptops or large text books.

Quick checklist to help you make documents accessible Digital Accessibility Quick Checklist Use this checklist to see how accessible your digital resource is. Download a word.doc version

Some courses to help your own development Self Development Exceeding Expectations This area will be populated with courses and resources that you can use to enhance your digital skills. Evolve Evolve has many courses you can complete for self development. Virtual Bridge Recordings of the Virtual Bridge sessions recorded by College Development Network in partnership with Jisc. They are a series of 30-minute webinars. CoDE Certificate of Digital Excellence. 6 modules, that will ensure teachers and practitioners have an understanding and the skills needed to coach young people to be ready for our technologically-advanced world. BLE Blended Learning Essentials. This program contains essential knowledge for teachers, trainers & managers developing blended learning and prepare learners to succeed. Digital Skills Courses Want to work on your Digital Skills? Get the digital skills you need with these specially designed courses from Accenture. There are 7 free Digital Skills courses on the Future Learn platform. CDN Website Click to view the CDN's series of inspiring blogs from a huge range of key experts. Covering topics including college delivery, digital innovation, and leadership.

Moodle and Microsoft Teams: The Perfect Fit for Your Educational Journey! Education in the digital age has witnessed a remarkable transformation, with virtual learning environments becoming increasingly prevalent. Moodle and Microsoft Teams are two widely used platforms that have revolutionised online education by providing educators and learners with powerful tools to facilitate remote teaching and learning experiences. At West College Scotland we have chosen to use both platforms, with Moodle being our primary Virtual Learning Environment (VLE). To further enhance the educations process, it is essential to explore the diverse range of educational tools available within these platforms. To assist with this, we have created a comprehensive overview of educational tools that can be utilised in Moodle and Microsoft Teams, in the form of a wheel diagram. The wheel is categorised into Laurillard's six learning types: Acquisition, Collaboration, Discussion, Investigation, Practice, and Production. It details which tools or activities facilitate each of the learning types and which are best suited to either Moodle or Teams. This also helps to ensure consistency and equity for all our students. By visualising the capabilities of each platform across these categories, educators and learners gain a holistic understanding of the tools at their disposal, enabling them to make informed decisions on how to best utilise them to enhance their educational journey. For each category, the inner wheel below highlights a range of Moodle tools, activities, and resources, while the outer wheel specifically outlines the tools and activities best suited for use within Microsoft Teams. Click on the image to open in popup and magnify. Moodle, our primary VLE, offers a robust set of features and plugins designed to support various educational activities. From content creation and organisation to assessments and collaborative learning, Moodle provides a flexible and customisable environment for educators to engage students in a virtual setting. Microsoft Teams, a collaborative communication platform, empowers educators and learners with a rich array of tools to foster seamless interaction and engagement. With its focus on real-time collaboration, Microsoft Teams provides features such as chat, virtual meetings, file sharing, and integration with other Microsoft applications. By visually comparing the tools available in Moodle and Microsoft Teams across the six categories, this wheel diagram aims to assist educators in making informed decisions about which platform to use based on their specific educational goals. Whether it's creating and sharing content, facilitating group projects, encouraging active discussions, conducting research, practicing skills, or showcasing student work, this diagram provides educators with a valuable resource to explore and select the most suitable tools for their teaching objectives. As the digital landscape continues to shape the future of education, understanding and utilising the educational tools within platforms like Moodle and Microsoft Teams becomes crucial for effective virtual teaching and learning. This wheel diagram serves as a comprehensive guide for educators, highlighting the diverse range of tools available in Moodle and Microsoft Teams. It empowers educators to create engaging and interactive educational experiences in an online environment that encompass the entire educational process, from content creation to student participation and assessment.