Study smart style guide for foundation and ug1 programmes

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Table of Contents Table of Contents .............................................................................................................................................................. 1 Introduction ....................................................................................................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.

Accessing Study Smart ...................................................................................................................................................... 2 Course format ................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Topic headings - consistent naming convention........................................................................................................... 3 Extra Topics ................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Resources .......................................................................................................................................................................... 3 Consistent naming convention ..................................................................................................................................... 3 Font ............................................................................................................................................................................... 4 Images ........................................................................................................................................................................... 5 Resources and Formats ................................................................................................................................................. 6 Presentation Slides........................................................................................................................................................ 6 Lesson Materials ........................................................................................................................................................... 6 Organise Course Material ............................................................................................................................................. 7 Useful Web Links........................................................................................................................................................... 7 Video ............................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Activities ............................................................................................................................................................................ 9 Assignments .................................................................................................................................................................. 9 Glossaries .................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Evidence Based Teaching Activities ............................................................................................................................ 10 Communication ............................................................................................................................................................... 10 Quickmail .................................................................................................................................................................... 10 Contacts block ............................................................................................................................................................. 11 Course announcements .............................................................................................................................................. 11 Appendices ...................................................................................................................................................................... 12 Appendix 1 Create a shortcut to Study Smart on mobile devices .............................................................................. 12 Appendix 2 Specialist Fonts ........................................................................................................................................ 15 Appendix 3 Resize Images ........................................................................................................................................... 16 Appendix 4 Upload PowerPoint Slides to Slideshare .................................................................................................. 17 Appendix 5 PowerPoint Design Tips ........................................................................................................................... 20 Appendix 6 Save SMART Notebook slides as a PDF .................................................................................................... 21

Appendix 8 Key Glossary Features .............................................................................................................................. 23

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Appendix 7 Create QR Codes ...................................................................................................................................... 22

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide This leaflet is designed to support Bellerbys Foundation and Undergraduate Year 1 Module Leaders when creating template courses on Study Smart, Bellerbys VLE. Accessibility, access via mobile devices and a consistent experience for students are key factors in its design, which we will test and continue to improve.

Like any guidelines, check whether they apply to your context and please suggest changes to create even better learning experiences for students.

Accessing Study Smart You can log on to Study Smart on any college desktop computer by clicking on one of the shortcuts.

You can also log on from any internet enabled computer or mobile device1. The URL is http://studysmart.bellerbys.com Your editing experience will vary slightly according to which browser and browser version you use to access the internet. Here’s a short summary:

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Firefox This seems to be very good for editing courses in Study Smart.

Chrome This seems to be very good for editing courses in Study Smart.

Appendix 1 - instructions how to create a Study Smart shortcut on your mobile devices

Safari This is the default browser on Mac computers. Sometimes colleagues report that they can’t see all resources when accessing Study Smart using Safari.

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Internet Explorer We cannot add resources using the drag and drop method so not recommended for editing.

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Course format Problem

Students experience a wide variety of course types so navigation is confusing.

Solution

After module leaders voted and students were consulted, One Topic format was chosen for Foundation and UG1 courses.

Topic headings - consistent naming convention Problem

Some topics are named to reflect content, others by week or date. Students often find it difficult to locate content for revision or assignment purposes.

Solution

Consistent naming of topics by content and week has been shown2 to help students locate content much more quickly. When building the course, name topics according to content. Teachers using the course can add week number to help students.

Extra Topics Problem

Students don’t know where to look for assignments and homework information

Solution

Create a topic on every course called Assignments where students know they can click for their current homework tasks. Keep self-access learning checks (not assessed) within the topic for students to test themselves and use when revising.

Problem

The course has rich resources to stretch and support students’ learning but students can’t distinguish what is essential and what is provided as extra.

Solution

Create a topic on every course called Extra Resources and place extra support and extension materials here. Include a sub-section for useful links.

Resources Consistent naming convention Problem

Students often find it difficult to find resources on Study Smart because the file names and labels are not consistent.

Solution

Keep a consistent naming convention for your materials on your Study Smart course. Even better if all Module Leaders stick to similar conventions so that students will always be able to locate what they are looking for and be able to determine what the file contains without opening it.

Students surveyed by the National E-Learning Laboratory in Ireland said that they prefer courses structured via topic (rather than week), but observations show this slows down search behaviour. Lecturers were therefore advised to use both topic and week when designing courses. https://goo.gl/q9uBZN

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Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Examples

The examples below are taken from an exemplar ‘good’ course (2014-15) on the University of Sheffield VLE (My Online Learning Environment, MOLE) training pages produced by their TEL (Technology Enhanced Learning) team

When you add resources to your Study Smart template course: Name

Provide a clear name

Description

Type a short description. Answer these questions.

What is it? / What is in it? / What does it contain?

What should students do with this resource? By when?

Display description on course page Check this We will continue to refine naming convention guidelines. A very clear selfexplanatory title may mean a description is not necessary

Problem

Over time teachers choose different font styles and colours. Eventually courses become very busy and the hierarchy of information becomes difficult to interpret. This might cause accessibility issues and also, many do not display well (or at all) on mobile devices.

Solution

Consistent choice of font type, size and colour

Size Colour

no smaller than 3 (12pt.); default is 3 (12pt.) default (black on white); use of other colours can cause accessibility issues.

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Font

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Font Default, Helvetica or Arial give the best experience when reading on mobile devices Accessibility block Add Accessibility block to all Foundation and UG1 courses Specialist fonts and accessibility check (Appendix 2)

Images We know that images are important; that they help students visualise concepts, break up large, perhaps difficult to digest texts and create interest. Evidence Based Teaching recommends provision of graphic organisers for topics (which can be created by students) to help more effective learning.

Problem

Large images are good quality but might slow down Study Smart’s performance on mobile devices. Images which are too small look very ‘grainy’ on Study Smart.

Solution

Resize before uploading3. It is good practice to have a balance between good image size and decent image quality.

A suggested standard size is 448 by 336 pixels

Problem

Images with water marks look unprofessional and messy. The watermark indicates that the image is not free to reuse; Shutterstock, for example, charge up to £400. We need to select images that we are allowed to reuse in order not to breach copyright.

Solution

Choose images from Creative Commons or Public Domain sources.

See our Copyright Guidelines4 where you’ll find a lot of tested, Example of a watermarked image recommended sources: Or, possible but not recommended, on Study Smart (now removed) add images by linking to them (using their URL). However, this requires a lot of site maintenance as pictures can be moved or taken down from the internet.

Problem

Students who are blind or visually impaired using a screen can’t access information about the image.

Solution

Add a suitable description when uploading images in the Image description field, which can be read by a screen reader

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reader

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Appendix 3 for ‘how to’ instructions to resize images http://studysmart.bellerbys.com/course/view.php?id=4310

A screen reader is a type of software which interprets what appears on the screen and communicates it as audio text-tospeech or as Braille

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Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Resources and Formats Problem

Students can’t open certain resources if they haven’t got the required software. This is even true of files in as ubiquitous a format as Word.

Solution

In many cases the best format in which to provide material is PDF, which can be accessed with open-source software and is supported by a wide variety of devices.

Another solution is to present text in a Study Smart page. Pro guarantees the text is available on any device Con less easy for students to download or print.

Convert Word documents into PDF and drag in to upload or copy and paste the text onto a Study Smart page.

Presentation Slides Problems

Some devices do not open PowerPoint slides.

Students do not have Smart Notebook software so cannot open files.

Solutions PowerPoint Upload key PowerPoint slides to Slideshare then embed on Study Smart for best experience on mobile devices (appendix 4).

Think ‘mobile first’ and use big font, few points per slide (appendix 5). We also advise uploading the PowerPoint slides to Study Smart for students to use when note-taking.

SMART Notebook For students: Upload as PDF (or image files) (appendix 6) Or direct them to http://express.smarttech.com/# where they can open saved files.

For colleagues to reuse: Upload to hidden teacher resources

Lesson Materials Problem

Students have seen learning materials in class and want to use them again but cannot find them.

Solution

Make all resources available on Study Smart. This is especially pertinent to teachers delivering your module and will be included in Summer Term 2 training.

Our own and other published studies6 which collate feedback from students on their use of VLEs show that, for them, the most important use is being able to access course materials online such as lesson handouts (current or previous classes), links and videos7. Students express frustration when there is a delay in posting material.

Holland International Study Centre, National College of Ireland, National Academy for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning (NAIRTL), Bellerbys London 7 Recorded lectures are especially appreciated by international students who have been shown to access them regularly. We have carried out action research at Bellerbys College, Oxford and some ISCs. Bellerbys has no lecture capture licence currently

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Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Organise Course Material Problem

Students get lost in the wealth of material.

Solutions

Our new-design template courses are being designed to help signpost important areas such as useful web links, assessments and extra resources with clearly labelled content.

Use folders to organise collections of file resources where appropriate. They take up less space on the course page.

Use headings and Indent to reinforce the hierarchy of the content.

Useful Web Links Students ‘collect’ many links during the course of their studies but when they go back to use them again, they can’t remember exactly where they are.

Students often want to access a website from a mobile device; it can be difficult to type in a long and/or complex URL.

but may revisit this in the future. Recorded lectures and lessons are routinely posted to Study Smart in Taylors Colleges, Australia with Panopto http://panopto.com/

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Problems

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Solutions

Provide links with clear descriptions in the Useful Web Links section of your Extra Resources topic.

You could also create a block to direct students to a particular site but consider replicating this in the Useful Web Links section.

It’s worth checking the links still work every now and again and certainly before asking students to access a particular site

If you refer to a website at any time, provide the URL, hyperlink and/or QR code.

As well as providing a link on Study Smart, QR codes provide an instant means of accessing a website (example above). QR codes take a few seconds to create and can be included on lesson handouts classroom posters and slides. (appendix 7) In order to use QR codes, students need a QR code reader app on their phones or tablets. We have recommended an app called I-nigma (fast and no advertisements). Posters are located in all Bellerbys classrooms to prompt students to download the app.

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QR Codes

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Video Problem

There is a lot of video content on the course page (that’s good), but too many embedded videos could clutter the page and slow down navigation (scrolling etc.).

Solution

Embed video which is related to current topic/s (up to approximately three) but change previous videos to links e.g.

Activities

Problems

Students forget where assignments are on Study Smart.

Students forget they have been given an assignment, especially if informed early on in the course of the module.

Students are unaware of future assignments and do not organise their study.

Solution

All assignments are in one place on Study Smart. Students have a consistent experience in all their courses and always know where to go to find their assessments.

Use communication tools in Study Smart to remind students about assignments in the week before they are due.

Make sure all assignments are linked to the course calendar.

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Assignments

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Glossaries Problem

Students want to check meanings of key subject-specific words and phrases, learn and use them.

Solution

Create a Study Smart glossary. Each course should have at least one glossary but you could create a glossary for each topic. (Appendix 8 Key features of the glossary – you may be surprised at how powerful this feature is)

Evidence Based Teaching Activities Each Foundation and UG1 course will offer a small number of activities which follow EBT Methods (3 or more). These might be glossary games, quizzes, a poll, a link to an activity outside Study Smart. A separate guide collating the ideas Module Leaders shared will be available in March.

Communication

Problem

Teachers want to contact their students quickly and don’t have all their email addresses stored or organised into an email contact group.

Solution

Add the Quickmail block to enable teachers to easily contact students either individually, in groups or whole class. Study Smart stores student addresses safely.

Quickmail can be enabled or disabled for students to use with one click.

A history of all emails is kept and can be accessed by teachers.

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Quickmail

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Contacts block Problem Solution

Students want to contact their tutors but need to switch to other applications.

Make it easy to get in touch. Add the Contacts block to the course. This automatically displays an email link8 to teaching staff with editing (teacher) permissions on the course.

Course announcements Problems

Students forget when their work is due and their teacher wants to send a reminder to everyone.

A room or time change needs to be communicated to everybody in the class.

Teachers would like to announce a local event that the class would find interesting…

Solution

Use the Study Smart News forum as an announcement tool. All posts are sent to students’ email addresses9 from this forum.

Rename the forum Course Announcements.

Regular use will help students get into the habit of accessing Study Smart and Bellerbys email (if using). However, do exercise restraint and avoid over-announcing!

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Messaging will be disabled as it’s not a popular or user-friendly communication tool Investigation into an announcement to students’ phone numbers is underway. There is a tool available and we would like to test it. If it works well we will request permission to use it because use involves a cost; each text would be charged. We will let you know how the testing goes.

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Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Appendices Appendix 1 Create a shortcut to Study Smart on mobile devices This is a student instruction sheet. However, it’s very useful to do this on your own mobile device and to have the instructions to hand to help students. This is the answer when students ask if there is an app for Study Smart!

Create a short cut to Study Smart on your phone/tablet iOS  Navigate to Study Smart on your browser (Safari) http://studysmart.bellerbys.com

 Click on Share icon

 Select Add to Home Screen

This creates a shortcut. You’ll now be able to go to Study Smart with one click from your home screen

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 Click Add

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide

Create a short cut to Study Smart on your phone/tablet Android  Navigate to Study Smart on your browser (Safari) http://studysmart.bellerbys.com



Click on More icon



Select Add to Home Screen



Click Add

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This creates a shortcut. You’ll now be able to go to Study Smart with one click from your home screen.

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Create a short cut to Study Smart on your phone/tablet Windows

 Navigate to Study Smart on your browser (Internet Explorer) http://studysmart.bellerbys.com

 Click on Pin to start

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This creates a shortcut. You’ll now be able to go to Study Smart with one click from your home screen.

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Appendix 2 Specialist Fonts

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If in doubt you can use the Accessibility checker

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Appendix 3 Resize Images

 Open the folder where your image is saved. Right click on the image you want to resize.  Select Open with  Choose Microsoft office 2010

 Select Resize from the Picture tab

 Click on the drop down menu for Predefined width x height

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 Select a suitable size and then click OK

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide  Save the resized image as a new file

Appendix 4 Upload PowerPoint Slides to Slideshare Go to http://www.slideshare.net/ Create an account

Before uploading, ensure that you have: Checked images for copyright Removed any personal information e.g. students’ names Removed animations (they do not display) Saved your presentation with a suitable name

 Click Upload

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   

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide  Browse for or drag and drop your presentation file

 Complete details: Title: is imported from file name Description: give the presentation a description according to the style guide Category: Choose Education Privacy: Private – anyone with a link limits the number of files you can share but is not searchable Public – searchable, unlimited uploads  Click Publish

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If you chose Private – anyone with a link  Go to Privacy Settings

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide  Change Embed Settings to:

 Click on Copy to copy the embed code Embed on Study Smart as usual

If you chose Public  Go to Share

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 Copy the embed code. Embed on Study Smart as usual.

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Appendix 5 PowerPoint Design Tips

The Good        

Appropriate use of images Use of diagrams and tables to convey message and meaning Two or three clear sentences max per slide Slides which enhance the overall presentation, but do not get in the way of clear communication Use of easy-to-read, accessible fonts such as Arial, Veranda or Lucida Sans Good colour contrast between foreground and background for easy reading Ideally, larger font sizes such as 32pt Balanced use of bullet points, tables and paragraphs

The Bad       

Font sizes smaller than 24pt Over six lines of text per slide – too many words per slide Uses unnecessary or confusing images Distracting movements and flashy slide transitions Overuse of punctuation Too many slides Overuse of uppercase

7 PowerPoint presentation design tips:

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A video by Rui da Silva https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u03Z5g3yycA

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Appendix 6 Save SMART Notebook slides as a PDF Open your SMART Notebook file

 Click on the File tab  Click on Export As  Select PDF

 Choose how to display slides

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TIP If you choose Full Page, open PDF Setup tab and change orientation to landscape

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide  Type in any information you want to appear on the PDF  Save as a PDF, ready to upload to Study Smart

Appendix 7 Create QR Codes Go to https://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/  Click on URL Paste URL in Enter URL field  Click Save

 Give your QR Code a name; type in Filename

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 Select PNG image format and Save

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Appendix 8 Key Glossary Features Populating the glossary – options 1.

2.

3.

4.

Add words and definitions yourself Supply words/phrases and assign to students to add definitions Import a glossary from another Study Smart course Students add words and definitions as they find them (you can choose whether to vet these before they appear and whether to assign marks/feedback)

See below for more details on the following features: Link words on the course to the glossary ‘Word of the day’ block on the side of your course Games drawing words from the glossary Link words on the course to the glossary words can link to text on the course page so that, if you hover with your mouse, the definition can be accessed

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‘Term of the day’ block on the side of your course You can add a block to the side of your course which provides a word of the day – this can be set to change as frequently as you wish. It is also another way to access the glossary which is always available.

Bellerbys Study Smart Foundation and UG1 Style Guide Games drawing words from the glossary You can very easily create revision games that draw words from the glossary (including crosswords, hangman etc.); each time a student attempts a game different words are presented

You can also allow: comments and rating on entries, keyword search, sub-categories, different formats, printing.

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Check out this presentation on 10 ways to use the glossary – on Slideshare http://www.slideshare.net/michelledmoore/the-glossary-module-moodles-swiss-army-knife