We’ve got a new home! You can now find the University of Nottingham Learning Technology blog at: Learning Technology – A University of Nottingham Blog

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Introduction

On July 30th, our installation of Moodle will be upgraded to version 4.5, the first to include AI capability. We have investigated this AI functionality, which takes the form of three separate functions, in some depth. In particular, we invited a range of colleagues to test the new functions from their own points of view. Thus, teaching staff have given us their thoughts on the pedagogical aspects, students on aspects connected to study, technical colleagues on installation and governance colleagues on the privacy and related implications.

AI Facilities for Teaching

Each of the functions is offered at module level. Two are for teaching staff: one of these is to generate text and the other to generate images. We soon discovered that the AI is not aware of the content of the module in which it sits. The text and images generated are therefore not relevant to the context of the module unless module content is explicitly included in the prompt itself. Further, the images generated are cartoon-like and unsuitable for illustrating academic content other than for decorative purposes.

AI Facilities for Studying

For students, there is one AI function only: a “Summarise” button. This generates a summary of the text on the Moodle page. Presumably there is an AI prompt behind the button; however, it is not possible for students to customise this prompt. Further, the AI has access only to the Moodle page itself and not to the text in any imported files (e.g. in Word or PowerPoint). Importing files, of course, is a popular way for academics to put content into Moodle. In addition, the quality of the summaries we have seen has been variable at best. Our ambition for our students with respect to AI is that they learn to use it in a mature and sophisticated manner suitable both for scholarship and their future employment. A simple button is not in accord with this aim.

Decision and Longer-Term Aims

With the above limitations (some severe) in mind, we have decided not to implement the new functionality as it stands. Since Moodle plays an important role in student courses and wishing to see students highly adept with AI, we certainly wish to see AI facilities available within Moodle in the future. As indicated, though, we regard this first implementation as too rudimentary for us. Naturally, we shall watch future AI developments in Moodle closely. However, we are also monitoring the other developments in the world of AI and teaching.

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The proposed date for the Moodle upgrade this summer is Wednesday 30th July between 1.15pm and 5.15pm UK time.  China and Malaysia colleagues have been made aware of the upcoming upgrade.  This upgrade will take us to Moodle 4.5 and is not a huge update. The main improvements are listed below with some detail about each new feature:

Sub Topics and Clear Navigation

 In Moodle 4.5, subsections are a new feature that allow further organize of site content within a topic, creating a more structured and focused learning experience. They are essentially topics within a topic, which can be collapsed or expanded to manage content visibility and create clearer collections of content which improve the student experience.

• Focus: By collapsing or expanding subsections, learners can focus on the specific content they need, reducing scrolling and information overload.
• Placement: Subsections can be placed between activities within a section. When clicked, subsections display on their own page, similar to how sections function.

Improvements to Accessing Marking of Moodle Assignments

Moodle 4.5 introduces a cleaner layout when viewing assessment submissions, including improved search features and ‘sticky’ menu to access key features like the filters used when marking. In addition the spacing of the assessment list has been improved and where they exist profile images will be shown to the left of submissions.

Move to Tiny MCE Text Editor

In Moodle 4.5 we will be introducing the Tiny MCE Text Editor as the default editor for all content created or edited on Moodle sites. This new editor brings many improvements including a menu similar to the Microsoft suite of tools, additional formatting options and accessibility improvements including a range of accessible colours for text based on the UoN colour palette.

Other Improvements to Look Out For

• Digital badge images can be rolled over, and criteria imported.
• Improvements to the way questions are tagged and categorised in the question bank and how you search for them.
• Improved log reports when dealing with issues in Moodle
• More notifications for students including submission reminders or overdue submission notifications.

There will be a message on the Moodle login page and on the banner to notify staff and students about the upgrade. In addition to the Moodle upgrade please remember that Moodle Rollover is currently underway and we will contact schools when 25-26 modules are ready.

Moodle 4.5 Orientation video

If you would like a quick overview of the key features in the Moodle 4.5 upgrade, please watch Moodle 4.5: New Features.

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 In this guest blog post, Carlo Bianco, Clinical Assistant Professor in Veterinary Anatomic Pathology, in the UoN Vet School, shares his work on 3D Pathology and using the Xerte tool to produce interactive digital resources to assess knowledge. Bianco recently completed a PGCHE and through the course produced new digital learning resources. Using a combination of the 3D visualisation tool Polycam and the Xerte tool, Bianco describes his approach to developing this new resource below.

Xerte-Based Interactive 3D Pathology Quiz: Utilizing Photogrammetry to Enhance Veterinary Pathology Education – Our Insights and Experience

I am very passionate about photography and visual communication, and  during my PGCHE modules, I tried to focus and study aspects related to learning style and I am particularly interested in kinaesthetic and visual learning styles. During the last couple of years, with my Veterinary Pathology team at the Vet School, we were developing photogrammetry based animations for research, diagnostic and teaching of veterinary pathology.  The  last   Module of the PGCHE   (Developing Blended Learning Environments) was the perfect occasion to design and develop a self Directed Learning  material, a  photogrammetry based veterinary pathology 3 D interactive quiz, which I was envisioning since a while.

I was not aware of any similar SDL experience in the Vet School or in the University of Nottingham and I asked IT support to a colleague (Ben Atkinson). When the technical aspect of the quiz were sorted,  I develop the quiz with the help of my PGCHE tutor (Denise Sweeney). The experience was highly rewarding. Throughout the development and design of the quiz, I received insightful feedback, suggestions, and comments from colleagues at my vet school, which proved invaluable. On several occasions, they recognized the significant potential of the photogrammetry technique, leading to new collaborations and sparking additional ideas.

There was some interest also in the IT sector and I was asked to try to draft a write up describing the rationale behind the 3d quiz and some technical and pedagogic aspects. To maintain the inter and transdisciplinary, I decided to ask to  my colleagues involved in the development of the quiz to actually write this piece, to highlight the importance of multidisciplinary. Given the fact that this is not a formal scientific paper, I think a sort of assemblage of our  perspectives could work. I will start with the rationale behind the design of the 3d pathology quiz, and later I will include the perspectives of Denise and Ben, since I think that the multidisciplinary is a very positive aspect of this experience.

When I envisioned the quiz, I  focused not only on the possible “digital container” of this and of course on  the “content” but I tried to have a better view and identify the features of the “users/learners”, the Z generation students (Ztudents). Ztudents are often technoholic, technocentric, and digital natives, They are very pragmatic and favour authenticity, favouring hands on, individual learning, expecting  technology to be seamlessly integrated into their education. They are comfortable with online courses, virtual classrooms, and interactive learning platforms. This aligns with their frequent use of platforms like YouTube. TikTok and  they use they are a smartphone generation, where the smartphone is not just a tool, but an extension of themselves—almost like an extra limb.  Another aspect I took into account is that With the abundance of digital content, Ztudnets may have shorter attention spans. I decided therefore to  create engaging and concise  interactive content to keep their attention and optimised on smartphones. I think that this approach will favour Ztudnets with visual, multimodal and kinaesthetic learning styles.

The  content of the quiz, the animations, were created with smartphones or tablets using a free app called Polycam. Briefly, the  digitalised 3D models were produced through a process called photogrammetry. This technique models a 3D space by collecting geometric information via a series of overlapping two-dimensional (2D) still image photographs taken from numerous angles. This method is relatively inexpensive  and very efficient and offers very good results for macroscopic pathology specimens.

I was recommended to use Xerte the quiz platform due to its flexibility and ability to integrate various interactive elements. To streamline access, I generated a QR code that links directly to the Xerte page.

References

Durrani Z, Penrose F, Anderson J, Ricci E, Carr S, Ressel L. A complete workflow from embalmed specimens to life-like 3D virtual models for veterinary anatomy teaching. J Anat. 2025 May;246(5):857-868.

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The University of Nottingham recently hosted the 2025 Digital Accessibility Conference. We were delighted to run the third international digital accessibility conference again in 2025! This event is now firmly established in the digital accessibility calendar, and has been very well received. The event has grown significantly: surpassing our wildest expectations, we welcomed over 300 delegates to Nottingham for DigAcc23, and 880 people registered for DigAcc24, making it one of the largest events of its kind. DigAcc25 promises to be our best conference yet, and it’s a real pleasure to organise and run something that we know has had a real impact across the sector.

The event ran online in a distributed conference format, bringing together practitioners from across the sector—and beyond—for a fantastic day of inspiring talks and conversation. We’ve had a fantastic range of talks, thanks to everyone who gave a paper, do check out the programme and recordings. The conference was completely free of charge.

For those who were unable to attend, the conference recordings and programme can now be found on the conference website. Please note that we have used automated captions from teams to keep presenter details attached to each speaker. They have not been corrected above 95% accuracy and may have errors. Thanks for all of the attendees of DigAcc25.

Below we include videos of the opening and closing remarks from the 2025 conference. You can find all other recorded sessions on the conference website.

Welcome to DigAcc25: Towards Institutional Maturity

Closing Plenary: The Accessible University

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A big thank you to our guest author, Claire Storr – Learning Technology Consultant for Placements, for this week’s post on Mahara e-portfolios.

This summer, we are celebrating all things Mahara with the Summer of Mahara. Throughout July and August, there will be a series of events for current and potential Mahara users to get involved with. You can find out about all of them below.

If you are keen to have a look at Mahara before the festivities begin in July, you can access Mahara via https://mahara.nottingham.ac.uk/ and log in with your university username and password. There is no need to request an account, it will be set up when you log in for the first time.

Launch of the UoN Mahara Community – 1^st July

We are launching the UoN Mahara Community in Microsoft Teams on 1^st July. The Community will be a place for both current and potential Mahara users to share ideas and support one another using Mahara. The community will also be the place to find the latest Mahara news.

You can join the team now however the community officially does not launch until 1^st July.

Summer E-portfolio workshops – 10^th July, 15^th July, 5^h August and 14^th August

This summer we are launching a new in-person workshop looking at e-portfolios. The sessions will provide you with guidance on how e-portfolios can be used in teaching, benefits of using e-portfolios and the process of implementing them. During the workshop, there will also be the opportunity to practice using Mahara and ask any questions that you may have.

The sessions will be held on 10^th July, 15^th July, 5^th August and 14^th August. More dates could be added depending on demand. You can sign up for the workshop here.

Mahara Ask Me Anything session – 16^th July

In the UoN Mahara Community, we will be holding a Mahara Ask Me Anything session on 16^th July at 1pm. The meeting is open for two hours so drop-in anytime from 1pm – 3pm armed with any Mahara question. You will be able to find the Ask Me Anything session in this channel once it has been added.

Mahara Upgrade – 6^th August

We will be upgrading Mahara on 6^th August to the latest version (25.04). During this time, Mahara will be unavailable but when it returns, we will get a number of new features. As a result, there will be updates to the Mahara Help and Guidance page as well as the addition of a few video guides.

Mahara 25.04 Upgrade New Features webinar – 7^th August

Following the Mahara upgrade, there will be an opportunity to find out about all the new features in a webinar held on 7^th August at 10am. You can sign up to this webinar by completing the Microsoft Form. If you cannot attend the webinar, don’t worry as the webinar will be recorded and uploaded to the Mahara Help and Guidance page.

Using ePortfolios in Mahara and Using Mahara for Assessment (dates in July and August)

We regularly run two training sessions on Mahara. Using ePortfolios in Mahara and Using Mahara for Assessment both run monthly and this will not change during the Summer of Mahara. Using ePortfolios in Mahara will run on 9^th July and 11^th August. Using Mahara for Assessment will run on 24^th July and 28^th August. Both sessions are run over Microsoft Teams and demonstrate Mahara can be used.

iTeach Online Podcast episode

You may already be aware that the Learning Technology section produce a podcast. In the upcoming season which will release over the summer will feature an interview with one of the University’s innovative users of Mahara.

You can access previous episodes of the podcast as well as subscribe via Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

As you can see there are currently a lot of ways to get involved with Mahara this summer. However, if you want to have an informal chat on how you can use Mahara, please contact Claire Storr.

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A big thank you to our guest author, Simon Barnett—Video Production Support Officer on the Learning Content Team—for offering some excellent advice on how to stay compliant with copyright regulations.

As we reach the final stretch of the academic year, now is a great time to begin reviewing the content of your teaching materials, particularly when it comes to the copyright of material.

Media content, particularly video content, can be an invaluable asset in the teaching toolkit, offering students engaging and dynamic ways to connect with complex subject matter.

In this digital age of information, the widespread availability and ease of sharing material online can create significant copyright challenges for staff who can find just what they want and share it easily, think uploads to YouTube, Flickr, SoundCloud and the like – some of the material uploaded to these sites may have been done so where permission may not exist for reuse.

Materials you find online may have been uploaded without proper permissions, e.g. end users uploading television programmes, in part or in whole to a video sharing platform. By reusing them, you are likely to inadvertently breach copyright regulations and increase the likelihood of discovery by redistributing them to new audiences via a lecture recording or as a link in Moodle.

Learning on Screen (formerly known as the British Universities Film and Video Council) has published a blog post on LinkedIn that talks about copyright in teaching materials, it is well worth taking a few minutes to read the post and understand what you can do to ensure you remain on the right side of copyright law.

Top tips

Learning on Screen lists 5 things you can do right now to protect yourself, your students and the university, they are;

1. Ask the Learning Content Team about the ERA Plus licence | The university pays for this licence which will unlock a lot of content you might not realise is already cleared.
2. Use your Box of Broadcasts account | All content on Box of Broadcasts (BoB) has been cleared so it’s the safest ways to use broadcast content. Our Box of Broadcasts platform provides millions of copyright compliant film, television and radio programmes for use in education. You can sign in to BoB with your university credentials.
3. Avoid embedding YouTube content unless you’ve checked the rights | Just because it’s online doesn’t mean it’s legal to use. There is so much content that has been illegally uploaded to YouTube.
4. Review your lecture recordings before uploading | Always do a quick check through with your copyright “hat” on, especially if they contain third-party images, video or music.
5. Don’t reuse slides blindly | Make sure you double check older resources or hand-me-downs. They may have copyright ghosts lurking inside.

There can be serious consequences for non-compliance when it comes to copyright, while ‘crit and review’ may be argued as a defence in some cases, and be valid, it is down to you as the module or course convenor to make sure your teaching materials comply with copyright laws.

Further support

If you need to discuss the copyright of your material and how you can make it safe, then email the Learning Content Team within Learning Technologies or speak to your Faculty Learning Technology Consultant or Learning Technology Officer (Internal UoN SharePoint link).

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DigAcc25, the third international Digital Accessibility Conference hosted by the University of Nottingham, returns on 25^th June 2025 as a major event in the digital accessibility calendar. Building on the success of previous years-with over 300 delegates attending in 2023 and 880 registrations in 2024-DigAcc25 is expected to be the largest and most impactful yet, bringing together practitioners, educators, and advocates from across the sector.

This year, DigAcc25 will run as a free, fully online distributed conference, enabling institutions to host their own local events while connecting to a global network of participants. The distributed format encourages local collaboration, allowing institutions to advance their own accessibility agendas and strengthen communities of practice, supported by the University of Nottingham’s technology and expertise.

This year’s theme

The overarching theme for 2025 is “Towards Institutional Maturity.” The conference will move beyond compliance, focusing on building the capabilities needed for universities to create and sustain truly accessible organisations. Three sub-themes will guide the programme:

• The Accessible University: Exploring what a fully accessible institution looks like and how accessibility can be embedded and sustained across all activities.
• Operating the Institutional Machinery: Examining how real change can be achieved in complex organisations and how accessibility can become business as usual.
• Emerging and Evolving Practice: Evolving approaches and lessons learnt in digital accessibility.

The call for papers has now closed and the draft programme has now been published and includes details of lightning talks, short papers, demonstrations, and round table discussions. To register to attend  and for more details, please visit DigAcc25.

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A big thank you to our guest author, Joe Bell, Video Production Support Officer with the Learning Content Team, for sharing his expert insights on creating accessible digital media.

1.1 Introduction 

In 2023, the University of Nottingham (UoN) embarked on a program of work to enhance capabilities around accessibility, including the implementation of integrated accessibility checkers, document conversion tools, policy wording, guidance resources, and various other aspects of PSBAR compliance, including training sessions to equip staff with key accessibility skills and share best practice. As part of this effort, accessibility specialists Amanda Hill and Theresa Morley invited me to collaborate on the Multimedia Accessibility session, a concise, one-hour online presentation providing essential guidance on creating accessible digital content. Having spent decades exploring digital systems and sensory perception and several years on accessibility, I’m compelled to share a deeper picture of media production and the evolving state of digital accessibility. 

1.2 – Context: PSBAR, NAPs, and LT 

Obtuse chapter headings aside, there is clarity around accessibility requirements at the University of Nottingham in 2025: the Public Sector Bodies Accessibility Requirements (PSBAR) compel us to provide our online material in accessible formats, and the Learning Technology Section (LT) has developed a program of guidance, tools, and training, known as the Nottingham Accessible Practices (NAPs), detailing UoN policy and requirements, and practical steps for staff of all persuasions to achieve this. I’ve played a small role in co-developing one of the training sessions on Accessible Multimedia, and have much more to talk about that we could fit into the session. 

PSBAR asks us to ensure digital content is “perceivable, operable, understandable, and robust” in order to prevent exclusion, and the standard it specifies is the World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C’s) well established Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 AA framework. Have you had enough acronyms yet? 

Sadly, higher education is often the laggard when it comes to rolling out innovative approaches within at scale systems – many universities are encumbered with dysfunctional infrastructure, presenting a difficult scenario for implementing elegant solutions. The upshot is many students facing unnecessary barriers to learning and many institutions falling short of even the lowest tier accessibility standards.

But it’s far from all doom and gloom, because meeting these acronymic specifications provides an opportunity to ensure digital access, therefore reducing exclusion, improving student experience, and raising institutional reputation (e.g. in the Times Higher). Granted, implementing accessible practices is work, especially earlier in the journey, but the benefits are worthwhile and broadly overlapping with more modern interconnected and immersive modes of learning. I posit your effort investment will make compounding returns, ultimately saving time whilst providing numerous benefits; think James Clear’s “Plateau of Latent Potential” from “Atomic Habits” (2018). You might also consider where you sit on Rogers’ “Diffusion of Innovations” (1962) adoption curve. 

The Plateau of Latent Potential ‘Atomic Habits’ (2018). Visibility of Results and Effort

The Plateau of Latent Potential ‘Atomic Habits’ (2018). Impact and Effort

Adoption curve – Roger’s ‘Diffusion of Innovations’ (1962)

Guest Author: Joe Bell

While the path to full accessibility in higher education is complex and often challenging, the University of Nottingham’s commitment is clear: by embedding accessible practices through the Nottingham Accessible Practices (NAPs) and investing in guidance, training, and innovative tools, we are steadily breaking down barriers and opening doors for all learners. As we continue this journey, every small step-whether developing a new training session or refining our digital resources-brings us closer to a more inclusive, equitable academic community where everyone has the opportunity to succeed.

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The 2025 Echo Engage Conference brought together thought leaders, educators, and technologists to critically examine the future of education amid rapid advances in artificial intelligence (AI) and digital transformation. Central to the discourse was a fundamental question: What is the purpose of education in a world increasingly shaped by machines?

In his keynote address, Graham Brown-Martin evoked Noam Chomsky’s Enlightenment-era notion that the highest goal of life is the pursuit of understanding and creativity. From this perspective, education should cultivate the capacity for independent learning and critical inquiry. Yet Brown-Martin also warned of a competing trend—one that seeks to standardise knowledge and behaviour through indoctrinatory mechanisms embedded within educational systems. These systems, he argued, often prioritise compliance over curiosity, shaping learners to conform to inherited frameworks rather than question them.

This critique was echoed through interviews that Brown-Martin presented. First, Keri Facer, who challenged the assumption that universities, in their current form, will—or should—remain the dominant destination for learners in the decades ahead. Instead, she urged educators to reconsider what children and young people truly need in a rapidly evolving world. Then, Seth Godin, who further problematized the legacy of education as a system built for the industrial age, designed to produce obedient workers rather than imaginative leaders. Collectively, these provocations underscored the urgent need to move beyond the “conveyor belt” model of education.

Historical voices such as John Dewey and Seymour Papert were also shared in the keynote, in order to highlight alternative educational paradigms. Papert’s constructionist philosophy, which emphasizes learning through making, doing, and discovery, proposes a radical departure from traditional models. He famously suggested abolishing standardized curricula, age segregation, and uniform instruction—elements he viewed as antithetical to authentic learning. The conference keynote drew a compelling metaphor: modern universities as “cathedrals” built over centuries to institutionalize knowledge, in contrast to the more open, playful “sandboxes” of earlier knowledge cultures. As Brown-Martin asked, what happens when these cathedral walls crumble? Might knowledge become freer, more democratic, and more learner-driven?

AI, of course, plays a pivotal role in this evolving landscape. Richard Nelson’s session on “Smart Learning” addressed the dual promise and peril of AI integration in higher education. Tools like Graide and FeedbackFruits are already reshaping assessment and feedback mechanisms, with AI capable of learning from human grading patterns and enhancing objectivity. Immersive learning platforms, including metaverse environments, are opening new possibilities for arts-based and interactive education. However, Nelson emphasized the importance of maintaining human agency and ethical scrutiny in deploying these technologies. The University of Bradford’s “traffic light” system—indicating appropriate, cautious, and restricted uses of AI—offers a useful framework for cultivating AI literacy among students and staff alike.

Learning analytics also featured prominently in the discussions. Echo AI, for example, enables institutions to track student engagement with recorded lectures and other digital content. Yet this raises complex questions around privacy, equity, and interpretation. As Helen Williams of the University of Nottingham noted, video viewership cannot be simplistically equated with academic performance. Mandating video consumption may yield superficial compliance rather than genuine engagement—“Thou shalt watch” met with “Then I shalt press play.” Moreover, data patterns must be contextualized within students’ broader socio-economic realities, including caregiving responsibilities, work commitments, and accessibility challenges.

At a systemic level, the conference emphasized that educational transformation must be both structural and philosophical. The current pace of technological advancement far outstrips the capacity of traditional education systems to adapt. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed this misalignment, but AI is now accelerating it. The World Economic Forum estimates that nearly half of all workers will require reskilling, yet universities, particularly in the UK, face ongoing funding crises and misalignments with commercial EdTech products. There is a pressing need to build a “coalition of the willing” to reimagine education—not through incremental adjustments, but through bold, collective reinvention.

Projects such as the development of a critical thinking AI tool in partnership with Sage show promise, offering interactive guidance through complex problem solving and helping to foster more strategic thinking. Meanwhile, initiatives to release large lecture video datasets for public and research use reflect a growing recognition of open knowledge as a tool for the public good.

In conclusion, the Echo Engage Conference underscored that the future of education will not be determined by technology alone, but by the ethical, pedagogical, and institutional choices educators and policymakers make today. As AI continues to transform the nature of work, learning, and human interaction, the higher education sector must respond not merely with new tools, but with renewed values—centred on autonomy, creativity, equity, and critical engagement.

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