This blog post is aimed at all students sitting an exam or submitting coursework using Gradescope Homework assignment.

Submitting your PDF to Gradescope

• Navigate to the appropriate area in your Learn course (this will be the “Exam” content area for taking an exam, or the “Assessment” area if submitting coursework)
• Open Gradescope by clicking “Submit via Gradescope”
  • Gradescope will open in a new tab
  • You will be taken directly to the corresponding course area in Gradescope
• Open the submission area for the question
• Select the file you wish to upload for your answer – this can be uploaded directly from your device. Upload your file – note that Gradescope does not provide a progress bar, and so it will look like nothing is happening while your file submits. Please be patient and do no click Back or Submit again while you wait.
• You will be shown a preview of your submission. You can rearrange pages if required.
• You will be required to tag which pages from your document correspond to the question part being answered. If your answer to a particular section spans multiple pages please tag each corresponding page. Please also make sure you have labelled each page with a note of which question you are answering. This tagging process takes place after the submission and can be done after the submission deadline without affecting your timestamp for submitting your response.
• Check all pages have been tagged correctly, and confirm your submission by clicking Submit.

Video Demonstration of the PDF Upload & tag process

The Kaltura desktop recorder is designed for easy upload to Media Hopper Create. However, there may come a time where you wish to have access to the native video files on your local machine. You can find these as follows:

Windows

1. Right click on the Kaltura Capture icon on the desktop.
2. Select Properties.
3. Click on ‘Open File Location’ and go up one folder to the ‘Capture’ folder.
4. Or simply go to: C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local\Kaltura\Capture\

Mac

1. Go to the Finder.
2. From the Go menu, select Go to Folder.
3. In the form, enter ~/Library/Preferences/Kaltura/Capture/
4. Click Go.
5. Or simply go to: /Users/<username>/Library/Preferences/Kaltura/Capture/

Following a successful pilot in 2019-20, pre-honours Informatics students will have access to CodeGrade for select courses. Please get in touch to see if there is a budget to cover a CodeGrade license for your course.

You can find helpful videos covering all aspects of your interaction with CodeGrade on their YouTube channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCedAzCujQ7aT2pFbnzlMc8Q/playlists.

If you do not have access to YouTube, or prefer your guidance in text format, you can find extensive documentation on using CodeGrade here: https://docs.codegra.de.

For Students

• Guidance for students using CodeGrade

For Markers

• Assignment Setup
• Grading Workflow
• Automatic Grading in CodeGrade

We are aware that many of you are considering how best to support paired programming online. The Computing Team have been investigating various options here. Some are still being documented, however, please see below one potential use case using Google Remote Desktop.

*Assumes both students are using a Remote DICE desktop.

• One student runs Chrome from within their Remote DICE session (i.e.*not* on their personal device) and goes to the remote service URL.
• They click on the get support button. This gives them a unique one time use ID they must separately exchange with the other student.
• The other student runs Chrome from within their Remote DICE session and goes to the remote service URL. They click on the provide support button and enter the unique ID.
• The first student will then be prompted whether to accept the remote connection.
• After that both students will be able to share and interact within the first students remote DICE session. The best approach to coordinating activity will be to take turns, one student driving the other navigating and then swap over.

Caveats to note:

• Since the students are using Chrome within a Remote DICE session the sharing and control is limited to that session window only as opposed to their entire personal device.
• Both students need to have a Google account. We strongly suggest that students do not use their own personal google account, if they already have one, but create throwaway ones purely for the purpose of these sessions.
• To setup a Google account you need to provide your name and mobile number for verification.
• I don’t believe there is any way to have more than two parties share the session – so won’t work for groups of more than two.
• You will need a fallback in case any students do not want to accept the T&C of a Google account. This does not need to be functionally equivalent, it can be a “lesser” experience.
• A DPIA for use of Google Remote Desktop has now been approved.

Dr George Kinnear from the School of Informatics has written an interesting blog post on his experience of sharing mathematical writing using video. It can be found here: https://blogs.ed.ac.uk/georgekinnear/2020/05/16/sharing-mathematical-writing-using-video/

The Informatics Teaching Festival is a series of events aimed at addressing some of the issues raised by moving much of our learning and teaching online in September 2020.

The sessions will run in Collaborate and the link is the same – no matter which event(s) you wish to attend. An email will be sent to all Informatics staff nearer the time with the Guest link.

Sessions will be recorded and links to the recordings will be posted here.

Schedule

Below is a list of topics being covered in Teaching Hour events throughout May and early June 2020. Judy Robertson will lead, with the help of learning technologists and invited guests. An email was sent to all teaching staff on 6 May with links to the rooms in Collaborate, where they will be held.

Events will be recorded and the links to the recordings will be uploaded here. Please note: you will need to be logged in to Media Hopper Create (using your University / EASE login) to access the recording.

The following resource list has been put together by Judy Robertson, with help from Kobi Gal and Michael Gallagher. It will continue to be updated and we hope it will be of use to colleagues developing their Semester 1 2020 classes for online delivery.

https://eu01.alma.exlibrisgroup.com/leganto/public/44UOE_INST/lists/25925176760002466?auth=SAML

Mark Zarb, SISCA Director of Education has, with the following colleagues, recorded a webinar on best practices when transitioning quickly to online education: Danai Korre (Edinburgh), Areti Manataki (Edinburgh), Rachel Menzies (Dundee), Judy Robertson (Edinburgh) and Jeremy Singer (Glasgow).

In it, they deal with all manner of topics (suggested by the community), and hope that this will be a good resource in the days to come:
https://youtu.be/r2AGZHCMQ_s

The webinar roughly follows a three-point structure:

1. Migrating to Online Teaching
2. Considerations during the Module
3. Pastoral Care

Let us know what you think – in particular, whether you would like to see more of this style of content emerge from the Education community – or whether you want to be involved in its creation.

Feel free to circulate far and wide.

In my previous post, I listed some EdTech tools and services available to you in the event of disruption to campus-based activities – such as the current COVID-19 epidemic.

I would like to take this opportunity to list a few non-tech things to consider for the same scenario.

Communications

• Think about how you communicate with your students at present. How much do you rely on face-to-face communication? What are you going to use in place of this?
• Related to the above, it’s very easy for your message to be misinterpreted. Be clear, and say more than you think is necessary, to ensure students are clear about what you are asking of them. Check discussion boards regularly to get on top of mistaken beliefs early. Oh, and be friendly!
• If you don’t already have an online discussion board for your class, set one up now. There are various options – please get in touch for further guidance.

Managing online synchronous classes

• Running an online class takes longer than a face-to-face class – both in preparation and in class management. Build this in to your timetable now.
• Related to the above, if you are delivering a lecture / presentation in real-time online, you will need someone to manage the back channel of questions and discussions. Identify a TA or someone suitable who could perform this role now.

Recording lectures for online delivery

• If you have prepared a one hour, or two hour lecture, consider breaking this down before recording. Breaking up your lecture into smaller chunks (eg 20 minutes) will be easier for you (less editing required in post) and more digestible for your students.
• See previous post for the various supported tools available to you for recording lectures / smaller classes.

Further support

• Consider offering online office hours. I shall be running an Informatics Learning Technology service office hour. This will be online, via Blackboard Collaborate and will be every week day 10-11am. You can access here (Chrome or Firefox are the recommended browsers): https://eu.bbcollab.com/guest/47b0a9ad52514aa28667b3dfab10b727