Moving to Learn Ultra – Tips from the College of Medicine & Veterinary Medicine
As part of the Learn upgrade, all courses must move into Learn Ultra before the start of AY 23/24 teaching. More than 160 courses have already made the move as part of the Learn Ultra Early Adopter programme. Over the coming weeks, we will be publishing a series of blog posts from the Early Adopters about their experience of using Learn Ultra to help you prepare to move your own courses into Learn Ultra. .
Digital Education Developer Olga Paterson from the College of Medicine and Veterinary Medicine offers advice on the process of moving courses into Learn Ultra.
“Within the Deanery of Clinical Sciences we had around 20 courses in the Early Adopter programme, including the whole of the MSc in Clinical Management of Pain programme.”
I had a panic thinking ‘how are we going to move so many courses?’
It was actually quite straightforward. We began by setting up a Learn Ultra Playground course so I could start investigating the features of Ultra and testing the functions. I really enjoyed it and I’m glad I took the time at the beginning to get to grips with Ultra before we started preparing our courses. Once we saw the new system, we were able to try and test things that were different to the previous version of Learn.
Take time to get to know Learn Ultra.
The first tip I’d give to other staff preparing their courses would be to take time to get familiar with Learn Ultra and don’t be afraid to play around with it. You can request a playground through your Learning Technologist, or through the Learn Ultra Playground Request Form, and use it to explore the features.
First impressions? Cleaner. More intuitive. Easier to use.
From a staff perspective, particularly for course builders and instructors, Learn Ultra is much easier to use, both when building your course and maintaining it. For example, in the previous version of Learn we would have to apply certain code to make the content consistent when viewing it on a mobile device. Learn Ultra was created specifically with mobile devices in mind so everything adjusts and moves around automatically – I would say that’s the overwhelming benefit for staff, it’s a real time saver.
From a student’s perspective, this ease of formatting on our end creates a consistent experience for them.
Make the most of new integrations.
The integration of Microsoft Teams is a big difference between Ultra and the old version of Learn. Not many of our programmes currently use Teams but I think the integration will bump up the interest. I’d advise instructors to consider using Teams to improve the experience for students, particularly those on our online programmes as it gives them another way to interact.
Adopting a template.
Our deanery was not part of the Learn Foundations programme and we had not previously used a template in Learn. However, we now have a template, which has been integrated into all of the Early Adopter courses. We have made slight adjustments to the original one to make it more suitable for our needs by adding or removing things as and when required and, overall, people have been happy with it. I would definitely recommend using the template. It makes things simpler for you, as well as giving students a more consistent experience across your programmes.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Finally, the biggest piece of advice I have is this; if ever-in doubt when moving to Learn Ultra, get in touch with your Learning Technology team. Those who were part of the Early Adopter programme were able to exchange ideas, report issues and problems, and find and share solutions. We were supported by the central team and were able to get advice as well as feedback on the process of moving to Learn Ultra. These learnings fed into the central good practice guidance and gave Learning Technologists a good chance to get to know the process of moving courses into Learn Ultra. We were then able to collectively feedback on the process.
If you would like recommendations on how to use Learn Ultra and how to get started, get in touch with your School or Deanery Learning Technologist, or the IT Helpdesk.
For more information on the Learn Ultra project, resources, training and more, please visit the Learn Ultra SharePoint.
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