Campus News

Moodle disruption – revised submission and marking deadlines

December 13th, 2019

December submission and marking deadlines have been revised following the now-resolved severe disruption to Moodle.

Revised marking deadlines

Because the disruption to Moodle has pushed back submission deadlines, marking return dates are also extended by five working days. This excludes University closure days – the University closes on Friday 20 December and reopens on Thursday 2 January.

If you require further marking time due to work commitments or annual leave, please agree dates with your Head of School, and make sure your students are aware.

It has been agreed that the release of marks and feedback can be pushed into the January assessment period as necessary.

Students have been informed that the release of marks and feedback may be delayed. It would be helpful if you could make your students aware if this will affect them directly.

Revised submission deadlines

Due to the now-resolved issues with Turnitin, students who were originally due to submit on Thursday 5 December have had their submission deadline extended to Friday 13 December at 3pm. This is the final revision to this deadline date.

Now that the system is restored, students should submit their work as usual, via the Moodle assignment or Turnitin assignment dropboxes.

If students were due to submit assignments on Friday 6 December, or during the week commencing Monday 9 December, submission deadlines were extended as follows:

  • Original deadline Friday 6 December, new deadline Friday 13 December
  • Original deadline Monday 9 December, new deadline Monday 16 December
  • Original deadline Tuesday 10 December, new deadline Tuesday 17 December
  • Original deadline Wednesday 11 December, new deadline Wednesday 18 December
  • Original deadline Thursday 12 December, new deadline Thursday 19 December
  • Original deadline Friday 13 December, new deadline Friday 20 December

We recognise that term finishes for the majority of students on Friday 13 December. If they are unable to submit after Friday 13 December, please ask them to inform Student Services. The University will ensure that no student will be disadvantaged as a consequence of the now-resolved issues with Moodle.

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Seasonal offers at the University of Nottingham

December 12th, 2019

It’s the season of giving and the University has got a number of super stocking fillers for your friends and loved ones this year.

Campus Wildlife Calendar
Featuring some of the most photogenic creatures of the University of Nottingham, this year’s Campus Wildlife Calendar also includes an introduction from Vice-Chancellor Professor Shearer West.

All proceeds from sales of the calendar will contribute to the Environment Initiative Fund which provides grants to student or staff-led sustainability projects.

Find out more about the calendar and order a copy through the online store now.

Offers at UoN sport
University of Nottingham Sport are opening their doors this festive period by offering three fantastic offers.

People have a choice of:

  • Winter fitness pass: 7 days for £10 (available until Monday 6 January 2020) or 30 days for £25 (available until Saturday 21 December)
  • Bring your kids for free: between Saturday 14 December 2019 – Sunday 12 January 2020
  • Pay as you go: between Saturday 14 December 2019 – Sunday 12 January 2020 non-members can enjoy access to a wide range of fitness and wellbeing facilities including fitness suites, swimming pool, climbing wall and event the relaxing health and wellbeing suites.

UoN Seasonal e-cards
This year’s seasonal e-cards are now available for staff to send to colleagues, associates and partner organisations.

We’ve created two designs this year – visit the downloads page to choose your preferred design and for full instructions on how to send.

Don’t forget…
Autumn Term 2019 ends on Friday 13 December, so from everyone at the University of Nottingham, have a very merry Christmas and a happy New Year!

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Moodle fully restored – Turnitin now available

December 11th, 2019

Students can once again submit assignments through Turnitin.

Moodle has been restored to full functionality and is no longer read-only. You and your students have access to your modules, lecture notes and learning resources. Any updates or changes you make in Moodle will now be saved.

Students can submit assignments through both the Moodle assignment and Turnitin assignment dropboxes. They will also be able to see their marks as usual.

If your students submitted assignments between 5pm on Wednesday 4 December and 1pm on Thursday 5 December, they may be required to re-submit. If this is the case, they will already have been emailed by Information Services.

The revised submission deadlines mean that marking schedules will be adjusted accordingly. Students have been informed of this.

Revised submission deadlines

We previously advised that students who were due to submit on Thursday 5 December would have a new submission deadline 24 hours after the restoration of a full, live Moodle service. Now that the system is restored, students should submit their work as usual, via the Moodle assignment or Turnitin assignment dropboxes by 12noon on Thursday 12 December.

If students were due to submit assignments on Friday 6 December, or during the week commencing Monday 9 December, their submission deadlines have been extended as follows:

  • Original deadline Friday 6 December, new deadline Friday 13 December
  • Original deadline Monday 9 December, new deadline Monday 16 December
  • Original deadline Tuesday 10 December, new deadline Tuesday 17 December
  • Original deadline Wednesday 11 December, new deadline Wednesday 18 December
  • Original deadline Thursday 12 December, new deadline Thursday 19 December
  • Original deadline Friday 13 December, new deadline Friday 20 December

We recognise that term finishes for the majority of students on Friday 13 December. If they unable to submit after Friday 13 December, please ask them to inform Student Services. The University will ensure that no student will be disadvantaged as a consequence of the now-resolved issues with Moodle.

 

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Reduced charges for central performance and archive storage

December 11th, 2019

In response to feedback from users and funding bodies, a task and finish group was set up to review the cost recovery model for the University’s Central Performance Storage and Archive Storage.

The charging model has now been revised and, in some cases, a free tier has been introduced: £58 per TB/year for Central Performance Storage (was £179) with a free tier of up to 5TB; £38 per TB/year for Archive Storage (was £94).

This is good news for researchers as well as any staff members who work around research and innovation, finance or school operations.

Find more information about the Storage Charging Model (Office 365 login required).

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5,000 mentoring hours – University of Nottingham student volunteers support local young people.

December 11th, 2019

The volunteers have amassed more than 5000 hours working at the three IntoUniversity learning centres based in Hyson Green, St Ann’s and Broxtowe within the Nottingham area. The mentoring programme matches IntoUniversity students with university student volunteers, providing them with positive role models. The programme also gives the mentees the opportunity to develop their social skills, explore future options and improve their academic attainment.

The University of Nottingham is now in its eighth year of a very successful partnership with the national education charity, IntoUniversity, and mentoring is one of the core elements to this partnership. Students are recruited as mentors early in the academic year and then visit their IntoUniversity centre once a fortnight to meet with their mentee.

“The best thing about mentoring is building a relationship with a young person and knowing you are having an impact on them”

The young mentees benefit from the scheme in a range of ways with one mentee saying: “I take part in the mentoring programme because it helps me to learn more and I love the activities we do together.” But university students also have a lot to gain from the programme including softer skills and the opportunity to have a positive impact on the wider Nottingham community, with one student saying; “Mentoring is something that I could have done with when I was younger.”

Since the partnership began in 2011, IntoUniversity has worked with over 13,000 local young people in Nottingham. Students interested in taking part in the programme are encouraged to register their interest for next year’s programme here.

Staff can also get involved as IntoUniversity are looking for professionals to mentor students who are in their final year of studies, year 13. Staff who are interested in being a corporate mentor to one of these students are encouraged to learn more here.

On behalf of everyone at the University of Nottingham, we would like to thank and congratulate the IntoUniversity Student Mentors on their hard work in the programme.

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Moodle has been restored

December 10th, 2019

Message sent on behalf of Professor Sarah O’Hara, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and the Student Experience, and David Hill, Chief Digital Officer.

Dear colleagues,

Moodle has been restored and is now live. You and your students have access to modules, lecture notes and most learning resources. Any updates or changes made in Moodle will now be saved.

Moodle can be accessed at moodle.nottingham.ac.uk.

Your students can submit assignments through the Moodle assignment dropbox. Currently, they cannot submit their work through Turnitin – this submission assignment dropbox is not visible to students.

We recognise that some colleagues will have part-marked work in Moodle. To ensure students don’t see incomplete marking, we have turned off student access to marks. We will keep you updated on when this will be restored.

If your students have missed assignment submission deadlines while Moodle has been unavailable, please assure them they will not be penalised. All submission deadlines have been revised – please check our Current Students webpages for more detail.

Because the disruption to Moodle has pushed back submission deadlines, marking return dates are also extended by five working days. This excludes University closure days. Colleagues who require further marking time due to work commitments and annual leave are asked to agree dates with their Head of School, and to make sure your students are aware.

Changes made within Moodle between 5pm on Wednesday 4 December and 1pm on Thursday 5 December may not have been saved. Colleagues and students affected by this will be contacted directly by Information Services or Learning Technologies.

We are compiling FAQs on specific queries that have been raised by staff and students so far. These are available on the Learning Technologies pages. These will be updated over the coming days as more queries are raised.

Please accept our sincerest apologies for the disruption.

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Parental Leave: Carry over of annual leave and New Parents Pack

December 10th, 2019

The University is committed to furthering equality, diversity and inclusivity and one aspect of this is to support staff returning to work following Maternity/Adoption/Shared Parental Leave (referred to as “parental leave”).

As part of the University’s Athena SWAN action plan, a number of focus groups with new parents took place to gain a better understanding of their experiences of going on parental leave.

Following this feedback, we’ve made some changes to our existing Parental Leave provision which are effective immediately. They include:

Carry over of annual leave:
We recognise that the current annual leave carry forward policy is causing a barrier to staff who are due to be taking parental leave over two leave years; often resulting in staff taking leave at a time which adds lesser value to them in order to take it in the year in which it accrued i.e. prior to their parental leave period.

The changes we are introducing will enable parental leave returners to carry over their remaining annual leave entitlement accrued in the first leave year to the next, where parental leave is likely to span across two annual leave years and it is impractical for the leave to be taken in the year in which it accrued due to the period of parental leave.

The aim of these changes is to allow people the flexibility to use their annual leave entitlement in the best way possible to support their planned period of parental leave absence.

The changes will apply to all those on maternity, adoption and shared parental leave.

Our Maternity Leave policy, Shared Parental and Adoption Leave policies have been updated to reflect this change.

New Parents Pack pilot
We’re piloting a ‘New Parents Pack’ to provide practical information, resources and checklists for employees and managers to support staff before, during and after a period of parental leave.

You can have a look at the New Parents Pack here. We’re welcoming any feedback about the New Parents Pack during its initial piloted roll-out, so if you have some thoughts you’d like to share, please contact hr@nottingham.ac.uk

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Management of the Museum of Archaeology

December 10th, 2019

On Wednesday 1 January 2020, management of the University’s Museum of Archaeology will move from Lakeside Arts to Manuscripts and Special Collections within University of Nottingham Libraries.

The change to the operation of the Museum followed a recent Review of the Museum by Dame Janet Vitmayer and Vivienne Bennett OBE and supported by an Arts Council England Project Grant. The resulting report advised that the move to Manuscripts and Special Collections would provide a variety of benefits including collaborative working on collections, exhibitions and programming.

Speaking about the development, Mark Dorrington, Keeper of Manuscripts and Special Collections said that he “looks forward to a continuation of the close working relationship between Manuscripts, the Museum and Lakeside Arts”.

The Museum will stay in its current location on University Park campus and there will be no impact to visitors. Museum opening times will continue as Tuesday to Saturday 11am – 5pm and Sunday 12noon – 4pm.

The University of Nottingham Museum of archaeology reopened its doors nearly 12 years ago and has become an award winning Museum with strong regional, national and international partnerships.

The Museum undertakes an extensive programme with university students from a wide range of departments, offers a broad Learning and Public Programme with current research, Knowledge Exchange and consultation at its core, and has become a new regional venue for national touring exhibitions.

The Museum’s community programmes include the successful lunchtime lecture Archaeology NOW, with up to 200 members of the public attending, and the Nottinghamshire History and Archaeology Festival which is now in its 7th year. This brings together community groups, museums, heritage sites, university departments, and experimental archaeologists with 40-50 groups and organisations participating every year.

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Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience

December 9th, 2019

Further to the announcement that Professor Sarah O’Hara will take up a new role as Chief Executive Officer of Nottingham Global Online from August 2020, the University is currently advertising for a new Pro Vice-Chancellor for Education and Student Experience.

The role will lead the University’s strategy to deliver an outstanding teaching, learning and student experience for every student in our community.

Reporting directly to the Vice-Chancellor, and working across the University’s executive team, the role will offer strategic leadership and oversight for policies and actions to enhance teaching, learning, the student experience and widening participation, delivering recommendations, reports and advice to relevant University committees.

The closing date is Tuesday 7 January 2020 and applications are warmly welcomed from internal candidates.

Further details are posted at https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/jobs/currentvacancies/senior-appointments/pvc-education-and-student-experience/index.

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Moodle issues – read-only and revised submission dates

December 9th, 2019

5pm, Monday 9 December

Message sent on behalf of Professor Sarah O’Hara, Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Education and the Student Experience, and David Hill, Chief Digital Officer.

The University is continuing to experience issues with Moodle, Scripware, Xerte Toolkits and the Image Bank. Information Services are treating this as a priority and have been working throughout the weekend to restore these systems as soon as possible.

A temporary read-only version of Moodle is available at moodle-rc.nottingham.ac.uk, giving staff and student access to some of learning and revision materials while we continue to work on restoring full access to Moodle.

The temporary read-only version of Moodle will allow you and your students to look at documents and resources. However, students will not be able to submit assignments or post to discussions, and some links and activities will not be available.

In light of this, revised submission deadlines have been published and emailed to all students who may be affected by the current situation with Moodle.

Students who were due to submit on Thursday 5 December have a new submission deadline 24 hours after the restoration of a full, live Moodle service. We will inform you as soon as the full version of Moodle is restored.

If you were due to submit assignments on Friday 6 December, or during the week commencing Monday 9 December, your submission deadlines have been extended as follows:

  • Original deadline Friday 6 December, new deadline Friday 13 December
  • Original deadline Monday 9 December, new deadline Monday 16 December
  • Original deadline Tuesday 10 December, new deadline Tuesday 17 December
  • Original deadline Wednesday 11 December, new deadline Wednesday 18 December
  • Original deadline Thursday 12 December, new deadline Thursday 19 December
  • Original deadline Friday 13 December, new deadline Friday 20 December

We recognise that term finishes for the majority of students on Friday 13 December. If students are unable to submit after 13 December, they should inform Student Services. The University will ensure that no student will be disadvantaged as a consequence of current issues with Moodle.

The revised submission deadlines will mean that marking schedules will also need to be adjusted accordingly. We appreciate this may mean that both marking and release of marks may be pushed into January. We will update you on this as soon as possible.

 

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