The University is upgrading its Virtual Learning Environment, MOLE, to the latest version of Blackboard Learn 9 which will be called MOLE2. Some departments will be moving to the new version of Mole for the start of this academic year, with the rest moving for the start of academic year 2012.

The new system will be a significant improvement and provide new functionality with a much more user friendly interface.Training and support will be available throughout the process. Departments and faculties have been consulted regarding transition dates, together with discussions around what the transition will involve.

Support details will remain the same for both services, mole@sheffield.ac.uk - click on the link below to find out more.

Moving to MOLE 2

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In previous years start times of classes have started on the hour at 9:00 and 10:00, and then ten minutes past the hour from 11:10, with 10 minutes allowed for change over between classes. This can be confusing particularly for students. So from the 2011-12 academic year, all classes will start on the hour and finish at ten minutes to the hour e.g. 9:00-9:50.

We will therefore have a consistent start time throughout the day, and will maintain the 10 minutes for change over between classes.

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There have been reports from people who share computers, such as counter staff, that the second person to use the computer accidentally sees the first person's email messages even though the first person had logged out. This can be prevented by adopting a secure logout routine detailed via the link below:

Secure Log out of Shared Computers

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The new Windows 7 Managed desktop will be piloted with a limited range of applications in the Information Commons for students. It will be available from mid October 2011 on a limited number of loan laptops and PCs. Applications will be added throughout the year and the pilot will be expanded with a full rollout to all teaching and learning spaces in summer 2012. A pilot service for staff will also be starting in October 2011.

The current XP desktop has been upgraded with a few changes and is being rolled out this summer in all pool spaces.

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uPlayer is the name of a new media hosting service that CiCS will offer in the new academic year. The uPlayer service will provide a common library of audio and video material for teaching, research and publicity purposes. The material can be embedded into existing web services e.g. MOLE, uSpace, and CMS pages, and some material will be available publicly via the uPlayer web pages themselves.

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The e-learning and Digital Media Support team from LeTS have joined the Learning and Teaching Support Team in CiCS. This brings all of the support for the use of technology in learning and teaching into one place and gives us a chance to really enhance the services that we offer to the academic community and students. The team in CiCS will be working closely with other colleagues from LeTS who have joined Student Services to provide a really joined up service.

Existing contact details for the staff remain the same.

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As part of the preparations for 2012 the University is making a big investment in upgrading all pool teaching space. This includes improvements to heating, lighting, soundproofing, decoration and state of the art IT and AV kit.

The work is being co-ordinated by the Learning Infrastructure Space Management (LISM) group which is chaired by Paul White and includes colleagues from the Faculties, CiCS, Estates and other Professional Services. The work this summer has focussed on the Hicks Building and Bartolome House. This is in addition to the work that is being done in the Arts Tower to completely refurbish the lecture theatres.

In addition to the pool teaching space work, CiCS are refurbishing the open access computer rooms on G floor in the Hicks building, creating 3 computer rooms and a flexible teaching room which will provide much improved teaching and study space.

Around 800 PCs around campus are being upgraded which includes all of the PCs in the Information Commons.

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Work on the CMS rollout is progressing very well and we are currently expecting to have most sites live in the new CMS by November.

So far CiCS has trained over 500 members of staff on how to use the new CMS who are now updating 125 websites (and rising). Within the next few weeks we will have contacted every site owner and will be working through the last few sites still using the old CMS.

Development work is on-going to look at adding new features, and making changes to the system, following on from editor feedback and suggestions.

At the moment we are focussing on the news functionality, such as news releases and RSS feeds, working with the Media Team on the migration of their section of the site. We are also looking into how we can integrate with social media services such as Twitter and Facebook.

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• MOLE 2
• Lecture Start Times
• Shared Computers
• Managed Windows 7
• uPlayer Media Hosting
• CiCS and LeTS
• Teaching Spaces
• Web CMS

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