Blackboard
Blackboard is the University’s online learning platform and central hub for your studies. Your module leaders use Blackboard courses to share resources and activities that support your learning in class and during independent study. You can use your courses to communicate with lecturers and take part in activities before and after teaching sessions, such as reading, knowledge checks and watching session recordings. You’ll also submit assessments and receive feedback through Blackboard. Our short Introduction to Blackboard video gives you an overview of the platform.
You can also visit Blackboard Help for Students for guides on getting started with Blackboard.
The Blackboard app enables you to use Blackboard on your mobile device, although the browser version works well on smaller screens too.
Top Tips for using Blackboard
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Learning Capture
The University of Reading’s learning capture system is called YuJa. Your lecturers can use YuJa to:
- Record live teaching sessions such as lectures
- Create short screencasts and videos
How can Learning Capture help me?
Recordings can help you to prepare for learning, revise for exams, and check over any difficult areas at your own pace.
Advice and support on accessing recordings, using YuJa, and your responsibilities as a student when using recordings can be found on our YuJa Help Page for Students.
Recording of live teaching sessions
Your lecturer might record some sessions, depending on what’s being covered. Please speak to your lecturer if you have any questions or concerns.
Top tips for using recordings:
- Re-watch the bits you found challenging, or which need further clarification - you don’t need to watch the entire recording. You might find it helpful to write the time in the margin of your session notes so you can easily come back to that point in the recording. You can also save time by using YuJa’s search tool to find a particular word in the recording.
- Use as a regular part of your study by revisiting key content soon after the lecture. Don’t be tempted to ‘binge watch’ recordings at revision time.
- Attend your lectures - recordings aren’t a substitute for being there! Students who go to class and use recordings to review tend to do better at university. Attending live sessions also helps you stay connected and feel part of your course community.
- Pause the recording to look up additional resources – try not to only rely on the content in the lecture.
Add to your notes - use the recordings to add detail to your notes, but don't forget to summarise and paraphrase in your own words. - Advice on getting the most out of session recordings is available on Study Advice’s Classroom Capture Libguide. We also recommend the Nordmann et al short slide-deck, Learning Capture: Practical recommendations for students and lecturers
Technical Support
If you have any technical questions or need support, please use Ask a Question
Please ensure third party cookies are enabled on your browser for Blackboard and YuJa. You can find guidance for this on our Resolving Issues with Cookies guide.
Learning Capture privacy notice - also displayed outside the entrance of rooms with Learning Capture equipment installed.
