• Purpose
• NILE design standards
• Availability of NILE courses
• Accessibility of content in NILE courses
• Ultra courses: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE module-level Ultra courses
• Ultra courses: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE programme-level Ultra courses
• Ultra courses: Additional information about the tools available in all Ultra courses
• Original courses: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE module-level Original courses
• Original courses: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE programme-level Original courses
• Minimum standards for layout and format in all NILE courses
• ABL expectations for all NILE courses
The NILE design standards were updated for Ultra courses and approved by the University of Northampton Student Support Forum on the 15th of April, 2021
The purpose of this guide is to set out and clarify the minimum standards expected of NILE module and programme courses. The standards are intended to support and guide staff in their use of NILE, and to help make best use of the templates that are created for all NILE module and programme courses each year.
In addition to the guidance provided in this document, advice, guidance and training to meet the required standards is provided by the Learning Technology Team. Staff are encouraged to meet with their learning technologist, who can provide training on all aspects of NILE, and who offer Ultra Course Development Workshops to assist in the creation of excellent Ultra courses.
Staff new to Ultra may like to view the University's demonstration Ultra course, CRIT101: Critical Thinking - A Practical Introduction, which can be found under the Organisations tab in NILE, and which offers a practical example of a well-designed Ultra course.
Staff are also encouraged to view the guide, 'Getting your NILE course set up and ready for teaching' for more details about setting up NILE courses.
The core NILE design standards have been split into ‘required’ and ‘recommended’. Required items should be present in all NILE courses; recommended standards are additions that may add extra value to the student experience and further enhance the course. These standards have been developed and refined in response to student feedback and in consultation with students and staff. In addition, the standards are in accordance with the principles and practices of active, blended learning, and adherence to them will help to ensure a consistent student user experience in NILE.
It is expected that students will have access to all of their NILE courses, including all of the teaching and learning materials and activities, and their assignments, grades and feedback, for the current and the two previous academic years. Therefore, NILE courses should not be made unavailable to students at the end of each academic year.
All content available to students in NILE courses must meet the 2018 accessibility regulations:
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/accessibility-requirements-for-public-sector-websites-and-apps
Ally is enabled on all courses and should be used for accessibility checking.
For more information about how to ensure that NILE courses are as accessible as possible, please see the Learning Technology Team's Accessibility and NILE guide.
Course Content items | Further information |
About this module |
Item description visible to students and staff: Required The ‘About this module’ section of the Course Content area in Ultra module-level courses should contain the following items: Recommended To note |
Assessment and submission |
Item description visible to students and staff: Required The ‘Assessment and submission’ section of the Course Content area in Ultra module-level courses should contain the following items: A link to the Learning Technology Team's NILE assignment submission guide for students will be available by default in this area. Recommended |
Grading, feedback, and verification [Hidden] |
Item description visible to staff: Required Staff should use this area of their Ultra course to store materials relating to the grading, feedback and verification process, including internal moderation records, and any materials for the External Examiner. GDPR information to note |
Teaching and learning content and activities |
Required Use of top-level learning modules and folders (structured, for example, week-by-week or thematically) will be necessary to create a logical layout for students to be able to find materials, as this will be the area where students will spend most of their time. Recommended |
Course Content items | Further information |
My programme |
Item description visible to students and staff: Required The ‘My programme’ section of the Course Content area in Ultra module-level courses should contain the following items as appropriate: Recommended To note |
Programme content and activities |
Required Use of top-level learning modules and folders will be necessary to create a logical layout for students to be able to find materials. Recommended |
Details & Actions menu items | Further information |
Class register | Staff can view who is enrolled on their course and can see additional details such as student ID numbers and email addresses. Students can view who is enrolled on their course, and see profile pictures, if these have been uploaded, but cannot see other students’ ID numbers, or email addresses. |
Progress Tracking | This tool gives students an easy way to keep track of what they have done inside the course. The progress tracking tool also allows staff to view details of their students' engagement, and can be used to track levels of engagement by content item and by student. |
Course image | Staff can use this tool to add a banner image to their course. The image should be at least 1200 x 240 pixels, and should not contain any text. |
Course is open / private / completed | Visible to staff only. Staff can use this tool to set the course availability. By default, courses are private (i.e., they can be seen in the Courses menu, but not accessed by students). Courses should be set to ‘open’ prior to teaching so students can access them. Once finished, staff may set the course to ‘completed’, which allows students to access the course content but not participate (e.g., contribute to discussion board and journals) in the course. |
Class Collaborate |
Staff can use Class Collaborate to set up, run, and manage synchronous online classroom sessions, meetings, tutorials, etc. Students use this tool to join these sessions, and access session recordings. Recommended Staff using a virtual classroom for the first time are advised to meet with their learning technologist, to find out how to use and get the best from virtual classrooms. |
Books and Tools | Staff can use this tool to add content from external sources, such as licenced/purchased ebooks from publishers. |
Question Banks | Visible to staff only. Staff can use this tool to import question banks for (re)use in their courses. |
Course Tools menu items | Further information |
Course Content | This area contains the course content and should follow the design standards set out in Table: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE module-level Ultra courses above. |
Calendar | Staff and students can access the Ultra course calendar. Items in the Ultra course which have dates, such as an assessment due date, will be shown in the Calendar. (Note that the Ultra course calendar is not linked to the UON timetabling system.) |
Announcements | Staff can use this tool to send announcements to all students enrolled on the course. Students will receive the announcements via email. Students will see announcements in the Activity Stream and will also see any new announcements in a pop-up window when they access the course. Staff and students can view previous announcements via this tool. |
Discussions | Staff and students can quickly view and access all course discussions. |
Gradebook | Staff use the Gradebook to view and mark student assessments. Students can view and submit assignments via Gradebook, as well as via the assignment submission points set up by staff in the ‘Assessment and submission’ area in Course Content (see Table: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE module-level Ultra courses). Students can view grades and feedback within Gradebook, and via the ‘Grades’ tool in the main NILE navigation menu. |
Messages | Whereas the Announcements tool can only be used to contact all students on the course, staff can use the Messages tool to contact individual students, or groups of students. Students will see the message in the Messages tool in the main NILE navigation menu, and staff can choose to also send the message via email too. When messaging multiple students, please check the following guidance to ensure that personal information is not disclosed via use of this tool: Can I send emails or messages to individual and multiple students from my Ultra course? |
Analytics | Visible to staff only. Where staff have set up tests, and where the tests have met the minimum number of responses, staff will be able to use the Question Analysis tool to view detailed information about the question responses. |
Groups | Staff can use this tool to create and manage groups in Ultra courses. Students can view the groups of which they are a member. |
Student Preview |
Visible to staff only. Staff can use this tool to see how their course will look and function to students. Recommended |
(NB. All NILE content items listed are included in the UON template. Where appropriate, some content items are not included or are included in a modified form in the template for Partners.)
NILE menu item | Information provided within each item (right hand-side frame of NILE) | In Partner Template? |
About this module [Entry Point*] |
Required Recommended *About this module is the default entry point for the module, and should normally be used for the first few weeks of term. Once the module is underway, academic staff may choose to switch the entry point to ‘Announcements’. |
Yes |
Announcements | Required Clear details about any information, changes and updates that students need to be aware of. |
Yes |
Contacts |
Required Other useful contacts are available via the ‘My Support Network’ link in the course, and the ‘Assist’ link in the main NILE navigation menu. Recommended |
Yes |
Module activities |
Required Learning activities, including those that students are expected to complete outside the classroom (activities, etc), provide a structure or scaffold for learners to make meaningful use of the content. Remember it is what students do with content that is important to support the achievement the learning outcomes. Sensible use of folders (e.g., week by week or topic by topic) is necessary to create a logical layout for students to be able to find materials, as this will be the area where students will spend most of their time. Most recent resources should be clearly labelled or near the top to avoid scrolling. Recommended |
Yes |
Blackboard Collaborate |
Required Recommended |
Yes |
Reading and resources |
Required Recommended |
Yes |
Assessment information |
Required Assignment submission points should not be included in this section. |
Yes, but without links to Learning Development and Academic Librarians |
Submit your work |
Required A link to the Learning Technology Team's NILE assignment submission guide for students will be available by default in this area. |
Yes |
Feedback and grades | Required This is a NILE tool area into which tutors do not have to put customised content. Grades from the Grade Centre will be displayed to students here. |
Yes |
My support network |
Required |
Yes, but will be unavailable by default |
Support for tutors | Required This link is unavailable to students but provides tutors with additional support and links in developing the course. |
Yes, modified resource for partner staff |
Response to feedback | Required Module Leaders will use this section to inform students taking this module how the module has been enhanced in response to feedback from students in last year’s cohort (to close the feedback loop). |
No |
External examiner | Required This link is unavailable to students. It provides material for External Examiners and a quick link to the content areas containing information regarding lists of students who require review. |
Yes |
NILE menu item | Information provided within each item (right hand-side frame of NILE) |
My Programme [Entry Point] |
Required Recommended |
Announcements | Required Welcome (back) and clear details about any information, changes and updates that students need to be aware of, such as messages about placement, graduate posts, further study, transition to next year of study, NSS, and upcoming special events. |
Contacts |
Required Recommended |
Discussion Areas | Recommended A communication area that contains three discussion areas which may be used within the programme:
|
My Support Network | Required This link points students to the academic and non-academic support available to them at the University. |
My Personal Tutor |
Required Either of the following is acceptable:
In no circumstances should the students' names and their ID numbers be listed. Such a list would constitute a data breach and would need reporting to recordsmanager@northampton.ac.uk. To note |
External Examiner Report |
Required To note |
Standards | What it means |
Consistent colour scheme and layout | Required Readability of the course and the overall design and accessibility (see below) must be considered. |
Content accessible to a range of devices | Required Standard accessible formats must be used, such as PDF or Word for text-based documents, PowerPoint for presentations, JPG for photos, PNG for graphics, and Kaltura for audio and video clips. Avoid formats that require specialist software or plug-ins, unless they are required for the subject of study. |
Content accessible for all students |
Required Staff must use the Ally report tool in their sites to identify any content which is not accessible and then resolve this prior to release to students. |
Expectations | What it means |
ABL | Required Students should be provided with a range of active learning opportunities not only in class, but on all module-level NILE courses. Active learning opportunities require that students are expected to do more than accessing information. Activities for use in and outside the classroom, should provide learners with a suitable scaffold, i.e., an opportunity to make sense of the content they engage with. The tasks can be either individual or group based. NILE should not be used as a content repository. Critically, each module should be taught as a single, blended unit, and not as two separate tiers (face-to-face on the one hand and online on the other). |
Staff visibility | Required Within ABL, some of the contact time will take place outside the regular teaching slots, typically on an asynchronous basis (i.e., not in real time). Academic staff must be active, visible and engaged throughout. This means participating actively in discussion forums, commenting on blog posts, making regular announcements about how the class is progressing, and in general, taking an active role in the formation of a community of learning. |
Synchronous and asynchronous technologies | Required While a proportion of the teaching and some of the NILE-based learning activities will take place asynchronously (through activities that make use of tools such as discussions, journals and blogs to allow learner flexibility), consideration as to the use of synchronous (real-time) sessions is recommended. Blackboard Collaborate is the UON-supported tool to enable staff and students to engage remotely in real-time sessions. |
If you require assistance with NILE, please contact LearnTech Support using the NILE Enquiry Form
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