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NILE design standards, expectations, and guidance for an excellent student experience

Notable changes and updates to the NILE design standards

• 2024: Updates to the standards were approved by the Academic Quality & Standards Committee to take account of guidance issued to UK HEIs by the Office for Students. This resulted in the addition of the following items to section A: 'Availability of course content in NILE courses', and; 'Availability of student assessment, grades and feedback in NILE'.

• 2021: The standards were updated to include new standards for Ultra courses, and were approved by the Student Support Forum.

• 2019: The standards were revised and section C added, 'Standards and expectations for Ultra courses'. These changes were approved by the Student Experience Committee.

NILE design standards, expectations, and guidance for an excellent student experience

Section A: NILE Design Standards

• Purpose

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.

• NILE design standards

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.

• Availability of NILE courses

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.

• Availability of course content in NILE courses (new)

In order to comply with the Office for Students (OfS) regulations regarding the retention of course content, all key course content must be uploaded/added directly to NILE courses, and external links to key course content held outside of NILE (including in staff members' UON OneDrive folders) should not be used. Key course content would typically include the following:

The module handbook;
Assessment briefs and assessment guidance;
Core teaching and learning content.

It is appreciated that staff may retain a master copy of a file in their own personal areas but this should not be the file that is linked from NILE.

Supplementary content in the form of external links, and links to student activities, etc., may be included in NILE courses, but as a minimum it should be possible for a reviewer to understand the scope, aims, objectives, and learning outcomes of the course, what and how students were taught (including being able to view the core teaching and learning materials that were provided to students), and how students were assessed, even if none of the external links in the NILE course are operational. Links to NILE tools (e.g., Kaltura media, Padlets, Xerte and H5P content) can be used as much as needed, as these are not treated as external links and will be included in NILE course archives.

• Availability of student assessments, grades and feedback in NILE (new)

In order to comply with the Office for Students (OfS) regulations regarding the retention of student assessments, grades, and feedback, all grades and feedback should be provided to students in NILE. Where the actual item for assessment is not a digital artefact that is able to be submitted to NILE, staff will need to set up a submission point in NILE and ask students to submit a record of the assessed item in a different format (this is referred to by the OfS as 'an appropriate record for retention'). Where students are asked to submit appropriate records for retention, these should be sufficiently informative for a reviewer to be able to get a good understanding of what was assessed. Examples of appropriate records for retention could include: video recordings of performances or presentations; audio recordings or transcripts of vivas; screencapture recordings of websites or other online/digital artefacts; photographs of artworks, sculptures, and other 2D and 3D physical artefacts. If a member of staff creates the records for retention themselves (e.g., if a staff member films a group performance), these records should be available in the NILE course, usually in the 'Grading, feedback, and verification' folder, clearly labelled so that reviewers can see which students and assessments they relate to. Records for retention submitted by students and staff should be items which are uploaded to NILE, not external links to material held outside of NILE.

• Accessibility of course content in NILE courses

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.

Section B: Design standards for Ultra courses

• Ultra courses: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE module-level Ultra courses

*Table: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE module-level Ultra courses*
Course Content items	Further information
About this module	Item description visible to students and staff: “Welcome to your module. In here you will find important information about your module, including the module guide, contact details for your lecturers, and the module reading and resource list.” Required The 'About this module' item should remain as the first item under Course Content. The item name, 'About this module', and item description should not be deleted or modified. The ‘About this module’ section of the Course Content area in Ultra module-level courses should contain the following items: • a written and/or video welcome to the module; • the module guide; • details of how to contact staff teaching on the module; • the reading list for the module. Recommended Staff may like to include a ‘Module FAQs’ discussion. By encouraging students to post general or frequently asked questions, staff may be able to avoid the use of email to answer the same questions multiple times. Alternatively, staff may like to include a pre-written list of module FAQs. To note Contact information for all core University services is provided via the ‘Assist’ tab in the main NILE navigation menu, and is updated and maintained centrally, therefore this information does not need adding into individual Ultra courses. Staff may like to advise their students of this in their NILE courses. Additionally, the 'Assist' tab is promoted to NILE users on the NILE Institution Page (the NILE landing page).
Assessment and submission	Item description visible to students and staff: “In here you will find the submission points for your module assessments, along with information related to the assessments for this module (e.g., assessment briefs, submission instructions, and deadlines).” Required The 'Assessment and submission' item should remain as the second item under Course Content. The item name, 'Assessment and submission', and item description should not be deleted or modified. The ‘Assessment and submission’ section of the Course Content area in Ultra module-level courses should contain the following items: • assessment brief(s), including information on acceptable file formats for submission, word count (or equivalent), assessment weighting, and which learning outcomes are being assessed; • assessment submission and feedback dates, including re-sit dates; • assessment arrangements for students with additional needs; • assessment criteria, including a copy of, or link to, any assessment rubric (or similar) being used; • any assessment-specific materials; • guidance about the process by which the assessment item(s) should be submitted; • the assessment submission point(s). A link to the Learning Technology Team's NILE assignment submission guide for students will be available by default in this area. Recommended Staff may like to add a video introduction to assessments in addition to the formal assessment brief. Staff may also like to set up an assessment FAQs discussion, or may prefer to include a pre-written list of assessment FAQs. Staff may like to make use of sub-folders where there are multiple assessment items.
Grading, feedback, and verification [Hidden]	Item description visible to staff: “This folder contains information for staff and external examiners about the grading, feedback and verification processes carried out for this module’s assessments. This folder and all items within it must always remain hidden from students.” Required The 'Grading, feedback, and verification' item should remain as the third item under Course Content, and must always remain hidden from students. The item name, 'Grading, feedback, and verification', and item description should not be deleted or modified. 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 This area is hidden from students and must always remain so, as should all items stored within this area. Should items stored in this area of the module be made available to students, it may constitute a data breach and will need to be reported to the University’s Records Management Office for further investigation.
Teaching and learning content and activities	Required The teaching and learning content and activities should be placed in the Course Content section of the Ultra course, after the ‘About this module’, ‘Assessment and submission’, and the (hidden from students) ‘Grading, feedback and verification’ areas. 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 Use of learning modules is recommended for top-level course content items. Rather than displaying all course content at once, staff may like to use release conditions to automatically release course content. Alternatively, staff may prefer to manually hide course content at the start of the module, and release content each week.

• Ultra courses: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE programme-level Ultra courses

*Table: Minimum standards and guidance for NILE programme-level Ultra courses*
Course Content items	Further information
My programme	Item description visible to students and staff: “Welcome to your programme. In here you will find important information about your programme, including contact details for your programme leader.” Required The 'My programme' item should remain as the first item under Course Content. The item name, 'My programme', and item description should not be deleted or modified. The ‘My programme’ section of the Course Content area in Ultra module-level courses should contain the following items as appropriate: • a written and/or video welcome to the programme; • the programme guide; • details of how to contact key programme staff. Recommended Staff may like to promote the MyEngagement tool to students in their programme-level NILE course, so that students can find out who their personal tutor is, and can track their engagement with their studies. As the programme-level NILE course contains all students on all years of the programme, staff may like to make use of the groups tool to organise their programme-level NILE course (e.g., by creating groups for first, second, and third year students). While annoucements will be sent to all students, use of groups can allow messages to be sent to just one group of students, and can allow content items in the NILE course to be made available to specific groups, rather than to all students. Staff may also like to include a ‘Programme FAQs’ discussion. By encouraging students to post general or frequently asked questions, staff may be able to avoid the use of email to answer the same questions multiple times. Alternatively, staff may like to include a pre-written list of programme FAQs. To note Contact information for all core University services is provided via the ‘Assist’ tab in the main NILE navigation menu, and is updated and maintained centrally, therefore this information does not need adding into individual Ultra courses. Staff may like to advise their students of this in their NILE courses. Additionally, the 'Assist' tab is promoted to NILE users on the NILE Institution Page (the NILE landing page).
Programme content and activities	Required Other information, content and activities relating to the programme can be placed in the Course Content section of the Ultra course, after the ‘My programme’ item. 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 Use of learning modules is recommended for top-level course content items. Rather than displaying all course content at once, staff may like to use release conditions to automatically release course content. Alternatively, staff may prefer to manually hide course content at the start of the module, and release content each week.

• Ultra courses: Additional information about the tools available in all Ultra courses

*Table: Additional information about the tools available in all Ultra courses (Details & Actions menu items)*
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 Where Collaborate is used, in advance of their first session it is useful to provide students with clear instructions about how to find the session, and the need to access Collaborate via an up-to-date browser with a good Internet connection. At the start of their first session, it is worthwhile spending time with students explaining the functionality of Collaborate, including how to participate in the chat, draw on whiteboards, take part in polls, etc. 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.

*Table: Additional information about the tools available in all Ultra courses (Course Tools menu items)*
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 Use of Student Preview to check through courses is highly recommended, especially where course content has been set up with complex release conditions.

Section C: Standards and expectations for Ultra and Original courses

• Minimum standards for layout and format in NILE courses

*Table: Minimum standards for layout and format in all NILE courses*
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 Materials must be created with accessibility in mind. For example, Word documents must be formatted using styles and headers to ensure compatibility with screen readers and easy conversion to PDF. Tutors must ensure that all content being used is accessible in all countries where students are based. Staff should 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.

• Active Blended Learning (ABL) expectations for NILE courses

*Table: ABL expectations for all NILE courses*
*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.

Learning Technology Team

NILE Design, Analytics, AI, and More

NILE design standards, expectations, and guidance for an excellent student experience

Contents

Section A: NILE Design Standards

Section B: Design standards for Ultra courses

Section C: Standards and expectations for Ultra courses

Notable changes and updates to the NILE design standards

NILE design standards, expectations, and guidance for an excellent student experience

Section A: NILE Design Standards

• Purpose

• NILE design standards

• Availability of NILE courses

• Availability of course content in NILE courses (new)

• Availability of student assessments, grades and feedback in NILE (new)

• Accessibility of course content in NILE courses

Section B: Design standards for Ultra 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

Section C: Standards and expectations for Ultra and Original courses

• Minimum standards for layout and format in NILE courses

• Active Blended Learning (ABL) expectations for NILE courses