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Getting started with Ultra

Summary

An introduction to navigating the Ultra system and the basics of creating site content.

Ultra system

Ultra homepage

Access Learn Ultra at vle.york.ac.uk (or for HYMS, hymsvle.york.ac.uk).

The homepage contains three key areas:

  • navigation bar: access different parts of the Ultra system.
  • technical help links for staff and students: where we provide information on trending topics (eg. Semester readiness information) and details of any current outages/issues.
  • departmental links: key resources for staff and students affiliated to that department.

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Key pages accessed from the navigation bar are:

  • Your profile: manage your notification settings and personal information.
  • Activity Stream: notifications collated across all your sites. You can manage what appears here in the notification settings within your profile.
  • Courses: module sites and academic-related sites (eg. study skills sites, Academic Integrity Tutorial)
  • Communities: non-academic sites, such as careers information and programme handbook sites.

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Courses page: access your module sites

The Courses page lists all your module sites. Here you can browse, filter and search for sites.

Detailed guide: Access your sites

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Tip

Click the star icon to Favourite a site and pin it to the top of your Courses list.

Module sites

VLE site design principles

These are a set of Essential (must meet) and Recommended (try to meet) principles to:

  • highlight best practice in site design (what makes a good site?).
  • help your site and materials meet accessibility and copyright legislation.
  • reduce workload for preparing your Ultra site.

Each principle includes details and notes to help you implement it in your site, for example:

2.1 Essential: Site structure includes sections for module information, assessment, Reading List, Replay Content and module materials.

  • This provides a consistent experience across modules, helping students navigate the site and locate items easily.
  • This structure is provided in site templates.
  • For professional programmes this may be adapted to include other relevant sections, maintaining a clear and easy to navigate site structure.

Make sure to review the full VLE site design principles before preparing your site.

Ultra site structure & module template

Within an Ultra site, there are three main sections:

  1. Top Menu: Access course tools including the Gradebook and Announcements.
  2. Course Content area: The main site area. Create and access course content here.
  3. Details & Actions access site tools including the Class Register and Course Image.

Detailed guide: Navigating an Ultra site

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Most sites are created from a departmental template based on the VLE site design principles, to improve student experience and reduce your workload in setting up the site.

The Course Content area is pre-populated with placeholder items organised in three broad sections:

  • Module information: module overview, teaching structure, staff contacts etc.
  • Assessment: all assessment information and submission points.
  • Teaching materials: lecture slides, workshop tasks, seminar preparation activities etc. Usually organised into weekly sections.

Detailed guide: Prepare sites for teaching

Basic editing & content creation

Manage Course Content items

To add an item in the Course Content area, hover where you would like to add it. Click the purple plus icon that appears and then select item type to add.

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To edit or delete an item, click the three dots icon on the right hand side of the item.

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To move an item drag and drop it using your mouse or tab to the six dots icon on the left with your keyboard, hit enter and use the up and down arrow keys.

Documents (pages)

Documents are the main 'page' content type where you can add text, images, files, embedded videos and more in a flexible drag-and-drop layout.

Find out more about creating and adding content in our detailed guide: Documents

Lecture materials document with text, image, slides file and embedded video in a mix of columns

Next steps

Congratulations for making your first steps with Ultra! To further develop your skills, you can: