Digital Learning

Please note that you will not automatically be added to your department's workspace. If you are interested in using MURAL in one of your teaching sessions and know how you want to use it, please follow these steps:

3. Once approved as a member of your department's workspace we recommend watching some tutorials MURAL have created.

• Navigating a mural tutorial
• Add content to your canvas

4. Digital Learning will then add you as a member of your departmental workspace so that you can use your university email and university password to login at https://app.mural.co/. On login, you will automatically be in your department's workspace.

Important: Academic staff must contact Digital Learning via emailing dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk to request access to a department's Workspace. The Digital Learning team can then sign post you to guidance to ensure that you understand the different user roles, permissions and how the MURAL application works.

Inviting students or external visitors to a mural

Once a member of staff has been added to a department's Workspace they can see all of the Rooms and murals created within that Workspace. All staff members share the same permissions and access within their department's workspace.

Important: Students or external visitors such as visiting lecturers do not have a MURAL account therefore those users must be invited to a mural via a visitor link. Before sharing a mural, please ensure that no confidential information is present on the board as any user with the visitor link will be able to access it.

How to generate a visitor link

On a mural board, click on the 'Share' button in the top right-hand corner of the screen.

The 'Share’ dialog box will appear.

Click the ‘Copy link’ button. The visitor link will copy to your device's pasteboard and is ready for you to paste and share with your students or external visitors.

By default, the ‘Can edit’ permission is enabled on the visitor link meaning that visitors can edit content on the mural board, excluding any content that has been locked by the mural facilitator. The creator of the mural is automatically set as the facilitator.

Important: Digital Learning recommend you share the visitor link with students in the context of the task or activity they are using MURAL for. For example, if you've provided instructions for a mural activity in Learning Space, we'd recommend you add the link there. For Falmouth Online, mural links could be pasted into a Discussion forum or an Announcement.

Granting 'View only' permissions to visitors

Granting alternative visitor permissions to a mural, such as ‘Can view’, can be actioned in a mural by clicking on the 'Share' button in the top right-hand corner of the screen and then clicking on the ‘Manage access and settings’ link in the 'Share’ dialog box. 

From there, go to the 'Visitors' section, and select from the following options in the dropdown menu, 'Can view' (Read-only, not editable), 'Can edit' or 'No access'. 

Visitor link view

When a visitor such as a student or visiting Lecturer, opens a shared visitor link, they will be taken to the mural via a welcome screen.

As students or external visitors do not have accounts, they will need to be advised to only click on the ‘View as a visitor link’ and not on 'Create an account' or 'Sign in to Mural'. If either of those links are clicked the visitor will not be able to view the mural.

When the 'View as a visitor' link is clicked, the ‘Continue as a visitor’ dialog box will appear. 

By default visitors are anonymous and are assigned an animal name and avatar such as ‘Visiting Shrimp’ or ‘Visiting Bear’ etc.

Visitors do have the option to enter their name in the ‘Your name’ field or they can accept the automatically created name such as 'Visiting Shrimp'.

Finally, to access the mural the visitor needs to click on the ‘View as a visitor’ button. When that link is clicked they will gain access to the mural.

Adding a password, setting an expiration date or resetting a mural link

To add a password, set an expiration date or reset a mural link, go to the relevant mural.

Click on the ‘Share’ button in the top right-hand corner of your mural.

In the ‘Share’ dialog click on the ‘Manage access and settings’ link.

The ‘Access and settings’ dialog appears. Follow the steps below based on what you would like to achieve.

Adding a Password

By default, no password is required to access a mural via a share link. To add one, click on ‘Add password’. 

Assign a password that has more than 8 characters and then click ‘Save password’.

When a mural is password protected, a user will need to know and enter the password into the 'Password' field of the ‘This mural is password protected’ dialog box which appears when a password protected mural link is shared.

After the password is entered. The user needs to click on the 'I'm not a robot' checkbox and then click on the 'Join mural' link.

Setting an expiration date

Setting an expiration date will determine how long your mural is available to the visitors that you will share the visitor link with. By default, the share link does not expire.

To set an expiration date for a mural, click on the ‘Set expiration’ link.

In the dropdown menu select the desired expiration setting. You can choose from 'Never expires' (default setting), ‘Set a duration’ (by hours or days) or ‘Set an expiration date’ (by date). Then click the ‘Save expiration’ button.

Resetting a link

To reset a link for a mural, click on ‘Reset link’ and in the dialog box that appears, click on ‘Reset link’ or ‘Cancel’ if you change your mind. 

It's important to note that resetting the visitor link invalidates any previous link that you have shared and revokes visitor access to the mural. If you would like to share the mural again, you need to create another visitor link which is outlined in the guidance above.

MURAL facilitator features 

If you are the creator of a mural, you are automatically a facilitator of that mural. MURAL has some useful features in the tool bar on the top right of a mural to help you facilitate sessions. For example as a Facilitator you have the ability to summon participants, create an Outline, use a laser pointer and enable a timer. For a brief summary of the facilitator features in MURAL, please view Introduction to facilitation.

Facilitators are designated a star icon next to their avatars at the bottom of a mural and in the list of mural collaborators.

Facilitator features include:

Summon participants

As a facilitator you have the ability to summon everyone to your cursor on the canvas. When you summon participants, they’re immediately brought to where you are on the canvas. 

For further details view, Summon collaborators in a mural.

Facilitator lock

To ensure content doesn’t get moved around during your mural session, you can use Facilitator lock, which ensure that content objects stay in place and can only be unlocked by a facilitator.

For further details view, Facilitator lock your content.

Laser pointer

As a facilitator you can turn your mouse pointer into a laser pointer. When you have the laser pointer enabled, your cursor turns into a colourful trail that your participants can more easily see and follow around your mural.

For further details view, Highlight content with the laser pointer.

Timer

With the timer feature, you can set the duration of the timer for any activities you run during the mural session.

For further details view, Use the Timer.

Outline

By setting up an outline ahead of a mural session, you can ensure that you move from one point to the next in a structured way whilst leading your mural session. 

An outline can also be used to instruct your mural users where to start activities or can be used to sign post them to a certain section of the mural.

For further details view, About mural outlines.

Private Mode

With Private Mode, everyone in your mural can add content without others seeing what they’re adding. This adds anonymity to your session.

For further details view, Private mode.

Changing MURAL notification settings

You can manage the email notifications you receive form MURAL. This is worth checking early on as the defaults can result in you receiving multiple notifications from a mural.  Within MURAL click on your profile in the lower left and click "Notifications". This MURAL guide has further information on setting your notifications.

What notifications you opt for will depend on how you intend to use MURAL, but it is recommended that "Someone comments on a mural", under "CONVERSATIONS", is unselected.

Accessibility considerations for MURAL

Understanding the accessibility features and limitations of MURAL will ensure your content is usable for students, whatever their access needs.

Enhancing accessibility of a Mural can involve adding captions to images, using suitable colour contrast, and ensuring content is not locked, which inhibits screen readers from reading aloud content. 

During a Mural session, keeping content objects unlocked on a Mural board ensures that objects such as sticky notes and images can be read with a screen reader. 

After a Mural session, exporting a Mural board as a PDF with all content objects unlocked is what Digital Learning recommend you supply to a student if they request a version of a Mural that is optimised for screen readers or text-to-speech (TTS) tools.

The guidance below highlights some accessibility considerations for using MURAL for learning and teaching purposes and outlines some of its limitations.

Important: MURAL is partially conformant with WCAG 2.1 accessibility standards and is in the process of advancing WCAG compliance. Improvements are ongoing and can be viewed in MURAL's support guide: Accessibility features in MURAL.

Adding captions to images 

The image caption feature allows you to provide alternative text for images. Alternative text is a textual substitute for non-text content and describes the appearance or function of an image on a Mural canvas, which will be read aloud by screen readers. Follow the steps below to add a caption to an image.

1. Add or select an image on the Mural canvas then right-click the image to open the context menu. 
2. Select Edit caption.
   
3. Type an image title in the Add a caption text box. 
4. Then insert an image description in the Add a description text box. 

Important: If you hide an image caption, screen readers will still read the caption aloud. However, if an image is locked, a screen reader will not be unable to read the image caption or description. 

Considerations for using MURAL with screen readers   

Screen readers can be used to navigate and read objects on a Mural canvas. Content objects include titles, text boxes, sticky notes, areas, groups, shapes, icons, files, drawings, comments, connector arrows, frameworks, and images.

However, if content objects are locked, the screen reader will be unable to read aloud this content.

Facilitators of a Mural board have the ability to lock or unlock content and if possible, we suggest that content remains unlocked. This ensures that readable content objects on the Mural board can be read aloud by a screen reader on a student's device which is useful during any synchronous or asynchronous Mural activities that a student participates in.

Reading order for screen readers using MURAL

A screen reader can be activated via MURAL’s keyboard shortcuts. Keyboard shortcuts will work only if the Mural canvas has keyboard focus activated. To activate focus, select keys Alt + = (Windows) or Option + = (Mac).

As Mural is a nonlinear experience, it has two reading order filters to navigate content. Alt + R (Windows) or Option + R (Mac) allows you to select from chronological or location-based reading order. 

A chronological reading order is time-based and enables keyboards and screen readers to move between objects according to when they were added to the Mural.  

A location-based reading order enables keyboards and screen readers to move through objects starting with the first one in the top left corner. 

For further guidance, view guide: MURAL screen reader and keyboard features improve canvas accessibility.

MURAL in PDF format

After the Mural activity has occurred, exporting a Mural board as a PDF with all content objects unlocked will create an accessible version of the Mural that is optimised for screen readers and Text-to-Speech (TTS) tools. 

The PDF can be accessed by a student in Adobe Acrobat Pro using the Read Out Loud feature, Acrobat’s built-in Text-to-Speech (TTS) tool. Acrobat Pro is available to students via Adobe Creative Cloud.

How to export MURAL as a PDF

As students don't have their own MURAL accounts, their permissions are limited and as a result they are unable to export a Mural board as a PDF. Facilitators and Mural board owners can export a Mural board as a PDF.

To export a Mural as a PDF that is optimised for a screen reader, unlock all of the content on the Mural canvas and follow the steps below.

1. Locate the Mural you want to export, click the Download as icon in the top left corner of the screen.
   
2. Ensure ‘PDF file is selected from the Format dropdown menu. All content is selected by default and then click Download.
   
3. The Mural export will begin and appear in your computer’s Downloads folder once the download is complete.
   
4. If you also selected the option, Email me a link too, you’ll receive an email with a link to download the exported PDF file. Please note that export links expire after five days.

Tips to enhance the accessibility of your MURAL content  

To recap, by following the tips listed below you can enhance the accessibility of your Mural content providing a better user experience of this tool for your students.

• Add captions to images. 
• If text appears in images such as .png or .jpgs, ensure the text is also visible in text format i.e. add it to a sticky note and add it as an image caption. 
• Avoid locking content as this inhibits screen readers from reading the content. 
• Exporting a Mural as PDF with all content objects unlocked creates an accessible version of the Mural that is optimised for screen readers and Text-to-Speech (TTS) tools. 
• Use suitable colour contrast i.e. avoid using white text on a yellow sticky note. If unsure, use a contrast checker such as WCAG Colour Contrast Checker. 

Further support 

For further support on Learning Space, or to report any issues with this guide, please get in touch with the Digital Learning Team via dlsupport@falmouth.ac.uk. Alternatively, please refer to the numerous help guides found on our Knowledge Base. 

View the Accessibility Statement for all of our support guides.