Join The Center for Instructional Technology to get your Fall courses polished and ready to go. CIT is hosting two days of workshops and one-on-one technical and pedagogical assistance to get you ready for the Fall semester. CIT will share more information about the event, including a detailed event schedule and registration links in July 2024.
Hello from your colleagues in CIT! Below, you’ll find announcements and events to assist you with teaching and learning needs.
CIT is dedicated to keeping you informed and engaged with instructional technology news. As part of our ongoing efforts to enhance communication and resource sharing, we kindly request your participation in a brief (5 question) survey online at https://forms.office.com/Pages/ResponsePage.aspx?id=jnIAKtDwtECk6M5DPz-8p5goneL_t95MgGXO0gwnZ6BURUxDMFZBTkhFQUhCMlBTWEY1UzVLODdLTi4u.
This survey aims to gather your valuable input on how we can tailor the CIT monthly instructor newsletter to best suit your preferences and needs. Your feedback will significantly influence the content, format, and delivery of the newsletter, ensuring that it becomes a valuable and enjoyable source of instructional technology news every month.
We sincerely appreciate your time and insights as we strive to create a better newsletter for UA faculty, instructors, and academic administrators.
Please plan to join us on May 16, 2024 as we celebrate advancements in accessibility at UA! Let’s build knowledge, skills, and community together. We will soon share more details about the day’s activities. Thank you for being an ally; your dedication makes UA better for all!
Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View (“Ultra”) offers a simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices and a more streamlined experience for instructors and students. All Blackboard courses will be designed and delivered in Ultra by Spring 2026, and instructors of non-OTIDE courses can teach with Ultra now. Visit the CIT site to learn more about Ultra and UA’s plans, join or watch a recorded demonstration/information session, or request a practice course: Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View
Unsplash royalty-free image service
You can now easily search for and add royalty-free, high-quality images to your Ultra course! No more hunting for good visuals or copyright concerns – simply select the Image button in the content editor, choose Stock images from Unsplash as the image source, enter keywords to search, and select images to add.
Try it out by creating a course banner using Unsplash.
YOUR VOICE MATTERS! Ask and answer questions, engage in user groups and programs, submit product feedback and more – join the Anthology Community to connect with Blackboard users around the world! Create a Community account and participate in Teaching & Learning discussions, join product or user groups, and subscribe to blogs. Here are some highlights from the Community.
Blackboard Learn Ultra User Group
The Blackboard Learn Ultra User Group is a favorite among CIT staff. Teaching or thinking about teaching with Ultra? Check out these group meetings, led by Ultra users, that feature presentations, panels, workshops, and Q&A with institutions and experts.
Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Seminar
Ready to start preparing your course in the Learn Ultra Course View?
This program, comprised of two 1-hour sessions, will provide you with the information and best practices to start building and preparing your course in the Learn Ultra experience. We’ll explore the Learn Ultra course features and functions within two primary areas:
This program is for instructors, course builders, instructional designers, and others who support educators in the design and execution of their courses.
Upcoming webinars:
Register here: Learn Ultra Course Seminar for Instructors
Adobe Portfolio is a tool that empowers both students and instructors at The University of Alabama to showcase their work, build their personal brand, and enhance their professional profiles. Adobe Portfolio offers a versatile platform to curate and present your achievements. Let’s explore some exciting ways to leverage this resource:
Members of the UA community have free access to Adobe Portfolio through our Adobe Creative Cloud license.
How are UA Instructors using the tools?
“Adobe Portfolio allows Hospitality Management students to create digital portfolios that showcase their internship experiences. Students show creativity, knowledge, and professionalism through their projects.”
Morgan Milstead | CFCS, CPF
Senior Instructor and Academic Advisor
Hypothesis: Social Annotation in Action
Cerritos College and Hypothesis: Revolutionizing Engagement, Retention and Student Outcomes
“The retention shot up in that class in particular, it was transformative.,” – Professor Francie Quaas-Berryman, Cerritos College.
Don’t just take our word for it! Hear the story from faculty at Cerritos College and how they implemented Hypothesis that resulted in increased engagement, grades, and retention.
New to one of our instructional tech. tools? We would love to guide you step-by-step or provide tips and ideas for using technology in your class. Just let us know how we can help!
04.04 | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session
04.08 | Live Polling with MS Forms
04.08 | Turnitin Basics
04.08 | Understanding Similarity Reports and Scores
04.09 | Getting Started with Panopto
04.11 | Gradescope Basics
04.16 | Doing more with Panopto
04.17 | AnnotatED 2024 – a Hypothes.is event
04.18 | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session
04.25 | Turnitin Basics
04.25 | Understanding Similarity Reports and Scores
04.26 | Fostering Student Engagement in Blackboard Learn Original
04.29 | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session
Hello from your colleagues in CIT! Below, you’ll find announcements and events to assist you with teaching and learning needs.
UA’s Technology Accessibility Team is excited to announce the launch of the Accessibility Forum. The forum aims to unite the campus community and share accessibility wins, updates, and other accessibility-related information. All UA faculty and instructors are invited to participate in the forum to learn more including accessibility in all aspects of teaching and learning at UA. Please join us for the first forum meeting scheduled for March 5 in A232 Gordon Palmer at 9:00 am.
Kristen Kaylor, Sr. Accessibility Instructional Designer in UA Online Teaching Innovation and Digital Education (OTIDE) will be the guest speaker for this month’s meeting. She will present A.I. Unleashed: Transforming the Accessibility of Images, Graphics, and Math Through Alt Text Automation. The team will also share important accessibility updates for the campus community.
We are looking forward to seeing you at our first Accessibility Forum meeting!
CIT was thrilled to participate in the Online Learning Innovation Summit, a professional development conference that brings together faculty, staff, graduate students, K-12 teachers and administrators from The University of Alabama and the region. Held March 1 at the Bryant Conference Center, OLIS featured presentations, workshops, demonstrations, and discussions around online learning and teaching technologies.
Visitors to the CIT table were greeted with giveaway items and discussions of creative and effective ways to integrate instructional technologies into their classroom or online course. CIT staff Melissa Fortson and Dr. Rachel Thompson presented Artful Achievement: The University of Alabama’s Blackboard Learn Ultra Journey, a session on UA’s rollout of Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View.
From the simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices to the streamlined experience for instructors and students, there is more to Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View. Instructors of non-OTIDE courses can teach with Ultra now, and all Blackboard courses will be designed and delivered in Ultra by Spring 2026. Visit the CIT site to learn more about Ultra and request a practice course: Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View
Forms
Do you need to collect information to place students in clinical experiences? Survey your class to gauge interests or opinions? Conduct formative assessments? Instructors teaching with Ultra can now create Forms!
Available question types include Essay, Likert, Multiple Choice, True/False, Text, Local File, and File from Cloud Storage. Among other settings, you can adjust the due date, grade category, whether the form is graded or not, and how many attempts students have to complete the form. You can work with the responses in Learn or download them as a CSV file.
Class Conversations
Teaching with Ultra? You can enable Class Conversations for individual content items so students can discuss the content with you and their classmates: asking for help, sharing sources, or answering questions others have. As the conversation develops, it appears only with the relevant content. Conversations don’t appear on the discussions page.
You can enable conversations for these content items:
Check out Forms, Class Conversations, and other Ultra good features: Request a Blackboard Ultra Practice Course.
Did you know that 84% of educators see greater engagement from their students when using Flip.
Here are some simple ways to use Flip to prompt student creativity throughout the school year:
“I’ve found Flip to be a game-changer in my graduate-level courses! I currently use Flip for my in-person and online courses for class discussions, assignments, and project presentations. Flip has fostered a more dynamic learning environment where everyone actively participates, and I’m truly impressed by its impact on my teaching and student learning. I’ve been particularly impressed by how much my graduate students enjoy using Flip for discussions. The asynchronous nature of Flip allows them to contribute thoughtfully on their own schedules, fostering deeper reflection compared to traditional in-class discussions. They also appreciate the increased accessibility, allowing students juggling work and personal commitments to fully participate. The low-pressure video format has been especially helpful for students who might otherwise feel hesitant to speak up in class, leading to richer and more diverse discussions. Overall, Flip has created a more inclusive and engaging learning environment for my graduate students, and they consistently express their positive experiences with the platform.”
Elizabeth A. McDonald, Ph.D.
Assistant Director for Instructional Design
UA Online, Teaching Innovation and Digital Education
Respondus Lockdown Browser is a browser that locks down a testing environment within Blackboard. Respondus Monitor is an add-on feature for Lockdown Browser that uses a webcam to record student exam sessions and flags suspicious behavior for instructor review.
Screen Recording
Sometimes you want to see what’s happening on a student’s screen during an online assessment. Perhaps it’s to investigate a suspicious behavior or to verify a student’s claim that a question didn’t display properly. You might require students to provide an oral explanation of a spreadsheet or watch them type a translation. There are many ways to take advantage of the new screen recording feature in Respondus Monitor: Screen Recording for Respondus Monitor
Show Your Work
An optional setting in Respondus Monitor, the “Show Your Work” feature allows students to show their written work or notes at the end of an online exam by taking pictures of the written materials with their webcam. Submitted photos appear in the proctoring results. Learn more: Using the “Show Your Work” feature in Respondus Monitor
Video embed: Respondus Monitor: Show Your Work Feature, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eU-kf23JGTU
Live Chat Help
Live chat help for students is available within LockDown Browser when using the Respondus Monitor webcam proctoring feature. Chat agents can assist test takers with pre-exam issues related to the webcam and microphone. Live chat is accessible within the pre-exam steps (select “It’s not working” at any time) and within Help Center (select the “Need More help?” button). Both options will walk users through troubleshooting steps before beginning a chat with an agent.
New to one of our instructional tech. tools? We would love to guide you step-by-step or provide tips and ideas for using technology in your class. Just let us know how we can help!
03.04 | Doing more with Panopto webinar
03.04 | Teaching with Blackboard: Creating Assessments in Learn Original webinar
03.05 | People.ua.edu workshop
03.07 | Build a digital portfolio and personal website
03.07 | Teaching with Blackboard: Fostering Student Engagement in Learn Original webinar
03.07 | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session
03.08 | Teaching with Blackboard: Using Groups in Learn Original webinar
03.18 | Teaching with Blackboard: Creating Accessible Course Content webinar
03.19 | Live polling with Microsoft Forms
03.21 | Teaching with Turnitin: Turnitin Basics webinar
03.22 | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session
03.26 | Flip Tech Support Office Hours
03.28 | Teaching with Gradescope: Gradescope Basics webinar
03.29 | Teaching with Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Basics webinar
UA’s Technology Accessibility Team is excited to announce the launch of the Accessibility Forum. The forum aims to unite the campus community and share accessibility wins, updates, and other accessibility-related information. All campus members are invited to the first meeting scheduled for March 5, in A232 Gordon Palmer at 9:00 am.
We are excited to have Kristen Kaylor, Sr. Accessibility Instructional Designer in UA Online Teaching Innovation and Digital Education (OTIDE) as our guest speaker. She will be presenting A.I. Unleashed: Transforming the Accessibility of Images, Graphics, and Math Through Alt Text Automation. We will also be sharing important accessibility updates for the campus community.
We are looking forward to seeing you at our first Accessibility Forum Meeting!
Hello from your colleagues in CIT! Below, you’ll find announcements and events to assist you with teaching and learning needs.
Please ensure that all official UA communications, including email communications between students and faculty, are conducted via approved tools such as Blackboard or your UA email account. The use of personal email accounts for conducting University business is prohibited by the Terms of Use of University Technology Resources.
Please contact cit@ua.edu if you need assistance with communication with students via Blackboard or if you have any questions or concerns.
Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View (“Ultra”) offers a simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices and a more streamlined experience for instructors and students. All Blackboard courses will be designed and delivered in Ultra by Spring 2026, and instructors of non-OTIDE courses can teach with Ultra now. Visit ultra.ua.edu to learn more about Ultra and UA’s plans, join or watch a recorded demonstration/information session, or request a practice course.
Table view of the Course Activity Report in an Ultra course.
Ultra’s Course Activity Report helps you understand how well your students are performing and how much they are interacting with your course. When you use the report in conjunction with the Overall Grade, you can:
Check out the Course Activity Report and other Ultra good features: Request a Blackboard Ultra Practice Course.
Looking for ways to explore how you can supercharge your creativity in Higher Education and learn the essentials of digital creativity, focusing on presentations, podcasting, video, data visualization and how Adobe tools can support student outcomes? The Adobe Academic Essentials series is for you.
Join us starting on February 6 for the Academic Essentials learning series hosted by Adobe’s Authorized Training Professional Learning Partner EdgeGain.
This series is free, with workshops from 60 to 90 minutes, created by faculty for faculty.
Go to Adobe’s live Professional Learning calendar and sign up today.
Looking to increase student engagement? Check out the upcoming events hosted by Hypothesis, UA’s platform for social annotation.
AI and the Future of Learning – Trends, Challenges, and Opportunities
This session is designed to offer valuable insights on AI in your classroom and provide strategies for AI and social annotation for 2024. Expect to gain practical tips and immediately applicable strategies for your courses.
Feb 15, 12:00-1:00 pm
Need a quick answer? There’s a guide for that.
You’re in luck, CIT offers a self-serve information library called the Knowledge Base. The CIT Knowledge Base supports all UA users seeking help or answers to instructional technology questions.
New to one of our instructional tech. tools? We would love to guide you step-by-step or provide tips and ideas for using technology in your class. Just let us know how we can help!
A few workshops are highlighted below. Keep up to date on all the training sessions at https://cit.ua.edu/workshops/
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Blackboard workshops and webinars.
Turnitin provides tools for grading and peer review and helps deter and prevent plagiarism by checking student-submitted work against an extensive online database.
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Turnitin workshops and webinars.
Gradescope helps instructors quickly grade and provide feedback on paper-based and online assessments: exams, quizzes, bubble sheets, homework, problem sets, programming assignments (graded automatically or manually), and more.
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Gradescope workshops and webinars.
People.ua.edu Workshop
Create your professional faculty website using our easy, drag and drop web platform. In this session, you’ll learn how to add text and pictures, create column layouts, add video, audio, and hyperlinks, and add and rearrange pages.
Wednesday, February 7, 10 – 11:30 PM
Register for the People.ua.edu workshop.
Introduction to Panopto
This webinar aims to cover the basics of using the lecture capture and video platform, Panopto.
Thursday, February 8, 1 – 2 PM
Register for the Introduction to Panopto workshop.
Flip Tech Support Office Hours
Join CIT for a virtual Flip office hour pop-in session. Drop-in at any time during the virtual session to receive personalized assistance or guidance for using Flip.
Tuesday, February 27, 2 – 3 PM
Join the FLip Support Office Hours for February.
As always, we are available Monday-Friday, 8:00 AM – 4:45 PM to help you. We look forward to working with you soon.
Email – cit@ua.edu | Phone – 205-348-3532 | Website and Knowledge Base
Happy New Year from your colleagues in CIT! Below, you’ll find announcements and events to assist you with teaching and learning needs.
Save the date for the Center for Instructional Technology’s 2024 Spring Faculty Prep Days on Jan. 8 & 9. Join CIT for two days of workshops and one-on-one technical and pedagogical assistance to get you ready for the Spring semester. View the full schedule of events online.
Register for a one-on-one consultation
A simpler, more modern Blackboard is here! An alternative to the traditional Blackboard Learn experience, “Ultra” offers a simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices and a more streamlined experience for instructors and students. CIT and the Office of Teaching Innovation and Distance Education (OTIDE) have established a goal of having all courses designed and delivered in Ultra by Spring 2026. Learn more about Ultra and UA’s plans: Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Pilot
We invite you to learn more and begin to prepare by scheduling a demonstration and information session for your department, program, or area. Contact CIT to request a presentation. We will also host several open sessions this term:
Register for a Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session.
Learn from experience! In this short article, learn how an English professor at Modesto Jr. College uses Hypothesis to ensure their students actually read the syllabus.
Annotate the Course Syllabus Assignment – https://web.hypothes.is/resources/annotate-the-course-syllabus-assignment/?utm_campaign=Newsletter&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=285655738&utm_content=285652686&utm_source=hs_email
Panopto is rolling out significant enhancements to its user design and interface, focusing on refining the overall look and styling of key components, along with a few helpful updates in the form of stability improvements for its Blackboard integration and Remote Recorder features used by some UA colleges. For further details, visit Panopto’s Community page. https://community.panopto.com/discussion/2226/14-10-ui-ux-changes?mkt_tok=NTc1LUJLRi00MTQAAAGQJrdsP8PNuSI-9G-dB6b_b84vnP8vdbhnGMVGNVp-LWibDuKAO0BSZ9XioCVpJTNZLkGJCdDACC1BTahQS53o-Z-sIh7nAhtxAr0M1XUq6T3X0Q#latest
New to one of our instructional tech. tools? We would love to guide you step-by-step or provide tips and ideas for using technology in your class. Just let us know how we can help!
A few workshops are highlighted below. Keep up to date on all the training sessions at https://cit.ua.edu/workshops/
These CIT-led workshops and webinars aim to help you get started with and get the most out of Blackboard Learn, UA’s learning management system.
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Blackboard workshops and webinars.
Turnitin provides tools for grading and peer review and helps deter and prevent plagiarism by checking student-submitted work against an extensive online database.
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Turnitin workshops and webinars.
Gradescope helps instructors quickly grade and provide feedback on paper-based and online assessments: exams, quizzes, bubble sheets, homework, problem sets, programming assignments (graded automatically or manually), and more.
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Gradescope workshops and webinars.
Learn how to navigate and add your Spring 2024 syllabus content to Simple Syllabus, UA’s new syllabus tool. By default, Simple Syllabus will populate section information and materials, as well as instructor information, from other UA systems, such as CourseLeaf and Banner. We’ll learn how to add and rearrange content, and how to publish and share a syllabus.
Face-to-face sessions are held in Gordon Palmer Hall, Rm. A232.
Register for a face-to-face Simple Syllabus session.
Virtual sessions are held via Teams webinar. Please click on the appropriate link to register.
Tuesday, January 23, 10 – 11 PM
Learn the essentials of creating video presentations using images, video, and audio in Adobe Rush. Develop your storytelling skills whether it be for a class project, department presentation or personal story.
Register for the Editing Videos in Rush workshop.
Thursday, January 25, 2 – 3 PM
This webinar aims to cover the basics of using the lecture capture and video platform, Panopto.
Register for the Introduction to Panopto workshop.
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Check out more instructional technology workshops at https://cit.ua.edu/workshops/
As always, we are available Monday-Friday, 8:00-4:45 to help you. We look forward to working with you soon.
Email – cit@ua.edu Phone – 205-348-3532 Website and Knowledge Base
Save the date for The Center for Instructional Technology’s 2024 Spring Faculty Prep Days on Jan. 8 & 9. Join CIT for two days of workshops and one-on-one technical and pedagogical assistance to get you ready for the Spring semester.
Register for a session Register for a one-on-one consultation–
Registration is appreciated, but it is not required. Questions? Contact us at 205-348-3532 or cit@ua.edu.
Monday, January 8
9:00 – 10:00 AM | Teaching with Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Basics (Original) | Gordon Palmer A232
10:00 – 11:00 PM | Live polling with Microsoft Forms | Meets virtually via MS Teams
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session | Gordon Palmer A232
1:00 – 2:00 PM | Simple Syllabus | Virtual
Tuesday, January 9
9:00 – 10:00 AM | Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session | Gordon Palmer A232
10:00 – 11:00 PM | Introduction to Panopto | Meets virtually via MS Teams
10:00 – 11:00 PM | Simple Syllabus | Gordon Palmer A232
11:00 AM – 12:00 PM | Teaching with Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Basics (Original) | Gordon Palmer A232
As always, we are available Monday-Friday, 8:00-4:45 to help you. We look forward to working with you soon.
Email – cit@ua.edu Phone – 205-348-3532 Website and Knowledge Base – http://cit.ua.edu
Hello from your colleagues in CIT! Below you’ll find resources to help with finals and grading. If you need help with instructional technology, including assistance with your exam and grading setup, please contact cit@ua.edu.
UA instructors can now explore—and teach with—Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View.
An alternative to the traditional Blackboard Learn experience, “Ultra” offers a simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices and a more streamlined experience for instructors and students. CIT and the Office of Teaching Innovation and Distance Education (OTIDE) have established a goal of having all courses designed and delivered in Ultra by Spring 2026.
See Ultra for yourself and start to prepare: Request a Blackboard Ultra Practice Course
Like what you see? Instructors of non-OTIDE courses may now teach with Ultra. Request a Blackboard Ultra Course View LIVE Course and CIT will help you determine whether Ultra meets your needs.
Learn more about Ultra and UA’s plans: Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Pilot
New to one of our instructional tech. tools? We would love to guide you step-by-step or provide tips and ideas for using it in your class. Just let us know how we can help!
A few workshops are highlighted below. Keep up to date on all the training sessions at https://cit.ua.edu/workshops/
These CIT-led workshops and webinars aim to help you get started with and get the most out of Blackboard Learn, UA’s learning management system. Upcoming sessions include:
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Blackboard workshops and webinars.
Turnitin provides tools for grading and peer review and helps deter and prevent plagiarism by checking student-submitted work against an extensive online database. Learn more in these upcoming sessions:
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Turnitin workshops and webinars.
Wednesday, December 6, 1:00 – 2:30 PM (virtual)
Tuesday, December 12, 10:00 – 11:30 AM
Create your professional faculty website using our easy, drag and drop web platform. In this session, you’ll learn how to add text and pictures, create column layouts, add video, audio, and hyperlinks, and add and rearrange pages.
Register for a People.ua.edu workshop.
Friday, December 1, 12:00 – 1:00 PM
Gradescope helps instructors quickly grade and provide feedback on online and in-class assessments. This workshop, led by the Gradescope team, will offer guidance of assignments that are paper-based. They will also cover the grading and rubric-building workflow on Gradescope and walk attendees through the instructor interface for creating an assignment and student interface for viewing feedback.
Register for the Gradescope for Finals Workshop
Tuesday, December 5, 10:00 – 11:00 AM
Gradescope helps instructors quickly grade and provide feedback on online and in-class assessments. This workshop, led by the Gradescope team, will offer guidance on using Gradescope Bubble Sheets (as a scantron replacement). You will learn how to digitally create answer keys, easily edit bubbling mistakes electronically, provide students with feedback, and return graded work electronically.
Register for the Gradescope Bubble Sheets Webinar
Tuesday, December 5, 10:00 – 11:00 AM
Learn how to navigate and add your Spring 2024 syllabus content to Simple Syllabus, UA’s new syllabus tool. By default, Simple Syllabus will populate section information and materials, as well as instructor information, from other UA systems, such as CourseLeaf and Banner.
Register for the Simple Syllabus Overview Webinar
Thursday, December 7, 3:00 – 4:00 PM
In this introduction to polling with Microsoft Forms workshop, users will learn how to create surveys, quizzes, and polls for both synchronous and asynchronous classes. Instructors can see and/or present real-time polls results as students respond using almost any web browser or mobile device. Results can be exported to Excel for further review.
In this session, we’ll cover: Quiz and poll creation, sharing options, permission control, and result options.
Register for Live polling with Microsoft Forms
Thursday, December 14, 2:00 – 3:00 PM
Join CIT as we explore tools and strategies to setup up digital portfolios and personal websites. Learn how to easily build creative webpages and portfolios using Adobe Portfolio and Microsoft Sway to capture, edit and publish a unique website.
Register for Build a digital portfolio and personal website.
Thursday, December 21, 11:00 AM to 12:00 PM
Explore tools and strategies to setup up digital storytelling assignments for your class. Learn how to develop the steps for implementing creative webpages and portfolios in your course and of course the software and hardware tools to capture, edit and publish the final products.
In this course we will take a look at Adobe Express Pages, Adobe Portfolio and Microsoft Sway.
Register for the Digital Storytelling for the Classroom webinar.
Below, you’ll find announcements and events to assist you with teaching and learning needs. As always, email cit@ua.edu, call 205-348-3532, or stop by A203 Gordon Palmer Hall for assistance with UA’s instructional tech tools.
The CIT Knowledge Base is your clearinghouse for tutorials, known issues, and best practices. The Blackboard Browser Checker and CIT’s How-To Articles can help you use instructional technology with fewer headaches and hiccoughs.
Beginning Oct. 27, 2023, a copy of all new Zoom sessions recorded to the cloud will automatically be saved to Panopto, UA’s media manager and lecture capture tool. Users will experience no changes to their Zoom account and will continue to have the options to store recordings on their computer or in the cloud. Sessions recorded to Zoom Cloud prior to Oct. 27 will not be affected.
We’re highlighting two opportunities to share Blackboard Learn best practices and ideas: The Anthology Community and the Anthology Idea Exchange. Anthology is the company that owns Blackboard Learn.
Join the Anthology Community to ask and answer questions, connect with other Blackboard Learn users, engage in user groups and programs, and submit product feedback. We encourage you to create a Community account and participate in Teaching & Learning discussions, join product or user groups, and subscribe to blogs.
The Anthology Idea Exchange allows you to submit an idea and share, like, vote, and comment on ideas shared by other Anthology clients. Are you seeking solutions for attendance in larger courses? Would you like to print tests or filter and search course messages? Perhaps you have an idea of your own! Join the Teaching & Learning Idea Exchange to make your voice heard.
UA instructors can now explore Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View, a simpler and more modern course experience. Learn more and request a practice or developmental course: Blackboard Learn Ultra Course Pilot
Workflows and tools are easy to find and use in Ultra Course View. You can quickly add content to your course, check the course calendar, drop in on class discussions, access the course gradebook, send a message, take a look at your course analytics, and more. We also like Ultra’s responsive design, continuous updates, Flexible Grading, Course Activity Report, and course content search, and so much more.
See Ultra in action: Introduction to Blackboard Learn (Ultra Course view starts at 1:00).
Hypothesis is a relatively new tool to UA that can turn any piece of digital content into a collaborative learning experience. Online annotation helps to improve reading proficiency and critical thinking skills. Plus, it easily integrates into Blackboard courses assignments. Check out the great learning resources by Hypothesis and add a social annotation assignment to your course!
New to one of our instructional tech tools? We would love to guide you step-by-step or provide tips and ideas for using it in your class. Just let us know how we can help!
A few workshops are highlighted below. Keep up to date on all the training sessions at https://cit.ua.edu/workshops/
These CIT-led workshops and webinars aim to help you get started with and get the most out of Blackboard Learn, UA’s learning management system. Upcoming sessions include:
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Blackboard workshops and webinars.
Turnitin provides tools for grading and peer review and helps deter and prevent plagiarism by checking student-submitted work against an extensive online database. Learn more in these upcoming sessions:
Register for CIT-led Teaching with Turnitin workshops and webinars.
Hypothesis is a social annotation tool installed directly in Blackboard. Adding Hypothesis to readings in your course supports student success by placing active discussion right on top of readings, enabling students and teachers to add comments and start conversations in the margins of texts.
To learn more about making reading active, visible, and social using Hypothesis, please join us in one of our upcoming workshops. Click on each link to learn more and register.
OIT’s Audio/Visual Solutions (AVS) team for a special Panopto workshop on how to easily record lectures in the classroom using Panopto.
Register for CIT-led Capture your Classroom Recording with Panopto
Tuesday, November 21 10:00 – 11:00 am
Learn the basic features for conducting a zoom meeting including an overview of Zoom’s web portal and desktop client, how to schedule a meeting and invite others, and we’ll review the in-meeting host and participant controls.
Wednesday, November 22 10:00 – 11:00 am
This webinar session builds on the Zoom Basics workshop. We’ll explore how to set up recurring meetings, breakout rooms, polls, and reports.
Monday, November 13 11:00pm to 12:00am
Explore the features inside Flip and learn how to level up the ways your scholars communicate and share their learning.
Flip is a free app from Microsoft where educators create safe, online groups for students to express their ideas asynchronously in short video, text, and audio messages.
Tuesday, November 21 2:00 – 3:00pm
Learn the essentials of creating movie presentations using images, video and audio in Adobe Rush. Develop your storytelling skills whether it be for a class project, department presentation or personal story. Register for Creating and Editing Videos in RushRegister for Creating and Editing Videos in Rush
Check out more instructional technology workshops at https://cit.ua.edu/workshops/
As always, we are available Monday-Friday, 8:00-4:45 to help you. We look forward to working with you soon.
Email – cit@ua.edu Phone – 205-348-3532 Website and Knowledge Base
Beginning Oct. 27, 2023, a copy of all new Zoom sessions recorded to the cloud will automatically be saved to Panopto, UA’s media manager and lecture capture tool. Users will experience no changes to their Zoom account and will continue to have the option to store recordings on their computer or in the cloud. Sessions recorded to Zoom Cloud prior to Oct. 27 will not be affected.
