Greetings from your Center for Instructional Technology! CIT provides training, support, and consultations for UA’s instructional technologies and technology accessibility. Visit cit.ua.edu to find step-by-step guides with pictures, discover upcoming workshops and webinars, or book an appointment. You can also reach us at cit@ua.edu or 205-348-3532 or visit us in A203 Gordon Palmer Hall.
This month’s CIT Instructor News features information and resources to support teaching and learning needs, with a focus on end of semester tasks and looking ahead to Spring 2025.
Final Grades Due Tuesday, December 17 at 11:59 PM
For more information, visit Grade Reporting – Registrar’s Office. If there are discrepancies between course rosters in myBama and Blackboard, contact cit@ua.edu.
Grade Center Assistance
- Resources about Grading in Blackboard
- How do I create/edit the letter grading schema in Blackboard?
- How do I download the Grade Center from Blackboard?
- Enter final grades in Blackboard
- Import final grade into myBama
Test and Exam Assistance
- Testing Tips for Instructors
- How do I create a test in Blackboard?
- How do I deploy a test in Blackboard?
- How do I add extended time or provide another test accommodation in Blackboard?
Teaching with Ultra? Check out Grading in Ultra and Ultra Course Assessments.
Join Us for Spring 2025 Faculty Prep Days
Get your Spring courses ready with CIT! We are excited to host Faculty Prep Days on Monday, January 6, and Tuesday, January 7, in Gordon Palmer Hall. This two-day event will feature a series of workshops and one-on-one help sessions designed to prepare you for the upcoming semester.
We are thrilled to announce that experts from Anthology (Blackboard’s parent company) will be joining us to assist both new and experienced Blackboard Ultra users. They will help you get started and explore the many features Ultra has to offer.
Workshop Topics Include:
- Blackboard Ultra
- Blackboard Original
- Accessibility
NEW: Course Building Sprints! For the first time, we are offering Course Building Sprints—One- and two-hour blocks of open lab time where you can work on your courses with the CIT team available to assist as needed.
Watch for more details and registration information coming soon!
Teach with the new Blackboard: Blackboard Ultra
Blackboard 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-supported courses can teach with Ultra now (OTIDE-supported courses are designated as OL or OLM). 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 Ultra Course View
Ultra Good Features
Student Overview
Use the Student Overview as a single place to get relevant information on a student and personalize your communications with them. You can see how your students have performed over time with analytics. You can also use the message feature to quickly follow-up with a student about any of the information on the Student Overview.
The Student Overview’s header includes important information about your students. You’ll find:
- Student name and surname
- Date a student last accessed your course
- Overall grade, if you’ve turned this feature on
- Accommodations, if you have added any for due dates or time limits
The Student Overview also has additional information, if a student has provided any:
- Additional name
- Username
- Student ID
- Pronouns
- Pronunciation description
- Name pronunciation recording
Three other features can be accessed from the Student Overview:
- Student Activity report. This provides you with an overview of how a student is interacting with your course over time. Observe how a student’s engagement and performance have changed on a week-to-week basis. Visit the “Student Course Activity Data” topic for more information about the feature.
- Accommodations. You can provide due date and time limit accommodations for specific students.
- Send messages. Contact your students about their grades or progress.
Blackboard Instructor Help: Student Overview
CIT Technology and Tool Highlights
Blackboard
- Known Issue – Required Update to Blackboard Mobile App 12-6-24 – On Friday, December 6, 2024, all mobile users must update the Blackboard mobile app on their mobile device. Without the update, the app will not function properly. Any user who does not update their app will see a red banner indicating session expiration.
- Blackboard Scheduled Downtime 12-21-24 – Anthology (Blackboard’s parent company) will perform scheduled maintenance on Saturday, December 6, from approximately 1:00 – 7:00 AM. Blackboard will be unavailable during this time.
- New and Updated Integrations – Integrations connect third-party resources with Blackboard. CIT will add or update these publisher content integrations in December: ExPrep, Packback, Mediasite, Macmillan, Knewton. Find a complete list of current integrations: Current Blackboard Integrations & Technical Support
Hypothesis
- Streamline Grading with Hypothesis Auto-Grading – Enhance your grading process with Hypothesis’s new auto-grading feature! Automatically assign grades to student annotations, making it easier to assess engagement and saving you time on grading.
- Hypothesis Workshop Series: Getting Started with Social Annotation – This beginner-friendly series provides practical tips to enhance student engagement and foster interactive, discussion-based learning. Upcoming sessions include Annotate Your Syllabus (12/10) and Annotation Starter Assignments (12/17).
Respondus
- Upcoming Training from the Respondus Team – Check out sessions on Lockdown Browser and Respondus Monitor (12/11, 1/7, 1/14) and Respondus 4 and the Test Bank Network (1/6).
Simple Syllabus
- Known Issue – Simple Syllabus syllabi status error – Simple Syllabus Support is aware of and working on a bug that may cause status errors.
News from OIT
These Office of Information Technology updates are of particular interest to instructors.
- Microsoft Week recordings now available – Sesson recordings from OIT’s recent Microsoft Week are now on the OIT YouTube channel: 2024 Microsoft Week
Upcoming Learning Opportunities
Learn with us! CIT regularly hosts workshops and webinars on UA instructional technologies and technology accessibility. We are also pleased to offer individual consultations and group instruction by request.
12/10 Annotate Your Syllabus: A Hypothesis workshop (partner event)
12/11 Fostering Equity: Empowering Student Writers with Turnitin’s Draft Coach (partner event)
12/11 Panopto Basic Training Webinar (partner event)
12/11 LockDown Browser and Respondus Monitor: Protect the Integrity of Online Tests (partner event)
12/12 Blackboard Learn Ultra User Group (partner event)
12/12 Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
12/16 Meet the New Blackboard: Blackboard Ultra Demo & Info Session
12/17 Annotation Starter Assignments: A Hypothesis Workshop
12/18 Panopto Advanced Training Webinar (partner event)
12/19 Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
12/26 Panopto Weekly Q&A (Office Hours) (partner event)
1/6 & 1/7 🎉 CIT’s Faculty Prep Days (more information to come) 🎉
About This Message
All UA instructors of record are automatically subscribed to updates about Blackboard and other instructional technology. UA community members who would like to be added to the communications list for CIT news can contact us.