January Instructor News from the Center for Instructional Technology

January 4th, 2024
in -Instructional Technology News

Happy New Year from your colleagues in CIT! Below, you’ll find announcements and events to assist you with teaching and learning needs.  

Join CIT for the 2024 Spring Faculty Prep Days

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.

UA instructors can now teach with Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View! Schedule a demo and info session for your area.

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:

Friday, January 19, 10 – 10:30 AM, Online
Monday, January 22, 2 – 2:30 PM, A232 Gordon Palmer Hall
Thursday, February 8, 11 – 11:30 AM, Online
Monday, February 19, 2 – 2:30 PM, Online
Thursday, March 7, 2 – 2:30 PM, A232 Gordon Palmer Hall
Friday, March 22, 10 – 10:30 AM, Online
Thursday, April 4, 11 – 11:30 AM, Online
Thursday, April 18, 2:00 – 2:30 PM, A232 Gordon Palmer Hall
Monday, April 29, 2 – 2:30 PM, Online

CIT Technology and Tool Highlights

Hypothesis

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

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

Upcoming Learning Opportunities 

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/ 

Teaching with Blackboard Sessions 

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.

Blackboard Learn Ultra Demonstration and Information Session

Friday, January 19, 10 – 10:30 AM, Online
Monday, January 22, 2 – 2:30 PM, A232 Gordon Palmer Hall

Blackboard Learn Basics

Thursday, January 11, 11 AM – 12 PM, Online

Grading and Managing the Gradebook in Learn Original

Friday, January 12, 10 – 11 AM, Online

Creating Assessments in Learn Original

Thursday, January 25, 2 – 3 PM, Online

Teaching with Turnitin Sessions 

Turnitin provides tools for grading and peer review and helps deter and prevent plagiarism by checking student-submitted work against an extensive online database.

Turnitin Basics

Thursday, January 25, 11 AM – 12 PM, Online

Teaching with Gradescope Sessions 

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.

Gradescope Basics

Monday, January 29, 2 – 3 PM, Online

Simple Syllabus Session

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.

Tuesday, January 9, 10 AM
Monday, January 15, 10:30 AM

Virtual sessions are held via Teams webinar. Please click on the appropriate link to register.

Monday, January 8, 1:00 pm. Register for the Jan 8th virtual session.
Thursday, January 18, 11:00 am. Register for the Jan 18th virtual session.

Editing Videos in Rush

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.

Introduction to Panopto

Thursday, January 25, 2 – 3 PM

This webinar aims to cover the basics of using the lecture capture and video platform, Panopto.

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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 