May Instructor News from the Center for Instructional Technology
- April 30th, 2024
- in -Instructional Technology News
Join us for the 2024 Global Accessibility Awareness Week celebration!
Please plan to join us on May 13 – 17, 2024 as we celebrate advancements in accessibility at UA! Let’s build knowledge, skills, and community together. Visit accessibility.ua.edu/GAAD for more details about the week’s activities and to register for an accessibility learning session. Thank you for being an ally; your dedication makes UA better for all!
Five ways to boost digital accessibility at UA
- Design for accessibility – Convey content in multiple ways; don’t just use images, color, video, or audio. Always use headings and lists when available, alternative text for images, descriptive link text and when using colors or graphics to help communicate a message, be sure to check the color contrast of designs. Use tools like the Webaim color contrast checker to check color contrast and Wave to check the accessibility of a webpage.
- Provide captioned or transcribed versions of any media you use – Captioning grants are available to caption and/or transcribe UA-owned video and audio. Contact accesibility@ua.edu or visit accessibility.ua.edu to learn more about captioning and to have your recordings captioned.
- Build accessibility into your work practices – Take advantage of Acrobat, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, and Outlook’s built-in accessibility checkers for any content you create or share.
- Communicate clearly and concisely – Keep the lines of communication with your users open and available. Avoid “click here”, “read more”, or other generic link/menu text. In addition, communicate to vendors/publishers/third parties that accessibility is important and ask how they are planning for accessibility. You can find suggested questions to ask vendors on the Technology Accessibility website.
- Attend UA’s Global Accessibility Awareness events – Join the Center for Instructional Technology (CIT) and the UA Technology Accessibility team during the week of May 13 – 17 to celebrate Global Accessibility Awareness Day. CIT and the Technology Accessibility team will be hosting virtual and in-person events that can help the UA community address accessibility needs and create a more inclusive campus. Learn more online at https://accessibility.ua.edu/GAAD/.
Reminder: Blackboard Course Retention Policy
Academic courses in Blackboard Learn are subject to removal two (2) years following the end of the semester in which they are taught per UA’s LMS Course Retention Policy. For example, courses taught in Spring 2023 will be removed after May 2025. Fall 2022 and prior courses are being removed in May 2024. Non-academic courses, referred to as non-integrated courses, are subject to removal following two (2) years of inactivity.
Instructors should save any needed course content or student grades. Students should save any necessary coursework as well. Steps to save content are linked below.
More information on the policy and instructions for backing up Blackboard content are available in the LMS Course Retention Policy FAQ.
Eduroam Certificate Expires Thurs 5-2
The current Eduroam certificate expires on Thursday, May 2, and must be replaced. If your computer prompts you to accept a new Eduroam certificate on Thursday, please accept/trust the new certification to continue an uninterrupted Wi-Fi experience.
For more information and assistance, please contact UA’s IT Service Desk.
Explore the new Blackboard – Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View
All Blackboard courses will be designed and delivered in Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View (“Ultra”) by Spring 2026, and instructors of non-OTIDE courses can teach with Ultra now. Ultra boasts a simple, modern, intuitive, and consistent interface across devices and a more streamlined experience for instructors and students. Learn more about Ultra on the CIT site and by exploring Blackboard Ultra for Instructors and Blackboard Ultra for Students in the Instructional Technology Knowledge Base.
Ultra Good Summer
Summer is a great time to explore Ultra or prepare to teach with Ultra in the fall! Request a live course or request a practice course if you need a space to build or play, and follow along in our Ultra Team as we share tips, tricks, and things to try in Ultra this summer. We’ll invite you to the Team when we create your course.
Ultra Good Feature
Anonymous posts for Discussions
Discussions play a pivotal role in nurturing peer-to-peer interaction and critical thinking. Instructors can now make Ultra discussion posts anonymous to help students feel more free to share their thoughts without judgment. You can turn anonymous posts on and off, and any posts made while anonymous keep their anonymity. You can’t grade anonymous discussions. Try it out — select the Discussion Settings button to begin!
Ultra Accessible
In celebration of Global Accessibility Awareness Week, explore Ultra features you can use to make course content more accessible and usable for all: the Ultra Accessibility Checker and Ally. Both automatically scan your original content, identify accessibility issues, and offer explanations so you can make your content more accessible. Ally also generates alternative formats for students to download so they can access the information they need in the way they need or want it.
Learn how Ally can help faculty and students in the short video below:
Introducing Anthology Ally for LMS
The Anthology Ally team is also joining the celebration! Register for their free Accessibility and Inclusivity in Technology webinar (5/14) and check out their upcoming Accessibility Fundamentals course (coming soon): Anthology Ally – Global Accessibility Awareness Month.
Ultra Panopto changes coming
CIT will update the Panopto integration the week of May 14, adding the ability to use content and folders with Ultra. We’ll share more information after the update, but, for now, you can see a preview here: How to Add Panopto to Your Blackboard Ultra Course
CIT Technology and Tool Highlights
Turnitin
Turnitin plays a pivotal role in preventing plagiarism. It compares student-submitted work against various sources, including student papers, web content, and academic journals. Upon submission, Turnitin generates a detailed report highlighting text matches and relevant data. Instructors benefit from grading tools like rubrics, voice comments, and mobile grading. Grades entered in Turnitin automatically reflect in the Blackboard grade center, and it also facilitates peer reviews among students. Overall, Turnitin enhances academic integrity and streamlines the grading process for educators.
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!
05.02 | Teaching with Gradescope: Gradescope Basics webinar
05.02 | Build a digital portfolio and personal website
05.02 | Teaching with Turnitin: Understanding Similarity Reports and Scores webinar
05.03 | Teaching with Blackboard: Using Groups in Learn Original webinar
05.06 | Live Polling with Microsoft
05.07 | People.ua.edu Workshop
05.21 | Introduction to Panopto
05.22 | Simple Syllabus Information Session
05.23 | Meet the new Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Ultra Demo and Info Session webinar
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