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Inline Grading now using Bb Annotate

Blackboard Annotate has replaced the Box View inline grading tool previously found in Blackboard. Bb Annotate offers a more robust feature set for you to provide customizable feedback to your students, including a sidebar summary view, freehand drawing tools, various color selections, and more…

Collaborate Ultra Maintenance on July 9, 2020

Blackboard will be performing scheduled infrastructure maintenance for Collaborate Ultra on Thursday, July 9, 2020 from 1:00 AM – 5:00 AM. Collaborate Ultra customers will experience intermittent availability during this time.

Panopto Software Upgrade

Friday, July 17 Panopto will require the Panopto recorder application to be upgraded to version 7.1 or above.  If your version of Panopto is not 7.1 or greater, you will need to update the recorder application.

Upon opening the application on July 17, users will be prompted to update the software. Panopto’s website offers instructions for updating Panopto on Mac and Windows. Contact cit@ua.edu with any questions or concerns.

Qualtrics – Classic Reports End of Life

Effective June 30, 2020 Qualtrics will no longer support or provide access to Classic Reports. All surveys and data will remain intact. Qualtrics now supports and encourages all users upgrade to the Advanced Reports experience.

Advanced Reports offers a number of benefits including a new simplified user experience, better application performance and increased stability in report generation.

After June 30, Qualtrics users will lose access to any reports created with Classic Reports; however, all survey and data will remain intact. If you have not already, we encourage users to rebuild reports on the Advanced Reports platform. Users may also download a PDF copy of existing Classic Reports.

To view Classic Reports, visit the Reports section of the Qualtrics console. If you have any questions, please visit the Qualtrics website.

Panopto Downtime – June 27, 2020

The Panopto cloud will be updated on June 27th, 2020.  This update will require approximately 3 hours of downtime beginning at 8pm Central Time. During the downtime, users will not be able to access Panopto videos, and any attempts to upload new recordings will result in a “Server unable to connect” message.

Gradescope workshop

Gradescope is now being integrated with UA’s Blackboard Learn system. It is often used for evaluating handwritten responses, programming, diagrams, formulae, and other coursework that can be challenging to assess virtually.

Join us for the online workshop and learn how instructors use Gradescope. The workshop will offer guidance on how to deliver assessments remotely and outline various assessment options to meet your immediate needs, including:

  • Fully online assignments, no paper required
  • Existing paper-based assignments
  • Combining online and paper-based approaches

We will also cover the grading and rubric-building workflow on Gradescope and walk attendees through both the instructor and student interface for creating and submitting assignments and viewing feedback.

You will learn how to:

  • Grade your existing exams and homework on Gradescope
  • Grade groups of answers at once
  • Make rubric changes as you grade – changes apply to previously graded work to maintain consistency
  • Write each comment only once – apply previously used comments with a click
  • Create better rubrics to increase student learning
  • Use ‘assignment analytics’ to gain insight into student learning

Available workshops:

  • Tuesday, June 2, 3:30pm – 4:30pm Central
  • A second workshop may be scheduled as needed

Register and reserve your spot here: ​https://info.gradescope.com/alabama-workshop.

UA System Hosts Virtual Scholars Institute

This month The University of Alabama System will be hosting its 13th Annual Scholars Institute. For the first time, this year’s Scholars Institute will take place as a series of online events.

The institute kicks off Friday, May 15 at 10am with a virtual presentation offering an overview of how the UA System community is responding to events related to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). A student panel will also discuss their experiences of learning in an online or remote format during the spring 2020 semester.

Join us for the 13th Annual UA System Scholars Institute May 15, 2020

“Like most events happening right now this year’s event will be quite different than past Scholars Institutes that UA has hosted” said Rachel Thompson, director of UA’s Center for Instructional Technology and planning committee member for the Scholars Institute. “We’re excited to host the event virtually, and we’re looking forward to what students have to say about the transition to online learning.”

The Scholars Institute fosters a shared community of knowledge among members of the three UA System campuses. The online series will include live presentations, panel discussions, Q&As and other ways to discuss current challenges and opportunities in the use of technology in teaching and learning.

Institute presentations will align with the institute theme, “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion: Using Technology to Bridge Connections” and explore some aspect of technology’s role in teaching, research, and service.

Learn more, and register for the Scholars Institute, on the CIT website. For more information, contact UA’s Center for Instructional Technology at cit@ua.edu.

Respondus Monitor Processing Delays

Respondus Monitor encountered issues processing the proctoring data and videos for a number of exams taken on Thursday 4/30 and Friday 5/1. A patch for the problem has been created and the affected exam sessions were scheduled to be reprocessed over the weekend, as soon as the patch clears QA.

Exams using Respondus Monitor since Friday 6pm PT are not affected by this issue. Proctoring results for those sessions are processing on a normal schedule.

If you have questions about this issue, please open a support ticket at https://support.respondus.com/support/ .