September 19 Instructional Technology News

September 19th, 2023
in -Instructional Technology News

Greetings from your Center for Instructional Technology! 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.

Fall 2023 Faculty Prep Days

Thank you to all who attended the Fall 2023 Faculty Prep Days on August 16 and 17. We had a wonderful time teaching workshops for several instructional tools as well as hearing how our faculty plan to use these tools in the classroom this fall. Below is a recap of this year’s event:

38 Attendees
7 colleges represented
11 Instructional tech tools presented
27 Professional development sessions

The recorded sessions can be viewed on our website at Faculty Prep Days.

Instructional Tech Resources and Reminders

The CIT Knowledge Base is your clearinghouse for tutorials, known issues, and best practices.

Ultra Course View Pilot Continues

Instructors interested in teaching with Ultra Course View in an upcoming academic term should submit a request via the CIT portal: Blackboard Learn Ultra LIVE Course Pilot Request.

Mediasite video services for fully online UA classes update Sept. 23

Mediasite Video Cloud, used to provide media to fully online UA classes, will be updated to the latest release during a scheduled maintenance window on September 23, between 12:01 AM and 4:00 AM CDT. Extended downtime is not expected. However, Mediasite videos may be unavailable for brief periods during this time. Questions can be directed to OTIDE tech support at techsupport@ccs.ua.edu.

Midterm Grading

Midterm grading for Fall 2023 is now available in myBama and will be open through Wednesday, Oct. 11 for the purpose of non-attendance grade reporting. Instructors are asked to report students who either never attend or stop attending class, including any online classes for which the student has never signed-in via the web or has stopped participating. To accomplish this, faculty should assign a grade of “F” (or “NC” if applicable) with a reason of “Never Attended” or “Stopped Attending” as soon as it becomes evident that the student has never attended or stopped attending class. Failing grades assigned due to “Stopped Attending” will also require the submission of a Last Attend Date.

Visit this tutorial for step-by-step instructions to enter non-attendance grades.

Anthology Digital Teaching Symposium

Join Anthology on Nov. 2, 2023 for the seventh Digital Teaching Symposium. This annual symposium brings educators together to share and discover innovative uses of technology in an ever-changing teaching environment. At the Digital Teaching Symposium, uncover the latest strategies to help you navigate, excel, and thrive in a shifting higher education landscape.

Join online for a full day of free, peer-led virtual sessions on digital teaching strategies for the unique needs of 2023 and beyond.

More information can be found online at https://www.anthology.com/digital-teaching-symposium.

Using Hypothesis with JSTOR

Instructors at UA are now able to create Hypothesis assignments in Blackboard using documents from JSTOR’s extensive collection of texts and ebooks. Use this guide to get started using Hypothesis with JSTOR.

Upcoming Learning Opportunities

We have been hard at work putting together workshops and webinars to meet the needs of UA faculty and instructors! Select upcoming sessions are listed below, but 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. Upcoming sessions include:

Teaching with Blackboard: Blackboard Learn Basics

- Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 10:00 – 11:00 AM – Meets online via Microsoft Teams
- Thursday, September 28, 2023, 3:00 – 4:00 PM – Meets online via Microsoft Teams

Teaching with Blackboard: Creating Assessments in Learn Original

- Wednesday, September 20, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00 PM – Meets online via Microsoft Teams
- Thursday, September 21, 2023, 3:00 – 4:00 PM – Meets in A232 Gordon Palmer Hall

Teaching with Blackboard: Fostering Student Engagement in Learn Original

- Wednesday, September 27, 2023, 10:00 – 11:00 AM – Meets online via Microsoft Teams
- Thursday, September 28, 2023, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Meets in A232 Gordon Palmer Hall

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. Learn more in these upcoming sessions:

Teaching with Turnitin: Turnitin Basics

- Thursday, September 21, 2023, 11:00 AM – 12:00 PM – Meets online via Microsoft Teams

Teaching with Turnitin: Understanding Similarity Reports and Scores

- Wednesday, September 27, 2023, 2:00 – 3:00 PM – Meets in A232 Gordon Palmer Hall

Introduction to Panopto

Tuesday, October 10, 2023 2pm to 3pm

Join CIT for a webinar that covers the basics of using the lecture capture and video platform, Panopto.

Zoom Basics

Tuesday, September 26, 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.

Zoom Advanced

Wednesday, September 27, 10:00-11:00 am

This CIT instructor led session will explore Zoom features including recurring meetings, breakout rooms, polls, and reports.

People.ua.edu – Getting Started

Friday, September 22, 10:00-11:30 am

Tuesday, October 10, 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. Pre-registration required at http://people.ua.edu.

Leveraging Social Annotation in the Age of AI

Tuesday, October 3, 11:00am -12:00 pm

The emergence of cutting-edge technologies, like ChatGPT, has sparked a critical conversation throughout the education industry. In this workshop, the Hypothesis team will show you how to leverage social annotation to encourage authentic, process-oriented engagement with your course materials. They’ll  also share best practices for using social annotation with AI writing tools and demonstrate how to set up Hypothesis-enabled readings in your LMS. Participants can expect to leave the webinar armed with concrete assignments to implement in your courses right away.

Social Annotation to Foster Equity and Belonging in Education

Wednesday, September 27, 12:30-1:30 pm

The Hypothesis team will share how instructors can implement Hypothesis social annotation into their courses in order to increase equity and belonging amongst students. Participants can expect to come away from the workshop with concrete assignment ideas for using Hypothesis social annotation with equity and belonging in mind.

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.

Be sure to follow CIT on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram for news, technology tips, and more!

Email – cit@ua.edu

Phone – 205-348-3532

Website and Knowledge Base – http://cit.ua.edu