Instructional Technology News – November 11

• November 11th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,

Melissa from The Center for Instructional Technology here with some early November news and tips.

Email Address in Blackboard

Students who are also employees have both @ua and @crimson email addresses. These students can now specify which address they would like to use for Blackboard Learn communications. Students should use their @crimson email addresses for all academic and student-related communications. Additional information and steps for determining and changing the email address associated with a Blackboard account are available on our website: Email address in Blackboard.

Get ready for finals!

Preparing to offer a final exam via Blackboard? CIT encourages you to:

• Book an appointment for an online exam settings review to help ensure a smooth experience for you and your students.
• Follow these recommendations to avoid common problems associated with Blackboard Learn tests: Testing Tips for Instructors
• Share tips for being prepared and getting connected: Testing Tips for Students

Access to Crimson Google Accounts Will End May 2022

After the Spring 2022 semester, Crimson Google accounts will no longer be available to UA students and alumni. Individuals should export or migrate all content they wish to keep to OneDrive (current students) or a personal storage space (UA alumni and former students should export content). All content remaining in Crimson Google accounts will be deleted on May 16, 2022. Additional information, including suggested steps for migrating content, is available on the OIT website: Crimson Google Accounts

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra updates

Blackboard Collaborate Ultra has seen several updates this fall! We’re particularly excited about the new whiteboard, which offers better formatting, interaction with breakout groups, annotation persistence and more.  Users can also now adjust their recording playback speed, going faster to save time or slower to catch more of what is being said: Recordings for Participants

We’re here to help

Your colleagues in The Center for Instructional Technology provide training, support, workshops, webinars, and consultations for UA’s instructional technologies and technology accessibility. You can reach us at cit@ua.edu or 205-348-3532. Join us at an upcoming webinar or schedule a consultation with us.

Want more updates from CIT? Subscribe to our news updates and follow us on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.

Instructional Technology News – August 9

• August 10th, 2021
• in -Instructional Technology News

Hello instructors,

Meg here from the Office of Information Technology. While our CIT team is busy migrating Blackboard to the cloud, I want to share a few IT items to help you (and your students) be prepared for the Fall 2021 Semester.

Crimson email is now powered by Microsoft O365.

Early this summer OIT migrated student and alumni Crimson email accounts from Google to Microsoft O365. We did this to increase collaboration among students and faculty/staff by hosting email together in one environment. Hosting student email in O365 allows for students, faculty and staff to be in the same email directory, and it allows for more functionality with tools like Microsoft Teams.

Students can use a variety of methods to access their email. Here’s four options:

1. Log into myBama.ua.edu and click the Crimson Email link
2. Visit mail.crimson.ua.edu on the web
3. Add the account to the Outlook desktop app
4. Add the account to the Outlook mobile app

Students should be accessing their email regularly to receive important campus updates. If your students have any questions about email, please direct them to the OIT website where we have more information and answers to frequently asked questions – oit.ua.edu/crimson.

Connect to Eduroam wireless internet.

This summer we changed how individuals connect to the Eduroam wireless internet network. Individuals must connect with an email address and myBama password.

For faculty and staff, that’s your myBama username@ua.edu email address. Students can connect with their Crimson email address. Returning students and faculty may need to re-establish a connection upon arrival to campus. More information about campus internet service is available on our website.

Download free software.

OIT offers many software packages to students, faculty and staff. Visit oit.ua.edu/software to download software tools like Adobe Creative Cloud, MATLAB, McAfee Antivirus, Microsoft O365 and more.

Move content from Google Drive to Microsoft OneDrive.

Beginning May 2022, OIT will no longer support Google Drive for Crimson accounts. Students should begin using UA’s preferred cloud storage service, Microsoft OneDrive. Step-by-step guidance is available on our website for moving content out of Google Drive and into Microsoft OneDrive. If you share any materials with students via Google Drive, please make the switch to OneDrive.

We’re here to help.

Visit oit.ua.edu for more information about IT services.  You can also reach us at the IT Service Desk, itservicedesk@ua.edu or 205-348-5555.

Continue learning, even while Blackboard is unavailable.

The CIT team is hard at work updating Blackboard Learn. Melissa will be in touch later this week when Blackboard service resumes. In the meantime, we’ve added several webinars and workshops to our website to encourage students and instructors to continue learning, even while Blackboard Learn is down. I hope to see you in one of the Outlook and OneDrive workshops tomorrow!

Thanks,

Meagan