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View all the Teaching & Learning Centre Spark Plugs!
by Alex Venis (Instructional Designer), Anh Lam (Project Manager, eLearning Specialist), and Ashley Ribbel (Special Projects Coordinator) from the Teaching & Learning Centre
Blackboard Ultra is coming to Seneca for summer 2023!
Blackboard Ultra is the latest iteration of the Blackboard Learning Management System. It is designed to be accessible and mobile-friendly, providing ease of use for faculty and instructors and a consistent look and feel across courses for students.
Want to learn more about Blackboard Ultra? The Teaching & Learning Centre has been busy developing resources to support you!
Our Blackboard Ultra website is where you can find all the resources you'll need to teach in Blackboard Ultra. With how-to articles, best practices, resources, and videos, this space hosts all of the Teaching & Learning Centre's Blackboard Ultra materials.
We recommend beginning with our Blackboard Ultra Crash Course. It walks you through the main features of Blackboard Ultra. We have the Quick Tour, a short introduction video about Blackboard Ultra, and the Course Tour, showing what a course could look like in Blackboard Ultra. The Crash Course also include four instructional videos that cover the vast majority of topics you need to know to successfully teach in Blackboard Ultra:
The First Look at Blackboard Ultra – explore the menu and content areas of Blackboard Ultra, then start creating content: documents, folders, and modules
Building Assessments – explore the details of assessments in Blackboard Ultra
The Gradebook – explore the Gradebook in Blackboard Ultra and see how all the same features are still available plus some quality-of-life improvements
Groups and Accommodations – explore how to create groups and add them to assignments, plus how to set up accommodations and exceptions
Newly-added: The Ultra Converted Course FAQ page contains commonly-asked questions about converted course content. It is also here on this page where you will find the polished version of our “What to do with your Converted Blackboard Ultra Course” webinar; it was recorded without audience questions.
If you would like to attend a live webinar, check out our Blackboard Ultra Webinars webpage. Bookmark this page! We are updating it constantly as we add to our webinar offerings.
Currently, we are offering two webinars: “First Look at Blackboard Ultra” and “What to do with your Converted Blackboard Ultra Course.” Dates, times, and webinar descriptions are on our Blackboard Ultra Webinars webpage and you can register for them in MyPD.
If you have a specific question about teaching with Blackboard Ultra and you cannot find it on the Blackboard Ultra website, you can ask the Teaching & Learning Centre via our Blackboard Ultra Request for Support webpage. We request that you ask your questions this way, rather than emailing us; this will assist us in providing a timely and appropriate response to your questions. We have two Request for Support forms to better support you more effectively:
If you have questions about Blackboard Ultra in general, such as how to use certain features, fill out the Blackboard Ultra General Support Form.
If you received a converted course and it has issues, such as content copied over improperly, fill out the Blackboard Ultra Converted Course Support Form.
We’re also offering virtual “Blackboard Ultra Drop-in Support” sessions as a place to ask questions, too. Registration is not needed; just drop in using Zoom during the timeslots and meet with a Teaching & Learning Centre Team Member to ask your question(s). The dates and times for the drop-ins are on our Blackboard Ultra Webinars webpage.
And in-person drop-in support is also available in the Teaching & Learning Centre Mondays to Fridays between 8 a.m. and 6 p.m. Eastern. Visit us in room A2508 at Newnham Campus.
We're developing additional resources for your Blackboard Ultra journey. The following resources will be posted on the Blackboard Ultra website so we encourage you revisit the website:
Get ready for a day filled with learning, technology, and excitement! Join us for Teaching & Learning Day Winter 2023 on Monday, February 27 at Newnham Campus. This event is dedicated to exploring educational technology and its impact.
Our keynote speaker is Dr. Robert Clapperton, Associate Professor in Professional Communication at The Creative School at Toronto Metropolitan University and co-founder of Ametros Learning, a natural language understanding experiential learning platform. His keynote presentation, "The Promise and Peril of ChatGPT and other Large Models to Critical Thinking and Creativity," will explore the explosion of large language models on the academic scene in terms of risk and opportunity.
In the morning, attendees will have the opportunity to choose from a variety of workshops that focus on different aspects of educational technology. We have something for everyone: tech tools, classroom technologies, OERs, virtual reality, and more! In the afternoon, join us for a Tech Crawl; it's a fun way to learn about the latest technologies in education. And if you're feeling adventurous, take part in our AR Scavenger Hunt and you could win a prize!
Don't miss this opportunity to connect with experts in the field, learn about the latest advancements in educational technology, and have fun while doing it! Register now in MyPD for this free conference and join us on Feb. 27 (during Study Week) at Newnham Campus!
Photo by Riccardo Annandale on Unsplash
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