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Grand Valley State University
Welcome to the November edition of our eLearning Technologies newsletter. In this month's issue, we explore various topics, including a review of mental health resources and sample student messaging crafted by the Provost's office Rapid Response Team in collaboration with Advising, FTLC, and other dedicated faculty and staff, all integrated into Blackboard. We also present various avenues for you to share your valuable feedback and suggestions for enhancing Blackboard. Moreover, we spotlight upcoming professional development opportunities, introduce a captivating podcast from our eLearning and Emerging Technologies departments focusing on AI. We also share Winter 2024 Blackboard course availability and support opportunities as you begin preparing for the Winter semester.
In this email newsletter:

Togetherall

As the demands of academic life and daily challenges continue to shape our student's mental health, we want to remind you of two resources built into our Blackboard system to support you and your students.
Togetherall is an online community where students can anonymously share feelings and receive support from peers and mental health professionals. Togetherall can be accessed under the Assist area in Blackboard and from the University Counseling Center website.
A brief video outlining all that Togetherall has to offer can be found here. We hope that you will share this resource with the students that you teach, mentor, and supervise.

Message Manager Folder

Developed by the Provost's office Rapid Response Team in conjunction with advising, FTLC, and other faculty and staff, each Fall 2023 Blackboard course was given a folder (only visible to instructors) which contains a collection of communication suggestions from faculty to students and was inspired by focus groups and interviews conducted with instructors of first-year courses during Winter 2023.
This folder provides sample starting points for a variety of styles and incidents. These templates are not required but merely suggestions for faculty looking for ideas. You will find placeholders for student, professor, and class names and office hours that can be customized to fit your course. If you deleted this folder from your course, you can contact your eLearning Liaison to have them copy the folder back into your course.

2024 Blackboard Winter Course Availability

Instructors who are listed in Banner as the instructor of record, will get access to their Winter 2024 Blackboard courses beginning November 13, 2023. Contact your departmental coordinator if you do not see your Winter courses in Banner currently.
As you start thinking about your Winter courses, you may want to take advantage of the following common requests:

Winter Course Prepping and Virtual Office Hours for Blackboard Ultra

The eLearning Technologies team will be hosting virtual office hours for Winter course preps. Use this Zoom link and bring your questions! If these dates and times don't work with your schedule, you are encouraged to reach out to your eLearning Liaison with questions or submit a consultation request through our service portal.
  • 12/1/23 • 10am – 12pm and 1pm – 3pm
  • 12/8/23 • 10am – 12pm and 1pm – 3pm
  • 12/15/23 • 9am – 11am
  • 1/4/24 • 10am – 12pm and 1pm – 3pm
  • 1/5/24 • 9am – 11am and 1pm – 3pm

Submit your Feedback and Ideas to Blackboard

As we are halfway through the semester, we want to remind faculty that you can always contact your eLearning Liaisons with questions about Blackboard Ultra features or schedule a consultation. In addition, there are multiple ways to provide feedback directly to Blackboard.
Feedback Survey: "Specific" to Grading of Assignments/Tests
Anthology (Blackboard) would like your feedback on the grading interface for assignments and tests and would appreciate your thoughts on this six-question survey.
Focus Group Sessions
Within six months, some of the most significant changes will focus on assessments and the Blackboard Gradebook. Anthology is organizing a few focus group meetings with the engineers responsible for these feature enhancements. The focus group will allow faculty to gain exclusive previews of upcoming releases and provide feedback. Please fill out this form to gain access to participation details.
Idea Exchange
Blackboard/Anthology has created an idea exchange for directly engaging with faculty on feature requests. Faculty can sign up for the Idea Exchange and post their suggestions, vote on feature requests that others propose, and track their implementation.
Campus Visit with Anthology on 12/6/23
Anthology will be coming to campus on December 6, 2023. Product Development and the Director of Anthology Adoption will be attending to provide a roadmap session and listen to feedback and suggestions from faculty. We will meet on the Allendale campus in KC Room 2266 from 1 – 3 pm. Reservations are not required.

New Feature Releases in Blackboard Ultra

Improvements and new features are added to Blackboard Ultra every month. See the Release Schedule for the planned timeline and the Release Notes for current and upcoming features and improvements. We'd like to draw your attention to three in particular.
Progress Tracking for Web Links
Web links are now included in progress tracking! Many of you had requested this functionality because you are linking out to external resources that students are required to complete within a learning module. We are pleased that Anthology was able to implement this new feature.
Sending Reminders from the Gradebook
If you didn't notice, a "Send Reminder" option is now available for Gradebook items. This is especially useful for instructors who wish to remind students or groups who haven't yet submitted their work.
Gradebook Sorting Controls
Instructors can sort records in ascending or descending and remove any applied sorting. A purple highlight in the column header helps instructors identify where sorting is applied.
Journal Display Enhancements
To improve navigation for journals, Blackboard has introduced a new set of tabs. Now, instructors can switch between the Journal and the Grades/Participation page. This update improves the usability of the journal.

Dive into AI with our New Podcast

Curious about ChatGPT and other "generative artificial intelligence" tools that everyone in education can't stop talking about? Join Matthew Roberts (eLearning Technologies) and Jacob Fortman (Innovation and Research) for a new season of T-Squared, a teaching and technology podcast.
This new season of the T-Squared podcast will feature deeper discussions about artificial intelligence; the relationship between AI, knowledge, and expertise; the legal and ethical factors involved in the use of AI; and the connections between efficiency, community, and education. The first episode is available now, with the second episode coming soon!
Visit the T-Squared website to listen and subscribe

Upcoming Webinars

The eLearning team offers a variety of webinars covering a wide array of teaching and technology topics. Most sessions are facilitated in a live webinar format using Zoom to make it extremely convenient. Review our Webinar page to see a complete list of offerings. Upcoming opportunities are linked below for easy registration.
Digital Pedagogy Topics
Community of Inquiry – Session 3 (Cognitive Presence)
November 9, 2023 • 1:30pm – 3:00pm
In this session we will consider Cognitive Presence, course development suggestions that encourages student communication and engagement.
Introduction to Flip (Formerly Flipgrid) for Video-Based Discussions
November 16, 2023 • 10:00am – 11:00am
Flip is a free tool where instructors can pose questions, called "topics," and their students can post video responses.
5 Steps for Course Design Series
November 21, 2023 • 1:00pm – 2:00pm
The ability of your students to navigate your course site is critical. Being thoughtful about navigation can lead to student inspiration to dive into the online experience and engage in the course content. We will discuss what considerations need to be included in your course design, as well as how you can experience your own class as a student.
Microsoft Office Topics
Road-Trip Training Series: Outlook Calendar Tips & Tricks (Windows)
November 8, 2023 • 11:00am – 12:00pm
Road-Trip Training Series: Outlook Basics for MacOS (Part 1)
November 10, 2023 • 1:00pm – 2:00pm
Road-Trip Training Series: Outlook Basics for MacOS (Part 1)
November 15, 2023 • 10:00am – 11:00am
Road-Trip Training Series: Outlook Basics for MacOS (Part 2)
November 17, 2023 • 11:00am – 12:00pm
Road-Trip Training Series: Outlook Basics for MacOS (Part 2)
November 20, 2023 • 11:00am – 12:00pm
Road-Trip Training Series: Microsoft Bookings Essentials (Pit-Stop Workshop)
November 29, 2023 • 10:00am – 11:00am
This training is intended for faculty/staff who have a basic understanding of Microsoft Office 365 web applications and need to know how to use Microsoft Bookings to schedule and manage appointments.

Please get in touch with us for assistance!

Be sure you know who your eLearning Liaisons are and request a consultation with an eLearning Technologies team member!
Sincerely,
Kim Kenward, Director of eLearning Technologies
kenwardk@gvsu.edu
GVSU Information Technology
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