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Grand Valley State University
Happy New Year! As you begin to ramp up and get started with a new semester, please remember—we're here to help.
In this edition of the newsletter:

Frequent Start-up Requests

To assist you in getting your semester started out on the right foot, the eLearning team has put together a list of some of the most frequent requests that you can submit via our service portal (services.gvsu.edu).
Course Restore Request
(Use this to restore a course from Blackboard archives that is no longer available online in Blackboard)
Course Copy Request
(Use this to request copying content from one course site to another or follow the Self Service Course Copy steps to copy your own content)
Adding a User Request
(Use this to request a user be added as a teaching assistant, course builder, etc)
Merge Course Request
(Use this request to combine two or more sites into one parent site)
Request a consultation appointment
(Use this request to schedule an appointment with eLearning Technologies team member)

Blackboard New Semester Checklist

We have put together a Blackboard New Semester Checklist. This checklist is designed to take you through a series of 7 areas of recommendations as you begin to build out and use Blackboard to facilitate your students' learning.
Please note that the default layout in Blackboard has been designed to enhance the learner experience, to reduce cognitive load, and to ease student navigation across all of their courses at GVSU. The eLearning team has prepared an Instructor Guide and a video tour to assist you in using the menu structure inside of your Blackboard course.
Remember, this is the last semester we will be using Classic/Original Blackboard and beginning Spring/Summer 2023, all courses will be using Blackboard Ultra. We have updated the Blackboard New Semester Checklist with links to Knowledge Base articles to reflect the Ultra changes. Faculty are strongly encouraged to attend training during winter semester in preparation for the migration to Blackboard Ultra courses.

Photo Roster Enhancements

The GVSU Enterprise Applications team has made some enhancements to the photo roster found in the GVSU Faculty/Staff Additional Banner Applications "Class List" tool.  New in Winter 23 is the ability to view a grid of student names and photos with printing capabilities. In addition to printing improvements, faculty are now able to view photos of their advisees in the Advisee List tool.
Note: Faculty will only see photos in courses in which they are the instructor of record in Banner. Assistance with using this tool can be found in this Knowledge Base article found in our Service Portal.  Duo MFA is required for logging into Banner.  If you are off campus, you will also need to connect to VPN.

Logging into Zoom—Important Changes!

Starting January 17, 2023, all enrolled students and eligible faculty and staff will need to log into GVSU Zoom accounts using a gvsu.edu Single Sign-On (SSO). You will no longer be able to log in using other methods (Facebook, Apple, Gmail, work email, etc.). Switching to SSO will ensure that your GVSU Zoom account is secure and simplify the login process.
A Knowledge Base article has been created to help users transition from other login methods to SSO. If you have questions or need technical support, please contact IT (Information Technology) Services by submitting a ticket through the Service Portal, email at it@gvsu.edu, or phone 616-331-2101.

Meet a Blackboard Ultra Faculty Champion

In each newsletter, we have been featuring a faculty member who is already teaching in Blackboard Ultra Course View. We're continuing to collect video testimonials and have updated the LMS Migration website to include videos highlighting our early adopters. In this month’s newsletter, we are featuring Kathryn Ohle from Early Childhood Education who moved her entire program into Ultra courses.  In this video, she discusses how Blackboard Ultra has improved organization and navigation which benefits student learning.
Thumbnail from Kathryn Ohle Video Testimonial
Kathryn has also created a video tour of one of her Ultra courses to provide additional ideas for course organization using Blackboard Ultra.
Link to Kathryn Ohle's Blackboard tour

Gearing-up for Blackboard Ultra Course Training

As you might have noticed, the Winter semester of 2023 is all about getting you ready to use Blackboard Ultra courses for our launch in Spring/Summer and Fall 2023. Remember—you're not in this migration alone! The eLearning Technologies team and Pew FTLC are also partnering up to help with the migration.
Details will be forthcoming in early January, but for more information about the Pew FTLC Winter 2023 Ultra Working Groups, please visit their page.
The group (facilitated by an expert graduate of the ACUE course on effective teaching strategies who is also an early adopter of Blackboard Ultra) will work together in making the move to Blackboard Ultra align with the best and most effective teaching practices.
Our eLearning Blackboard Ultra training comes in various formats to meet everyone's scheduling needs. Lunch-and-Learns are quick 20-minute sessions offered around the noon hour. For those with larger blocks of free time, course Build-a-thons provide a deeper 2–3 hour dive into getting your course converted and ready for Blackboard Ultra.
Training opportunities for Winter 2023 are posted on our eLearning website and if our scheduled times don't work, your eLearning liaisons are happy to offer a specialized version of any training option for your departments or units. We can even accommodate evenings and weekends so that part-time faculty can join. Register in GVSU Sprout for various webinars offered by the eLearning Technologies team. All webinars are designed to assist you as you prepare to leverage technology in your teaching—with the ultimate goal of supporting student success.
Please note a few of our upcoming eLearning webinars
ULTRA BASE NAVIGATION: AN OVERVIEW
January 11, 2023 • 12:00pm – 1:00pm
Join us to learn about Ultra Base Navigation, its components, and how to adjust settings and notifications.
ZOOM 101
January 12, 2023 • 7:00pm – 8:00pm
January 17, 2023 • 2:00pm – 3:00pm
Learn the basics of using Zoom for synchronous instruction and how Zoom can be used for conducting virtual office hours.
RESPONDUS LOCKDOWN BROWSER & MONITOR INSTRUCTOR TRAINING FOR BLACKBOARD LEARN ULTRA
January 12, 2023 • 12:00pm – 12:45pm
This comprehensive training webinar is intended for instructors who plan to use LockDown Browser and/or Respondus Monitor with online exams in their Blackboard Learn Ultra courses.
INTRODUCTION TO FLIP (FORMERLY FLIPGRID) FOR VIDEO-BASED DISCUSSIONS
January 13, 2023 • 10:00am – 11:00am
Flip is a free tool where instructors can pose questions, called "topics," and their students can post video responses.
BLACKBOARD ULTRA LUNCH-AND-LEARN
Offered in 50-minute segments with 20-25 minutes allotted for demonstrations and the remaining time available for questions.
January 17, 2023 • 12:00pm – 12:50pm: Creating and Organizing Content
January 19, 2023 • 12:00pm – 12:50pm: Creating Assessments and Tests
HYPOTHESIS: COLLABORATIVE ANNOTATION TOOL FOR BLACKBOARD LEARN ORIGINAL (CLASSIC)
January 18, 2023 • 12:00pm – 12:50pm
Learn how collaborative annotation with Hypothesis can be used to make student reading visible, active, and social in your Blackboard Learn original (Classic) course.
BLACKBOARD ULTRA ESSENTIALS
January 20, 2023 • 11:00am – 12:00pm
This webinar is recommended for faculty/staff who want to learn the most commonly used features of Blackboard Ultra. 
HYPOTHESIS: COLLABORATIVE ANNOTATION TOOL FOR BLACKBOARD LEARN ULTRA
January 20, 2023 • 12:00pm – 12:50pm
Learn how collaborative annotation with Hypothesis can be used to make student reading visible, active, and social in your Blackboard Ultra course.

Schedule Time with Your eLearning Technologies Team Member

Our eLearning Technologies team includes instructional designers, instructional technology project specialists, digital media developers, system analysts, and graduate assistants dedicated to digital learning. You can find your assigned eLearning Technologies team members on our eLearning Technologies Support by Colleges website. While you're welcome to reach out via email or phone, you can also use our Service Portal to submit a request for a consultation appointment—which will be automatically sent to your assigned eLearning Technologies team member.
On behalf of the eLearning and Emerging Technologies team, we are on a mission to best serve and support you in your teaching!
If there is any way we can more effectively support you, please do reach out to us.
Sincerely,

Kim Kenward
Director of eLearning Technologies
GVSU Information Technology
Visit our eLearning Technologies website or follow us on our socials:
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1 Campus Drive
4490 Kindschi Hall of Science
Allendale, MI 49401
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