This month's eLearning newsletter includes key reminders about accessing your Winter 2026 Blackboard courses, a faculty spotlight to inspire you to create an accompanying podcast version of your winter syllabus, and new Blackboard features to explore. You'll also find a quick refresher on Panopto's retention policy, along with opportunities to connect with our team through upcoming workshops and consultations. We're grateful for your collaboration and are always here to help!
In this issue:
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Blackboard Winter 2026 Semester Course Availability
When you log into Blackboard, you'll find that your Winter 2026 semester courses are now available. If you don't see them, please contact your department coordinator to assign you as the instructor of record in Banner. Student enrollments will be added three weeks before the course start date, beginning the afternoon of December 16, 2025, for all Winter courses.
As you start thinking about your Winter courses, you may want to take advantage of the following common requests:
- Merge Course Request: Use this request to combine two or more sites into one parent site.
- Follow these instructions for copying content between courses.
- Course Restore Request: Use this form to restore a course from the Blackboard archives that is no longer available online. Faculty have access to their Blackboard courses for two years and one additional semester. Courses are retained in the archive for three years beyond that period.
- Use this request to schedule a consultation with an eLearning Technologies liaison for Blackboard assistance.
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Faculty Spotlight - Karen Niemchick - Using NotebookLM to Create a Podcast of Your Syllabus
In this month's spotlight video, listen to Karen Niemchick as she shares how she used NotebookLM to turn her written syllabus into a short, engaging podcast for students. In this video, she shares how this AI-powered tool helps her summarize key course details, personalize the message, and make the syllabus more relatable.
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NotebookLM is currently available as part of our GV Google license. If you don't have a GVSU Google account, you can submit a request in our Service Portal. More information about getting started with NotebookLM can be found in this resource.
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New Ideas and Features to Use When Designing Your Winter Blackboard Courses
Are you interested in refreshing your approach to organizing your Blackboard content or exploring new Blackboard features for your winter courses? We have six ideas that we would like to highlight:
- If you've been using folders, consider organizing your content in Learning Modules. Learning modules include navigation arrows that allow students to move forward and backward through the content without leaving the page. You can even force sequential viewing of the items. Learning Modules also allow you to add images to make them more visually engaging. To convert a folder into a learning module, it's as easy as selecting the 3-dot menu for the folder and choosing the "Change to Learning Module" option.
- Once you've copied your content from a previous semester, use the batch edit feature to quickly update all your assignments' due dates.
- Consider adding knowledge checks to your content to help students assess their understanding. Knowledge checks are great formative assessments to keep students on track with the content. Although they are not graded, instructors have access to detailed metrics.
- Use enhanced documents to create two-column layouts and insert images to improve content presentation.
- Use the AI Design Assistant to help you refresh assignments, discussion prompts, create rubrics, and generate assessment questions. Learn more about all the AI Design Assistant Features on our website, as well as a sample disclosure statement that you can share with your students on how you used this tool for curriculum development.
- Need to update your readings? The library search tool allows you to search for articles in our library databases from within Blackboard and add those resources directly to your Blackboard course.
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Blackboard Enhancements for December
Blackboard uses a continuous release cycle, meaning new features are released monthly. Some new features are significant updates with completely new functionality, while others are minor enhancements. We've highlighted four new features in the upcoming release, available starting December 5, 2025. You can find the full release notes here.
Instructors will have access to a collapsible Table of Contents panel in Learning Modules. This update mirrors the student experience and supports consistent navigation across roles. Instructors can quickly move between module items and access content that isn't yet available to students, without switching to Student Preview or changing availability settings.
Instructors can now make precise participation requirements for students. The initial release adds participation requirements to the existing due date(s) for discussions. Instructors can set requirements for the number of posts and/or replies a student must complete to fulfill the requirement.
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Blackboard has expanded release conditions to include activity on items, including non-assessment content. This enhancement allows conditions to be based on whether a student has opened or started content items such as documents, media, or course links. Instructors can now control access based on whether a student has opened or started a prerequisite content item.
Users can now minimize the camera view and Video Studio controls during a recording session. This update helps instructors and students focus on screen content while keeping the camera visible in a smaller overlay. The minimized view can be restored at any time, supporting flexible presentation styles.
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Panopto Archives – Tips & FAQs
As a reminder, here's an overview of the policy timeline:
Phase One – Archiving Unwatched Videos
On January 1, 2025, any Panopto videos that had not been viewed in the last 13 months were archived. Remember, archived videos can be restored, but the process can take up to 72 hours before the video is viewable. Archived videos will remain and can be restored from Blackboard Ultra.
Phase Two – Deleting Unwatched Videos
Beginning February 1, 2026, videos that haven't been viewed for 3 years will be permanently deleted to remain in compliance with our license agreement.
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Explore All the Ways The Bridge Team Can Help You
The Bridge team offers a wide range of media production services to help enhance your teaching and course materials. Whether you're interested in high-quality videos, podcasts, lightboard content, or interactive modules, their expertise can help you create engaging, accessible content for your students. Learn more about their services in this short overview video.
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Review Your Blackboard Ally Course Reports Regularly for Accessibility Concerns
In October's newsletter, we highlighted accessibility best practices and shared resources to help faculty prepare for the updated guidelines set to take effect in April 2026. As you continue your work this semester, we encourage you to regularly review your Blackboard Ally Course Accessibility Report and address any flagged items. Blackboard Ally provides step-by-step guidance for fixing many common issues, and our eLearning Liaisons are always available to meet with you for additional support or walkthroughs. You can find all of the October resources and help files linked here.
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Upcoming Professional Development / Partner Events Digital Literacy Friday Series - Partner Events with FTLC
Ethical Considerations of AI
11/21/25 • 11am – 12pm
Passive to Participatory: Boost Engagement with Zoom Features
12/5/25 • 11am – 12pm
What Does AI Mean for Liberal Education?
12/12/25 • 11am – 12pm
eLearning Professional Development
11/25/25 • 10am – 11:30am
12/6/25 • 1pm – 2:30pm
In just 15 minutes, learn how to transform scanned PDFs into accessible course materials using Anthology Ally. This session will cover three essential fixes—adding tags for screen readers, inserting a proper document title, and setting the correct language to ensure your PDFs are more usable and inclusive for all learners. Leave with simple, practical steps you can apply immediately to improve accessibility in your course. All sessions are 15 minutes!
12/1/25 • 4pm
12/5/25 • 9am
12/15/25 • 4pm
12/19/25 • 9am
Microsoft Focused Webinars
12/3/25 • 1pm – 2pm
12/10/25 • 1pm – 2pm
Self-Paced & On-Demand Training Options
With our GVSU license, you can take Adobe self-paced courses. Register with your GVSU email address. Most courses are 30 minutes long. See their how-to resources for getting started information.
This training lets you learn the essentials of Blackboard Ultra at your own pace. It walks you through its most common features and points you to resources that will help you get started using Blackboard Ultra.
This self-paced workshop fulfills the University's requirement that all faculty teaching hybrid and online courses be personally certified. As part of the process, faculty will meet with a member of eLearning Technologies to review the training requirements. This course takes roughly 8–10 hours, depending on prior technical experience and/or access to course content. Visit this site for details, including registration instructions.
Padlet offers a self-paced professional development course with video tutorials on its features and how it can support teaching and learning. Instructors who complete the course can also earn a Padlet certificate.
Designing a course can feel overwhelming, so this course guides you through 5 steps to build your course and save time! This process is aligned with Quality Matters and uses best practices in course design, Universal Design for Learning principles, and Backwards Design. Each step will cover pedagogy, strategies, and examples for designing and building your aligned course in the most time-efficient way possible. This series offers the option to earn a badge for those who wish to submit the required materials. Enroll today!
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Connect with eLearning!
Working with eLearning has many benefits. We can assist in optimizing Blackboard course structure, enhancing online and hybrid learning experiences, and incorporating innovative tools to foster active learning. We encourage you to contact your eLearning Technologies liaisons or submit a consultation ticket at your convenience.
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Sincerely,
Kim Kenward, Director of eLearning Technologies
kenwardk@gvsu.edu
GVSU Information Technology
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