October is the perfect time to reaffirm our commitment to accessibility and student success. Accessibility isn't just compliance; it's good teaching. Minor improvements, such as clear headings and accurate captions, can benefit every learner. Looking ahead, we will partner with Anthology for a "Fix Your Content Day" contest on November 18! In this month's newsletter, learn about new Blackboard Ally features, quick tips for making content more accessible, and upcoming professional development opportunities.
Jump right in!
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Upcoming Accessibility Requirements
In 2024, Congress enacted Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, which mandates that all digital content created or provided by state and local government entities be accessible in accordance with Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.1 Level AA. Title II pertains to an institution's web content and the systems used to access it, including all course or program materials in the institution's learning management system. As these new requirements take effect, we're pleased to share that Blackboard Ally has made it even easier to create digital content that is both accessible and compliant. Explore the resources and support we've included throughout this newsletter, as well as quick tips and upcoming professional development opportunities.
Learn more:
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Join us for Fix Your Content Day!
On November 18, our campus will join institutions worldwide for "Fix Your Content Day 2025", hosted by Anthology. This 24-hour competition among Blackboard institutions is part of our ongoing commitment to inclusive education.
Aim to fix as many accessibility issues and course files as possible using Ally. Every improvement, big or small, helps create a more inclusive learning environment for all students. Please note: fixes must be made through the Ally interface to count toward the competition. Schools making significant progress will be featured on the Anthology leaderboards and highlighted across their social media channels.
How you can help:
For more information on Ally, watch this month's spotlight video created by Barbara Stevens, eLearning IT Project Specialist, and explore our additional resources.
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In Practice: Review your Ally Course Accessibility Reports Regularly
Did you know you can run an Ally Course Accessibility Report in just a few clicks? This built-in Blackboard tool gives you an at-a-glance view of your course's accessibility and highlights opportunities to make your materials more inclusive for all learners.
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Running the report each semester is a quick way to:
- Identify files or content that may need attention.
- Access step-by-step guidance for improving accessibility.
- Track your progress as you make updates.
For more assistance with your accessibility report or using Blackboard Ally, contact your eLearning Liaisons for support and questions.
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Making Video Content Accessible
Captioning Made Simple with Panopto!
Whether recording a lecture or uploading supplemental material, captions help all students, especially those viewing in noisy or quiet environments. Panopto automatically generates captions, but we encourage reviewing and editing for accuracy.
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Accessibility Myths… Busted!
Myth: Accessibility only benefits students with disabilities.
- Fact: Accessible materials improve clarity, navigation, and comprehension for everyone.
Myth: It takes too much time.
- Fact: Many accessibility improvements take only a few minutes, and Blackboard Ally makes it easy.
Myth: Accessible design is boring or restrictive.
- Fact: Accessibility promotes clarity and usability while allowing for creativity. You can continue to incorporate visuals, interactive media, and engaging designs, provided that they are perceivable and usable by all individuals.
Myth: Once I make my course accessible, I don't have to think about it again.
- Fact: Accessibility is an ongoing process. Each time you add new content—readings, activities, or multimedia—you must check that it meets accessibility guidelines.
Context is Key!
Context is crucial when composing alt text for images and linked text within course materials. We've compiled a quick reference guide to help you with some of the most common accessibility issues and how to address them.
Inclusive Design in Action: Maximizing Accessibility in Blackboard
In this Blackboard-sponsored video, learn why digital accessibility is crucial in education and how to incorporate it into course design. The presenter, an accessibility strategist, shares disability statistics and discusses the impact areas of accessibility in education, including recruitment, retention, learner satisfaction, and meeting legal requirements.
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Professional Development to Support Accessibility
*This is part of the Digital Literacy Friday series, sponsored by FTLC, eLearning Technologies, and the Digital Literacy Committee.
Join experts from Student Accessibility Resources and eLearning Technologies to explore strategies for making digital content more accessible. Learn how to connect with campus partners leading the way in digital inclusion, discover assistive technologies built into Microsoft and Blackboard, and explore how to run accessibility reports, set accommodations, and provide alternative formats for your students, all within your Blackboard course.
Facilitators: Tim Mohnkern, Student Accessibility Resources; Barbara Stevens, eLearning Technologies
*On-Demand Webinar. Feel free to participate when it's convenient.
Join us for an insightful on-demand webinar as Blackboard explores the current accessibility challenges facing institutions and the strategies being implemented to overcome them. Our expert panel will discuss the importance of having strategic accessibility programs, faculty training, and balancing human efforts with technology to address the impact of ADA Title II updates. The discussion will also focus on how Ally is helping institutions navigate these challenges, and panelists will offer practical advice for other institutions to address similar Title II concerns and improve overall accessibility.
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.
10/31/25 at 9am
11/3/25 at 4pm
11/7/25 at 9am
11/10/25 at 4pm
11/14/25 at 9am
11/17/25 at 4pm
11/21/25 at 9am
12/1/25 at 4pm
12/5/25 at 9am
12/15/25 at 4pm
12/19/25 at 9am
This self-paced course empowers instructors to design inclusive, equitable, and academically honest online testing environments. As online learning expands, so does the responsibility to create assessments that uphold fairness and integrity while meeting the diverse needs of all learners. Respondus LockDown Browser and Monitor provide tools to help maintain exam security without compromising accessibility, offering features that support students who use assistive technologies, require accommodations, or need alternative testing approaches.
This course takes roughly 1 hour. At the end, instructors will receive a certificate of completion and be marked as "complete" in Workday Learn.
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Blackboard Enhancements for November
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 one new feature in the release that will be available starting November 7, 2025. You can find the full release notes here.
You've been asking for this update, and we are pleased to announce that instructors can now efficiently update point values for multiple questions in tests using new bulk editing options. After students open the assessment or make submissions, instructors can make these changes:
- Edit the text of questions and answers
- Edit the point value
- New grades are recalculated for all previously submitted assessments
- Give everyone full credit for a question
- Change which answers are correct
- Change the scoring options for Multiple Choice and Matching questions
- Align questions with goals, from the assessment only
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Image 1: Instructors select Bulk edit points.
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Image 2: Instructors can select the questions that they want included in the bulk edit
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Please note that after students open the assessment, instructors can not make these changes:
- Add new questions and answers
- Delete a question
- Delete answers in Matching and Multiple Choice questions
- Change the number of blanks in a Fill in the Blanks question
- Move the content, such as switching the order of questions, answers, or additional content
- Add or remove questions from a question pool or delete a pool from an assessment
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Digital Teaching Symposium: Free, One-Day Event for Worldwide Higher Education Professionals!
Join us virtually on November 13, 2025, for this free, one-day event that brings together higher education faculty and teaching professionals worldwide to explore the latest insights and strategies shaping the future of digital teaching and learning.
Now in its ninth year, the Digital Teaching Symposium (DTS) is designed to connect educators, spark ideas, and showcase innovative practices in today's ever-evolving teaching environment. Through peer-led sessions, you'll discover how colleagues across the globe are harnessing technology to create engaging, inclusive, and personalized learning experiences that meet the expectations of today's students.
Whether looking for practical strategies, fresh perspectives, or opportunities to connect with peers, this event offers a full day of interactive sessions to help you navigate, excel, and thrive in higher education today and the years ahead. Registration and the schedule can be found on this website.
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Input Needed: Help Shape GVSU's Digital Strategy
Grand Valley's first Digital Transformation (Dx) Strategy—developed in 2021 with extensive input from faculty, staff, students, and community partners—has guided some of GVSU's most impactful recent investments and accomplishments, including:
- Launching Laker Dock, our student portal
- Expanding Zoom Phone and Zoom Rooms
- Strengthening Wi-Fi and campus network architecture
- Modernizing classroom technology and support services
- Building a modern data platform to drive informed and strategic decision-making
These successes were possible because of your collaboration and feedback.
As we look to the next three to five years, GVSU Information Technology is refreshing the DX Strategy to enable, support, and advance the university's Reach Higher Together plan. Your voice is essential to ensuring our digital priorities reflect the needs of our entire campus community.
Over the next few months, we'll host listening sessions, both in person and on Zoom, and share short online surveys. The first survey is open and available for feedback through early 2026. Whether you're faculty, staff, a student, or an alum, your feedback will help shape the future of technology at GVSU.
Watch for invitations and sign-up links soon, and plan to join us in this important conversation. Together, we can create a digital experience that empowers all Lakers to learn, teach, research, and connect more effectively.
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Upcoming Professional Development / Partner Events Partner Events with FTLC: Digital Literacy Fridays
Digital Approaches to Accessibility
10/31/25 • 11am – 12pm
Engaging Students with Social Annotation using Hypothesis
11/7/25 • 11am – 12pm
Assignments to Support Responsible Student Use of AI
11/14/25 • 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
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!
Digital Media Webinars
11/5/25 • 11am – 12pm
Learn more functions in Panopto, such as video creation, captions, quizzing, and student video assignments!
Join us for a beginner-friendly webinar on Adobe Express, Adobe's cloud-based design tool for creating stunning graphics, videos, PDFs, web pages, and more—no design experience needed!
11/11/25 • 11am – 12pm
11/25/25 • 10am – 11:30am
12/6/25 • 1pm – 2:30pm
Join our webinar to learn practical strategies for mastering file and email management. This hands-on session will teach you how to streamline your digital life by organizing your files, naming and storing them effectively, managing your email easily, and implementing systems to keep everything running smoothly.
Blackboard Webinars
Blackboard Essentials for Instructors: Exploring Course Structure and Content Creation
* Anthology/Blackboard Sponsored
Blackboard Assessments Simplified
* Anthology/Blackboard Sponsored
Streamlined Grading in Blackboard: Best Practices for Educators
* Anthology/Blackboard Sponsored
Microsoft Webinars
11/12/25 • 1pm – 2pm
11/19/25 • 1pm – 2pm
12/3/25 • 1pm – 2pm
12/10/25 • 1pm – 2pm
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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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