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Are your course materials accessible? Where would you go to check? Could you easily remediate your files for your current or future students?
Meet Ally, an accessibility tool that automatically scans your Blackboard course content and performs a series of steps to make that content more accessible. Ally provides you with an overall accessibility report for your entire course as well as tagging individual content items. Use the overall report to quickly identify easy issues to fix or urgent content that needs to be fixed.
Ally automatically generates alternative formats of your course files and makes them available to you and your students. The alternative formats do not affect your original file, but they do allow students to access an HTML version for their phones, an ePub version for their tablets, an MP3 version for audio players, and electronic braille for braille readers.
Improving the accessibility of your course content will not only help ensure students with different abilities can access your materials, but it will also improve the learning experience for students who use mobile devices as well as those who want to engage with the material in a different way.
Learn more about Ally by attending an orientation webinar or reviewing the Ally FAQs.
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:
Are you passionate about teaching with technology? Do you have an Ultra course adoption story to share with other faculty? Would you like to be part of a growing community of Blackboard influencers at UMBC?
If so, consider applying to the Ultra Faculty Ambassador Program!
Faculty engagement throughout the transition to Ultra is an invaluable component of UMBC’s Blackboard innovation roadmap. With the increased investment in support for Ultra and instructional technology, we’d like to invite five faculty to join our Ultra Faculty Ambassadors.
What makes a good Ultra Ambassador?
User-friendly - You are collegial and share best practices, resources & information with peers.
Learned - You seek opportunities to acquire new knowledge & skills.
Transformative - You perceive change as an opportunity.
Responsive - You pass constructive feedback back to Instructional Technology staff.
Accomplished - You stand out as an expert in using Blackboard for teaching.
Throughout the transition to the new course interface, Ultra Faculty Ambassadors communicate information to departments and college peers, respond to basic questions about using Ultra, coordinate training for their peers as needed, and provide feedback to the Instructional Technology team about any concerns or functionality requests.
All Ultra Faculty Ambassadors are required to attend a full-day of customized training to better prepare for their important role and receive a $300 stipend and additional support for their own Ultra course conversion or redesign.
Submit your nomination with this online form.
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:
Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
Request a consult with instructional technology staff
Review your course content with Ally
It is my pleasure to both introduce and welcome the three newest members of the Instructional Technology team in DoIT: Chimaobi (Mobie) Nwaokomah (pictured at left), Laura Wyatt, and Collin Sullivan. They round out the team that added Dr. Susan Biro in her new role as Online Learning Coordinator in early May of this year. These new staff members add depth and breadth to the existing team as DoIT continues its investment in Instructional Technology.
Chimaobi (Mobie) Nwaokomah joins the team as an Instructional Designer. Mr. Nwaokomah graduated with a Master of Public Administration from the University of Baltimore and completed his Master of Arts in Instructional Systems Development from UMBC in Spring 2019. He also completed graduate certificates from UMBC in Instructional Technology and Distance Education. He previously served as an Instructional Designer and LMS System Administrator at the University of Baltimore, and an e-Learning Specialist at that same institution.
Laura Wyatt also joins the team as an Instructional Designer. Ms. Wyatt graduated with an M.S. degree in Curriculum and Instruction from McDaniel College. In her most recent position, she served as the Associate Director of Instructional Technology at McDaniel College and previously served as their Learning Management System Administrator.
Collin Sullivan joins the team as a Learning Management System (LMS) Support Specialist. Mr. Sullivan earned both his Bachelor of Science in Information Systems and his Bachelor of Arts in Economics here at UMBC in May 2019. He served as an intern in the Instructional Technology office from 2015-2018 where he demonstrated his technical skills and abilities, giving him the foundation to thrive in his new role and support UMBC’s migration to Ultra.
Please join us in welcoming these three dynamic individuals into the UMBC family. We look forward to their future contributions to our community and the institution.
Sincerely,
Sherri Braxton
Senior Director
Instructional Technology
UMBC Division of Information Technology
The Ultra Course Redesign Challenge offers faculty an opportunity to share their redesigned courses using the new Ultra interface for a chance to win a Kindle Fire.
The challenge is open to any UMBC instructor who is currently using or planning to use Ultra in a Blackboard course in the FA2019 semester during the phased roll-out of Ultra. Courses will be evaluated using the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program (ECP) rubric, which is aligned to the Quality Matters rubric.
Courses submitted to the challenge must be redesigned using the Ultra Course View.
Courses must be submitted by 11:59 PM on Monday, September 30, 2019.
Review the Exemplary Course Program Rubric to familiarize yourself with the criteria.
If you do not already have an Ultra course shell to develop your submission, request a blank Ultra course shell and redesign your course.
Course shells with existing student data (grades, submissions, discussions, etc.) may not be submitted for the Redesign Challenge.
Complete your reflection for each criterion in the rubric.
Please create a folder called “For the Challenge Team” in your course for licensed tools and platforms that may be unavailable to the reviewers. This folder may also contain screenshots and recordings of great discussion boards, multimedia interactions, test questions, your course design strategy, etc.
Submit your course and reflection by the submission deadline.
Courses will be reviewed by the Instructional Technology team and at least two Ultra Faculty Ambassadors.
The winner will be announced during National Distance Learning Week (November 4-8, 2019).
The ECP rubric defines key characteristics of quality courses within the framework of Course Design, Interaction and Collaboration, Assessment, and Learner Support. It was developed by faculty and leaders in instructional design, based on years of their collective practice and expertise. Thousands of instructors, teachers, instructional designers, and faculty trainers have used the Exemplary Course Program to evaluate and improve their courses with recognized best practices. Those courses meeting exceptionally high standards are recognized at Blackboard’s annual conference.
All participants in the Ultra Course Redesign Challenge will be encouraged to submit their courses to the Blackboard Exemplary Course Program.
]]>Several publisher integrations will be updated at the end of summer to leverage modern infrastructure functionality, which will change the way faculty access those tools.
Both Cengage Mindtap & Aplia as well as WileyPLUS will be available in Ultra courses for FA2019. McGraw-Hill Connect will be piloted in Ultra during the FA2019 semester in preparation for full deployment in SP2020. Pearson’s Revel will be supported in Ultra courses, but the Mastering and MyLab series is not yet available.
The updated integrations will allow faculty to deep link to publisher content and synchronize grades on an intermittent cycle. New FAQs will be available to guide faculty in using the integration of publisher content in both Original and Ultra courses.
Since the existing tools must be disabled so the upgraded versions can be activated, faculty should plan to review any student submissions in their publisher integrations and export grades by August 15.
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:
Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
Request a consult with instructional technology staff
Review your course content with Ally
In the August update to Ultra courses, faculty can create question pools to help build assessments quickly and better support academic integrity. Instructors can add questions to from all existing tests, assignments and question banks in their courses, and those question pools will distribute different sets of questions to students.
Additionally, Ultra courses will now support a much needed feature in assessments: Hiding answers on a test while it is in progress. Faculty will be able to check a setting to show or hide the correct answers on a test. At this time, instructors must disable the setting after all students complete the test if they want students to later see the correct answers.
Organizations and communities may now adopt Ultra after the August update. Please consult the Instructional Technology office to determine whether converting or redesigning is best for your organization.
Course shells for FA2019 were created on July 28, 2019. Both Ally and the Ultra Course Preview tool are enabled in all courses, allowing faculty to review course materials for accessibility and to explore and adopt Ultra during the phased roll-out of Ultra.
The next Blackboard Learn update will be posted to our test site around August 13th and pushed to production around September 5th. Faculty who are interested in test driving new features before they are released to production should open an RT ticket to request early access.
As always, if you have any questions, please consider the following options:
Follow the Instructional Technology & DoIT myUMBC groups
Request a consult with instructional technology staff
Review your course content with Ally
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