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:
Program: Grant
Agency: American Sociological Association (ASA)
Next Deadline: August 31st, 2019
The American Sociological Association (ASA) encourages applications for the Community Action Research Initiative (CARI) grants. CARI grants are for projects that bring social science knowledge and methods to bear in addressing community-based problems. Applicants must be sociologists seeking to work with community organizations or community action initiatives.
Applications are encouraged from sociologists working in a variety of work settings including academic institutions, research institutes, private and non-profit organizations, and government agencies. Graduate students are eligible to apply, but CARI funds cannot be used to support dissertation research. While ASA membership is not a criterion for applying, it is required to receive a grant. All ASA members are obligated to follow the ASA Code of Ethics, and grantees must provide pertinent IRB approval if necessary. Grants are for up to $3,000 of direct costs.
https://www.asanet.org/careers/grants-and-fellowships/community-action-research-initiative-grant
Program: Grant
Agency: The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars
Next Deadline: October 1st, 2019
The Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars is announcing the opening of its 2020-2021 Fellowship competition. The Center awards approximately 15 academic year residential fellowships to academics, journalists, former public officials, and independent experts from any country with outstanding project proposals on global issues. The Center welcomes policy-relevant proposals which complement the Center’s programming priorities. Within this framework, the Wilson Center supports projects that intersect with contemporary policy issues and provide the historical and/or cultural context for some of today’s significant public policy debates. Applicants must hold a doctorate or have equivalent professional experience. Fellows are provided stipends (which include round trip travel), private windowed offices, Library of Congress access, and part-time research assistants.
The Center encourages applicants to apply online. Additional information and the application are available at www.wilsoncenter.org/fellowships.
Program: Grant
Agency: U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development
Next Deadline: October 30th, 2019
Program: Grant
Agency: Horowitz Foundation for Social Policy Grant
Next Deadline: December 1st, 2019
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
Port Discovery Children's Museum is one of the top Children's Museums in the United States and a top cultural institution in Baltimore's Inner Harbor. Our mission is to educate children through play and to inspire life-long learning. This is an exciting time to join our team as we re-imagine the Museum through new world class exhibits and programming.
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