Converting Your Bb Original Course to Bb Ultra Course

Wednesday, July 24th  1:00PM-2:00PM (Gaige 104)
Wednesday, July 31st  1:00PM-2:00PM (Gaige 104)
Wednesday, August 7th  4:00PM-5:00PM (Gaige 104)
Friday, August 16th  1:00PM-2:00PM (Gaige 104)
Thursday, August 22nd  10:00AM-11:00AM (Gaige 104)

Learn how to copy course material from your previous Bb Original course from within your Fall 2024 Ultra course. Topics that will be covered:

  • Learn various ways to copy your previous course content into your Fall 2024 course
  • Move content in a learning module to a different location in the course
  • Perform post-conversion cleanup
  • Delete out unused files
  • Verify gradebook and settings
  • Review documents (Items) for formatting and content redesign
  • Verify file attachments and links are not broken
  • Verify and review Tests and Assignments
  • Learn ways to optimize your Ultra teaching and learning experience

REGISTER HERE

Getting Started with Blackboard Ultra

Tuesday, August 13rd 10:00AM-12:00PM (Zoom Webinar)
Tuesday, August 20th 10:00AM-12:00PM (Zoom Webinar)

New to Blackboard and need to get your course up and running or do you need to learn the Ultra Course View? These professional learning webinars will be made up of demonstrations, lectures and live Q&A to begin building your Fall 2024 course(s) in Bb Ultra course view… topics that will be covered include:

  • Navigate the Ultra course view
  • Course Design methods based upon your teaching style and consistent with your syllabus
  • Organizing, building, and managing course content based on pedagogical best practices
    • Ways to bring in content
    • Upload a Syllabus file 
    • Add a link to the syllabus 
    • Use the New Document page
    • Folders vs Learning Module
  • Going over Student Preview mode
  • Communicating with students 
    • Announcements
    • Messages
    • Attendance
    • Course Schedule

REGISTER HERE

Assignments and Inline Grading & Rubrics

Tuesday, August 13rd 1:00PM-3:00PM (Zoom Webinar)
Tuesday, August 20th 1:00PM-3:00PM (Zoom Webinar)

Learn how to use the Assignments tool to efficiently create assignments that assess students in a variety of meaningful ways and decide on the best way to present the assignments you create. This webinar will include the following topics: 

  • Create/Deploy Assignment
  • Attaching Blackboard Rubric to the Assignment
  • Enable SafeAssign
  • See how students submit to an assignment
  • Accessing Students 1st and 2nd Submissions
  • Insert Inline annotation
  • Audio/Video Feedback for students
  • Post Grades
  • See how students access Grade and Feedback

REGISTER HERE

Creating Online Tests/Respondus LockDown Browser

Wednesday, August 14th 10:00AM-12:00AM (Zoom Webinar)
Wednesday, August 21st 1:00PM-3:00PM (Zoom Webinar)

Learn how to use the Test tool to efficiently create online tests that assess students in a variety of meaningful ways and decide on the best way to present the tests you create. Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard. When LockDown Browser is required for an online exam, students are unable to print, copy, visit other websites, or access other applications. Topics will include:

  • Create and deploy a Test
  • Go through the Test Options
  • Modify an existing question and add image to a question
  • Modify the question points
  • Setting up Student Accommodations and Exceptions
  • Using Question Banks and Question Pools
  • Providing Feedback and Grading Test Questions
  • Enable Repondus Lockdown Browser
  • Brief discussion on using Response test generator to create tests and import into your Blackboard course

REGISTER HERE

Kaltura - Upload and Use Media Content in Blackboard

Friday, August 16th 10:00AM-12:00PM (Zoom Webinar)
Thursday, August 22nd 1:00PM-3:00PM (Zoom Webinar)

Kaltura is RIC's media streaming server. This webinar will show you how to upload media to your Kaltura account and link said videos within your Blackboard course. Topics will include:

  • Uploading media to your Kaltura My Media
  • Adding a YouTube video to your Kaltura My Media
  • Recording video with Express Capture (webcam in a browser) in Kaltura My Media
  • Recording video with Kaltura Capture in Kaltura My Media
  • Request Professional Closed Captions for your video
  • Embed your video in your Blackboard course
  • Learn how to create playlists
  • Review updates to the media player
  • Learn how to use Analytics in Kaltura My Media

REGISTER HERE

Mastering the Gradebook

Wednesday, August 14th 1:00PM-3:00PM (Zoom Webinar)
Wednesday, August 21st 4:00PM-6:00PM (Zoom Webinar)

This webinar provides a comprehensive introduction to the gradebook. Use this valuable tool to assist you in understanding student progress and to make informed decisions on how to improve educational performance. This workshop assumes you are already familiar with Assignments, Tests, and other Blackboard tools. This webinar will cover the following topics:

  • Navigating the Grade Center
  • Go over some housekeeping items
  • Viewing Grade History and Attempt Logs
  • Configuring the Gradebook Settings
  • Configuring your Letter Schema
  • Creating and using categories to group related columns together and organize the data
  • Adding an Average Calculation
  • Adding in Manual Items (Columns)
  • Entering in Manual Grades
  • Ways to Grade/Posting Grades
  • Configuring the Overall Grade Calculations by Weight
  • Modifying the Overall Grade Setting
  • Adding in the Final Grade Letter Total Calculation
  • Setting up the Grade Notation

REGISTER HERE

Bb Ultra Help Sessions

Wednesday, July 24th 2:00PM-3:00PM (Gaige 104)
Wednesday, July 31st 2:00PM-3:00PM (Gaige 104)
Wednesday, August 7th 5:00PM-6:00PM (Gaige 104)
Friday, August 16th 2:00PM-3:00PM (Gaige 104)
Thursday, August 22nd 11:00AM-12:00PM (Gaige 104)

These help sessions are designed to bring any questions you have about developing your Fall 2024 Ultra course(s).

REGISTER HERE

"Ultra - Teaching Essentials" Self-Paced Course

The Ultra - Teaching Essentials online course, specifically designed for faculty and staff building courses in Blackboard, is a practical and hands-on learning experience. It provides you with reading materials, interactive 'try it' features, and short quizzes at the end of each module. This course is your guide to navigating the Ultra Course View, building content, creating assessments, and working with discussions. Completing the entire course, which typically takes around 5 hours, will give you a solid understanding of Ultra's new features and its comparison with Bb Original. By the end of this course, you will have the practical skills to:

  • Explain key terms related to the Ultra Course View
  • Navigate the Ultra Base Navigation page and the Ultra Course View
  • Discuss key course tools and course building features
  • Build a basic course
  • Create quizzes and assignments for assessing learners
  • Create discussions and explore options for Groups
  • Navigate throughout the Gradebook and configure the overall grade column

REGISTER HERE

Other Assistance

Customized Professional Development

One-on-One consultations are available to all faculty by appointment. These customized, one-on-one professional development sessions can be the answer to your faculty technology development and instructional support needs.

  • all areas of Blackboard explored
  • apply technologies to meet your course learning objectives
  • Instructional Design Services
  • getting started with Kaltura and Kaltura Capture

Request a Consultation

Respondus LockDown Browser Workshop

Respondus LockDown Browser is a custom browser that locks down the testing environment within Blackboard. When LockDown Browser is required for an online exam, students are unable to print, copy, visit other websites, or access other applications. This workshop will cover the following topics:

  • Enabling LockDown Browser on specific tests in a Bb course
  • Setting up LockDown Browser's advanced settings
  • Student experience when taking a test with Lockdown Browser.

Getting Started with Blackboard

New to Blackboard and need to get your course up and running or are you in need of a Bb refresher? These “Intro to Bb” professional development workshops will be made up of demonstrations, lectures and hands-on time to begin building your course in Bb… topics that will be covered include:

  • Bb user interface for you and for students
  • course design methods based upon your teaching style and consistent with your syllabus
  • organizing, building, and managing course content based on pedagogical best practices
  • communication with students
  • uploading and using video content

Please bring a paper and electronic copy of your syllabus and 2–3 documents (in electronic form) that you want to use in your course.

Organizing Content into Manageable Sections

Does your current course menu have a lot components and is very long? Are you looking to consolidate your course menu and rethink how to organize your course material in the best interest of your students? Then this would be a good session to attend. Topics that will be covered include:

  • ways to store your course content - folders vs learning modules
  • ways to organize (chunk) your course material in more manageable sections
  • how to place your manageable sections in sequential order

Assignments, Inline Grading, and Tests

Learn how to use Assignments and Tests tools to efficiently create assignments and tests that assess students in a variety of meaningful ways and decide on the best way to present the assignments and tests that you create. Topics will include

  • SafeAssign
  • multiple attempts
  • grade center correlation
  • inline grading
  • my grades
  • due dates
  • question types
  • deploying tests
  • test options
  • Respondus Test Generator

Mastering the Grade Center

This workshop provides a comprehensive introduction to the grade center tool. Use this valuable tool to help understand student progress and make informed decisions on how to improve education performance. This workshop assumes you are already familiar with Assignments, Tests, and other Bb tools. This workshop will cover the following topics:

  • navigating the Grade Center
  • organizing rows and columns
  • managing Grades
  • using categories
  • create calculated columns
  • grading assignments
  • view grade details

Kaltura and Kaltura Capture

Kaltura is RIC's video streaming server and Kaltura Capture is RIC's screen capturing app. Learn all the various options in which you can record your classroom lectures. The Workshop will also cover editing and adding captions to your videos as well as linking your videos from your Kaltura account from within your Blackboard courses.

Ally and Accessibility in Blackboard

Learn how to make your Blackboard courses accessible with Bb's Ally tool. See accessibility scores for uploaded files within your courses and learn how to make your files more accessible with simple, step-by-step instructions from within your course. Also, learn about the alternative formats Ally automatically creates when you upload files to your courses. Ally checks the following file types:

  • Microsoft Office (Word and PowerPoint)
  • PDF's
  • images
  • uploaded HTML files
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Information Technology Services

The department of Information Technology Services (ITS) is responsible for the support of academics and administrative functions including planning, management and direction of technology initiatives at Rhode Island College.