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Hands-On Support Lab

Need some help? Want to ask questions about Blackboard? Head to our open labs! You can get answers with no appointment needed. 

LUYA: Documents

Ensuring documents are accessible allows all students to make full use of Blackboard Ally to download alternative formats. This workshop will guide you through the steps to create an accessible Microsoft Word document. This includes items such as document structure, headings, hyperlinks, and alternative text for images. We will also show you tools to check your current documents for accessibility in both Microsoft Word and Blackboard Ally, and how to make changes to improve their accessibility.

Accessibility Fundamentals: Creating Accessible Social Media Content with Canva

Creating accessible social media content begins with understanding the barriers that can prevent people from accessing and engaging with your message. In this session, you’ll learn practical strategies for improving the accessibility of Canva designs, including color contrast, typography, alternative text, and plain language. We’ll also discuss platform-agnostic best practices for sharing accessible content on the web. Participants are encouraged to bring an existing Canva design to work on during the session and will leave with a more accessible graphic ready to share.

Accessibility Fundamentals: Blackboard Accessibility with Ally

This training introduces faculty to practical methods for identifying, resolving, and prioritizing accessibility issues in their course materials using Blackboard Ally. It highlights common barriers for students, quick wins, and strategies for utilizing the Course Accessibility Report, empowering instructors to make steady, meaningful progress on accessibility without becoming overwhelmed.

Accessibility Fundamentals: Alternative Text

This hands-on workshop demystifies Alt Text and helps you decide what information an image needs to convey for a learner who can’t see it. We’ll practice writing alt text for common teaching visuals, discuss when to mark images as decorative, and introduce strategies for charts, graphs, and other complex images that require more than a short description.

Please bring a few examples from your materials to use during this session. Your examples help guide the practice scenarios.

Blackboard Ally Course Accessibility Report Training

This training introduces faculty to practical methods for identifying, resolving, and prioritizing accessibility issues in their course materials using Blackboard Ally. It highlights common barriers for students, quick wins, and strategies for utilizing the Course Accessibility Report, empowering instructors to make steady, meaningful progress on accessibility without becoming overwhelmed.

There are two versions of this training. One version requires deliverables and can count for PDH. 

Developing Your Course Environment 

Curating your course environment has different requirements depending on modality, but consistency is a common requirement across all of them. In this session, we will discuss the importance of establishing consistency in your course and preparing students for a successful course experience. We will also discuss strategies that you can implement in your course using Blackboard tools and functions. Bring your questions and ideas to discuss with your peers and the instructional designers in Learning Technologies!

Creating Instructor Presence

Creating instructor presence is an important part of developing any course. Specifically, for online and hybrid courses, instructors need to develop different strategies to demonstrate instructor presence. This session will cover the importance of instructor presence, how to create presence before and during the course, and different tools in Blackboard to assist with creating presence in your course.

Importance of Media in the Online Environment

Using media in your online courses can increase student engagement and retention, increase accessibility, and open new options for interaction and assessment. In this interactive session, learn the importance of using media in your online courses, and tools and techniques to produce effective videos and other kinds of media.

You’ll discover how to determine what kind of media to use, benefits of breaking up the text-based environment, techniques for making effective videos, and an overview of helpful multimedia and tech tools integrated in Blackboard.

Providing Feedback within Blackboard

In this session, learn the importance of providing timely feedback to students, and ways to provide feedback using tools in Blackboard. Use Flexible Grading to provide written, audio, or video feedback to student assessments. Use question-specific Automated Feedback in tests or exams for immediate feedback.

You can even automate some feedback to congratulate students on work well done or provide encouragement when students don’t earn a specified score. Learn how to send automatic reminders to students who have not yet reviewed their feedback.

Blackboard Ultra: Gradebook

Offers an overview of the Ultra Gradebook and how to set up your Gradebook to ensure that you and your students have a successful term.

Foundations of Online Teaching – Part 2

Applying the OSCQR Rubric

Geared towards instructors with completed courses, this five-week, hybrid course is designed to self-assess and build on courses, materials, and assessments that are already developed. Using the OSCQR Rubric, participants will evaluate and develop their entire course structure and revise/complete at least two units of work. This course will tackle more advanced topics regarding content development and assessment building. If you have taken Part 1 and wish to take Part 2 without a fully developed course, you can still participate.

This hybrid course is highly participatory in nature, combining practical hands-on learning with engaged discussion and meet twice on Zoom on Thursday at 6 p.m. of weeks 2 and 4.