Apply to the 2024 Summer Academic Technology Institute

This year’s Summer Academic Technology Institute will focus on transitioning your course to Blackboard Ultra Course View.

Blackboard Ultra is the new and intuitive version of your myLesley course. It has been completely redesigned and features a clean modern look and feel, responsive mobile friendly experience, consistent and intuitive navigation, improved accessibility, streamlined grading, progress tracking, and more.

The Summer Institute is a great opportunity to learn more and transition your course to Ultra Course View with the support of the eLearning & Instructional Support team.

Overview

There are 2 chances to participate in this year’s Summer Institute. There will be one small cohort in July and one in August:

  • Cohort 1: July 15-26
  • Cohort 2: August 5-16

Each cohort will participate in a 2-week online seminar. You will learn how to use Ultra Course View to create an engaging and user-friendly experience for your students. By the end of the 2 weeks, you should have your course well on its way to being converted to run in Ultra.

The institute will feature 2 synchronous training meetings, 2 synchronous working meetings, optional online office hours, and consultations by appointment.

Space is limited, so sign-up soon! All faculty – core and adjunct – may apply. Priority will be given to faculty who are converting their course for the first time. This does not mean you need to teach exclusively online – all modalities welcomed.

Faculty Expectations

Faculty are expected to:

  • Participate in Summer Institute activities and meetings.
  • Develop or make significant progress toward developing their course in the Ultra Course View.
  • Teach a course in Ultra Course View during the 2024-2025 academic year.
  • Share and explain their experiences in Ultra with colleagues, focusing on the advantages of Ultra Course View.

Faculty who successfully convert and teach their course in Ultra will be awarded a $300 stipend.

Application

2024 Summer Academic Technology Institute Application Form

Email elis@lesley.edu with any questions.

Faculty Experiences with Blackboard Ultra

Blackboard Ultra represents the latest iteration of the Blackboard learning management system. It has undergone a complete redesign with a focus on improved navigation, enhanced accessibility, and responsiveness across various devices. This revamped version offers several advantages over its predecessor, but it’s important to note that transitioning a course to Ultra requires more than a simple cut-and-paste process.

During the recent Spring semester, five faculty members at Lesley University taught their courses using the Blackboard Ultra Course View. These instructors covered diverse subjects at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, with one course even being self-paced to cater to K12 teachers seeking continuing education credits. The faculty members who embraced Ultra included Donna Owens, teaching Psychopathology and Clinical Practice in the Expressive Therapies department; Diana Direiter, teaching Trauma and Crisis in Psychology; Liv Cummins, teaching Comedy in Humanities; Jennine Tambio, teaching Enhancing Quality Early Childhood Programs and Transition Seminar: Lives in Context in Education and LCAL (Lives in Context and Learning) respectively; and Cindy Downend, teaching Comprehensive Phonics in Reading Recovery.

The Ultra instructors found the new format to be intuitive and user-friendly, requiring very little support during the transition. For instance, Donna Owens, who taught Psychopathology and Clinical Practice, appreciated the redesigned learning modules, which made it easier for her to share content and for students to understand course requirements. The progress tracking feature helped students stay on track throughout the course.

“From an instructor viewpoint it made everything smoother.”

Cindy Downend, who taught Comprehensive Phonics, only needed a brief orientation on uploading content. She also received assistance in setting up release conditions on modules, allowing students to unlock content based on their assessment performance. Jennine Tambio, who taught two Ultra courses, expressed her enthusiasm for the Ultra rubrics, finding them easy to create and grade with. This was a significant improvement compared to her experience with the Original version of Blackboard.

Overall, students responded positively to the Ultra experience. They found the course navigation, participation in discussions, and assignment submission to be easy and straightforward. While some students initially resisted the change, providing tutorials or course tours helped alleviate their concerns. Donna Owens noticed that her students were actively using the Ultra Course View during in-class activities, which eliminated the need for printing or online searching.

“It is very organized and easy to use.”

“It was a pretty easy switch”

“looks better, and is more clear and easy to access.”

Based on their experiences, the faculty members offered some advice to colleagues considering the switch to Ultra. They recommended spending time familiarizing oneself with the platform, utilizing the student preview feature, and providing tutorials for students who are new to Ultra. Diana suggested thinking creatively to achieve teaching goals, while Cindy emphasized reaching out to eLIS for any questions or support needed.

For those interested in adopting Blackboard Ultra, contact eLIS at eLIS@lesley.edu to schedule an appointment. eLIS offers course reviews, training, and guidance to assist in the transition to Ultra.

Apply to the 2023 Summer Academic Technology Institute

This year’s Summer Academic Technology Institute will focus on transitioning your course to Blackboard Ultra Course View.

Blackboard Ultra is the latest version of Blackboard. It has been completely redesigned with a more modern and easier to navigate interface, improved accessibility, mobile responsiveness, progress tracking, and streamlined grading. The Summer Institute is a great opportunity to learn more and transition your course to Ultra Course View with the support of the eLearning & Instructional Support team.

Overview

There are two opportunities to participate in this year’s Summer Institute with one small cohort in each.

  • July 17-21 and 24-28
  • August 14-18 and 21-25

Each cohort will participate in a 2-week hybrid seminar. You will learn how to use Ultra Course View to create an engaging and user-friendly experience for your students. By the end of the 2 weeks, you should have your course well on its way to being converted to run in Ultra.

Please note there will be 1-2 synchronous seminar meetings each week, plus individual consultations with the eLIS staff.

Space is limited so sign up soon. All faculty – core and adjunct – may apply. Your course may be in any format/modality (online, on-campus, hybrid, hyflex, synchronous, asynchronous, etc.) Priority will be given to faculty using myLesley significantly to teach their courses.

Faculty Expectations

Faculty are expected to:

  • Attend and complete the Summer Institute course.
  • Develop or make significant progress toward developing their course in the Ultra Course View.
  • Teach a course in Ultra Course View during the 2023-2024 academic year.
  • Share and explain their experiences in Ultra with colleagues, focusing on the advantages of Ultra Course View.

Faculty who successfully convert and teach their course in Ultra will be awarded a $300 stipend and a printable certificate of completion.

Application

Applications are due by Sunday, May 7, 2023.

Apply Now – Login using your Lesley credentials to access the application form.

Email elis@lesley.edu with any questions.

Piloting Blackboard Ultra

Jennine Tambio teaches the Research Capstone course for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences (CLAS) at Lesley University. In this fully online course, students develop a senior research project based on an area of interest in their major. They synthesize the knowledge and experiences they have gained from prior courses through research, discussion, peer review, and reflection.

This summer, Jennine taught her SU1 and SU2 courses in Ultra Course View. Ultra is Blackboard’s newest version, redesigned from the ground up. It has several advantages including a more modern look, consistent navigation, progress tracking for students, streamlined grading, and more.

eLearning and Instruction Support (eLIS) at Lesley approached Jennine about piloting Ultra courses due to her heavy use of peer review. Previously, she had been using an external tool called PeerGrade which provided a robust framework for students reviewing each other’s work using rubrics. While Jennine liked PeerGrade, it required purchasing a subscription and the company was beginning to phase out its use in favor of a newer product. The Ultra Course View includes the option for peer review directly in its assignment tool. No additional tools required. Jennine also thought it looked cleaner and easier to use.

To get started, eLIS set up and transitioned the first few weeks of the course. Jennine quickly took over creating the subsequent weeks with guidance from eLIS. She had a couple of minor questions that were quickly answered while learning the new environment, but nothing significant. As part of the transition, she consulted with eLIS on how to reorganize parts of her course to make it concise and easier to navigate. She also worked to turn the narrated Powerpoints she had previously created into Kaltura videos making them more accessible for her students and captioned.

The resulting Ultra courses were very successful. Jennine got a lot of compliments from her students who “thought I had just made a beautiful Blackboard course.” Her students “were all able to hop in and seamlessly navigate” the course.

“It’s much cleaner, fosters more collaboration because of the format. The peer review feature was really cool and I loved that part of the course.”

“I enjoyed how easy it was to see what was due each week and to check them off!”

“I like Ultra Course mode much better.”

– Student survey responses

The process of transitioning her course helped her to “improve the quality and delivery of the course.” The peer review tools in Ultra were easy to use and allowed her to see each student’s submission, their feedback to others, and the self-review of their own paper all in one space. The students didn’t need to navigate to another site and learn another tool. And Jennine didn’t need to pay for a subscription.

According to Jennine, “It’s not a stressful transition.” While recreating her course took a little time, she appreciated the opportunity to rethink, update, and finetune certain aspects of her course. She found the final result more visually appealing. Her students were very engaged and she discovered helpful tools and nuances for a better teaching experience.

Interested in learning more about the Ultra Course View and if it is right for you? Contact elis@lelsey.edu.

April Faculty Community Conversation: Incorporating DEI Into Your Course Content

There are many benefits to incorporating DEI into our course designs. Creating an inclusive environment allows us to connect and reach a wide range of students. Incorporating DEI motivates students and supports a positive educational experience with multiple perspectives and backgrounds. In April’s Community Conversation, Lesley faculty Maureen Creegan Quinquis and Aya Karpinska joined Kay Martinez, Director of DEI Training, Education, & Development, to share strategies, reflections, and their ongoing journey to make more intentional and informed choices with their course content and activities.

Maureen began our conversation by sharing her course, “Equity, Access, and Inclusion through Arts Based Inquiry” for K12 classroom teachers. In the first class assignment, she shares a single photo of herself and asks students to list assumptions about her gender, ethnicity, personality, physical abilities, etc. One cohort assumed she was Italian after the first meeting because she gestures a lot with her hands. Their answers then lead to a discussion and activities around misconceptions we make based solely on visual information and how assumptions are created. “Are they an inside job or culturally created?”

Some of Maureen’s students also use Mursion, a virtual reality tool that allows student teachers opportunities to practice classroom scenarios including how to deal with bullying and microaggressions. Students using the tool encounter a diverse group of middle school student avatars in realistic situations that don’t have a script. Students can practice specific scenarios and learn to confront biases in a low-stakes environment before stepping into a real classroom.

Aya has taken an iterative approach to teaching her History of Interface course and providing a more diverse view of technology. Many technology interfaces and programming languages have been created by white, western men and most of them in English. This creates a bias and an impact on how technology is created and used. Since many of the texts shared in her course are also by white European/Western men, Aya has been going back and asking herself why she selected this source. Is there another text that could be used instead to bring a different perspective? Are there other modalities of learning that can be used such as a graphic novel about Ada Lovelace, the originator of the algorithm.

Aya’s course has a module on the history of textiles asking the question “How do we define technology?” In it she looks at sewing, the spinning jenny, and knitting. Some programmers say that knitting is a turing complete process and that the definition of knitting is similar to the definition of a computer. She shares the role of the seamstresses who created the space suits for the astronauts who went to the moon highlighting the untold stories of the women, people of color, and the disabled individuals behind the scenes.

Kay discussed the shift from DEI, diversity, equity, and inclusion, to EDIJ, equity, diversity, inclusion, and justice, leading with equity and adding justice to the conversation. It’s an important change that reflects the values and our framework as an institution. To illustrate the difference between equality and equity, Kay shared this bicycle image, in the top half everyone has a bike, but it’s not designed for each person’s needs. In the bottom half of the image, each person has a bike that has been adjusted to the needs of the individual.

The top row shows four people with the same bike. It is is only suitable for one person. The bottom row shows four people with a bike that suits each person.

Kay then asked the question “How does the curriculum reflect the students in your classes?” As a queer, trans person of color, Kay never saw themselves in the courses they took or in their higher education experience at large. Students look at Kay as a “unicorn” where they didn’t know people like them existed in higher ed.

Kay suggested creating a shared community agreement with your class. Begin by saying that this is a share learning space. It is not top down, but a circle. I will learn from you, my students, as you learn from me. Use the one mic rule, one speaker at a time, to mitigate disruptions and provide support for those who get interrupted. Acknowledge the relationship between intention and impact. This means assuming positive intentions, but you must still address the impact that the statements had on the class. Use the word “ouch” as a way for students to indicate that that statement hurt and “oops” to say that it wasn’t intentional.

Our panelists all agree that while this is important work, it’s not always easy. As Aya stated, be “forgiving of my ignorance” and be iterative with your course design. You won’t get everything right all the time but providing a more diverse and multifaceted perspective in your course will be hugely beneficial to all of us.

Resources

The EDIJ Training site has lots of training materials and information including Kay’s presentation for this conversation.

Check out the Lesley Library’s Lib guides. There are multiple guides for DEI, but Including Underrepresented Perspectives in Your Course may be a good place to start.

Ensure your resources are fully accessible to all your students. Ally is integrated into all your myLesley courses and review your uploaded documents for potential issues and provide guidance on how to fix them. Learn more about Blackboard Ally and review the Accessibility Checklist.