And just like that, Fall 2025 is drawing to a close. Over the past semester, you’ve published articles, presented at national and international conferences, completed—or begun—the ACUE Effective Teaching Certification, experimented with GenAI, made your courses more accessible, and shared your ideas and expertise with students and colleagues—all helping to make USC Upstate a more enduring, informed, and future-focused community. As you move into the winter holiday and reflect on your achievements and discoveries, here are 5 practices to support your winter well-being and rejuvenation.
Continue reading “5 Practices for Winter Well-Being”Blackboard Day 2026: Accessible Learning
Join us January 7, 2026 for our 7th Annual Blackboard Day
- in the Olin B. Sansbury Campus Life Center, Room 310,
- by accessing Zoom in the CAIFS PD Course, or
- by using the Zoom Link!
9 am to 9:45 am
Welcome and Blackboard Learn Ultra Updates
Join the Blackboard Support Team to learn what is new in the Blackboard Learn Ultra Road Map for Spring-Fall 2026.
Look for new Grading settings and workflows, Automated Messages, Achievements, Competency-Based Mastery Learning, Release Conditions, and more!
10:00 am to 10:45 am
Streamlining Course Design with GenAI
Blackboard’s Artificial Intelligence Design Assist (ADA) offers easy-to-use course design tools enhanced by generative artificial intelligence and large language models. In this session, we will go over several key AI Design Assist tools for formatting modules and course pages (documents) and generating rubrics and knowledge checks. Plus, automate your content by using the human intelligence of the Learning Object Repository. Facilitator: Yamil Ernesto Ruiz, Director of Online Learning and Program Support
11:00 am to 11:45 am
Authentic and Career-Ready Assessments in Blackboard
Both GenZ students and non-traditional learners crave relevance in their learning. Authentic and career-ready assessments can increase motivation and engagement while supporting Academic Integrity in the learning environment. Facilitator: Celena Kusch, Executive Director, Academic Innovation & Faculty Support.
12:00 pm to 1:00 pm
Lunch and ACUE Effective Teaching Practices Pinning Ceremony
Share a warming lunch and join the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) in celebrating the achievements of USC Upstate faculty who have completed the Effective Teaching Practices program in the ACUE Pinning Ceremony. Facilitator: Lillian Reeves, Director of Transformative Pedagogy
1:00 pm to 1:30 pm
Using YuJa Lumina to Caption Videos
High-quality, human-edited captions and audio descriptions form the bedrock of accessible video use. Learn more about YuJa’s advanced tools for ensuring your video content is accessible to all of your students. Facilitator: Diana Hernandez, YuJa
1:30 pm to 3:30 pm
Go for Green: Using Ally for Accessibility Guided Work Session
In this hands-on work session, ask your questions, get pointers, and apply the Ally Accessibility tool to make your courses 100% accessible and meet the WCAG 2.1 AA federal accessibility standards for all instructional materials. Go for the Green in your Ally Accessibility Rating. Facilitator: Jennifer Bland, Learning Experience Coordinator
AI Spark Tips: Where AI and Learning Science Meet
In her most recent newsletter, “From Crutch to Coach?” Dr. Philippa Hardman, a scholar at the University of Cambridge, asks, does generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) “actually make us more capable, or just faster at outsourcing our thinking?“
As we race to keep pace with AI-driven change, it can be hard to keep up with the latest developments in Learning Science, critical thinking, and AI. Hardman’s Learning Science Newsletter offers an incredibly thorough, up-to-date digest of research, tools, and strategies for using GenAI to improve learning.
If you are looking for one go-to source to stay informed on using AI to implement lessons from learning science, Hardman’s newsletter will serve you well.
Hardman’s free weekly newsletter offers an in-depth look at the links between learning science and instructional design. While some weeks’ posts are more useful for professional instructional designers, others offer a refreshing, research-informed take on productive and innovative uses of GenAI to foster critical thinking and promote metacognition.
Below are some highlights from the past few months:
- “From Crutch to Coach?” offers in-depth analysis of a large-scale research study into the use of GenAI for skill development in professional writing.
- “ChatGPT: The World’s Most Influential Teacher” includes a list of The Ten Principles of Substantive Learning and associated chat prompts learners can use while learning with GenAI.
- “Your Learners Are Using AI to Redesign Your Courses” shares recent survey data about the ways learners reach out to AI to fill gaps in scaffolding of course assignment, integrate emotional support into the learning process, expand opportunities to practice course concepts, and restate course content in ways that are more accessible to them.
- “How to Build an AI Tutor from a Document in 10 Minutes” provides a detailed guide to building your own AI tutor, including a prompt template and suggestions for supplementary materials to upload to improve your tutor’s performance.