The image shows 12 USC Upstate students walking down outdoor stairs in campus.
Lillian Reeves Faculty Development, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Success, TILT, Uncategorized

What Students Want

At the start of each semester, CAIFS hosts a very short and optional Blackboard Ultra Quick Start course for incoming students. The goal of the course is to invite students to explore the LMS and try out the discussion board, assignment submission, and Yuja video quiz so they have some level of familiarity and comfort with the learning environment before classes begin. The discussion board prompts students to discuss how comfortable they are … Continue reading What Students Want

Illustration of a snowy winter park with a wooden bench, bare trees covered in snow on either side, and a city skyline in the background under a light blue sky with falling snow.
Lillian Reeves Faculty Development, Uncategorized

5 Practices for Winter Well-Being

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 … Continue reading 5 Practices for Winter Well-Being

This image shows the Achievements tab in Blackboard Ultra, with a blue box around three course achievement badges for assignments like app development, creativity, design specification guru, and understanding software development principles.
Lillian Reeves Uncategorized

Introducing Achievements in Blackboard Ultra

If you’re looking for a fun, motivating way to boost student engagement, consider using the new Achievements feature in Blackboard Ultra. From the Achievements tab, faculty can create course achievement badges and set criteria for student success. While faculty can review which students have earned a course badge, students can also see the requirements for how to earn a badge and monitor their earned and unearned badges.  Monitor Progress Toward Achieving … Continue reading Introducing Achievements in Blackboard Ultra

Two people at a table talking over a laptop screen.
Lillian Reeves Faculty Development, GenAI, Student Success

Detection, Dialogue, and Innovation in Classroom Uses of AI 

Despite the relative newness of AI tools for all, surveys conducted by the Digital Education Council, Chegg, and TechTrends found that more than 80% of students have already built AI into their learning lives. According to the survey results, students are using tools like ChatGPT, Grammarly, and CoPilot primarily to search for information, check grammar … Continue reading Detection, Dialogue, and Innovation in Classroom Uses of AI 

Faculty member speaking at a small podium to the side of projection slide. Three rows of students face the projection screen.
Lillian Reeves Faculty Development, Social and Emotional Learning, Student Success, Uncategorized

Building Classroom Connections, One Name at a Time

Peter Felten recently gave a memorable workshop for USC Upstate’s Fall Faculty Day. In addition to being a kind, funny, and passionate student advocate, he left us with plenty to think about – and to act on - as we launch into the fall semester. Much of his research shows that small adjustments in faculty … Continue reading Building Classroom Connections, One Name at a Time

This is an infographic titled "accessibility work in spartanverse: how faculty might divide accessibility work for digital learning materials." There are several faculty and droids at computers with words like "video captions", "accessible documents", and "alt text for images" above each work station.
Lillian Reeves Faculty Development, Student Success, Uncategorized, Universal Design for Learning

How Star Wars is Your Course?

In a recent video from Innovative Educators, Tom Tobin gives a short overview of what we can learn from Star Wars about making accessible places where intergalactic beings and droids can easily get around and communicate with each other. He highlights the consistent use of ramps, wide doors, limited or no stairs, and translation devices. … Continue reading How Star Wars is Your Course?