Celena Kusch Calendar, Faculty Development, GenAI, Technology

Blackboard Day 2025: Reaching Greater Heights with AI and Universal Design

Join us for our 5th Annual Blackboard Day in the College of Arts & Sciences Building, by accessing Zoom in the CAIFS PD Course, or by using the Zoom Link!

Register Now

9 am to 9:30 am

Welcome and Blackboard Learn Ultra Updates

Blackboard Learn Ultra ExploreJoin the Blackboard Support Team to learn what is new in the Blackboard Learn Ultra Road Map for Spring-Fall 2025.

Look for new release conditions, AI Debates, Achievements, Competency-Based Learning, and much more!

9:45 am to 10:30 am

Blackboard Learn Ultra Instructional Materials

Content Blocks and Knowledge Checks: Blackboard Learn Ultra BasicsLet’s dive into Ultra and learn our way around the updated content design options.  Use blocks to place media and text side-by-side. Or explore Knowledge Check features that can keep students engaged with course content. Facilitator: Jennifer Bland, Learning Experience Designer.

10:45 am to 11:30 am

Grading and Plagiarism Checking in Blackboard Learn Ultra

Gradebook Screenshot Blackboard Learn Ultra BasicsLooking for your Needs Grading list or how to drop the lowest quiz grade? In this session, we’ll get to know the Ultra Gradebook and where to find all the features you need. We’ll also explore a range of question analytics, plagiarism reports, and student support features for accommodations, extensions, and exemptions in the Ultra Gradebook. Facilitator: Celena Kusch, Executive Director, Academic Innovation & Faculty Support.

11:45 am to 12:30 pm

Using Activity Reports for Student Success

Activity Reports and Progress CheckingThis presentation will look at the Blackboard Ultra features, like progress checking and activity reports, that allow faculty to easily monitor student engagement and performance in real-time. By regularly reviewing student course participation and performance and communicating with students about how they’re doing, instructors have a strong opportunity to foster student success and persistence. Facilitator: Lillian Reeves, Director of Transformative and Inclusive Pedagogy.

12:30 pm to 1:15 pm

Lunch

Small chalkboard with the word BreakTake a break, and drop by CASB, Room 117, with your laptop for lunch, brainstorming and troubleshooting within your course.

Do you need a sandbox course for playing around in Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View? Email academicinnovation@uscupstate.edu.

1:15 pm to 2:00 pm

Course Design in a GenAI Learning Environment

Computer animated hand reaching out to a human hand reminiscent of Michelangelo's ceiling of the Sistine ChapelAnthology, Blackboard’s parent company, has partnered with Microsoft Artificial Intelligence (AI) to develop easy-to-use tools enhanced by generative artificial intelligence and large language models. In this session, we will go over several key AI Design Assist tools and AI-based assignment options. Facilitator: Yamil Ernesto Ruiz, Director of Online Learning and Program Support

2:15 pm to 3:00 pm

Let’s Talk Teaching: Blackboard Course Design Q&A

Join us for Let's Talk Teaching, a space for discussion, questions, and sharingShare your question, ideas, and course design dreams. How can the USC Upstate Syllabus Template help you streamline your course setup and conversion to a new term?

Professor and student collaborating at a white board.
Lillian Reeves Active Learning, Engaged Pedagogy, Faculty Development, Student Success, Uncategorized

Motivation After the Midterm

When students feel motivated to learn (University of Buffalo, UW-Whitewater, Kennesaw State), we’re likely to see increases in effort, energy, curiosity, and creativity. We might notice they come to class more, are better prepared, and generally seem open to tackling challenging content or leading a group project. Sometimes, though, even the most motivated students can show a dip in their engagement after midterms, and everyone can use a pick me up to push through the second part of the semester. If you’ve noticed this happening in your classes, try these evidence-based practices to reenergize yourself and your students for the next part of the semester!  

Continue reading “Motivation After the Midterm” →
Celena Kusch Active Learning, Student Success

Active Learning Leads to Student Success

active learning classroom with chairs and tables on wheels, multiple monitors and multiple whiteboards around the room.

Ten years ago, USC Upstate launched its first Active Learning Institute and installed its first active learning classrooms with support from a Title III federal grant. Today, we have 11 state-of-the-art, flexible classrooms in 6 buildings and 100s of enrollments in active learning classes each year.

The results of this 10-year effort are impressive. Over 8,000 unique students have enrolled in active learning courses from 2019-2024 alone. Of our current faculty members, 74 are Active Learning or Engaged Pedagogy Fellows, and many more faculty–especially adjunct faculty–have used their active learning credentials to successfully find full-time teaching positions.

Even more significantly, 94% of the students enrolled in active learning courses from 2021-2023 persisted–meaning they either graduated successfully or returned to USC Upstate the following semester to continue their academic careers. Of the six recent teaching excellence award winners featured in our fall faculty spotlight, three are Engaged Pedagogy Faculty Fellows and one is an Active Learning Faculty Fellow.

What Is Active Learning?

Active Learning is a high-impact teaching practice that meaningfully engages students in interactions with each other and with the course content to enable them to be “co-creators of knowledge.” Students are active participants in class sessions and in their own learning. Implementing active learning strategies means shifting the focus of instruction away from transmitting the instructor’s knowledge to constructing the learners’ knowledge and skills through guided tasks, interactions, assignments, and environments that cultivate deep, meaningful learning.

Active learning strategies can be used in any instructional mode–from face-to-face to online–and in classes of any size, including large nursing or anatomy and physiology courses. USC Upstate’s intensive Engaged Pedagogy and Hybrid Course Design Institute helps to prepare instructors to design hybrid courses to take advanced of flipped learning in online spaces along with rich, interactive learning face-to-face.

Find out more information about Active Learning in our CAIFS Resources for Innovative Course Design. Check out our profiles of Engaged Pedagogy Fellows Astrid Rosario (NSE), Kristi Miller (MBCON), and Shannon Polchow (LLC) to see active learning strategies at work in USC Upstate classrooms.

Active Learning Infographic summarizing results described in this article, including number of classrooms, faculty, students, and student retention rates.
professor talking to students
Lillian Reeves Faculty Development, Uncategorized

Kickstart Your Writing Agenda with SoTL

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, or SoTL (pronounced “sō-tul”), is an area of research dedicated to documenting, exploring, and sharing what’s effective in our classrooms. And by effective, I mean the work we do to improve our teaching and to improve student learning. Let’s say, for example, you went to a conference during spring semester and attended a session that was equally devoted to content and pedagogy. Feeling inspired, you decided to try out some of the strategies, assessments, or content delivery methods you heard about.  Teaching two sections of the same course this fall, you decide to use the new methods in one section and continue doing what you’ve always done in the other section with the goal of comparing student persistence or academic success. Making a shift like this in your teaching, documenting what happens, and sharing it with the rest of us is the exact kind of work that comprises SoTL.  

Continue reading “Kickstart Your Writing Agenda with SoTL” →
photo portraits of Anita Nag, Tammy Pike, Gary Lynch, Tasha Thomas, Ashlyn Burns and Family, and Ginny Webb
Lillian Reeves Faculty Spotlight, ICYMI, Uncategorized

Faculty Awards 2023-2024

The TIP Blog is excited to kick off the 2024-2025 academic year celebrating the outstanding achievements of our faculty members who have recently been honored with excellence in teaching, research, and service awards. These educators have demonstrated an exceptional commitment to student success, innovative teaching methods, and passion for their subjects. Join us in congratulating them on their well-deserved recognitions. Please also join us on Wednesday, August 28th from 12:45-1:45PM in Admin 202 for a lunch (provided) and learn panel to hear more about practical insights on planning, designing, and delivering course content that have proven highly effective in their classrooms. 

Continue reading “Faculty Awards 2023-2024” →