When I was in college, one of the RAs would host a weekly watch party for one of her favorite shows, The West Wing. Most of us did not have TVs, so anyone in the dorm or anywhere on campus who heard about it and wanted to go was invited. With her RA funds, she provided food, drinks, and some of the comforts of a home many of us craved. Students arrived early, and stayed late, even when it meant trudging across a snowy campus for the 42 minutes of anticipated joy and fellowship. When she graduated and became a staff member with campus housing, she continued to offer the beloved watch parties. In Peter Felten and Leo Lambert’s book Relationship-Rich Education: How Human Connections Drive Success in College (2020), the West Wing watch parties might be considered one star in what they described as “constellations of meaningful relationships” and experiences students need to feel genuine belonging that can lead to academic success and persistence.
Continue reading “Creating Constellations of Meaningful Relationships”
Blackboard Ultra Courses Increase Student Activity and Student Engagement at USC Upstate
Beginning with Fall 2024, new courses in the University of South Carolina Learning Management System (LMS) will be created in Blackboard Learn Ultra Course View. Based on a comparison of student activity in Ultra v. Original courses, this change has the potential to improve student engagement, increase student activity, and lead to greater student success.
The infographic below shows differences between student activity in Ultra and Original courses in Fall 2023. Significantly more students in Ultra courses spend more active hours (21 or more) in courses, turn in more course submissions, and interact with course materials than their peers in Original courses.
When it comes to students who never submit any work (tests, assignments, quizzes, or discussion posts), only 2.3% of students in Ultra courses had never submitted any work to the course, while 27.9% of students in Original courses had never submitted any work in the course. It is important to note that some face-to-face classes may not require students to turn in work through the LMS, but this alone would not account for an order of magnitude difference in student submission rates.
Already, 27.5% of all Spring 2024 online and hybrid Blackboard courses at 20% of all USC Upstate courses overall are being delivered in Blackboard Learn Ultra. The evidence from student activity and performance data suggests that faculty efforts to make this transition are likely to have a positive impact on student learning outcomes in the future.
College is Just the Place for Transformative Experiences
Attending college, like other big moments of transition in our lives, is full of exciting and nerve-racking opportunities for learners everywhere to give an emphatic or shaky yes! to the newness of people, places, and ideas. But how do students get the most out of these opportunities?
Continue reading “College is Just the Place for Transformative Experiences”
USC Upstate Blackboard Day 2024: Preparing for Transition to Blackboard Learn Ultra Courses
Join us for our 5th Annual Blackboard Day in the CLC Ballroom, by accessing Collaborate in the CAIFS PD Course, or by using the links below!
9 am to 9:30 am
Welcome and Blackboard Learn Ultra Transition Updates
Join Celena Kusch to hear about the latest updates in the Blackboard Learn Ultra Transition and new developments coming in Summer/Fall 2024. Discuss how changes to Anthology, Collaborate, and soon Zoom may make it easier for you to access the tools you need.
Join virtually via the CAIFS PD Course or the Morning Session Guest Link.
9:45 am to 10:30 am
Blackboard Learn Ultra Navigation Basics
Let’s dive into Ultra and learn our way around the updated course view. Discover where to find key features and settings so you can start to feel comfortable in a new course format. We will also discuss how to create different types of assignments. Facilitator: Jennifer Bland, Learning Experience Designer.
Join via the CAIFS PD Course or the Morning Session Guest Link.
10:45 am to 11:25 pm
Transitioning Your Course from Original to Ultra: Steps for an Easy Course Conversion
What happens after you click Ultra Course View Preview? Take a step-by-step tour of converting your original course into an Ultra student experience. We’ll discuss strategies for achieving a consistent, sequential, logical, and accessible course structure as you go. Facilitator: Celena Kusch, Executive Director, Academic Innovation & Faculty Support.
Join via the CAIFS PD Course or the Morning Session Guest Link.
11:35 am to 12:20 pm
Inclusive and Welcoming Blackboard Courses for All Students
In this session, we’ll think together about creating inclusive and welcoming Blackboard courses by exploring strategies that foster a sense of belonging for students, implementing accessible content, and using communications tools embedded in Blackboard. The goal is to ensure that all students feel supported and guided through their learning journey with Blackboard.
Facilitator: Lillian Reeves, Director of Transformative and Inclusive Pedagogy.
Join via the CAIFS PD Course or the Morning Session Guest Link.
12:30 pm to 1 pm
Lunch
Take a break, and drop by the CLC Ballroom with your laptop for 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 pm to 2 pm
Concurrent Sessions
AI-Enhanced Courses with Blackboard Learn Ultra AI Design Assist
Anthology, 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 embedded in every Blackboard Ultra course to support you in creating assessments, rubrics and even discussion boards tied to different levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Facilitator: Yamil Ernesto Ruiz, Director of Online Learning and Program Support
Using the Gradebook in Blackboard Learn Ultra (CLC 309)
Looking 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 student activity and student support features for accommodations, extensions, and exemptions in the Ultra Gradebook. Facilitator: Celena Kusch, Executive Director, Center for Academic Innovation & Faculty Support
2:15 pm to 3:15 pm
Concurrent Sessions
Embedded Tools in Blackboard Ultra
In this session, we will discuss the tools within Blackboard that you and your students can access for free. We will show how to embed YouTube videos, Padlets, Microsoft Forms, and Sway presentations, and how to use Perusall and VoiceThread activities for social learning and student-student interaction. Facilitator: Jennifer Bland, Learning Experience Designer
Join via the CAIFS PD Course or the Guest Link.
Preparing for Quality Matters Certification in your Online Course Design
Quality Matters (QM) is Upstate’s quality assurance process for ensuring that online courses are built with accessibility and our learners in mind. In this session, we will discuss concepts such as alignment, learning objectives, accessibility and more! Facilitator: Yamil Ernesto Ruiz, Director of Online Learning and Program Support
Join via the CAIFS PD Course or the Guest Link.
3:15 pm – 3:30 pm
Conclusion
Faculty Spotlight: Colby King
By fall semester, Forbes, Reddit, the NYT, and Berkeley Engineering were among the legions describing 2023 as the soft launch of the “the AI revolution”. CAIFS (Center for Academic Innovation and Faculty Support) also anticipated the permanence of AI and kicked-off the fall semester with faculty guidance and discussion on the emerging multitudes of AI tools. Some particular attention was given to how to use AI to streamline, standardize, and improve aspects of our own practices. (see TIP blog from September 7 for more information about ways faculty can use AI).
Continue reading “Faculty Spotlight: Colby King”
Breaking Bread: Take a Student to Coffee or Lunch
When you sit down together at the Spartans Table, you belong.
The Spartans Table program offers students, faculty, and staff an opportunity to interact in informal settings in the Spartan Cafe in the Sansbury Campus Life Center or the Perk Up Cafe in the Library. Have your lunch or afternoon coffee on us.
Belonging Matters
To belong in a space is to feel accepted, valued, heard, seen, and comfortable. It is to be recognized as a fellow human sharing the same journey. Advising and mentoring practices that humanize our relationships with each other increase students’ sense of belonging and make it easier for them to succeed.
One great way to break the ice in a relationship is by breaking bread together. Spartans Table makes it easy for faculty and staff who work with, mentor, advise, or teach students to engage in these informal relationship-building activities.
How to Get Started
- Faculty or staff fill out this request form
- Upon completion of the form, you will be emailed tickets for yourself and your student(s)
- Redeem the tickets at the cashier’s station
- Fill out the very brief survey that will be emailed to both you and your students following your meeting.
*Faculty/staff may participate in the program twice per term. Expenses may be covered once per student, per course, per term.
Conversation Starters
- What is your favorite place on campus and why?
- What classes are you looking forward to taking and why?
- What is the most surprising thing you’ve learned so far?
- What out of class experiences are you most excited about?
- When you have faced challenges in the past, how have you addressed them?
- Where you do imagine yourself in five years, and what’s your next step to getting there?