What’s New

USM to Convene Summit on Adaptive Tools for Online Courses

Learn about the ins and outs of adaptive courseware on 7/16!

The USM Kirwan Center for Academic Innovation is hosting a day-long virtual summit to introduce participants to the ins and outs of adaptive courseware. Sessions will include lessons learned from...

Posted: June 23, 2020, 11:14 AM

USM Sponsoring Online Teaching Professional Development

Sign up now for Quality Matters workshops in July!

USM OnTrack has pre-purchased a pool of online teaching professional development workshops from Quality Matters (QM) on beginning to advanced topics, including designing for learner engagement,...

Posted: June 23, 2020, 10:49 AM

Blackboard Offers Free Virtual Conference July 21-22

Follow BbWorld 20 via live streaming sessions & recordings

Once a year Blackboard hosts the BbWorld conference over several days for faculty, students, administrators, instructional technology specialists, training professionals, developers, and system...

Posted: June 11, 2020, 7:41 AM

Basic Journals Arrive to Ultra Courses in June

Tweaks include assessment feedback, course copy improvements

Next month's Blackboard update brings a frequently requested tool to Ultra courses: the Journal! Journals are a personal space for students to communicate privately with instructors or to reflect...

Posted: May 29, 2020, 10:07 AM

Begin Designing & Preparing for Your Fall Bb Courses

Blackboard FA2020 Course Development Shells Available

In response to some faculty requests, DoIT’s Instructional Technology team will create Fall 2020 Course Development shells for all courses listed in the Schedule of Classes by close of business on...

Posted: May 29, 2020, 7:07 AM

DoIT Offers Monthly PIVOT Webinars During Summer

Focus will be on FA20 Preparations

Based on higher than expected turnout for last week’s prototype of the Planning Instructional Technology for Online Teaching (PIVOT) Live webinars, DoIT is offering a monthly repeat of the five...

Posted: May 12, 2020, 2:59 PM

New Bb Annotate refreshes inline grading tool for SU2020

Expanded functionality includes shapes, drawing, highlight

UPDATE: Bb Annotate has been staged back for deployment — US East Cost is slated for June 3rd. Available for summer courses, Blackboard’s new inline grading tool, allows instructors, teaching...

Posted: May 11, 2020, 12:33 PM

Panopto Downtime and Important Updates

Mandatory Client Upgrades and Decreased IE11 Support

Panopto Cloud Downtime On Saturday, June 27, Panopto Cloud customers will be upgraded to the latest cloud release. This upgrade will require downtime. The vendor will announce the exact time and...

Posted: May 11, 2020, 12:05 PM

VoiceThread Offers Training on Creating Engaging Courses

From Basic to Blackboard Use Cases - Learn from the Vendor!

VoiceThread is a learning tool for enhancing student engagement and online presence. With VoiceThread, instructors and/or students can create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint...

Posted: May 7, 2020, 11:37 AM

Blackboard Offers Webinar Series on Remote Instruction

Fine Tune Your Skills from Basic to Advanced Levels

Blackboard has announced a webinar series to help faculty transition to remote instruction. Click here to sign up for the options described below. Who are these webinars for? This webinar series...

Posted: May 7, 2020, 11:14 AM