Instructional Technology Essentials for June 2022

Select from a menu of trainings

Interested in attending an Instructional Technology Essentials session but unsure when it will be? Sign up for one of our sessions by May 20, 2022. Interested participants will be sent a Doodle poll on May 23rd to determine a time when all participants can attend.

The Essential tools that will be offered in June include:

Ultra Essentials I - Content & Engagement | 60 minutes | Sign up here

New to Ultra or need a refresher? This hands-on overview focuses on the essentials of using the Ultra Experience Blackboard course interface for communication and content creation. Topics include:

Create and organize folders
Upload files & link to Google Drive
Post announcements & send messages
Create discussions forums
Access Collaborate for virtual web conferencing

Ultra Essentials II - Assessment & Grading | 60 minutes | Sign up here

New to Ultra or need a refresher? This hands-on overview focuses on the essentials of using the Ultra Experience Blackboard course interface for tests, assignments, and grading. Topics include:

Creating assignments and tests
Using the new inline grading tools
Entering grades in the Ultra grade center

Collaborate Essentials | 60 minutes | Sign up here

New to Blackboard Collaborate or need a refresher? This overview focuses on the essentials of using Blackboard Collaborate in your courses. Topics include:

Using the Sharing Content Tools
Examine active learning strategies to get participants involved in the sessions
Create breakout rooms and polls
Identify Collaborate features that support the needs of users with disabilities
Describe how gallery view can be used for live remote proctoring

VoiceThread Essentials | 60 minutes | Sign up here

VoiceThread is a learning tool for enhancing student engagement and online presence. Instructors and/or students can create, share, and comment on images, Microsoft PowerPoint presentations, videos, audio files, documents, and PDFs, using microphone, webcam, text, phone, and audio-file upload. Session topics include:

Upload media, comment and annotate on that media, and share it with others
Create graded VoiceThread assignments in Blackboard
Use comment moderation to formatively assess student work, give private feedback, and use threaded commenting
Use VoiceThread as a catalyst for class discussions

Panopto Essentials | 60 minutes | Sign up here

Are you interested in learning how to create video screencasts? Using Panopto, faculty can capture and narrate anything they see on their computers, and then publish an online screencast video tutorial or mini-lecture for students to watch and replay on their own time. Panopto provides multiple recording and editing options for video and audio output and a cloud-based video storage platform for new and pre-existing media content. It is available for both Blackboard Original and Ultra courses. Session topics include:

Getting started with Panopto
Launching Panopto from your Blackboard course
Recording videos using the Panopto application or browser-based capture tool
Creating videos by uploading your own media content
Creating automatic captions.

Something else? | Suggest a new topic for July!

A Doodle Poll will be sent to interested participants by May 23 to determine when the session will be offered. Webinars will take place in a Blackboard Collaborate virtual conference room.

Prior to the event

For the best viewing experience, we recommend using Chrome or Firefox, preferably the most recent updates to those browsers. Closing any unnecessary browser tabs will help conserve your bandwidth.

If this is your first time joining one of our webinars, please review the Bb Getting Started Guide or our Quick Start Guide for All Users. You will also find additional helpful information for using Blackboard Collaborate at our extensive FAQs.

After joining the session, please configure your audio. Having trouble accessing Collaborate? Please see our Troubleshooting Audio Problems or Networking Issues for Collaborate guides.

At least 5 registrations are needed for sessions to proceed. Sessions will be recorded if two or more people attend and the link will be distributed to everyone who completed the sign up form.

As always, if you have any questions about teaching, learning, and technology at UMBC, please consider the following options: