Tools Search
Main Menu

Faculty Workshops - Fall 2021

Workshops from Fall 2021

A series of one-hour “how-to” workshops to get you started with some basic online activities.  This series covers everything from giving live or recorded lectures, using various discussion board tools, giving an online test, and providing a platform for asynchronous student presentations.

The following workshops were held in Fall 2021 

 

 

How-to Record and Deliver Video Lectures to your Students

Learn how to use Zoom to record a video lecture that includes PowerPoint slides, desktop software, or just video input. Best practices for creating recording lectures will be examined. Tips for creating effective lectures, including tips for fixing mistakes. Provide streaming access for that video to the students in your course via Blackboard and Panopto access controls. Panopto edit features, as well as captioning options, viewing statistics, and adding quiz questions to videos will also be reviewed.  Using the Lightboard, instead of Zoom, as an option for creating videos will also be discussed.

Dates: August 13, 9:30-10:30am

 

Using the Blackboard Course Template to Organize your Course

Having a well-organized course in Blackboard provides students and faculty the opportunity to focus on the essential coursework, meet course goals and achieve student learning outcomes. Come learn more about how to use “Learning Modules” to effectively organize your course materials in an effective, efficient and relevant structure that can be used for traditional, online, or hybrid classes.

This workshop applies specifically to the template used by Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, Eastman  School of Music, Warner School of Education, Eastman Institute for Oral Health, and School of Medicine and Dentistry graduate courses, but concepts can be applied to any Blackboard course.

Dates: August 13, 12noon-1pm

 

Learn how to Copy Materials from a Previous Course into your Upcoming Course

Learn how to make the best use of your time in copying materials from a previous course into the new template. We will cover how to copy individual items, individual tests, and full course materials.

Note: This workshop will cover how to copy from an existing course into the template used by Arts, Sciences, and Engineering, Warner School of Education, School of Medicine and Dentistry Graduate programs, Eastman School of Music, and Eastman Institute of Oral Health. The process will work for other school templates, but will be demonstrated with this template.

Dates: August 16, 12noon-1pm

 

 

How to Facilitate a Live, Interactive Zoom Class Session

Learn how to use Zoom to facilitate a live class session, including sharing your Zoom class links in your Blackboard course. Learn some tips for maintaining your classroom securely, as well as how to share your screen, annotate on your screen, use the whiteboard, create breakout rooms, and use the polling feature to create an engaging and interactive session. Learn how to use different tools to add interactivity into your Zoom sessions. We will cover breakout rooms, polling, and use of Padlet in this session. And we will cover the Zoom Meeting Manager.

 

Dates: August 17, 3:30-4:30pm

 

 

Blackboard Basics

This workshop is for Blackboard beginners. Learn the basics of setting up a course in Blackboard. This session will cover how to add and move content, how to use Announcements and Email for communication, how to manage the left-hand menu, and how to add basic tools to your course and review the grade center. It will not cover settings and options for any of the various tools or options within the grade center. 

Date: August 18, 11am-12noon

 

 

Qwickly Tools for Attendance and Course Management

Would you like to keep track of student attendance and have attendance auto-graded for you? Qwickly attendance can help you, regardless of the size of your class or the class modality. Attendance can be taken manually (for small classes) as well as with a swipe card (for medium classes) or through an online check in (for large courses).  Also, learn how to use Qwickly Course tools to check web links in your course, as well as how Course Tools can be used to communicate with students across multiple courses at the same time.

Dates: August 23, 10-11am

 

 

Poll Everywhere

The University has a new Enterprise license for PollEverywhere. Come learn how to get your own account and use the interactive polling features.                 

Dates: September 2, noon – 1pm

 

 

How to Facilitate Discussion, Sharing of Student Work, and Peer Review Activities Using Blackboard Tools

This session starts with an overview and comparison of discussion board options (Blackboard, Yellowdig, VoiceThread and Piazza). Learn how to set up a discussion board within Blackboard. See how different settings can be used to facilitate different kinds of activities. The use of the Blackboard Blog tool will also be shared in this session.

Dates: September 9, 12noon – 1pm

 

How to use VoiceThread for Discussions

VoiceThread is a tool that can add life to your discussions by allowing audio and video, as well as text-based comments. Learn how to build a VoiceThread, add comments, and share it with your class for discussion. 

Dates: September 16, 12noon – 1pm

 

 

How to use Yellowdig for discussions

Looking for a different kind of discussion board? Yellowdig is similar to Facebook in that it provides a conversation that is more like social media. Additionally, students earn points for their contributions to the conversation on Yellowdig, whether it be through original posts or comments on posts from classmates. Learn more about how Yellowdig works, and how to set up Yellowdig for you in your course. 

Dates: September 23, 12noon – 1pm

 

 

How to Collect Online Assessments, including Projects, Presentations, and Performances

Learn how to set up the Blackboard assignment tool to collect individual student submissions and group submissions. Learn about different options for collecting various kinds of student assessments, including video and online presentations. 

Dates: September 30, 12noon – 1pm

 

 

Supporting Academic Honesty

With more activities moving online, many instructors will need to learn new techniques for preventing and detecting cheating during exams.  This session will share techniques instructors can use to support student integrity in remotely administered exams, including key choices in the design of exams and remote proctoring using Zoom.

Dates:  October 7, 12noon-1pm

 

Creating and Using Blackboard Groups

Learn how to use Blackboard Groups for project assignments, discussion boards, sign-up sheets, and more.

Dates: October 14, 12noon-1pm

 

 

How to Facilitate an Online Exam

Learn how to create and set up a Blackboard Test. The various options available for testing will be discussed including when and how to use each option. Additional testing software will be mentioned. 

Date:  October 21, 12noon-1pm

 

Gradescope

Gain knowledge about Gradescope to reduce your grading time by more than 50% while increasing consistency, accuracy, flexibility at the same time. Understand how to apply the power of Gradescope for quizzes, homework assignments, and exams. Evaluate your assessments to see if they are a good fit for the Gradescope platform.

Dates: October 28, 12noon-1pm

 

Learn more about Perusall

Perusall is a social annotation tool. Learn different use cases for Perusall in your course. See examples of ways Perusall can be used to engage students around your content. Learn more about how connect Perusall to Blackboard.

Dates: November 4, 12noon-1pm

 

 

Learn more about Padlet

Padlet is an electronic bulletin board. Learn about different use cases for Padlet in your course. See examples of different ways Padlet can be used to engage students and support collaboration. Learn how to get a UR Account and connect Padlet to Blackboard so that students have accounts associated with their contributions.

Dates: November 11, 12noon-1pm

 

 

The Blackboard Grade Center

Learn how to use the Blackboard Grade Center to grade submitted work. Learn how to set up new columns, categories, and smart views.

Dates:November 18, 12noon-1pm

 

Information Guides


Video Tutorials