Welcome to the 2023 Fall semester!
In this edition of our newsletter, we share a welcome to the newest member of our OFDIT team, updates about CUNY’s LMS transition and a new version of Digication, and links for resources to guide your preparation for course opening on August 25th!
Steps for Course Prep
You can refer to our Course Site Checklist for Faculty when preparing your course for the new semester. This checklist will take you through everything that needs to be updated in a live course site for an upcoming semester, such as:
-
- Your welcome announcement
- Instructor card
- Syllabus/Course Schedule
- Due dates
On the SPS Faculty Community site you will also find an array of SPS quick guides from our OFDIT team, as well as links to Blackboard Help pages to assist you with finalizing your courses for the Fall semester. Thank you for your work to give students the best experience possible as they start the term!
Welcome to our new LMS Admin!
The OFDIT team is happy to welcome Tanichea Blackstock as our new LMS admin at CUNY SPS. Tanichea has extensive experience in LMS administration, IT support, and management, most recently at Kingsborough Community College. Aside from her LMS admin responsibilities, Tanichea will be contributing to course preparation as well as faculty development efforts, and will play a major role in our upcoming LMS transition.
New version of Digication in the Fall
Beginning this fall, faculty using ePortfolio in their course(s) will experience a new version of Digication in Blackboard.
While our Assignments feature is not visible through our dashboard, we have developed instructions on how to review your students’ signatures assignments in this new version.
You can also visit our Faculty Resource Site to view the latest instructions on How to Review Your Students’ Signature Assignments. Feel free to contact the ePortfolio Team at eportfolios@sps.cuny.edu for more information.
LMS Transition News
We are pleased to confirm that CUNY SPS will be part of Transition Group 2, and are expecting to deliver our courses in Brightspace in summer 2024. Please keep an eye out for information coming soon about how you can get involved in our school-wide LMS transition teams that will start working in Fall 2023 to prepare for the new platform. In the meantime, please don’t hesitate to reach out to facultysupport@sps.cuny.edu or visit the CUNY transition website for more information.
Call for Faculty Corner Submissions
If you have a pedagogical tip (in 200 words or less!) that you are excited about, we would love to hear from you and add your submission to our next Faculty Newsletter! You can use our Faculty Corner Submission Form to submit your pitch.
To support you in the coming term, we have been planning an array of development programs, including discussions and workshops on the pedagogy of social annotation, methods for using CUNY Pressbooks as a publishing and teaching platform, and information about the intersection of Universal Design for Learning, OER and Open Pedagogy in your courses. Watch this space for upcoming details and registration links!
As always, OFDIT is here to help! We are available for one-on-one support and are also happy to schedule a Zoom call to discuss any questions you may have. Don’t hesitate to reach out to us at facultysupport@sps.cuny.edu.
All the best,
Your OFDIT Team
